In Holland, where the railways are owned by the State and operated by private companies under lease from the Government, the Ministry assured me that unfair discriminations between persons and places do not exist, and I have every reason to believe they are right. The President of the Government railways in Denmark said: “There are no discriminations either on the public or company railroads. It would not be possible to give such favors in Denmark.” And in reference to my description of some of the American methods of favoritism, he said that nothing of the kind had been attempted; and if it should be, every one concerned in the transaction would be punished, and the guilty officials would lose their positions. Railway men and publicists of Norway and Sweden tell me that there is no discrimination. It would not be permitted. There are no provisions against it in the law. Nothing of the kind has ever been known. A high official of the Japanese Government, whom I met in this country a few months ago, said in answer to a question in which I stated some of our discrimination methods, large and small: “The government fixes maximum and minimum rates, and the companies are free between these limits, except that the Minister keeps control sufficient to compel fair rates if the companies should try to discriminate or otherwise make unjust rates. We have had nothing like the Beef Trust or Standard Oil discriminations you describe, nor any personal favoritism in rate-making, but the government means to prevent the possibility.” The railways of New Zealand are not troubled with complaints of discrimination, nor those of New South Wales or Queensland or Victoria. And in these boiling and bubbling republics, if there were the slightest suspicion of a reason for attacking the Government management on this ground, it would be done by the political opponents of the administrations. South Australia has had one case of alleged favoritism. The complaint was that the Railway Commissioner gave a reduced rate on carload lots of certain goods to certain points, to meet water competition. A shipper, desiring to send his goods at low rates in the opposite direction, asked the Commission to give him a reduction equal to that accorded on the traffic above mentioned. The Commissioner said he would give the same reductions if the shipments were made in carload lots. The complaining shipper could not do this, as his trade was not sufficient. The matter was brought before Parliament, and Parliament sustained the Commissioner. The Parliament of each of these republics acts as the people’s board of directors of all public works, calling the managers to account; and any member, from the remotest rural district, can ask the Ministry and the railway management any question he chooses, and compel full disclosure of the facts. Secrecy is practically impossible.