(Hon. Martin A. Knapp, Chairman Interstate Commerce Commission, in "Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.")
LESSON XIII.
Look Upon This Picture.
What is this I see?
Smokeless chimneys! Closed factories. Spiders' webs across the doors of opportunity. Grass growing rankly in the streets of industrial towns. Dejection on the face of nature and of man.
What does it mean?
The railways have ceased to earn enough to meet expenses and provide for the progressive maintenance of their equipment and plant.
Why, are not their receipts greater than ever?
True, but their expenses have increased more rapidly than their earnings and their net revenues have only been maintained by postponing purchases that must be made some time or the railways will be incapable of performing their public service with safety, dispatch and economy.