st on bonds improperly issued.

17. That railroad corporations have improperly engaged in lines of
business entirely distinct from that of transportation, and that undue
advantages have been afforded to business enterprises where railroad
officials were interested.

18. That the management of the railroad business is extravagant and
wasteful, and that a needless tax is imposed upon the shipping and
traveling public by the necessary expenditure of large sums in the
maintenance of a costly force of agents engaged in a reckless strife for
competitive business.

Under the operation of the Interstate Commerce Law some of these evils
have, so far at least as interstate commerce is concerned, disappeared,
and others have been considerably mitigated. It cannot be expected,
however, that a bad system of railroad management, to the development of
which the ingenuity of railroad managers has contributed for two
generations, could be entirely reformed in a few years. It is a
comparatively easy task for shrewd and unscrupulous men, assisted by
able counsel and unlimited wealth, to evade the spirit of the law and to
obey its letter, or to violate even both its letter and spirit, and
escape punishment by making it impossible for the State to obtain proof
of their guilt.

It is a humiliating spectacle to see the self-debased railroad officials
confessing their own guilt by refusing to testify before the Interstate
Commerce Commission on the ground that they would thereby criminate
themselves. Congress should have sufficient respect for this commission
and for itself to provide a way to punish such recusant witnesses who
are willing to degrade themselves in so base a manner. Whether the law
will eventually be respected by all depends upon the vigilance and
courage of the people.

That our railroad legislation is not yet perfect even its friends will
admit; and as under a free government the demand of an enlightened
public opinion is the first step toward the enactment of a law, it
behooves the intelligent citizen to study the various railroad problems
and to then exert his influence toward bringing about such a solution of
them as justice and wisdom demand.

In discussing the various evils of railroad management, the author will
commence with and dwell more particularly upon those abuses which maybe
said to be the cardinal ones, viz., discrimination, extortion,
combinations and stock and bond inflation. When these are once
effec