There has been so much discussion, so much argument pro and con, about this measure that I am going to present a carefully made resume of it, originally prepared for a group of business men who sought to make a most impartial study of the measure. The act itself provides that the railroads of the United States shall be operated by private corporations under a comprehensive system of government regulation. One of the very best things about the act is that in its very essence it represents a fair interpretation of the feeling of the majority of the American people after two years of government operation. That that majority did not take into account the great difficulties under which both McAdoo and Hines worked is not germane to the present point. It saw their mistakes--the waste as well as the many efficiencies of the Railroad Administration--and it demanded a prompt return to private operation. Under the pressure of this public opinion--some of it very skilfully aided, to be sure, by inspired propagandists--the members of Congress who framed the Transportation Act were almost unanimous in their honest belief that in the hands of private corporations the railroads could be operated more economically and more efficiently and would give better service than would be possible under government operation. The Transportation Act came as a very natural sequence to such a belief. * * * * * The most important provisions of the act are: (1) That on March 1, 1920, Federal operation shall cease and the railroads shall be returned to private operation. (2) That under a new rule of rate-making the railroads shall be assured adequate revenues; and adequacy shall be defined in the first two years as a net return of 5-1/2 or 6 per cent. on the fair value of the property as determined by governmental authority. (3) That during the transition period the Government shall aid in restoring the financial stability and the credit of the railroads: (a) by continuing the government guaranty of a standard return for six months after the roads are returned to their owners; (b) by creating a revolving fund of $300,000,000 from which the roads may obtain under certain conditions short-term loans to meet their most pressing needs; (c) by extending the carrier indebtedness for capital expenditures made by the government during Federal control for a period of ten years with interest at 6 per cent.; and (d) by the creation of a reserve fund containing one-half of the excess earnings of those railroads whose net earnings exceed the 6 per cent. specified in the rule of rate-making.