At the risk of incurring further displeasure, the writer will not omit now to observe that, in his judgment, the whole question whether railways shall be generally and officially valued, and how and by whom the task shall be performed, is primarily conditioned by the country's need of managing its legislative control of railway methods so as not to restrict unduly the flow of capital into that industry. The steady pressure for legislation during the last five years has so extended legislative regulation that, for the first time, the sturdy, frugal, conservative, "small investor" stands in the forefront of the problem. His views of the stability and future prosperity of the American railway industry now dominate the situation. What they are may be read in the facts attending recent efforts to finance necessary improvements of old and prosperous railways. It developed before the Interstate Commerce Commission during the recent hearings in connection with the proposed partial adjustment of rates to the diminished purchasing power of the money in which they are paid, that one of the greatest of Eastern railway systems, paying 8% annual dividends on its stock, which is very widely distributed, had offered new shares to its stockholders at a premium of 25%, and had found them unsalable at that figure, so that it was obliged to recall the offer and put them out at par. Other testimony disclosed the failure of one great company to obtain an offer of more than 85 for its 4% bonds, while another had been forced to go to France to raise $10,000,000, and many others have been forced to the expedient of issuing short-term notes at relatively high rates of interest. It also appeared that extensive proposals for new branch lines had been abandoned or postponed, in view of the impossibility of obtaining funds on reasonable terms.