But while Dr. DuBois and the author of this study, in response to the invitation of Dr. Hart, before the historians of the United States were discussing, each in his own way, a subject they thought of some importance, it is of interest to consider what was occupying the mind of the wisest and most neglected Negro in the United States, at the same time. About the same date William Hannibal Thomas wrote to the author of this study: “It has long been my dream to see all the railroads under one management. Therefore had I the influence and cooperation of others, I would procure a charter from the Congress of the United States creating a National Railway Company capitalized at fifteen billion of dollars and empowered to issue bonds for a like amount. Five great subdivisions would be created. All south of the Potomac river and east of the Mississippi would constitute the Southern division. New England the Eastern division. New York and the states north and east of the Mississippi, would form the central division. Westward of that great river there would be a northern and southern Pacific division. Such in brief is the scheme I have in mind and, as an economical factor in National uplift, I know of but one other thing that would surpass it.”[348] We might measure the scope of this Negro’s dream in the autumn of 1909, by the following news item of April 17, 1923, which apparently was only another dream: “Legislation to make affective the plans being worked out by the interstate commerce commission for consolidation and regional supervision of the railroad systems of the country will be undertaken in the next Congress, Chairman Cummins of the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee said today, after a discussion of the railroad problem with President Harding—‘I think consolidation for the railway system as initiated in the transportation act is the only means of gaining the efficiency that the country requires of the railroads,’ said Senator Cummins. Moreover it seems to me to be the only method of bringing down freight rates on commodities on which the rate must be lowered.”[349] Whatever difference of opinion may exist amongst railway experts as to the merits of the legislation concerning railroads which the Iowa senator has made his name synonymous with, few doubt his knowledge. Yet he would seem to be just about fourteen years behind the neglected Ohio Negro, whose opportunities were restricted to two sessions of the South Carolina legislature in Reconstruction days. Is there anything that has ever been resolved with regard to railroads better calculated to serve the general public, than that introduced by Thomas, when opposing the most brilliant of the Carpet Baggers, Daniel H. Chamberlain, in 1874?—