It is difficult to see how any unbiased person can travel on any of the state roads of Europe without coming to the same conclusion. State management offers certainly some decided advantages to the public. Above all, the business of the roads is not conducted for the pecuniary advantage of a few, but for the common good. Commerce is not arbitrarily disturbed to aid unscrupulous managers in their stock speculations. New lines are not built for speculative purposes, but for the development of the country. Rates are based more upon the cost of service than upon what the traffic will bear, and the ultimate object of the state's policy is not high profits, but a healthy growth of the country's commerce, while the sole aim of a private company is to get the largest revenue possible. The permanent way of the state road is kept in better condition, the public safety and convenience being paramount considerations. Rates are stable and uniform, instead of being changeable and discriminating, and all persons and places are as equal before the railroad tax collector as before the law. It may be laid down as a general rule that under private management of railroads efforts will be made to secure the highest rates possible, while it is the aim of the Government to grant the lowest rates possible. Mr. Jeans proves by statistics that the cost of maintenance of way is generally higher on the state lines, and that traffic expenses are higher on the lines of private companies. In commenting upon this difference he says: "It might easily be contended, and even proved beyond all doubt, that the first characteristic is a result of the better condition in which the state keeps the permanent way; and, so far as this is the case, the public convenience, safety and general advantage are promoted. "The highest range of traffic expenses on companies' lines undoubtedly argues greater laxity of management, since, as we have already shown, this is one of the most elastic of items, and may be either very high or very low, according as economy or extravagance is the prevailing system.... The experience of Continental Europe points unmistakably to the exercise of greater economy in state management." Judge Dillon, of the United States Court, in his order appointing Hon. J. B. Grinnell receiver for the Central Railroad of Iowa, in 1876, said: "The railroads in the hands of the court--and in the circuit there are eight or ten--have all been run with less expense, and have made more money, than when they were operated by the companies; and we hope and believe under your supervision that this road will prove no exception, and that the property will be worth more at the end of the litigation." Upon Mr. Grinnell's resignation, after nearly three years of service, Judge Grant said, in asking for the discharge of his bondsmen: