ribution in dollars to the fund used to enable congressmen to see
the force of the arguments. When issues of railway shares are used for
corrupt purposes it is certainly an impertinence for a citizen to make
inquiries or offer any remarks in relation thereto.

The seventh objection to State owned railways is that they are
incapable of as progressive improvement as are corporate owned ones,
and will not keep pace with the progress of the nation in other
respects; and in his _Forum_ article Mr. Acworth lays great stress
upon this phase of the question, and argues that as a result the
service would be far less satisfactory.

There may be force in this objection, but the evidence points to an
opposite conclusion. When the nation owns the railways, trains will
run into union depots, the equipment will become uniform and of the
best character, and so sufficient that the traffic of no part of the
country would have to wait while the worthless locomotives of some
bankrupt corporation were being patched up, nor would there be the
present difficulties in obtaining freight cars, growing out of the
poverty of corporations which have been plundered by the manipulators,
and improvements would not be hindered by the diverse ideas of the
managers of various lines in relation to the adoption of devices
intended to render life more secure or to add to the public
convenience. That such is one of the evils of corporate management is
demonstrated daily, and is shown by the following from the _Railway
Review_ of March 7, 1891: "It is stated that a bill will be introduced
in the Illinois Legislature, at the suggestion of the railroad and
warehouse commissioners, governing the placing of interlocking plants
at railway grade crossings. It sometimes happens that one of the
companies concerned is anxious to put in such a plant and the other
objects. At present there is no law to govern the matter, and the
enterprising company is forced to abide the time of the other."
Instead of national ownership being a hindrance to improvement and
enterprise, the results in Australia prove the contrary, as in
Victoria the government railways are already provided with
interlocking plants at all grade crossings, and one line does not have
to wait the motion of another, but all are governed by an active and
enlightened policy which adopts all beneficial improvements,
appliances or modes of administration that will add either to the
public safety, comfort, or co