chools or in churches. It knows
neither charity nor love, neither pity nor sympathy, neither justice nor
patriotism. It is deaf and blind to human woe and human happiness. Its
only aim is pecuniary gain, to which it subordinates all else.

Should the State sacrifice the welfare of all her people rather than lay
its "withering or destroying" hand on a single dollar of corporate
wealth? Are there no human rights, for the protection of which
government was established, more sacred than the rights of a wealthy
corporation's dollar? Have the people made the judiciary a coordinate
branch of the Government in order that it may protect the vested or
rather usurped rights of corporations against legislative attempts to
curtail them? If the courts so interpret the power which has been
delegated to them, they will awake one day to the painful reality that
popular convictions of right are more potent than judicial decrees.

It is the duty of the State not so much to defend the so-called vested
rights of corporations as to make such just and beneficial laws as will
temper inequality, mitigate poverty, protect the weak against the
strong, preserve life and health, and, in short, promote the welfare and
the happiness of the masses. Constitutions have been made to accomplish
these ends, to protect the lives, the liberty and the conscience of
human beings, while laws have been sufficient to protect the dollars of
corporations. It is a short-sighted policy on the part of the latter to
take unfair advantage of their wealth and influence, for "As ye sow, so
shall ye reap," is the inexorable law of Providence. There is no dynasty
so mighty, no class so privileged, no interest so influential or wealthy
as to obtain immunity from its operation.

APPENDIX.

TABLE No. 1.

COMPILED FROM THE SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE
COMMISSION.

Mileage in the United States June 30, 1891 168,402.74
Number of men employed 784,285
Number of employes per 100 miles 486
Number of locomotives per 100 miles 19
Number of passenger cars per 100 miles 17
Number of cars per 100 miles 721
Capital $9,829,475,015
Capital per mile 60,942
Gross earnings 1,096,761,395
Gross earnings per