THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 691 



As a complement to the sweeping charges of extortion, comes 

 the dream of low rates and large savings when the government 

 shall own the railroads. A great many writers on railroad topics 

 insist that the economy of the government management over that 

 of private management would be very great. The annual saving by 

 such operation is estimated from $1 io,ooo,cxdo to ^160,000,000. 

 One writer more enthusiastic than the others, in a pamphlet for 

 sale by the national committee of the People's Party, believes 

 that government ownership will result in low passenger rates 

 and free freight rates. " This possibility," he says, " is due to 

 the fact that the amounts which have been taken from the people 

 will be honestly used." Such a view is rather an extreme one ; 

 but there is no doubt that the advocates of government ownership 

 hope for a liberal revenue from the railroads after they have come 

 into the control of the government. This revenue is to pay for 

 the roads, and reduce taxes in an astounding way. 



The real point in all agitation of this sort is not as to whether 

 it is a good thing for the country, but whether it will secure a 

 majority for the party. If the latter will not result, we may look 

 for the disappearance of this plank from the platform. Although 

 government ownership appears in the platform of the People's 

 Party as essential to its creed, nevertheless it is not accepted by 

 all the members of the party. While there is a large majority 

 who firmly believe in the ownership of the railroads by the gov- 

 ernment, the more conservative and abler men of the party, on 

 the other hand, are much in doubt as to the practical outcome 

 of the experiment. Senator Allen, of Nebraska, one of its strong- 

 est men, in an interview published in the Review of Reviews, 

 expressed the belief that the best way to bring the matter 

 before the public would be to take one of the Pacific roads and 

 try the experiment. .He added, however, that he was in doubt 

 as to the success of such an undertaking. 



Firm as the opinion seems to be on this point, there is and has 

 been a faction which has insisted all along that there was another 

 matter far more important than the railroad question to be dealt 

 with, the currency question. The party started out with a variety 

 of economic questions, on about the same basis, but one by one 



