It seems improbable that any disposition can be made of the tunnel which can return to the treasury the whole sum expended, and it is for the legislature to determine how far a return can be made to the people of the State from this great public expenditure, in increased means of transportation and a reduction of rates which are now a burden upon the whole community. Since the tunnel was projected, new lines of railroad have been built which give to nearly every portion of the State direct access to the tunnel and through it to the great West. In the progress of the hearing certain points were made tolerably clear. _First_, That the tunnel itself should be so far held and controlled by the State as to insure its use on equal terms by all parties. _Second_, That some consolidation of the line or lines working through the tunnel was essential to secure efficiency of action, and to provide for the great business awaiting the completion of the tunnel. _Third_, That to provide equipment and terminal facilities for such a business, the weak and disjointed separate corporations were inadequate, and that it was particularly desirable that some action should be taken at the present session of the legislature. The policy of direct state ownership was strongly pressed upon the Committee by the railroad commissioners and other parties. The address of Mr. Adams, in behalf of the commissioners, upon this subject, is contained in the printed report, and is a clear and able statement in behalf of this policy. While the experiment has been tried in other States, and under other circumstances has failed, we do not think it is to be condemned for this reason. These experiments were tried before the development of the railroad system, and generally in thinly-peopled States, where state construction of railroads was a political necessity to supplement private capital that could see no inducement for investment. In the days when state management failed, corporation management failed to quite as great an extent. The statement of Mr. Adams, in regard to the results of the system in Belgium, are very striking, and in England the current seems to be settling in favor of the assumption of the railroads by the government. To any careful observer of the railroad development of the past twenty-five years, there can be little doubt of a like progressive increase in this business in the future.