402 THE GROUNDSWELL. 



corporation is, in many instances, a capricious master. 

 Having a practical monopoly of the business of the country 

 through which it runs, except at competing points, it illus 

 trates the truth above stated, by Mr. Marsh, that its interest 

 is its rule of action. We might add that self-interest is its 

 highest rule of action; for, in many cases, the capriciousness 

 of officials, their individual piques or private profit, have 

 been allowed to interfere with the true policy of the best 

 interests of the railway company. 



In any event, the relative prosperity of communities of 

 traders and manufacturers, established at different stations 

 along the company s line, is made, for one reason or another, 

 a secondary and trivial consideration. The result of this is 

 what is known as &quot; unjust discrimination,&quot; whereby one 

 community is impoverished and its business men bank 

 rupted, or driven away at a loss, its real estate depreciated, 

 and its agriculture diminished, while another is unduly favored 

 and prosperous, though, of course, not in an equal ratio. 

 The misfortune of one community is never correspondingly 

 to the advantage of another, however close its rivalry. 



EVILS OF UNJUST DISCRIMINATION. 



The evils of unjust discrimination are not fully recog 

 nized, because we do not clearly see what they have prevented. 

 We see and understand the ruin of the enterprising manu 

 facturer, who has established a desirable business in a 

 country town, and is then driven from it by the superior 

 &quot; special rates &quot; granted by the same road to his competitor 

 in business at a competing station. But we do not know 

 the amount of business that this short-sighted policy of the 

 railway company has prevented from coming to the same 

 town the general distrust and fear of engaging in impor- 



