stand that
this suit we have lost will be the entering wedge for hundreds of
others. The very existence of the road may be at stake. And
between you and me," he added in a lower key, "with Judge Rossmore
on the bench we never stood much show. It's Judge Rossmore that
scares 'em, not the injunction. They've found it easy to corrupt
most of the Supreme Court judges, but Judge Rossmore is one too
many for them. You could no more bribe him than you could have
bribed Abraham Lincoln."

"But the newspapers say that he, too, has been caught accepting
$50,000 worth of stock for that decision he rendered in the Great
Northwestern case."

"Lies! All those stories are lies," replied the other
emphatically. Then looking cautiously around to make sure no one
overheard he added contemptuously, "The big interests fear him,
and they're inventing these lies to try and injure him. They might
as well try to blow up Gibraltar. The fact is the public is
seriously aroused this time and the railroads are in a panic."

It was true. The railroad, which heretofore had considered itself
superior to law, had found itself checked in its career of
outlawry and oppression. The railroad, this modern octopus of
steam and steel which stretches its greedy tentacles out over the
land, had at last been brought to book.

At first, when the country was in the earlier stages of its
development, the railroad appeared in the guise of a public
benefactor. It brought to the markets of the East the produce of
the South and West. It opened up new and inaccessible territory
and made oases of waste places. It brought to the city coal,
lumber, food and other prime necessaries of life, taking back to
the farmer and the woodsman in exchange, clothes and other
manufactured goods. Thus, little by little, the railroad wormed
itself into the affections of the people and gradually became an
indispensable part of the life it had itself created. Tear up the
railroad and life itself is extinguished.

So when the railroad found it could not be dispensed with, it grew
dissatisfied with the size of its earnings. Legitimate profits
were not enough. Its directors cried out for bigger dividends, and
from then on the railroad became a conscienceless tyrant, fawning
on those it feared and crushing without mercy those who were
defenceless. It raised its rates for hauling freight, discriminating
against certain localities without reason or justice, and favouring
other points whe