604 THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 



Whatever effect competition might have had in the early 

 days of railroads, it is no longer a factor in adjusting a 

 schedule of rates. Besides the most atrocious system of 

 stock watering and exaggerating of the real capital invested, 

 various other pretexts are resorted to, for the purpose of 

 absorbing and covering up the enormous profits wrung 

 from the industries of the people. Exorbitant salaries are 

 paid the officials, and frequently the most reckless extrava- 

 gance indulged in in the management of the road. Many 

 attempts have been made by the Legislatures of States to 

 control the traffic within their borders; but so far their 

 efforts have met with such limited success that it might 

 almost be said to be a failure. An open defiance of the 

 law has frequently characterized the railroad corporations, 

 and having such a total disregard for the rights of the 

 people that an issue in court depends, not so much upon 

 the justice of the cause, as the patience and persistence of 

 the people to hold out against the money of the corpora- 

 tion. 



The Chicago Daily News statistician says: u The 

 railways collect what the traffic will bear. The liabilities 

 of the roads in Illinois at the beginning of 1886 were 

 $73> O 93> OO 3> representing an actual value of one-third 

 this sum. In other words, it is endeavored to collect a 

 high rate of interest on property at three times its actual 

 cost. By what right does a public highway, deriving a 

 franchise and right of domain from the State for the public 

 good, to be exercised for reasonable compensation, go on 

 piling up capital account, adding in deferred dividends, 

 equipments, floating debts, surplus, increasing yearly the 

 total, and collecting on this fictitious total an exorbitant 

 fate of interest? We pay to the railways of this State 

 each year nearly twice the interest on the national debt. 

 The tax affects all classes indirectly, but the producer 

 the farmer the most. The middle man and the trader 



