THE BALLOT-BOX AS A JOKE 



system resumed its functions. The railroads, 

 the great financial interests, the mills, the 

 elevators, and the tremendous power of the 

 Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce worked 

 together in happy accord to maintain that 

 system and extend it. The railroads alone 

 would have been enough to rule the state as 

 the Great Mogul ruled India. They had 

 a political organization better than that of 

 any party. In every county they had their 

 machine erected, articulated, faultlessly work- 

 ing. Farmers, shippers, merchants — the 

 whole community — lived under the railroads' 

 rod. Let the laws of the nation say what 

 they might, the fact always remained that 

 the railroad in the West dominated the social 

 organization. Punishment and rewards, and 

 both unlimited, lay in that power. Farmers 

 that made bold to displease this autocrat 

 found they could not get cars for their live 

 stock or grain; merchants that talked un- 

 wisely about their rights found their shipments 

 delayed; independent elevators could get 

 no side-tracks nor cars. But for all those 

 that were docile, well-broken, and judiciously 

 silent the cars came promptly and the ship- 

 ments suffered no delay, while the nifty 

 pass was at hand to shed a pleasant afterglow 

 upon any useful support. The railroads' 

 political boss, always a clever and usually an 

 unscrupulous attorney, stood guard in every 



8 99 



