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than has the forty-eight billions. And when you ask me why business lan- 

 guishes, I refer you, largely, to the transportation question. Freight rates 

 are unquestionably excessive; but the railroad owns the States. They own 

 this State, and they will own the next Legislature. And the fact is, that we 

 may resolve, and we may resolve, but we have got to do something more 

 than simply resolve before we can emancipate ourselves from these condi- 

 tions. When we go abroad and look upon the railroad situation elsewhere, 

 we see entirely different managements. Take, for instance, New Zealand 

 and Australia. What do we find ? Down in Victoria when the State 

 bought the railroads, and paid a large price for them, and began running 

 them, they had to settle the question of freights and fares. They reduced 

 them to one fourth of the original rates. The Government desired to 

 make but 4 per cent upon the investment, and they found that the road 

 paid more than 4 per cent under Government management. And then 

 they said that inasmuch as the revenues from the road went largely to 

 the schools, that they would allow all children under fifteen years of 

 age to travel free upon Government roads. But that did not reduce the 

 profit to 4 per cent. Then they passed a law that all persons attending 

 the schools and colleges should travel free; and this even did not 

 reduce 'the revenue sufficiently. Again: Go to India, where the Gov- 

 ernment operates the roads. A gentleman is at the house where I 

 am living, to-day, who has been doing business in India for years, and 

 when he puts down the figures which he has to pay on carload 

 lots that he has moved from the central portions of India down to 

 Calcutta, I find that it does not cost half as much to bring freight 

 very nearly fifteen hundred miles as it costs to move it from Fresno to 

 San Francisco. And these roads are operated by English-speaking 

 men. Again: Return to our own country and examine the public docu- 

 ments that are on file. Every one has access to these documents. Ex- 

 amine the reports of the Commission of 1876, and what do you find ? 

 You find that Mr. Wooster, Secretary of the Vanderbilt line of roads, 

 when he was before that Commission, was asked by a member of that 

 Congressional Commission: "For what can a passenger be carried from 

 New York to San Francisco, first-class, upon a legitimately built and 

 legitimately operated railroad ? " And his sworn answer was promptly 

 given: "It can be done with a profit, for $10 per passenger, and this 

 would so increase" — and here is a great feature — "this would so increase 

 the travel that it could soon be done at a rate as low as $5." . Here is 

 the testimony of one of the great railroad men of the nation. And, 

 I might stand here and give illustration after illustration, if there were 

 time. We are confronted with these conditions. But the day is com- 

 ing when there will be a change. The people are thinking, from one 

 end of the country to the other. And there is reason why they should 

 think. For from one end of the country to the other business is 

 languishing; your industry and mine has languished and is languish- 

 ing under conditions that are imposed. It is the part of the railroads 

 to so conduct their business that they shall not add to this terrible 

 strain upon the people. When we take into consideration the 

 fact that the railroads of this nation can be duplicated, as is 

 stated by Henry Clews and Governor Larrabee, for $2,400,000,000; 

 when they are capitalized, according to the census returns, at $4,000,- 

 000,000, and when they wish to make, and do make, under the Supreme 

 Court decisions, freight and fare rates that will pay interest of 6 per 



