CHAPTER XVI 

 FREEING THE HIGHWAYS OF THE NATION 



I HAVE no doubt but that the wealth of the 

 country would be increased by billions of dollars 

 annually if the railroads were in public hands. 

 The paralysis to our energies from the private own- 

 ership of the means of communication cannot be 

 stated in figures. But just as the freeing of credit 

 by the Federal Reserve Act released the productive 

 power of the country, so the freeing of the trans- 

 portation agencies would have the same effect. 

 We do not know how many coal-mines remain un- 

 opened because there are no cars or facilities to 

 transport the fuel; we do not know how much oil 

 and timber would be produced, how many indus- 

 tries would be awakened, how many acres of land 

 would come under cultivation if the country were 

 assured of cheap, adequate, and equal transporta- 

 tion facilities. 



No one knows the productive power of an indi- 

 vidual or a nation. We have not begun to approach 

 it in any country, least of all in the United States. 

 And when it is considered that tens of thousands of 

 automobiles have been driven on their own power 



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