"It is doubtful whether the result which Mr. Walker foretells would be regarded as a calamity by the 'uninformed public opinion of the West.' That Minnesota railroad commissioner was quite sure of the public applause before he made his classic declaration that he proposed to 'shake the railroads over hell' before he had done with them, and the Governor of Iowa, who announced that he did not care if 'every d--d railroad in the State went into bankruptcy' before the expiration of his term of office, knew that the sentiment would have the sympathies of his constituents. This attitude of the Western mind is, of course, largely explained by the fact that the people of the West do not as a rule own railway securities. In two States (the only two in the West in which, so far as I am aware, the figures have been compiled) out of 27,645 stockholders in the lines within the State borders only 359 are residents of the States. If the other 27,286 were also residents of these States (that is to say, if 27,286 of the present residents were also stockholders in the railways), it is probable that the ferocity of the public opinion in these States against railways would be materially modified." It is evident that Mr. Robinson has not been as successful in organizing small tradesmen, boarding-house keepers, employes and shareholders into a new party as he contemplated, notwithstanding "it was at no loss for the sinews of war." He attempts to show that this movement originated with the employes, but it is too well known that the employes who organized the movement were under pay of the railroad companies and received their instructions from the railroad managers. The statement which Mr. Robinson attributes to the Governor of Iowa undoubtedly originated in the mind of one who is laboring to modify the ferocity of "the uninformed public opinion of the West." No Governor of Iowa ever made any such statement, nor ever entertained any such sentiment. It is a sheer fabrication. There are a number of standard text-books of law which are indispensable to the student of railroad questions desiring to go back to first principles. Only a few of them can be mentioned here. I. F. Redfield, in his "Law of Railways," says concerning the necessity for railroad supervision: "Railways being a species of highway, and in practice monopolizing the entire traffic, both of travel and transportation, in the country, it is just and necessary and indispensable to the public security that a strict legislative control over the subject should be constantly exercised." Regarding the original character of the railway as a common highway, Redfield says: