he employes who organized the movement were
under pay of the railroad companies and received their instructions from
the railroad managers. The statement which Mr. Robinson attributes to
the Governor of Iowa undoubtedly originated in the mind of one who is
laboring to modify the ferocity of "the uninformed public opinion of the
West." No Governor of Iowa ever made any such statement, nor ever
entertained any such sentiment. It is a sheer fabrication.

There are a number of standard text-books of law which are indispensable
to the student of railroad questions desiring to go back to first
principles. Only a few of them can be mentioned here.

I. F. Redfield, in his "Law of Railways," says concerning the necessity
for railroad supervision:

"Railways being a species of highway, and in practice
monopolizing the entire traffic, both of travel and
transportation, in the country, it is just and necessary and
indispensable to the public security that a strict
legislative control over the subject should be constantly
exercised."

Regarding the original character of the railway as a common highway,
Redfield says:

"The Railways Clauses Consolidation Act provides, in detail,
for the use of railways by all persons who may choose to put
carriages thereon, upon the payment of the tolls demandable,
subject to the provisions of the statute and the regulations
of the company. The view originally taken of railways in
England evidently was to treat them as a common highway,
open to all who might choose to put carriages thereon. But
in practice it is found necessary for the safety of the
traffic that it should be exclusively under the control of
the company, and hence no use is, in fact, made of the
railway by others."

As to the questionable financial expedients so frequently resorted to in
building American railways, this author says:

"This is not the place, nor are we disposed, to read a
homily upon the wisdom of legislative grants, or the
moralities of moneyed speculations in stocks on the exchange
or elsewhere. But it would seem that legislation upon this
subject should be conducted with sufficient deliberation and
firmness so as not to invest such incorporations with such
unlimited powers as to operate as a net to catch the unwary,
or as a gulf in which to bury out of sight