real situation, because the American people, when they know the truth, are not likely to be unjust to any one class of people, or to any one business.
Upon the one hand there is a critical public. Upon the other, the railroads are struggling with forces which are causing rates to remain stationary or to decline, causing wages to rise or to remain stationary, bringing demands from a prosperous and luxurious people for increasingly expensive facilities and service, and causing taxation to rise at an alarming rate. These four forces are all at work reducing the margin between income and outgo and making it more and more difficult for the owners of railroad properties to keep their lines in suitable condition to carry on the business of the country, and to obtain a return commensurate with the risk of the business and sufficient to attract further investment.
If rates had not been fair and service adequate, neither agriculture nor commerce would have shown such gratifying gains as were made during the census period ending in 1910. If it
