Produced by Peter Vachuska, Barbara Kosker, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net The Railroad Question. THE RAILROAD QUESTION A HISTORICAL AND PRACTICAL TREATISE ON RAILROADS, AND REMEDIES FOR THEIR ABUSES BY WILLIAM LARRABEE, LATE GOVERNOR OF IOWA. _Salus populi suprema lex._ NINTH EDITION. CHICAGO: THE SCHULTE PUBLISHING COMPANY. 1898. Copyright, 1893, BY WILLIAM LARRABEE. PREFACE. The people of the United States are engaged in the solution of the railroad problem. The main question to be determined is: Shall the railroads be owned and operated as public or as private property? Shall these great arteries of commerce be owned and controlled by a few persons for their own private use and gain, or shall they be made highways to be kept under strict government control and to be open for the use of all for a fixed, equal and reasonable compensation? In a new and sparsely settled country which is rich in natural resources there may be no great danger in pursuing a _laissez-faire_ policy in governmental affairs, but as the population of a commonwealth becomes denser, the quickened strife for property and the growing complexity of social and industrial interests make an extension of the functions of the state absolutely necessary to secure protection to property and freedom to the individual. The American people have shown themselves capable of solving any political question yet presented to them, and the author has no doubt that with full information upon the subject they will find the proper solution of the railroad problem. The masses have an honest purpose and a keen sense of right and wrong. With them a question is not settled until it is settled right. It must be conceded that of all the great inventions of modern times none has contributed as much to the prosperity and happiness of mankind as the railroad. Our age is under lasting obligations to Watt and Stephenson and many other heroes of industry who have aided in bringing the railroad to its present state of perfection. Their genius is the product of our civilization, and their legacies should be shared by all the people to the greatest extent possible. An earnest desire to aid in attaining this end has prompted this contribution to the literature on the subject. The author is not an entire novice in railroad affairs. He has had experience as a shipper and as a railroad promoter, owner and stockholder, and has even had thrust upon him for a short time the responsibility of a director, president and manager of a railroad company. He has, moreover, had every opportunity to familiarize himself with the various phases of the subject during his more than twenty years' connection with active legislation.