THE FARMER AND THE RAILROADS. 159 



Doubtless if tlie people are to elect corrupt men the corpora- 

 tions prefer those whom they can control most cheaply, and 

 will endeavor to get them. In the newer states the corpora- 

 tions can not afford to openly advocate the election even of an 

 honest man, for a certain portion of the public press is quite 

 as corrupt as any Legislature, and, unless itself conciliated, 

 will denounce any candidate believed to be favored by rail- 

 road interests, as "wearing tlie railroad collar." In matters of 

 legislation, whether what ma}^ be desired by the railroads be 

 proper or improper, to favor anything which is desired by 

 ''the railroads" is in some states quite sufficient to assure 

 denunciation from a large portion of the press, and suspi- 

 cion and discredit from the public. In the older and richer 

 states, where other great financial interests compete with each 

 other for the distrust of the public, the railroad issue is not so 

 overpowering. 



While fully recognizing the baleful influence which cor. 

 ruption, engendered in railroad offices, has had upon our 

 legislation, and whatever our familiarity with the disgraceful 

 history of railroad management in America, no good whatever 

 can come from indiscriminate attacks upon these indispen- 

 sable instruments of civilization. What society has to do is 

 to faithfully and impartially study facts and conditions, with 

 the intent, whenever these shall be mastered, of deciding what 

 is right and compelling obedience to it. Thus far, in the 

 contest with railroads, while the farmers have been very 

 active, they have been almost entirely uninformed, and conse- 

 quently have as often been wrong as right in the subjects of 

 detail over wdiich contests have arisen. 



The fact is that in nine cases out of ten the real interests 

 of transportation companies are identical with those of the 

 communities which they serve. This is probably true even as 

 to the matter of freights and fares, in regard to which contests 

 are continually occurring. It unfortunately happens, how- 

 ever, that railroad properties are not always managed in the 

 interests of their real owners, and it is equally true that the 

 most of the community has very little knowledge either of its 

 own interests or those of transportation companies, and espe- 



