254 THE GROUNDSWELL. 



capital by being permitted to charge fees, and, like them, 

 their fees may be established by the legislature, the power 

 that created them. 



If it is a good law (and it is), what need has the State or 

 nation to build more lines of railroad? We own all the 

 roads now; freight cars, locomotives, depots, the road-bed, 

 ties, and iron, all belong to the State, the corporation hav 

 ing a qualified property in them, and the right to perpetu 

 ally execute the trust, if they obey the law ; for this is the 

 condition under which they invested their capital. Let us 

 regulate what roads we now have, and see how that works 

 before we build more. 



A permanent railroad bureau is needed, as one of the ex 

 ecutive departments of the State, which should be charged 

 with the duty of overlooking the railroad property, examin^ 

 ing into the cost of management, the amount of traffic, the 

 appliances for speed and safety, the exclusion of blood-suck 

 ing fast freight lines, and the enforcement of the law. It is 

 idle to talk about enforcing obedience from these masterful 

 monopolies by private effort. It will be found altogether 

 too costly and unequal. The State must take it in hand, as 

 it does the punishment of crime, and the penalty for willful 

 disobedience must be forfeiture. 



The courts move slowly, but whenever public opinion be 

 comes crystalized conviction, they never fail to give it the 

 voice of authority. A good old maxim of the law tells us 

 that when the reason for a law ceases, the law itself ceases. 

 By its aid, many a musty precedent has been swept away, 

 and given place to a juster and better rule. 



With the producers of Illinois organized and united ; with 

 an enlightened understanding of the issues involved, not for 

 getting that the lawyers may be found necessary evils in 

 the fight ; with faith in the purity and eminent ability of 



