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THE TRUTH ABOUTH THE RAILROADS

to charge more than a fair and reasonable rate, for the success of each business in its own field depends upon the fair and square treatment it receives from the other, and the degree of fairness shown toward it by the people.

When one sees the ordinary operation of the railroad going on without much interruption, except from heavy weather, one does not always realize the great work that has been done in creating the railroad machine in the United States, and the really vast amount of expense and work to keep it going day by day. It seems very simple to see the passenger-trains run in and out of the station, to order the freight-car and send the grain to market, to telegraph to the nearest large town for supplies and in twenty-four or forty-eight hours have them delivered. But it is not so easy and simple as it seems, and there is danger to-day that the next great uplift in business in the United States will find the railroads, as a whole, sorely taxed to furnish the transportation needed for the commerce of the country. Why? Because a misdirected public opinion is demanding

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