Page:Traveler from Altruria, Howells, 1894.djvu/202

196 would rather not invest." He was silent a moment, and then he went on, as if the notion were beginning to win upon him: "It may come to something like that, though. If it does, the natural course, I should think, would be through the railroads. It would he a very easy matter for them to buy up all the good farms along their lines and put tenants on them, and run them in their own interest. Really, it isn't a bad scheme. The waste in the present method is enormous, and there is no reason why the roads should not own the farms, as they are beginning to own the mines. They could manage them better than the small farmers do, in every way. I wonder the thing hasn't occurred to some smart railroad man."

"We all laughed a little, perceiving the semi-ironical spirit of his talk; but the Altrurian must have taken it in dead earnest: "But, in that case, the number of people thrown out of work would be very great, wouldn't it? And what would become of them?"

"Well, they would have whatever their farms brought, to make a new start with somewhere else; and, besides, that question of what would become of people thrown out of work by a given improvement, is something that capital cannot consider. We used