pon as one of
the first and essential features of railroad reform. It is questionable,
however, whether railroad managers are so sensitive to public opinion
that publicity could be relied upon as a cure for all railroad evils. To
what extent it is desirable to supplement publicity by other measures
of State control will be considered hereafter.

It will, of course, be urged by railroad managers that the State has no
right to pry into the privacy of their business and that they should be
guaranteed the same protection against intrusion that is enjoyed by
other branches of business. To this we must reply that not even banks or
insurance companies are permitted to conduct their business as private,
and that controlling the highway and levying a transportation tax upon
every article of commerce passing over it is essentially public business
and unquestionably subject to public control. Every citizen is as much
interested in it as he is in the transactions of the custom-house, or of
the public treasury, and any transaction of a railroad manager that
shuns public inspection can be set down as a public evil and should be
suppressed. It may safely be laid down as a general rule that the
refusal of a railroad company to give publicity to its transactions is
presumptive evidence of wrong. The people are not alone interested in
such publicity. Stockholders have likewise a right to be protected
against the sinister manipulations of dishonest managers, and publicity
furnishes them the best guarantee of honest management.

Stockholders should attend the meetings of their companies and should
obtain full knowledge of the management of their affairs. If they will
make thorough examination and get at bottom facts the chances are that
contracts will be found with owners of patents, white lines, blue lines,
refrigerator car lines, coal companies, ferry companies, manufacturing
companies, packing companies and other kindred organizations, by which
hundreds of millions of dollars are diverted from the treasuries of the
railroad companies to the pockets of influential persons connected with
the management of the roads.

It has recently come to light that the officers of a Pennsylvania
railroad company, during fifteen years, by some means of secret rebates
and other allowances, have taken about $100,000,000 out of the treasury
of the company and distributed it as largesses to about half a dozen
iron and steel establishments.

This is a me