first the railway
system. The two years in which the Interstate Commerce law has been in
force have seen a great progress toward the final solution of this
problem, even though railway affairs are at present in so unsatisfactory
a condition. The important features of our future policy which now seem
to be quite generally understood are: full State and national control
over both tariff rates and facilities; the abolition of competition,
either by consolidation or by legalized agreements to that end; and
strict prohibition of the construction of parallel lines not warranted
by the traffic.

That we are working very rapidly in this direction, no one will deny who
is familiar with the progress of legislation affecting railway interests
and with the opinions of railway men. Evidently, however, government
cannot justly take so prominent a part in railway management without
becoming in some degree responsible to railway stock- and bond-holders
for the protection of their interests; and it is a difficult question to
say in what manner this responsibility should be met. It has been the
intention of the author in devising the following plan for the control
of our railway system to make this responsibility a definite one, and
not leave it as now, a vague constitutional right. For according to the
law at present, State and national legislators may make laws to vary the
receipts and expenditures of the railway companies as much as they
please, and the only redress of the railway owner is an appeal to the
courts, the judges of which must decide whether the company's revenue is
so injured that its legal rights are infringed.

Space will not permit here a full statement of the many serious evils
and abuses with which our present system of railway management is
burdened. The study which the author has made of them has convinced him
of their importance and magnitude. The following plan is designed to
permit their remedy as well as to remedy the special evils of monopoly
with which our present investigation is concerned:

Let the government acquire the title to the franchise, permanent way,
and real estate of all the railway lines in the country. Let a few
corporations be organized under government auspices; and let each, by
the terms of its charter, receive a perpetual lease of all the railway
lines built or to be built within a given territory. Let the territory
of each of these corporations be so large and so planned with regard to