448 THE GROUNDSWELL. 



with corruption and extortion, and each failure or negli 

 gence has been eagerly pounced upon and visited with a 

 heavy penalty. Besides being subject to State taxation, the 

 localities through which they pass also heavily taxes them, 

 the practical effect being that while a company, by afford 

 ing profitable employment in rural districts, relieves the 

 several villages of the expense of supporting men having no 

 other prospect of an income, it is yet made to pay the major 

 part of the local tax levies. In short, they have been taught, 

 bitterly, that the justice society always accords to individuals 

 is withheld from corporations, on the unjust assumption that 

 the loss is distributed among too great a number to cause 

 its being felt by any one. 



The people are very jealous of their own rights, but have 

 little regard for the rights of the railroads. They over 

 estimate the privileges granted, and forget that the valuable 

 concessions are denied the companies. Had this spirit been 

 manifested at an earlier day, the flow of capital to the West 

 would have been instantly checked. But inducements were 

 held out, capitalists were freely invited, and their confi 

 dence gave us our 70,000 miles of operated railroad, con 

 structed at a cost of $3,159,423,057, of which 52 per cent. 

 is represented by stocks, and 48 per cent, in bonds or indebt 

 edness. Upon this investment the earnings, last year, 

 were $473,241,055, 72 per cent, of which was derived 

 from freight, and 28 per cent, from passengers. The oper 

 ating expenses were 65 per cent, of . the gross earnings, 

 leaving 35 per cent, net, out of which to pay 6.70 per 

 cent, interest on the bonds and 3.91 per cent, dividends on 

 the stock. 



Narrowing the confines, we find that the Western States 

 including Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Min 

 nesota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Wyoming, Dakota, Col- 



