Excerpt from Railroads: Finance and Organization More than a generation and a half ago, the people of the United States set about the great task of subjecting their common carriers to public control. It was at first almost a matter of brute force, so resolute was the opposition to be overcome, so firmly intrenched and so stoutly defended were the private interests affected. But since 1906-10 the battle may in general be regarded as won. The railroads have surrendered, first to the legislatures and afterward to the courts. They seem to have acquiesced in the inevitable, to have accepted it in good faith. They are at the mercy of the public, which has assumed the grave responsibility for a wise exercise of its authority, so hardly won. The day of the battle axe and the mace has thus drawn to a close. A different and a more constructive task confronts the future. For evidence is at hand that the rude treatment of the public champions, essential for a time, if not supplanted by a finer and more sensitive manipulation, may work havoc with the delicately adjusted and the nicely poised machinery of finance. Nor is it merely that too stringent regulation may, perchance, harm a few thousand investors who happen to hold railroad securities here or there; or that it may embarrass some two million employees and their families. Neither widows nor orphans, nor brakemen nor supply houses,- just as all their claims to consideration may be - are of primary importance. The present danger is less that clumsy or injudicious regulation may bring hardship to investors, than that it shall defeat its own set purpose and its proper aim, which is the attainment of an adequate public service at reasonable rates by the 100,000,000 people of the United States, dependent upon the railroads as upon no other single instrumentality for their material well-being day by day. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.