Island, & Pacific represents the sum of $25,717,000, or $56,667 per mile. The Erie represents the sum of $112,935,710, or $125,750 per mile. The New York Central & Hudson River railroad represents $104,660,049, or $142,656 per mile. The Union Pacific represents $112,911,512, or $109,507 per mile. We give the above as samples of the amounts represented by the different roads. In some other instances the stocks are "watered" more, and in others less than in the roads above named. Taking all the roads in the country, and adding together the stock and bonds issued, they represent $3,800,408,749 more than their actual cost. It will not be out of place here to state that the only resource these railroad companies have for the payment of interest and dividends on their stock and bonds, representing the sum of $6,236,638,749, is the earnings of their roads. While a low rate of charges would pay fair dividends on the actual cost of the roads, yet in order to pay dividends on their "watered" stock, and interest on their bonds, oppressive and extortionate rates must be charged and collected. The men who control these great monopolies, viz: Col. Scott, who controls roads representing about $700,000,000; Vanderbilt, who controls about as great an interest; Drew, Gould, and some few others of the principal railroad men, care but little about the prosperity of the country, or the profits made by their roads, save as a basis for their Wall street speculations. The roads serve as a basis for financial operations. Like the old "wild cat" banks that issued bills without regard to stock or capital, so the roads controlled by these railroad monarchs are loaded with "watered" stock and bonds, until their value as roads are destroyed, and passengers and shippers are oppressively taxed for the purpose of giving some sort of market value to the bonds and "watered" stock with which Wall street is flooded. The issuing of stock certificates goes on, and will continue as long as dividends can be declared. At the present time the railroads of the country collectively represent about three times their value, or actual cost. If the people were not taxed on "watered" stock and bonds, dishonestly issued, the rates charged for transportation would be but little more than one-third the figures of the present tariff. The vast wealth claimed by railroad corporations is about two-thirds pure fiction, and but for the extortions practiced upon the public, their stocks and bonds, beyond the value of their roads, would not be considered in market; but so long as interest at the rate of six, eight, and ten per cent can be drawn from the public, they are marketable. These stocks and bonds are owned or controlled by the men who not only manage the railroad interests, but also the bond and stock market of the country. Being the leading spirits among Wall street brokers, using their railroads for the purpose of aiding in their stock-jobbing