Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/686

666 the great engines of demagogues to inflame the passions of ignorance and poverty, and to extort blackmail with which to carry on political campaigns and to promote private enrichment. Little or no effort is made to discover whether they are the product of vicious legislation, like tariff laws or imperfect corporation laws, or whether they grow out of economic conditions beyond human control. It is enough that they exist; that, like other members of the society that fosters them, they exercise despotic power; that they serve the purpose of a telling battle cry; that they may be pitilessly plundered. Hence their suppression has become within a year or two a favorite outlet for legislative ignorance, prejudice, and rapacity. Much of the legislation against them is for political purposes, and was never intended to be enforced. But that does not alter the fact that it is violative of the fundamental principles of a free democracy, and indicative of the vice that is fast subverting the purposes of the republic. The antitrust law of New York authorizes one of the most odious practices of the Inquisition—namely, the citation of a witness suspected of a crime under it to give testimony that shall furnish a basis for his indictment and punishment. The antitrust law of Mississippi makes any evidence that a trust or combination intended to affect the price of a commodity, conclusive that the price was affected, and authorizes the infliction upon the innocent of the penalty that should be reserved for the guilty alone. What points could not the authors of such laws have given to the famous despots of history?

The corporate property that has suffered most from the raids of these modern Vandals is the railroads. Originally regarded as the most important and valuable contribution that invention had made to civilization, they were fostered in every way. Now they are regarded as among the greatest of "the social evils" that statesmanship and philanthropy are combating so energetically. By a feat of logic not uncommon to "thinkers" as well as to demagogues, they have been differentiated as creatures of the State, having no rights except those that the State concedes. Upon the vicious theory first proclaimed in the famous Chicago elevator case, that, unlike other forms of business to meet human needs, they are "affected with public interest," and are not, therefore, private property, entitled to all its rights and privileges, they have been subjected to a despotic supervision that has brought them to the verge of ruin. Denied the right of freedom of contract, one of the "unalienable rights," they are not permitted to make their own rates of transportation. Not