And now it is a street railway trust. A traction combine with a capital of one third of a billion dollars is reported to be forming for the purpose of acquiring and controlling the traction interests in the six largest cities of the United States. The Whitney-Elkins-Widener-Ryan syndicate is the prime mover in the premises, and as a matter of course, the great trust builder, J. P. Morgan, has been consulted.

The rich men of the country have been paving the way for socialism at a rapid rate in recent years. The result of the combined efforts of all socialist agitators in the land dwindles into insignificance compared with the powerful impression made upon the public mind by the steel trust and other gigantic combinations. Socialistic teachers have been quick to point to these monster concerns as practical illustrations of the truth of the socialistic doctrine that competition has outlived its usefulness.

But of all trusts a street railway combine would be the most powerful propagator of practical socialism. The people of American cities are jealous of their rights of home rule, especially as regards the control of "public utilities". Even now a large number of people who disclaim any sympathy with socialistic teachings favor municipal ownership, with or without municipal operation, as the best settlement of the street railway problem. In the opinion of a majority of thinking and well-informed people such a solution would be very unwise and fraught with disaster--at least under the prevailing condition of local politics in our large cities. But should a street railway trust begin to acquire control of the traction lines in one city after another, leaving a murky wake of corruption behind it, "public ownership" would at once become the leading issue in municipal politics and a prominent factor in state and national affairs; and the result would probably become public property before the people were ready to manage them properly and well.

Gentlemen who are in the trust building business are not supposed to consult the wishes of the people to any great extent. But if the promoters of the street railway combine are wise they must see that this particular trust is likely to challenge public sentiment as no other combination has done, and that it may arouse a hurricane of public wrath that will crush and shatter even billion-dollar combines as if they were mere cardboard houses.