146 WISCONSIN" ACADEMY SCIENCES, AKTS, AND LETTERS. 



If the river and the road were theirs they have the .right to the 

 new method of accomplishing the ends they executed on river and 

 road. 



The practical point is to find a way of asserting the rights of the 

 peoole — to put into practical shape the old right of eminent do- 

 main for transit under the new. method of locouioti m. S^ long as 

 private corporations are concerned with the business of transporta- 

 tion as they now are, it is hard to see how the public can realize any of 

 its ancient right except it have some voice in the determination of 

 rates of transportation. 



From the nature of the new mode of locomotion a man must 

 travel or put his freight in such vehicles as the companies may 

 provide and at such times as they may designate. He miy not pat 

 his own conveyance upon railway track as he formerly might put 

 his boat on the stream or his carriage on the road. 



Now if the officers of the corporation m ly say, "you may have 

 transportation bat only at such rates as we choose to fix" the old 

 right of eminent domain which was maintained to secare free com- 

 munication among the people is annihilated. 



The people travel no longer on an}^ right of their own but simply 

 on the mercy of the corporation. The selfishness of corporations 

 may be enlightened enough not to fix rates that will prohibit travel. 

 That does not alter the fact that it is by their will alone, practically, 

 that travel by the new mode of transportation exists. 



If a private corporation makes a railway bed, and puts upon it 

 rolling stock, it is but just that the people using the method of 

 conveyiuice provided shoald-pay proper chaiges thf'refor. Bat if is 

 unjust that in or about the rates collected t'lcre should not be some 

 element tohich should represent the old right of the people to locomo- 

 tion. The right of transit is of as high order as aii}' right of prop- 

 ert}^ in road-bed or vehicles of transit. The right of the public to 

 a voice in respect to the rates of transportation is at least equal to the 

 right of the corporation for nionei/s expended. 



The recent legislation of the Western States may, in fact, be un- 

 just. If so, it must and it will be made just. It would be strange 

 if the first attempts at regulation in a matter so immense and so 

 novel, had hit the exact line oi justice. But this legislation is cor- 

 rect in theory. In attempting to regulate rates of transportation, 

 it asserts, in the only practical way. the people's right to transpor- 



