Why, Mr. President, if I had the ability to manage this enterprise, I should hold the _honor_ of making this enterprise in the interest of the State a success of more importance than the honor of being the governor of Massachusetts. And when a man's reputation is thus at stake, he cannot afford to cheat himself by withholding from the State his best talents and energies. It has another and still greater advantage,--the endorsement of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which furnishes power and capital for terminal facilities, equipment and the improvement of the line at a cheaper rate than any consolidated company can procure it; and cheap capital in disinterested hands secures _cheap_ transportation. Can there be any doubt that a corporation thus formed and managed will prove a financial success? If not a success, then we have great reason to distrust a private corporation; with far less advantages, and a larger capital, for doing the same business must prove a financial failure. To demonstrate this point in a more practical manner, we will assume a proposition and verify this proposition by figures. Judging from the present local business now done on the several roads--forming what is anticipated as the Tunnel line, and the testimony of eminent railroad men of the business that is sure to come to this great through route to the West--it is fair to assume that the whole will do a business that will average six millions a year for the first five years; twenty-five per cent. of the gross earnings of the leased roads, and property are reserved to provide for settlement of the conditions of the said leases; and as they are not guaranteed the payment of any amount beyond what their present business pays, can there be any doubt but what the twenty-five per cent. on the increased business will pay the six per cent. interest on the capital loaned to increase the facilities for extending the business over the line?