BAIL WAT MALADJUSTMENTS. 367 



the young fishes which were put into the Fish Commission pond 

 were hatched from eggs taken from the earliest shad of the season, 

 and, if this process of selection be pursued for a few years, we 

 may feel confident that the Potomac River will soon abound in 

 shad of extra quality at the time when fine shad are hardest to 

 get and most valuable. 



♦»» 



RAILWAY MALADJUSTMENTS. 



By BENJAMIN EEECE. 



IT is a remarkable fact that in social and. industrial concerns 

 men never dream of restoring an equilibrium by withdrawing 

 the forces which disturb it, but they invariably demand the exer- 

 tion of new and opposite forces to neutralize the effect of those in 

 operation which could more easily be removed. When the mov- 

 ing locomotive is to be brought to a stand, the engine-man shuts 

 off the steam and applies the brakes ; but the practical statesman, 

 and indeed many economic students, never dream of this simple 

 method in dealing with social problems ; they almost always insist 

 on bringing out another locomotive of equal weight and power to 

 run counter to the one in motion and thereby neutralize its energy, 

 and the forces generated in the two locomotives are thus lost in 

 preserving an equilibrium which could have been more readily 

 secured by closing the throttle-valve of the one which it was de- 

 signed to stop. The railroad manager making such use of his 

 motive power would be deemed insane, yet in our industrial con- 

 cerns a similar application of social energy is declared to be the 

 only practical method, and those who decry its folly are con- 

 temptuously termed impracticals. 



The space devoted by the leading periodicals to the discussion 

 and investigation of the causes which underlie the disordered and 

 incongruous development of our railways, as well as the numerous 

 remedies proposed, fully attest their state of utter instability, 

 which, if not corrected, may ultimately lead to practical confisca- 

 tion by means of legislation, or their purchase and control by Gov- 

 ernment. In whatever light we view the social and industrial rela- 

 tions of the railroads, we are confronted by that state of chaotic 

 confusion which must ever result from a persistent transgression 

 of natural law. 



Yet, while railroad managers are pleading to be preserved by 

 legislation from their reciprocal aggressions, while the railroads 

 and the public are asking for laws to protect them from their 

 mutual hostilities, while railroad companies and employe's have 

 vainly sought an equitable adjustment of their differences, and 

 are each looking to legislation to define their rights and limit 



