Page:The truth about the railroads (IA truthaboutrailro00elli).pdf/24

Rh them at every street-crossing.” Another says, “The city authorities have decided that you must reduce all your charges 25 per cent.” And still another says, “I represent a committee that has decided that your sheds and barns are not of the right type and you must tear them down and build new ones.” Meanwhile some of the stablemen and others have come to the managers and owners saying that they have decided not to do any more work unless their pay is increased 25 per cent. Naturally the owners and their managers are somewhat confused and discouraged at all this interference and are tempted to say, as the fiddler did in the mining camp, “Please do not shoot, for I am doing the best I can.”

Now this all sounds rather ridiculous when it is applied to the man hauling coal and merchandise in the city, but it is exactly what is going on all the time in the United States to-day in relation to the railroads; only there is much more of it, because the Federal Government and all of the States are making rules and regulations about the kind of equipment Rh