ing bonds and stocks of American railroads is not quite four and one half per cent in each case.”
Public opinion must be exerted to see that railroads are fairly treated, so that the money needed for increased and improved transportation facilities can be obtained and spent rapidly and freely.
Every age has its problems, and we sometimes think that ours are different from, and much more difficult than, those that others have had to deal with. I read the following the other day: “The merchants form great companies and become wealthy, but many of them are dishonest and cheat one another. Hence the directors of the companies who have charge of the accounts are nearly always richer than their associates. Those who thus grow rich are clever, since they do not have the reputation of being thieves.” This sounds familiar, as if it might have been said very recently, but it was published in the Chronicle of Augsburg, Germany, in 1512, four hundred years ago; so the modern reformer who
