ME. MIDGLEY S ARTICLE. CONTINUED. 413 



years after the opening of a railway. There, and in Austria, 

 concessions are granted by the Emperor, and the State un 

 dertakes the construction of many of the railways. 



It will thus be seen that a comparison of the continental 

 systems are of little practical use to us ; while the English 

 railroads, being conducted on the same general principles as 

 our own, are especially deserving of study. 



The history of American railways is a familiar story. 

 They have grown up within the memory of men still in their 

 prime. When inaugurated, the system was one of complete 

 freedom. Every facility for the construction of railways, 

 and every inducement to invest in them, was lavishly ex 

 tended. Doubtless, no other policy would have fostered the 

 system. Without them, the great West would still have 

 been a wilderness, and the populous East the scattered home 

 of a straggling people. Vast outlays of .money wrought the 

 wondrous transformation. Such incalculable wealth no new 

 country ever possessed. It had to be drawn from abroad, 

 and superior inducements were necessary to bring it here. 

 Confiding in our integrity, and believing our contracts valid, 

 the unsuspecting capitalists built our railways, reclaimed the 

 waste places, and caused &quot; the wilderness to blossom as the 

 rose.&quot; 



To enumerate the incessant attempts at railway legislation 

 in this country, would be a desultory task. Measures in 

 numerable have been discussed. The one most frequently 

 urged is the pro rata or equal mileage plan ; yet no theory 

 is more easily refuted. In the older States, it seems buried 

 beyond the probability of resurrection; but in the inland 

 States, where its application would be most disastrous, it 

 still has stubborn adherents. 



The principle of charging for each class of passengers and 

 freight in proportion to the distance carried, sounds very 



