here we have what Dr. Lyman Abbott means when he
glorifies "the great mass of American wealth". "It is serving the
community; it is building a railway to open a new country to
settlement by the homeless; it is operating a railway to carry grain
from the harvests of the West to the unfed millions of the East," etc.
The unfed millions--my typewriter started to write "underfed
millions"--are humbly grateful for these services, and hasten to buy
copies of the pious weekly which tells about them.

The "Outlook" runs a column of "current events" in which it tells what
is happening in the world; and sometimes it is compelled to tell of
happenings against the interests of "the great mass of American
wealth". The cynical reader will find amusement in following its
narrative of the affairs of the New Haven during the five years
subsequent to the publication of the Baxter article.

First came the collapse of the road's service; a series of accidents
so frightful that they roused even clergymen and chambers of commerce
to protest. A number of the "Outlook's" subscribers are New Haven
"commuters", and the magazine could not fail to refer to their
troubles. In the issue of Jan. 4th, 1913, three years and ten days
after the Baxter rhapsody, we read:

The most numerous accidents on a single road since the last
fiscal year have been, we believe, those on the New Haven.
In the opinion of the Connecticut Commission, the Westport
wreck would not have occurred if the railway company had
followed the recommendation of the Chief Inspector of Safety
Appliances of the Interstate Commerce Commission in its
report on a similar accident at Bridgeport a year ago.

And by June 28th, matters had gone farther yet; we find the "Outlook"
reporting:

Within a few hours of the collision at Stamford, the wrecked
Pullman car was taken away and burned. Is this criminal
destruction of evidence?

This collapse of the railroad service started a clamor for
investigation by the Interstate Commerce Commission, which of course
brought terror to the bosoms of the plunderers. On Dec. 20,1913, we
find the "Outlook" "putting the soft pedal" on the public indignation.
"It must not be forgotten that such a road as the New Haven is, in
fact if not in terms, a National possession, and as it goes down or
up, public interests go down or up with it." But in spite of all pious
admonitions, the Interstate Commerce Commis