90 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



the community can escape the necessity of in some way 

 contributing to the earnings of the road. The aggre- 

 gate amount annually contributed is, as we have seen, 

 enormous. How much of this represents a legitimate 

 profit upon the capital invested in railways ? and how 

 much is a wanton robbery of the public? These are 

 questions of the deepest interest to the public, and yet 

 they have attracted so little attention that none of the 

 State Governments have made an effort to obtain the 

 requisite data from which to answer them. We only 

 know what the roads choose to allow us to learn, and 

 they are very careful to keep us from knowing too 

 much ; while staggering under this enormous tax, and 

 vaguely comprehending that it is excessive and unjust, 

 no one has undertaken to introduce measures which 

 will lay before the people the full extent of the evil 

 from which they are suffering. We only know that 

 "certain private individuals, responsible to no authority 

 and subject to no supervision, but looking solely to 

 their own interests, or to those of their immediate con- 

 stituency, yearly levy upon the internal movement of 

 the American people a tax, as a suitable remuneration 

 for the use of their private capital, equal to about one- 

 half of the expenses of the United States Government, 

 army, navy, civil list, and interest on the national 

 debt included." 



The power to levy such charges as they think 

 proper on the transportation of freight being entrusted 

 tc the railway corporations, they are not slow to use it. 

 At certain periods of the year the movement of freights 

 is very brisk, as when the year's harvest is finding its 

 way to market, or when merchants and dealers are 

 sending home the stock they have purchased in the 



