thod of getting wealthy at the expense of others not unknown
to many another great fortune accumulated in the last twenty years.
Railroad discriminations have been a fruitful source of those gross
inequalities in wealth distribution which now agitate society and call
people's parties and the like into existence. The modern millionaire
appears to be an entirely natural creation. Perhaps this money taken in
special rates from the Pennsylvania railroad's treasury, or, rather,
from the pockets of the road's other patrons, and of the men who may
have sought, without special rates, to compete with the favored ones in
their business, only to be crushed in financial ruin, will be spent in a
praiseworthy way, in accord with the principles of "the gospel of
wealth." What we need now is the gospel of distribution of facilities
for the accumulation of wealth, as well as the gospel of distribution of
great fortunes.

Whether inspired by a bull or a bear interest or neither, all will
concede the ability of Mr. Henry Clews to picture the evils of railroad
management; and his lack of generosity in accrediting ability or honesty
to legislators who are called upon to provide remedies for the wrongs
that he so well depicts will not deter me from indorsing the following
statement made by him in a magazine article which is pertinent to this
discussion:

"One great difficulty that present railroad legislators have
to contend with is the evil methods of railroad building and
extension. A great deal of the mileage of the last two years
has been premature, and doubtless for speculative purposes.
Most of it has been constructed, however, by old companies
who had good credit to float bonds and could raise all the
money required. Hence there has been but little financial
embarrassment arising from the too rapid construction. But
people are beginning to find out that a great deal of this
building has been in the interest of speculative directors
and their friends, who, for a mere song, had bought up
barren lands considered worthless because there was no means
of transportation. But these lands soon become immensely
valuable for sites of villages, towns and cities. The
construction companies, by which these roads were generally
built, raised the cost to the highest possible figures, in
order, I fear, to make dividends for the construction
s