However persistently railway organs deny it, it is a matter of general notoriety that railway officials take an active part in political campaigns. Hundreds of communications might be produced to show their work in Iowa, but the following two letters, written by a prominent railroad manager to an associate, will suffice for the purpose. It will be noticed that one was written before and the other after election. Comments upon their contents are unnecessary: "----, Iowa, Nov. 2nd, 1888. "DEAR SIR: I have just discovered this P. M. that the Central Committee have sent electrotypes to all the printing offices in the State of the State ticket, with the names of the Railway Commissioners and Supreme Judge in so small a space as to make it very difficult, if not impossible, to write in the names. I am having slips made with Commissioners' names and Judge written on them, and they will be sent to all agents, not later than to-morrow, to paste over the printed names on the ticket, and thus beat this scheme. Have you seen any tickets yet? And what do you think of this plan? "Yours truly, "----" "----, Iowa, Nov. 11, 1888. "DEAR SIR: Repeating the old and time-honored saying: 'We have met the enemy and we are theirs.' The Democratic Granger and the largely increased Republican vote was too much for us. Many friends voted with the railway men, but to no purpose. The comparison between Granger and Smyth will tell more than anything else the strength of the railway vote. But we are badly used up, and may as well take our dose. "Yours truly, "----" While the result of this election was indeed a bad dose for speculating railway managers, it is the opinion of the masses and of railway stockholders, who are more interested in the general welfare of the roads than in speculation in their stocks, that the dose was well administered, and should be repeated whenever the necessity for it may again arise. It is probably true that railroad managers have lost much of their former influence in politics. As their means of corruption have become generally known they have become less effective. The public is more on the alert, and corrupt politicians often find themselves unable to carry out their discreditable compacts. But it is unreasonable to expect the evil to cease until the cause is removed. The trouble is inherent in the system, and the fault is there more than in the men who manage the business, and not till the great power exercised by them is restrained within proper limits will the evil disappear. All this can be accomplished when there shall be established a most thorough and efficient system of State and National control over the railroad business of the whole country. CHAPTER X. RAILROAD LITERATURE.