alike by the farmer, manufacturer, merchant and laborer.*

The science of transportation is said to be the contribution of America to political economy. It was developed under a policy of governmental abstention. Its further elucidation is dependent upon a like policy. Its wisdom has been demonstrated in widespread productiveness; in growth of population and wealth; in unprecedented increase of agriculture, manufacture and mining. There can be no question of its wisdom, just as there can be no surer evidence of the efficiency of carriers than constant and increasing demand for their services.

The railroads of the United States and Great Britain are the most efficient in the world. It is due to the presence of the owner; to his genius and authority; to his watchfulness and supervisory care. The value of such service to those who have no practical genius for business cannot be understood. With them mechanical effect and formulas have too often the same effect as vital forces. They believe government employes to be as capable as those who work under the immediate eye of a jealous and exacting owner;

*The general principles here laid down for the government of railroads were long observed in the United States. Under them its railroad system became the greatest in the world in magnitude and effectiveness of operation. Under them the railways supplied the people with transportation at the lowest rates in the world, and under the operation of these natural laws steadily reduced their rates. For confirmation of this, reference is made to the appendix hereto, showing the decline in

that the same talent lodges in the clerk that is to be found in the principal.*

The principles and methods that apply generally to manufacturers apply to carriers. They are to be measured by normal standards only. In times of peace carriers should be assured protection and impartial treatment. In time of war other and greater interests intervene, but such occasions are exceptional, and in no wise affect the general principles that owners shall be free to construct, to own and to manage. Mutuality of interests will prevent the privilege being abused.+

*Thus a writer says: "It is curious how men still argue that man in running a railroad, if left alone will act according to natural law; but that man in running a government is some way freed from the operation of that natural law and can work out all the viciousness that is in him."-Sidney Herbert. Observation teaches that the prosperity of the man who runs a railroad is bound up in the prosperity of the owner, while the man who runs a government is responsible only, in a devious way, to a shadowy principal-the people. That there are exceptions to this rule, due to the presence of exceptionally able and conscientious officials, does not render it the less generally true.

+ The Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States bears general testimony to this fact. It says: "It is freely conceded that many practices of the carriers, and many of the principles adopted by them in the establishment of tariffs and classifications, which seem on first blush to be purely arbitrary and unjust, are found, on examination, to be perfectly just, and founded on the strongest reasons of public expediency and commercial necessity. It is, indeed, almost wonderful, considering the arbitrary powers which the carriers (so far as mere common law restraints are concerned) possess in the matter of rate making, that the actual exercise of arbitrary and oppressive action is so comparatively rare. The explanation is that,

The operations of carriers are impartial and equitable. Unjust discrimination is impossible, because retroactive. Instances of wrong occur, but isolated and infrequent. They should be considered apart and punished apart. Wherever injustice exists it should be corrected, but a drag must not be put on the commerce of the world because of special practices of this nature.

The dream of carriers is a stable service, trains that are safe, ample and rapid. These objects are impossible if a service is not remunerative, and no service can be remunerative if a community is not prosperous. The affairs of the two are, therefore, mutual and reciprocal. The interests of railroads are never wholly selfish. Others must prosper the producer, middleman and con

sumer.

America has been the Utopia of railroads. Its low rates, commercial prosperity and colossal development (the result of government abstention) teach the lesson that the less railroad properties are interfered with by governments, the better. Supervision is valuable, but when it assumes to supplant private endeavor and interest, is surcharged with harm.

Governmental regulation of railroads is a return to the practices of medieval times, when governors fixed the price of bread and meat. The loss of confidence, the falling off in production,

nothing, the operation of economic and commercial principles is constantly exerting a pressure which cannot be resisted, in

the enhancement of prices, the general hardship that followed then, will follow to-day from like cause in the management of railroads. The advantages of governmental interference are fictitious. Railroads are self-governed, for the reason, as already stated, that the commercial interests they serve demand responsive effort. Railway rates may be too low; they cannot be too high. If too high, they cripple or destroy the business they seek to foster. Great or widespread commercial prosperity is impossible where rates are not equitable. They are the connecting link leading the producer to the consumer, and when economically applied, as they must be under natural conditions, stimulate and protect every interest.