422 THE GROUNDSWELL. 



world s highway. The rich products of China and Japan 

 have been diverted from their former channel around the 

 Cape of Good Hope, and are daily being carried over the 

 Pacific Eailroads en route to the Atlantic, and beyond. 

 The rate upon these cargoes of tea is made in Yokohama. 

 Each of the companies forming the through line accept 

 their pro rata of the through rate. Shall this magnificent 

 traffic, for which empires long and desperately fought, be 

 halted at the Mississippi Eiver, and be made to pay toll as 

 three men at Springfield shall dictate ? Or is it too palpa 

 bly absurd that the commerce between the Old and New 

 Worlds should be regulated from the Illinois State House ? 



Other reasons, good and sufficient, might be advanced; 

 but from those cited it will be evident that the law, in its 

 present shape, is impracticable, unwarrantable, and unjust, 

 and can not be productive of aught but harm. 



What is a reasonable rate ? Two generations have tried 

 to settle this question, and failed. Their successors have 

 now attacked it with somewhat dubious prospects. Yet the 

 problem is not a poser. Were law makers to approach it as 

 students do geometry, the correct solution would soon be 

 reached. In that art are axioms whose truth is self-evident. 

 Accepting these without cavil, and applying the rules that 

 follow, the most difficult problems are worked out. The 

 same principles govern the science of transportation and 

 solve its intricacies. Until this truth is recognized, satis 

 factory results never will be reached. At present, the mo 

 nopolist and anti-monopolist occupy different stand-points. 

 Although regarding the same matter, they see only the side 

 nearest each other. The one views it from the top of his 

 wheat-stack, and the other from the treasurer s office. 

 Then the political umpires step in and increase the trouble. 

 Their efforts have had the one merit of persistency. It 



