;
monopolies will seek protection under their wing, and by the
ascendancy which wealth always confers they will steadily
broaden their grasp upon the legislation, the banking and
commerce of the nation."

These are strong words, but they come from a man whose thirty years'
experience in Wall Street enables him to speak intelligently upon this
subject and who certainly cannot be accused of being prejudiced against
railroad men or corporate investments. In a recent number of his _Weekly
Financial Review_ Mr. Clews said of the railroad stock market:

"Judgment passes for little in estimating the future of many
securities, for the market is almost wholly under the
control of comparatively few persons, whose operations must
inevitably influence the value of thousands of millions of
stocks and bonds. Never in the history of Wall Street was
the value of such an enormous aggregation of securities so
absolutely under the control of so small a circle as at this
time. Such a state of affairs cannot be considered
satisfactory; hence not only is speculation likely to be
unhealthily stimulated, but the future of these combinations
gives birth to a variety of uncertainties which, while they
may elevate prices, will certainly not add to their
stability."

If the silly claim of railroad men, that Western people do not invest in
railroad securities on account of their unprofitableness, needed any
answer, the above words would furnish it.

The May, 1893, number of the _North American Review_ contains an article
entitled "A Railway Party in Politics," by Mr. H. P. Robinson, editor of
the _Railway Age_. Mr. Robinson belongs to that class of reformers who
can see but one side of a question, and only a short-sighted view of
that. He is as zealous as a new convert, and is expert, in the ward
politician's way, in defense of the worst abuses practiced by railway
men. He says:

"That the right to 'regulate' the railways, which is vested
in the State, has now been carried in the West to a point
not only beyond the bounds of justice, but beyond its
constitutional limits, and that it would soon be impossible
for any railway company in the West to keep out of
bankruptcy unless some vigorous and concerted action were
taken to arouse public opinion, and to compel a modification
of the present poli