Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
This work is one of the consequences of a conversationyears ago with Dr. C. F. Taylor, of Philadelphia, editor andpublisher of The Medical World and of Equity Series. Thedoctor said that Equity Series should have a book on therailroad question. The writer replied that there was roomfor a book dealing with the political, industrial, and socialeffects of different systems of railway ownership and control.A plan was adopted for a book, to be called “TheRailways, the Trusts, and the People,” which is now onthe press of Equity Series. For the preparation of thiswork the writer travelled through nine countries of Europeand over three-fourths of the United States, studying railways,meeting railroad presidents and managers, ministersof railways, members of railway commissions, governors,senators, and leading men of every class, in the effort toget a thorough understanding of the railway situation. Healso made an extensive study of the railroad literature ofleading countries, and examined thoroughly the reportsand decisions of commissions and courts in railroad casesin the United States.
As these studies progressed, the writer became more andmore convinced that the heart of the railroad problem liesin the question of impartial treatment of shippers. Thechief complaint against our railroads is not that the ratesas a whole are unreasonable, but that favoritism is shownfor large shippers or special interests having control ofrailways or a special pull with the management. This bookviconsists, in the main, of the broad study of railway favoritism,which was made as a basis for the generalizations outlinedin the brief chapter on that subject in “The Railways,the Trusts, and the People,”—one of the thirty chaptersof that book. This study reveals the facts in reference torailway favoritism or unjust discrimination from the beginningof our railway history to the present time, disclosesthe motives and causes of discrimination, discusses variousremedies that have been proposed, and gathers hints fromthe railway systems of other countries to clarify and developthe conclusions indicated by our own railroad history.
Special acknowledgments are due to Dr. Taylo