That the mutual relations existing between the management of the corporations and the public are far from what they should be, there can be no doubt. On the one hand, the great mass of the voting public is uninformed as to actual revenues, disbursements, and operations of the corporations, as to whether their income is unreasonably large, or whether they are struggling to exist. The sums of money involved in the dealings of the corporations are so stupendous in comparison with the amounts used in an ordinary private business—even in one of considerable magnitude—that the majority of the public cannot comprehend them. The published statistics are in such form that only the careful student of affairs can understand or analyze them, and but few of the public officials who receive them are able to read the reports of the properties and comprehend them. As a consequence, the corporation, as a political issue, has been the subject of jest, gibe, and cartoon; there has not been an intelligent public discussion of available reports and statistics, and it may be said that, generally, the mass of the public has come to class all corporations as grasping, overbearing, and unjust, and to consider them all as exceedingly prosperous. This has been taken advantage of by politicians for their own selfish ends, and has led to sundry legislation, some of which has been unreasonable and unjust to the corporations, and much of which is aimed at real abuses that never ought to have existed. The reasonableness of a rate depends, not alone on the amount of capital invested, but on the volume of traffic, the density of population, the actual cost of service, and many other elements. Rate legislation has been attempted without full investigation. Acts have been passed compelling the establishment of stations and terminals, the improvement of roadway and structures, the purchase of new equipment, the installation of safety appliances and block signals, and many other requirements have been made, some (but by no means all) of which are unreasonable and burdensome. Nearly one-half the States of the Union have by law required a 2-cent, or 2½-cent, passenger fare, regardless of density of population, amount of traffic, or other considerations which might render such rates unreasonable. The regulation of the carriers, by legislature, by railroad commissions, by State officials, and by Courts, the addition of burdens of expense, and the cutting off of revenue, all give considerable ground for the opposition of the carriers to anything that looks like hostile legislation, and compels the student of affairs to admit that there is justice in the claim of the managements, that there is grave danger, not only of seriously crippling many roads, but of so impairing the credit of the railroads as a class that it will be increasingly difficult to secure capital to provide for the necessary extensions and development of the transportation facilities of the country.