development of the business, and is preventing those additions and improvements so much needed in a growing country like the United States. Or he can continue the present system of government regulation and control, but guarantee to the railway-owner some minimum return upon his investment, so he will be willing to put money into the business. Such a plan, however, means that the non-user of the railway will be taxed for the benefit of the user.
To my mind the first course, of more commercial freedom, is by far the better for a growing and expanding country like the United States. We have not yet reached the state of perfection, politically or socially, where government ownership and bureaucratic management of the large, complicated, and delicately adjusted railway system of the country will be a success. Putting a government uniform on a railway employee does not at once endow him with a new kind of intelligence and supernatural powers, and it will reduce his feeling of responsibility.
