Excerpt from The Railways, the Trusts, and the People, Vol. 1 Some years ago Dr. Taylor said he thought that Equity Series should have a book on the railway question. I replied that there was room for a book that would deal with the political, industrial and social effects of different systems of railway control. Poor and the Interstate Commission had given us statistics; Wellington and other writers had discussed the construction and operation of railways from the engineering and economic side; Hadley had written a masterly treatise dealing with railway rates and management from the railway standpoint; and Hudson, Larrabee, Lewis, Cowles, etc., had written on the same topic from the people's point of view; but no one had brought together the facts that would show the broad effects of public and private railways and various methods of management upon moral and intellectual development, political, industrial and social conditions, and the progress of civilization. The Doctor approved the plan and this book is the result. Materials for its preparation were gathered in the course of many thousands of miles of travel covering three-fourths of the United States and most of the principal countries of Europe. Libraries were consulted in every country visited, and railway ministers and managers and leading authorities almost without exception afforded every assistance in their power. Leading railroad officials of twenty countries besides our own have been consulted and have given freely of their wealth of knowledge. Besides the Secretary and members of the English Board of Trade & Railway Commission, the Ministers of railways in France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany and Belgium, and the President of the Danish Government railways, the writer has talked with many railroad managers and others high in the service in all these countries, and also with leading officials of the railroads of Norway, Sweden, Holland, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. The privilege of directly questioning men who have all the facts at their fingers' ends and vocal termini, is of inestimable value in research of this sort, and the writer wishes to render hearty thanks to all who have so cordially assisted him. Among these arc many not directly connected with railway service but familiar with the economic, political or social aspects of the problem. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.