CHAPTER VII. 



MONOPOLY OF TRANSPORTATION. 



WE HAVE heretofore remarked that the means for 

 transportation was one of the agents of distribution. 

 That upon a proper distribution of the products of labor 

 depended individual happiness. We have already treated 

 of the other principal agent of distribution money, or 

 the medium of exchange. We now address ourselves to 

 the discussion of the question of transportation. It has* 

 almost ceased to be a question as to what the people are 

 going to do with the railroads. It would, under the exist- 

 ing condition of things, be more proper to ask: u What 

 are the railroads going to do with the people? 



More than 100 years ago, Oliver Goldsmith, of whom 

 it is said, "left no species of writing untouched by his 

 pen, nor touched any that he did not embellish,'' wrote 

 these lines: 



" Teach erring man to spurn the rage of gain; 

 Teach him, that states of native strength possest. 

 Though very poor, may still be very blest ; 

 That trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay. 

 As ocean sweeps the labor' d mole away." 



It is an eternal and inexorable law of nature that 

 everything gravitates toward a common center. To coun- 

 teract the effects of this law, God in His infinite wisdom 

 provided another, the law of inertia. Were it not so, the 

 great solar or planetary system would come together, and 

 we would have a crash of worlds. Water would all flow 



