Page:The truth about the railroads (IA truthaboutrailro00elli).pdf/215

Rh has for forty years struggled to create a good transportation machine, much of the time without helpful support from either the public or the Government, and of late years in the face of restrictive and harassing legislation. That the business has succeeded to the extent that it has, has been due to the wonderful growth of the United States, which has carried forward all classes of business to a fair, and in some cases a high, degree of prosperity.

Now a problem is confronting the American people that is just as important to their future welfare as is the success of agriculture, or of our monetary system. When the silver question was rampant, many people said they did not care about that, because it was a question for the bankers, and it did not affect them; they learned later on, however, that the policy of our financial system affected every man from one end of the country to the other. Many people say now that in some miraculous way the railroads are going to provide all the facilities that are necessary for the expanding country, and that it is their business to get the Rh