ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN''S ASSOCIATION. 63 



loss. For a practical illustration of this we have but to recall the contest 

 of the great Trunk Lines last year ; for a time rates were for those lines 

 and their allies, ruinously low, but it all ended in a stronger combination 

 than ever, and one which from their sad experience is not likely soon to be 

 broken. 



Among the favorable agencies in active operation is the greater 

 economy and reduced cost ^ transportation to the railroads themselves, 

 arising from the many improvements constantly introduced, and especially 

 in the use of steel rails, costing now little more than iron, and lasting at 

 least three times as long, and further in banishing a great number of fast 

 freight lines owned by outside parties and rings, in which too often mana- 

 gers have themselves been interested, and which have not only profited 

 largely at the expense of the roads, but'tended to a general demoralization. 



Again, something is annually gained by judicial investigation and 

 decision ia settling principles, and by prudent legislation based thereon. 

 Among the remedies yet to be applied are laws holding directors and officers 

 to a much more stringent accountability — demanded alike for the good of 

 stockholders and the public, and by the more rigid enforcement of existing 

 laws requiring fuller reports to State authorities, and giving commissioners 

 the fullest power of investigation ; and when it is proven by the latest 

 reports that rates have declined on an average through the country over 

 twenty-five per cent, during the last seven years, surely we need not be 

 hopeless of the future. But over and above all agencies and at the basis of 

 this, as of all reforms in a popular government like our own, is a right 

 public opiaion formed by agitation, producing the fullest discussion, and all 

 the power of the press brought to bear upon the questions involved. 

 E-eason and experience prove that with this, sooner or later, the right will 

 triumph. This may cost in time and money, but as " eternal vigilance is 

 the price '' not only of libercy but of equal and just laws and their proper 

 administration, so he who is unwilling to pay such a price, fails in his duty 

 and should not expect the rights of an American citizen or the enjoyment 

 of the priceless blessing of a government which, with all its faults, is the 

 best the sun in its centuries of light has ever shown upon. 



Had time permitted I had intended to have spoken upon the advances 

 being made in the construction of narrow-guage railroads, with their greatly 

 reduced cost of construction and economy of operation, from which many 

 well advised persons are sanguine of most favorable results, and also of the 

 great work going on at the mouth of the Mississippi, under Captain James B. 

 Eads, and its probable results upon the Northwest as a most efficient sourc^ 

 of competition in cheapening transportation for all that section. 



