pressure upon the Commissioners to make schedules, and to
make them low; and lest these boards should not be able to
reflect the popular feeling directly enough, they were, in
some instances, no longer to be appointed by the Governor,
but elected by popular vote. The law which was most severely
applied and attracted most public attention was that of
Iowa.... The agitation against the railroads has many points
in common with the land agitation in Ireland. Absentee
ownership is at the bottom of the trouble in either case.
Property is owned in one place and used in another, and the
users, not satisfied with the conditions of use, insist on
taking the business direction into their own hands. They
claim the right to fix rates in Iowa for the same general
reasons by which they claim the right to fix rents in
Ireland."

It must be presumed that Mr. Hadley is ignorant of the fact that under
the Iowa Commissioners' tariff the gross earnings of the Iowa railroads
increased $7,000,000, or more than 17 per cent., in about three years,
and their net revenue increased in proportion. Never have the railroads
or the people of Iowa enjoyed a healthier prosperity than they do at
present. It is true that the State of Iowa denies to the railroad
companies the right to charge what they please; but this claim does not
prevent them from doing justice to the absentee owner of railroad
property. That absentee owners of property are disposed to take undue
advantage of those who use it is illustrated in the very case which Mr.
Hadley cites. So flagrant was the injustice done by the English landlord
to the Irish tenant that the English Parliament was constrained to
interfere and correct it.

Mr. Hadley says further:

"It is seen in Iowa to-day, where, as a result of radical
legislation with regard to rates, railroad construction has
almost entirely ceased, the average for the years 1888-90
being less than fifty miles."

Now Professor Hadley hails from the State of Connecticut, where
railroads are permitted to make their own tariffs and where legislators
are supposed not to be hostile to them. According to Poor's Manual, that
State had 1,004.02 miles of railroad in 1888, and just 2.52 miles more
in 1891, while Iowa had 8,364 miles in 1888, 8,436 in 1891, and 8,505
miles on January 1, 1893. Will Mr. Hadley please explain why railroad
co