bonds, and to pay the interest on which bonds the people are yearly
taxed, although Mr. Dillon and his associates contracted to pay such
interest. In his conception of the relations of railway corporations
to the public, Mr. Dillon is clearly not in accord with the higher
tribunals which hold, in substance, that railways are public rather
than private property, and that the shareholders _are entitled to but
a reasonable compensation for the capital actually expended in
construction_ and a limited control of the property; and in this
connection it may be well to quote briefly from decisions of the
United States Supreme Court, which, in the case of Wabash Railway
_vs._ Illinois, uses this language: "The highways in a State are the
highways of the State. The highways are not of private but of public
institution and regulation. In modern times, it is true, government is
in the habit, in some countries, of letting out the construction of
important highways, requiring a large expenditure of capital, to
agents, generally corporate bodies created for the purpose, and giving
them the right of taxing those who travel or transport goods thereon
as a means of obtaining compensation for their outlay; but a
superintending power over the highways, and the charges imposed upon
the public for their use, always remains in the government." Again, in
Olcott _vs._ the Supervisors, it is held that: "Whether the use of a
railway is a public or private one depends in no measure upon the
question who constructed it or who owns it. It has never been
considered of any importance that the road was built by the agency of
a private corporation. No matter who is the agent, the function
performed is that of the State."

Mr. Justice Bradley says: "When a railroad is chartered it is for the
purpose of performing a duty which belongs to the State itself.... It
is the duty and prerogative of the State to provide means of
intercommunication between one part of its territory and another."

If, as appears, such is the duty of the State (nation) why should not
the State resume the discharge of this duty when the corporate agents
to which it has delegated it are found to be using the delegated power
for the purpose of oppressing and plundering a public which it is the
duty of the government to protect?

The abilities of the man who cannot become a multi-millionnaire with
the free use, for twenty-five years, of $33,000,000 of government
funds, must be of a