nsions
and connections, or of duplicating tracks already in existence; and when
such a situation is reached, the gross traffic will be just as much
divided among the cooeperative companies as if it were distributed among
different lines by a central management. Certain lines would be managed
more efficiently than others and might make more money, just as certain
departments of a big business might, because of peculiarly able
management, earn an unusually large contribution to the total profits;
but such variations could not be of any essential importance. From the
point of view of the community as a whole the railroad system of the
country would be a monopoly.

The monopoly, like that of a municipal street railroad, would depend
upon the possession of exclusive advantages. It would depend upon the
ownership of terminals in large and small cities which could no longer
be duplicated save at an excessive expense. It would depend upon the
possession of a right of way in relation to which the business
arrangements of a particular territory had been adjusted. It would have
become essentially a special franchise, even if it had not been granted
as a special franchise by any competent legal authority; and, like every
similar franchise, it would increase automatically in value with the
growth of the community in population and business. This automatic
increase in value, like that of a municipal franchise, should be secured
to the community which creates it; and it can be secured only by some
such means as those suggested in the case of municipal franchises. The
Federal government must, that is, take possession of that share of
railroad property represented by the terminals, the permanent right of
way, the tracks, and the stations. It is property of this kind which
enables the railroads to become a monopoly, and which, if left in
private hands, would absolutely prevent the gradual construction of a
national economic system.

In the existing condition of economic development and of public opinion,
the man who believes in the ultimate necessity of government ownership
of railroad road-beds and terminals must be content to wait and to
watch. The most that he can do for the present is to use any opening,
which the course of railroad development affords, for the assertion of
his ideas; and if he is right, he will gradually be able to work out, in
relation to the economic situation of the railroads, some practical
method of realizing