160 THE FARMER AS A BUSINESS MAN. 



daily of the enormous difficulties attending the reconciliation 

 of the innumerable conflicts of interests between localities, 

 each entitled to equal consideration, with which railroad 

 managers are compelled to deal. Railroad questions are more 

 often contests between the people of one locality and those of 

 another, than between railroad owners and the people at large. 

 The deciduous fruit-growers of California, finding it difficult 

 to meet, in distant markets, the competition of those living 

 nearer, demand from the company which receives their 

 products, and which they think of as omnipotent in the 

 matter, rates low enough to hold the market, whatever they 

 may be, basing their demands on the contention that even 

 although the traffic may yield no profit, the local traffic which 

 will arise in a prosperous community will fully make good 

 the failure. Suppose this to be recognized by the California 

 company, it is powerless to make a rate which is not satis- 

 factory to its connecting lines, who may be, and in fact are, 

 interested in building up prosperous communities upon their 

 own lines. The fruit-growers of Colorado, for example, are 

 interested in having high rates on the California product, and 

 the contest, up to a certain point, is between the fruit-growers 

 of California and those of other states. This entire volume 

 might easily be filled with compact statements of similar 

 cases. They are constantly arising before the Inter-state 

 Commerce Commission. The "railroad problem" in such a 

 country as the United States is too complicated for even the 

 strongest intellects to deal with in such a way as to do exact 

 justice to all interests involved. To deal with it in a spirit of 

 passion and vindictiveness, and without the light of all infor- 

 mation which can be obtained and digested, is not only 

 absurd but ruinous. We may recognize, with sorrow, that the 

 history of our railroad development has been largely one of 

 plunder, both of investors and of the public, and with satis- 

 faction that the very magnitude of the business is at last 

 compelling honesty and wise statesmanship to assert them- 

 selves, but neither of these considerations should be allowed to 

 occupy our minds. The question is along what lines of public 

 regulation can these enormous properties be best made to serve 



