372 Meyer—Early Railroad Legislation in Wisconsin. 
cult one. Every state in the union has had to meet it. The 
national government could not escape it. And the policy of 
shifting about and of meeting the question of consolidation in 
a half-hearted way was followed by Wisconsin just as so many 
other states had done, and from the guilt of which the national 
government can not be exonerated. Failure to do so, both on 
part of the state and national governments, was due largely to 
a misconception of the nature of the railroad business and of 
the laws of competition. The doctrine which Stephenson had 
enunciated almost contemporaneously with the birth of modern 
railroads, that where combination is possible competition is 
impossible, had not yet been generally accepted, if indeed, that 
time has now come. There was a notion abroad that competi¬ 
tion was a good thing; and while legislators were quarrelling 
over methods of preserving it, the railroads quietly went about 
their business and strengthened their intrenchments. Had our 
legislators recognized the inevitable, and granted railroads the 
right to consolidate, and in return for this grant made them 
legally responsible for the performance of their duties to the 
public and to the state, it is probable that both the railroads 
and the state would have been the gainers. But a far-sighted, 
prudent policy was necessary for such a course. It seems that 
only a very few men showed any inclination to support such a 
policy. “ In itself this concentration of railroad interests and 
management is not objectionable. On the contrary, we regard 
it with gratification. If the people will but profit by the ex¬ 
ample of other communities, and while these mammoth corpora¬ 
tions wield such immense power through the business interests 
and necessities of the state, offset that power and hold it in 
check, by keeping carefully in their own hands, to be used for 
their own interests, the political power of the state, there will 
be no occasion to regret this monopoly. But if the people 
become negligent in these respects, and allow the political as 
well as the business interests of the state to be controlled by 
the same hands, they will have occasion to rue the day and hour 
the monopoly had its birth.” 1 Without accepting all the editor 
.says, there is unquestionably much truth in his statement. 
1 Sentinel , June 27, 1863, editorial on the “Railroad Monopoly.” 
