e desirableness of the route he selects for
the confiding passenger.

This is but one of many phases of the commission evil, another being
that these sums are ultimately paid, not by the corporations, but by
the users of the railways, and but for the payment of such commissions
the rates might be reduced in like amounts. Aside from commissions
paid for diverting passenger traffic great sums are paid for
"influencing" and "routing" freight traffic, and these sums, while
paid to outsiders, or so-called brokers, are frequently divided with
railway officials. When the writer was in charge of the transportation
accounts of a railway running east from Chicago, it was a part of his
duties to certify to the correctness of the vouchers on which
commission payments were made, and he became aware of the fact that
one Chicago brokerage firm was being paid a commission of from three
to five cents per hundred pounds on nearly all the flour, grain,
packing house, and distillery products being shipped out of Chicago
over this railway, no matter where such shipments might originate,
many of them, in fact, originating on and far west of the Mississippi
River; and when he objected to certifying to shipments with which it
was clear that the Chicago parties could have had nothing to do, he
was told, by the manager, that his duties ended when he had
ascertained and certified that such shipments had been made from
Chicago station. From investigations instituted by the writer, he soon
learned that some one connected with the management was deeply
interested in the payment of the largest sums possible as commissions.

The corporations have ineffectually wrestled with the commission evil,
and any number of agreements have been entered into to do away with
it; but it is so thoroughly entrenched, and so many officials have an
interest in its perpetuation, that they are utterly powerless in the
presence of a system which imposes great and needless burthens upon
their patrons, but which will die the day the government takes
possession of the railways, as then there will be no corporations
ready to pay for the diversion of traffic. National ownership alone
can dispose of an administrative evil that, from such data as is
obtainable, appears to cost the public from $20,000,000 to $25,000,000
per annum.

[10]Mr. Meany, in his _Sun_ article, summarizes six causes for the
diminution of railway dividends and remarks: "It is unnecessary to
dwell at any