stability and efficiency in conducting the business. What is true on the Northern Pacific is doubtless true on other roads, and most of the transactions between the shipper and the railroad are completed without any feeling of injustice, or that there is something radically wrong with the American railway system. The same thing is true to an even greater extent in the passenger business. Passengers get on and off trains all over the country without feeling that they have any complaint against the railroads as to discrimination or injustice in rates, except in rare instances.
With the growing railroad business of the United States, the distribution of railroad securities, and the demand for manufactured articles used by railroads, it is not unfair to say that, counting railroad employees and owners, and employees in industries furnishing material and supplies to railroads, there are from 2,500,000 to 3,000,000 persons whose daily bread and butter and general position in life, together with those of their families, depend very largely upon the railroad busi-
