sed valuation.
The manufacturer, enjoying no such privilege, can only by ordinary
purchase obtain a site urgently needed for his business. Why may the
railway exercise the sovereign power of government as against the
private property rights of others? Because the railway is peculiarly
"affected with a public interest." The primary object is not to
favor the railroads, but to benefit the community. These charters and
franchises are granted sparingly in most European countries. In this
country they have been granted recklessly, often in general laws, by
states keen in their rivalry for railroad extension. When thus
great public privileges had been granted without reserve to private
corporations, it was realized, too late in many cases, that a mistake
had been made and that an impossible situation had been created.

Sec. 19. #Other peculiar privileges of railroads.# Further, do the
various grants of lands and money to the railroads make them other
than mere private enterprises? One answer, that of those financially
interested in the railroads, was No. They said that the bargain was
a fair one, and was then closed. The public gave because it expected
benefit; the corporation fulfilled its agreement by building the road.
The terms of the charter, as granted, determined the rights of the
public; but no new terms could later be read into it, even tho the
public came to see the question in a new light. Similar grants, tho
not so large, have been made to other industries. Sugar-factories were
given bounties; iron-forges and woolen-mills were favored by tariffs;
factories have been given, by competing cities, land and exemption
from taxation; yet these enterprises have not on that account, been
treated, thereafter, in any exceptional way. So, it was said, the
railroad was still merely a private business.

But the social answer is stronger than this. The privileges of
railroads are greater in amount and more important in character than
those granted to any ordinary private enterprise. The legislatures
recognize constantly the peculiar public functions of the railroads.
In other private enterprises, investors take all the risk;
legislatures and courts recognize the duty of guarding, where
possible, the investment of capital in railroads. Laws have
been passed in several states to protect the railroads against
ticket-scalping. Whenever the question comes before them, the courts
maintain the right of the railroads to earn a fair di