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increased only about half as fast as the value of all property during the fifteen years from 1890 to 1904. In 1910 the capital value of agricultural property throughout the United States was 100.5 per cent greater than in 1900; the capital value of manufacturing property 105.3 per cent greater; but the cost of road and equipment of the railways was but 40.2 per cent greater. By capital value is meant book value, and not capitalization. For the ten years ending in 1910 there was an increase of 81.2 per cent in the gross value of manufactured products, with an increase of 105.3 per cent in manufacturing capital. During the same time there was an increase of 85 per cent in the total operating revenues of the railways, accompanied by an increase of only 40.2 per cent in the cost of road and equipment. This indicates that the railways are exhausting that margin of elasticity which they ought always to preserve in order to meet the demands of growing business like that of the present. It is to the interest of the people as a whole that the railways be kept at all times in a condition of