Reconciliation of private capital and the users of railroads might, of course, be brought about by government ownership, because if there were a deficit the people could pay it in their taxes. Even then railroad rates could not be made mathematically consistent, for government is never mathematically consistent. For example, if I mail a letter to San Francisco or London, I pay two cents, and if you mail a letter to Evanston you pay two cents. But nobody seems to want government ownership, although many people contend that that would be much fairer and more honest than governmental control of railroads without financial responsibility. Perhaps a middle ground may sometime be worked out by a profit-sharing arrangement, as in Chicago between the city and the street railway companies. That would have its advantages. Among the advantages would be cheaper money for railroads, if the government would guarantee a minimum return on agreed valuations. But of course this would be much more complex than to work out an arrangement with corporations like street railways, which do a single kind of business at one rate, instead of a business affecting every commodity of human consumption and stretching through forty-six states and two territories. However, I think there is food for thought for all of us in what has been accomplished here in Chicago, and the professional intellect present tonight may well think it over. Finally,--while a man has as good a right to increase his fortune by investing in railroads as in any other manner, no matter what it may be, I believe we shall find a solution for some of the puzzles that beset us,--not through the gospel of tyranny on the one hand, nor the gospel of equality on the other hand, but through a gospel of stewardship. Let us all feel that although the acquisitive faculty is undoubtedly planted in the human breast for some wise purpose, we are not here primarily for personal aggrandizement. We are here for service, and the greater our talents or our wealth or our opportunities the greater our responsibility. We are trustees--for the users of our railroads, for our employees, and for investors; and let us welcome all the additional responsibility which may be put upon us as directors or salaried officials. I am sure this sentiment will commend itself to all of you, because there is no body of men in the world which has a higher code of ethics and which has demonstrated personal fidelity in a higher degree than the Engineers of America. FOOTNOTE: [D] In the United States in 1908 the average contents of loaded freight cars was 19.6 tons and the average of a freight train was 351.80. On some of the mineral roads the averages were much greater.--S. T. TRANSPORTATION CHARGE AND PRICES BY LOGAN G. MCPHERSON, Lecturer on Transportation, Johns Hopkins University. Author of "The Working of the Railroads." CHAPTER VI.