e many roads in the country that
never have been and in all probability never will be able to
pay their obligations and to pay dividends, even the
slightest, to their stockholders.... If the rule suggested
is a correct one, and must be adhered to by the public
authorities, then it is entirely impossible that those who
operate these roads can prescribe excessive charges, since
it is impossible to fix any rates that would bring their
revenues up to the point of enabling them to pay any
dividends.... But the rule suggested would also be one under
which those roads would be entitled to charge the most
which, instead of being built with the money of the
stockholders themselves, had been constructed with money
borrowed; the larger the debt the higher being the rates
that would be legal. If a road were out of debt so that it
had no bonds to provide for, it must content itself with
such rates as would pay some dividend to its stockholders.
If the road were in debt, though it perhaps served the same
communities, it might be entitled to charge rates 50, or
possibly 100 per cent higher.... But over and beyond all
this the attempt to apply the rule suggested would be
absolutely futile for the reason that the rates prescribed
for one road would necessarily affect all others that either
directly or indirectly came in competition with it."

It is no exaggeration to say that the annual reports of the commission
stand unexcelled as dauntless, clear, concise and instructive public
documents. It may also be asserted that whatever success has so far
attended the Interstate Commerce Law, that success is in a great measure
due to the tact, courage and ability of the men who, in the past, have
been the guiding spirits of the commission.

Efforts will be made by railroad managers in the future, as they have
been made in the past, to weaken the commission by securing the
appointment of men servile to the railroad interest as members of that
body.

Mr. Depew says that "all railroad men are politicians, and active ones."
This is true as to manipulating managers and will continue to be so just
as long as we allow such extraordinary powers to be exercised by them.
The saloon men are politicians, and active ones. There is not a city or
town in this broad land that is not in danger of falling under their
sway