Page:The Galaxy, Volume 5.djvu/791

1868.] The advantages which would accrue from it are so evident, that they need not be enumerated; nor need it be expensive. Suppose, for example, that the Government should purchase the railways at their market value, giving the stock-holders, in payment, coupons, which would be receivable for freight and made negotiable. The only possible expense the Government could then be at, would be that of their running expenses until these coupons had been earned by the business of the road. As, of course, the earnings of the road regulate the market value of its stock, these may be estimated as simple interest—so that, if the traffic was not increased, the present rates would pay for the road in from fourteen to twenty years.

It is one of the duties of this age to reform its administration of affairs so as to suit the growth of its industrial energy; and one of the most pressing necessities is, that the railway shall be made useful to the public, instead of a monopoly in the hands of a few; that as it is an evidence of productive industry and an aid to it, it should be managed so as to fulfil its purpose, instead of being, as now, a mere set of counters in the hands of the gamblers of Wall street.