STATE GEANGE OF ILLIXOIS. 61 



The report of D. W. Dame, Chairman Committee on Conti- 

 nental Railway, was received and adopted: 



The committee to whom was referred letters, maps and docu- 

 ments relating to the construction of the Continental Railway, 

 from New York to Omaha, ask leave to report as follows, 

 to wit: 



A few strong railway corporations seem to have been for 

 many years complete masters of the entire system. 



Individual towns, cities, counties and States have spent their 

 money like water, with the hope of creating competing lines of 

 road; and in nine cases out of ten, at least, soon discover that 

 they are the victims of sharpers in the construction; and soon 

 thereafter find that their bright visions of great advantage from 

 competitions, have been a fancy and delusion of m serious char- 

 acter. So strong are these corporations now, that no power 

 short of the State and National Government can hope to keep 

 them within reasonable limits. 



Railroad men seem to be both the sharpest and most unscru- 

 pulous of their race. The}^ seem to have studied to perfection 

 the art of legal robbery, and of appropriating to their own use 

 the hard earnings of the industrial classes. 



There have been so many railwaj^s constructed in this country,. 

 and so much capital invested in them within twenty years, as 

 to raise the very important question whether it will pay to 

 experiment at present any farther in that direction. 



It does not matter whether the money for the construction of 

 railroads is furnished by individuals or Government, so far as 

 the general effect upon the country is concerned. 



The capital of a country is in some sense a unit, and when 

 any portion of it is locked up in unprofitable speculation, all 

 suffer to a sfreater or less desfree. 



The proposition to construct another railway, whether by 

 private or public funds, from New York to Omaha, through a 

 country already thickly checkered with them, would seem to an 

 unprejudiced mind, contrary to the law of supply and demand. 

 The experience of our people in multipl3dng railroads for cheap 

 freights is not so far satisfactory. 



In our indignation at the stubbornness of the railway man- 

 agers we appeal at once to the strong arm of Government to 

 restrain and regulate all such corporations now in existence, 

 and to construct, or aid in the construction of, other roads, of 

 sufficient number and capacity to do nearly all the freight busi- 

 ness of the country. 



We would do well to make use of all the lights within our 

 vision to bring us to a safe conclusion on this highly important 

 question of adjusting the struggle between producers and 

 carriers. 



