A quarter of a century ago our progressively inclined Americans considered slavery, the plight of the dark race, as the greatest of all evils, and thought, if that pernicious condition were abolished, that our nation, based on personal liberty, would reach virtually limitless prosperity and attain great cultural accomplishments. The thought had much in common with the wanderer in the mountains who, when perceiving a summit reaching beyond the clouds, believed that, if he could climb to the top, he might discover a plain somewhere. what an illusion! After reaching the crest, he saw more and higher peaks.

The negroes are liberated. whether, and to what extent, the negroes' social position was affected thereby, and how the Southern states benefited, need not be discussed here. This is another chapter. Suffice it to say that, 2long before the South has found a satisfactory substitute for slave labor, one finds that the Northern states, with unrestricted personal liberty, face calamities of vastly greater effect than slavery ever was.

This new danger to our Republic is the dictatorship of the railroads. "This catastrophe" to use the words of our highly imaginative and eloquent mayor, "is presented by that immense vampire whose wings reach from Penobscot to the Rio Grande, while the beast greedily feeds on the life-giving blood and marrow of the country's commerce and agriculture." The farmer may plow and harvest his crops, he may toil from dawn 'til dark in the hope of eking out a living for his dependents but, because of the relentlessness of our railroad despots, empire builders if you like it better, the farmer's meager profit is absorbed by the preferred class, the knaves who form the trust.

The famine in Europe would be a source of profit to our farmers, but our railroad rulers decree otherwise. Following the ancient methods of the Inquisition, the thumbscrews are tightened a little more, and the victim 3gives up. Whatever profit might accrue to our agricultural population will thus be absorbed by the railroad oligarchy. About five or six months ago, grain could be shipped to New York for fifteen cents per hundred pounds; today freight charges are forty cents. That means that 1 2/3 bushels of wheat, worth $1.50 here, could be delivered to New York at an outlay of fifteen cents for freight, making the New York price $1.65. At present wheat is worth $2, adding freight charges raises the New York price to $2.40, and if no one wants to pay that much, then the farmer must be satisfied with less.

There are no laws to check extortion by railroads. Competition among the various transportation companies may ameliorate conditions occasionally, but in the main is worth no more than the inducements given to the people by princes and robber barons during the medieval age, when the noble gentry were on the warpath. Sooner or later the opposing factions made peace, and the country's subjects had to pay the bill, plus interest.

And the bill today, when applied to our railroads, represents interest on a 4wholly imaginary capital. All of our railroads could be built today at an average cost of $25,000 per mile, but the railroad companies are capitalized at $4,772,000,000 (including debts and interest thereon), or $60,000 per mile. However, this is only the average; in some instances conditions are worse. The Vanderbilt lines, New York Central, Lake Shore and branch roads represent $218,000,000 in stocks and bonds, or $241,000 for every mile between Chicago and New York. Interest on this huge sum (which is at least six times larger than the actual value of the road) amounts to eight per cent, and the public must pay. Similar conditions prevail elsewhere--on Jay Gould's line, Tom Scott's railroad, and the Pacific Railroad. The last named was capitalized at $128,000 per mile, while the actual cost was less than one fourth of that amount. The other represents a "fancy value" which is kept up by gouging the people.

Our nation is confronted by a fearful calamity, and the utmost efforts of our people are needed to combat the condition. The Constitution empowers the nation to regulate interstate commerce, and on the strength of that 5provision the strangle hold of the railroads can be broken.

But no one should believe this to be as simple as the Chicago Tribune assumes, or that Congress will do something about the problem this winter. That is easier said than done! Many a summer and winter will pass ere the national administration asserts its restraining influence over all of our railroads. The fight will be just as prolonged, and affect our economic welfare just as vitally, as the Civil War which abolished slavery.

The most important action would be for both of our political parties to make an issue of the question. If the Republicans intend to maintain their reputation for progressiveness, they must gird themselves for war at the next national election and proclaim a crusade against the railroad empire. That would be a convincing step, bound to appeal to all independent factions, the Grangers, National Labor Party, Socialists, and what not. The nation would then have only two units; one would demand that the nation assert its power 6for the protection of the people, and if we should also find the Socialists entrenched on this side, then we would have no objection.