he Government with a fair
degree of success, as an executive function, but in democratic
countries, he points out that in normal times "it is the legislative
branch of the government which not only decides policy but dictates
always in main outline, often down to the detail of a particular
appointment or a special rate, how the policy shall be carried out."

For corroboration of this latter statement we need only turn to the
array of statutes in our own States, which not only fix certain railroad
rates by legislative enactment, but deal with such details as the repair
of equipment, the minimum movement of freight cars, the kind of
headlights to be used on locomotives, the safety appliances to be
installed, etc.--and all this in the face of the fact that these States
have Public Service Commissions whose function it is to supervise and
regulate the railroads.

The reason why the system of state railways in Germany was largely free
from most, though by no means all, of the unfavorable features and
results produced by government ownership and operation elsewhere, is
inherent in the habits and conditions created in that country by
generations of autocratic and bureaucratic government. But Mr. Acworth
points out very acutely that while German manufacturers, merchants,
financiers, physicians, scientists, etc., "have taught the world a good
deal in the twenty years preceding the war, German railway men have
taught the world nothing." And he asks: "Why is this?" His answer is:
"Because they were state officials, and, as such, bureaucrats and
routiniers, and without incentive to invent and progress themselves or
to encourage or welcome or even accept inventions and progress.

It is the private railways of England and France, and particularly of
America, which have led the world in improvements and new ideas, whilst
it would be difficult to mention a single reform or invention for which
the world is indebted to the state railways of Germany."

The question of the disposition to be made of the railroads after the
war is one of the most important and far-reaching of the post-bellum
questions which will confront us. It will be one of the great test
questions, the answer to which will determine whither we are bound.

V

And, it seems to me, one of the duties of business men is to inform
themselves accurately and carefully on this subject, so as to be ready
to take their due and legitimate part in shaping public opinion,