directed from railroad headquarters. At one election, handbills and telegrams were sent out along the lines of road directing the employees to vote for a certain man who was supposed to be friendly to railroad interests. The grain men and large shippers were invited to join the movement. The opposition was strengthened through the multiplication of railroad employees' clubs, formed for no other purpose than to influence railroad legislation.

Experience has proven conclusively that the election. of Commissioners by popular vote is dangerous in furnishing inducement for the powerful corporations to make themselves felt politically. An appointment of Commissioners by the Governor, with the consent of the Senate or the Executive Council, which was the method in vogue at first, should be restored. When this has been done, a great step will have been taken towards promoting a feeling of harmony between shippers and carriers, a spirit indispensable to the satisfactory solution of the railroad question.

One conclusion to be drawn from what has already been said, is that the same form of commission cannot be advantageously worked in all States. That form of commission must be adopted which most nearly conforms to circumstances and conditions. In sections where the railroad system has acquired stability, where the period of rapid growth and consequent severe discrimination has passed, where the State is small and is not traversed by many competing trunk-lines, a system which relies for enforcement upon a public opinion. which has a ready means of expressing itself has been found to be wonderfully successful. This principle is

operative to some extent in all States, for the railroads are always fearful of what the legislature may do if it becomes aroused by persistent disobedience on the part of carriers. But in a section where the territory to be controlled is large, where the transportation industry is new, and is productive of all the evils which are coincident with rapid growth, where the trunk-lines are built under circumstances which tempt them to fierce competition, and where stability of rates and a regard for a State's interest are necessary to its industrial prosperity, more adequate control seems absolutely necessary. If control of railroads, then, is to be left to State Commissioners, the form of control must be adjusted to industrial conditions.

But it must not be supposed that in a multiplication of State commissions is to be found the ultimate solution of the railroad question. Progress is made but slowly, and we have attained a decided advance when State commissions have been organized, and adapted to the needs of the various States. For many years, no doubt, the greatest advance must be looked for along State lines, and the incentive to further control must come from the movements in the individual Commonwealths. But for a final solution of the railroad question we must look beyond State lines.

The interstate character of a large portion of the railroad business shows the impossibility of complete control through State agencies. Some of the States have control of not more than fifteen or twenty per cent of the business that passes through them.

Then, again, much injustice and confusion arise in the West through the lack of uniformity in action

between the different State commissions. Many of the commissions have been unwilling to look at the railroad question in a broad-minded spirit. They often partake of the prejudices of their constituencies, and promote the schemes of the shippers of their community. Those States which have been given power to fix rates have adopted classifications in many cases independent of other States, and thus articles put in one class east of the Mississippi may be found in an entirely different class west of it. Mr. Stickney has shown, by means of diagrams, the complete lack of harmony between. the schedules of different States. These have been drawn up many times independently of mathematical rules, and upon a mere guess as to what is about right. It is taking a very narrow view of the question for a board to maintain that it is concerned only with the interests of the State which it represents, and that it makes no difference whether its action is in accord with that of other States. This lack of uniformity has been recognized to some extent, and it has led to such action looking toward harmony as could be taken by the National Convention of Railroad Commissioners. The action has borne fruit in the adoption of a blank for annual reports of railroads, and it is hoped that the Convention's influence may extend yet farther in the direction of uniformity.

For adequate control of the interstate business, however, we must look to Congress; and the solution of this entire question of control must come through a combination of national and State control, and a judicious division of powers. The discussion of this question is

1 "Railway Problem," p. 150.

beyond the bounds of this essay. The line along which the question might be worked out is here suggested.

The State commissions should be granted the advisory and recommendatory power, with authority to certify to the courts refusals to obey in matters of public right. They should have authority to investigate local complaints of unjust discrimination with right to certify to the courts refusals to obey their orders; to examine into all questions of inadequate train-service, incompetent management of trains, obstruction of highways, accidents, and all questions concerning the physical condition of the roads and the comfort and convenience of the public; to compel complete and accurate reports from railroad companies in order that they may acquaint the public with all the details of railroad management, and be competent to pass reliable judgments upon general questions of railroad policy. They should be in no sense courts, sitting and hearing complaints brought before them, but should take the initiative in investigating matters of railroad policy. Thus they

should not only form a medium between carrier and shipper for the settlement of controversies and the removal of misunderstandings, but should go farther, and prevent such misunderstandings and causes of bitterness from arising. Iowa's Advisory Commission accomplished great good in bringing shippers and carriers to realize. that their jealousies and suspicions of each other were in large measure unfounded. They should also be arbitrators between the railroads themselves in the adjustment of difficulties concerning crossings, union stations, joint running arrangements, and the like. They should step between the railroads and their employees, require

automatic couplers and air-brakes, and otherwise provide for the safety of all concerned in the handling of trains. These powers should be uniform throughout the States, and the terminology of the laws should as far as possible be the same. Much may be expected from the National Convention of the State Railroad Commissioners, whose influence has been very potent for the promotion of uniformity of legislation as between the several States. To the National Commission should be given full and complete power of prescribing a general classification and a schedule of maximum rates for interstate business. If such a schedule were enforced, and the rates were made stable, there could be no inducement to discrimination and rate-cutting within a State, and the local rates could be left to the railroads. The objection that control from Washington would be at such a distance as to become impotent, could be overcome through the appointment of a commission of such size that it might be divided, and its members be assigned to different sections of the country. It might be advisable that one National Commissioner should sit in each State with the local board. There are, of course, many practical difficulties to the working out of such a scheme, but they are not insurmountable.

There is an almost resistless tendency at present toward the increase of national control over railroads.

"Every inconvenience, delay, and expense to the public, or to the railroads connected with the billing and transportation of interstate freight, or with the ticketing and carriage of through passengers, and growing out of the limitations imposed by States or corporate lines of division; every case of excessive, unreasonable regulation, or of lax and careless supervision by State author