address delivered before the Commercial Club of Boston in December, 1888, Mr. Adams expressed his opinion concerning the average railroad manager of to-day as follows: "That the general railroad situation of the country is at present unsatisfactory is apparent. Stockholders are complaining; directors are bewildered; bankers are frightened. Yet that the Interstate Commerce Act is in the main responsible for all these results, remains to be proved. In my opinion, the difficulty is far more deep-seated and radical. In plain words, it does not lie in any act of legislation, State or National; and it does lie in the covetousness, want of good faith and low moral tone of those in whose hands the management of the railroad system now is; in a word, in the absence among men of any high standard of commercial honor. These are strong words, and yet, as the result of a personal experience stretching over nearly twenty years, I make bold to say they are not so strong as the occasion would justify. The railroad system of this country, especially of the regions west of Chicago, is to-day managed on principles which--unless a change of heart occurs, and that soon--must inevitably lead to financial disaster of the most serious kind. There is among the lines composing that system an utter disregard of those fundamental ideas of truth, fair play and fair dealing which lies at the foundation, not only of the Christian faith, but of civilization itself. With them there is but one rule--that, many years ago, put by Wordsworth into the mouth of Rob Roy: "'The simple rule, the good old plan, That he shall take who has the power, And he shall keep who can.'"