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tant enterprises that it excites in every community similarly situated. Hence, the anxiety of town communities having one railway, to add another, on the supposition-often a false one that they will thus have competition in carry-.. ing, and relief.

Unjust discrimination is also a demoralizing evil. It tempts those who fear it to bribe officials, to court favors, and use other undue influences, injurious to their own selfrespect and that of the railway employes. It begets the un-republican vices of fawning, subservience, and venality.

RAILWAY INTERFERENCE WITH LEGISLATION.

Another evil, that seems to be the special fruit of railway corporations in the United States, is improper interference with legislation and other functions of government. As has been already noticed, it is a widely-spread belief that railway corporations control, or have controlled, the legislation of several States, and have tampered with executive and even judicial officers. Unfortunately, there are many reasons for the suspicion, and the fact is not denied. Other corporations have been by no means immaculate, but railway corporations, for some cause, lend themselves more readily than any other to the base uses of soulless and conscienceless power. Some say it is in self-defense, but an examination of the facts disproves that statement, or shows it to be, at most, but partially true.

The railway corporation invades the halls of legislation, seeking, first, special privileges, that shall give it the advantage in the race for gain over individuals; then exemption from its responsibilities, the prevention of the extension of its privileges to its rivals, and the addition of new privileges and gifts to its own existing privileges,

There has hardly been a State of the Union in which the attempt has not been made, by railway corporations, to influence railway legislation. The legislature of New York, and the judiciary and bar of New York City, have been disgraced by the machinations of Fisk, Gould, Drew, Vanderbilt, Field, Barnard, and others. New Jersey, under

the less neutralized influence of the Camden and Amboy and its successors, and Pennsylvania, under the guidance of the Pennsylvania Central, have been largely controlled and directed by railway influence. Maryland, Alabama, California, and other States, have also felt the hand of iron under the velvet glove of railway corruption; and the annals of Congress already teem with railway schemes, and “ committees of investigation," of which the devices and derelictions of "railroad men" are a prominent feature.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END.

The experience of the last twelve months has proved, however, the virtue inherent in the people; that the boldness and effrontery of railway corporations have reached a point beyond which they can not go; and that railway corporations must surrender a part of their assumed prerogatives, or fare worse. New Jersey has so far got out of the control of railway influence as to pass a general railroad law. Pennsylvania has formed a new Constitution, in which railway corporations receive special attention. California, under the lead of her gallant governor, Booth, rebels en masse against her railway despotism. The day of deliverance seems near at hand, when railway as well as other corporations shall be held to a direct responsibility to government; when the rates for the transportation of persons and property shall be based on the correct business theory

THE BEGINNING OF THE END.

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of "large sales and small profits;" when all who trade or travel shall be treated with the same impartiality that the patrons of the post-office receive; and when men who give or take bribes in legislation shall not be held worthy of place, either as railway officials, or as representatives of the people and of their interests.

CHAPTER XXXV.

RAILWAY LEGISLATION AT HOME AND ABROAD

CONTRIBUTED BY J. W. MIDGLEY, ESQ., CHICAGO, PRESIDENT'S SECRETARY NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY.

The science of transportation has become a popular study. Agitation has made it so. Always interesting to a few, it has recently excited many, whose zeal has, perchance, outrun their knowledge. Impatiently, they have told all they know, and more, about the railway system. That system is not faultless; neither has its giant growth been wholly natural. But when men not yet grown old recall the America of their youth-before the locomotive created a way over the trackless West-they can hardly regard its inroads in the light of unmitigated evils.

Every country has its bane. Europe is dwarfed by landed aristocracy, military despotism, and superstition, forms of oppression here unknown. But are we quite exempt? Have we not a legislature in every State that can offset the advantage? And are not its specifics the inevitable panacea prescribed for every ill, real or fancied? Like the credulous patient who resorts to the one patent medicine

The three chapters next following present the "Railroad Side" of course, and with signal ability, as the careful reader will perceive.

MR. MIDGLEY'S ARTICLE.-CONTINUED.

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for every ailment, the "free and enlightened," on the first symptom, cry out for legislation as the unfailing remedy.

The disposition to "regulate" the railways is not a new manifestation. It began with the inception of the system. Through all the years intervening, wherever railways have been run, legislative control has been variously threatened. In England, the results of these experiments are recounted in more than a score of ponderous reports to Parliament, in which are embodied the experiences of continental Europe; and it is significant that each Royal Commission, after unwearied labor and exhaustive research, unanimously reported against legislative interference with the railways. Perhaps an ambition to succeed where older countries have invariably failed, whets our appetite for coercive legislation. Of one thing we can rest assured, that our statute books will never again be clear of some attempt to regulate the railways; and as the repeal of each ineffectual measure will only give place to new experiments, with a view to profit by the lessons of history, an epitome of railway legislation is herewith presented. The experience of Great Britain is particularized, because railways there originated, and now, as in all periods, their system most closely resembles our own.

The first railway charter was granted in 1801, for the construction of a railway from Wyandsworth to Croydon. It empowered the company to adjust their tariff within the maximum rate of 6d. per ton per mile for merchandise, and 4d. for coal, flour, iron, and corn. All persons were privileged to use the railway at the prescribed rates, with horses, cattle, and carriages, subject to the regulations of the company. Authority was given the company to acquire the right of way on payment of compensation. At each subsequent session new railways were chartered for the transportation of goods at maximum rates.