A second contradiction is that although there was a four years' war to prevent a division of this country, and although thereafter our American genius connected up remote sections of our common country, and although the work of the railroads has been splendidly national, the attempt to regulate them has been lamentably local and Lilliputian. I need only cite the conflicts between the enactments and rate-making of different states and those of the federal government. We hear more or less these days about the "twilight zone" between the states on the one hand and the Federal government on the other; but for those who administer the affairs of a great railroad system, the phrase "twilight zone" is too polite a term. It is instead a jungle in which the wayfaring railroad man may easily lose his way, and possibly be actually devoured by "laws with teeth in them." We hear a great deal about the simple desire that the railroads shall obey the law; but who is wise enough to say what the law is, when only yesterday the Supreme Court of the United States left an important case unsettled, so far as it was concerned, because it was divided four to four. These uncertain and conflicting laws and changes in rates confuse the railroad manager more than the public has ever realized. A third contradiction is the attempt, by anti-trust laws, to maintain the competitive idea alongside regulation, as if unrestricted competition were compatible with compulsory uniformity in rates and service. The President of the United States and other high officials have spoken in no uncertain terms concerning the absurdity of a situation like this, and yet thus far there is no relief. A fourth contradiction is found in the great increase in cost of producing transportation without the corresponding increases in selling prices which have taken place in other kinds of business in which private capital is engaged. The erroneous impression seems to prevail that the supply of capital for the railroad industry is an inexhaustible reservoir, regardless of the compensation which it shall receive and the conditions under which it shall perform its work.