sissippi for their "ungrateful" legislation,
which, he says, interferes with the business of the railway, even to the
minutest detail, and always to its detriment. Such legislation
exasperates Mr. Dillon the more because it originated in States "which
happened to be the communities that owe their birth, existence and
prosperity to these very railways." Mr. Dillon then gives vent to his
wrath by the use of such terms as impertinence, ignorance and
demagogism. He holds that legislative enactments as to the rights and
liabilities of railway corporations are useless, "because the common law
has long since established these as pertaining to common carriers, and
the courts are open to redress all real grievances of the citizen." Upon
this theory we might as well dispense with the legislative department of
the Government, for there is no relation in the community to which the
principles of the common law can not be applied. Besides this, Mr.
Dillon entirely ignores the fact that the railway company is not only a
common carrier, but the keeper of the highway, and as such is subject to
Government control as much as the turnpike tollgate keeper or the
collector of customs. "Then as to prices." Mr. Dillon continues: "These
will always be taken care of by the great law of competition, which
obtains wherever any human service is to be performed for a pecuniary
consideration. That any railway, anywhere in a republic, should be a
monopoly, is not a supposable case."

Like the rest of railway men, Mr. Dillon excels in painting dark
pictures of railroad catastrophes. A sample production of his art is
here presented:

"One of the greatest dangers to the community in a republic
is this: that it is in the power of reckless, misguided or
designing men to procure the passage of statutes that are
ostensibly for the public interest and that may lead to
enormous injuries. Let us imagine for a moment that all
railways in the United States were at once annihilated. Such
a catastrophe is not, in itself, inconceivable; the
imagination can grasp it, but no imagination can picture the
infinite sufferings that would at once result to every man,
woman and child in the entire country. Now, every step taken
to impede or cripple the business and progress of our
railways is a step towards just such a catastrophe, and
therefore a destructive tendency."

Mr. Dillon, losing sigh