Excerpt from The Drift Toward Government Ownership of Railways There is an unmistakable drift toward government ownership of rail ways in the United States. This ten deney is probably most apparent to those closely identified with railway affairs; but it is also evident to many who are interested in the railway busi ness chiefly, or only, as observers and students of economic, industrial, and political problems. In the first place, there has been for some years a rather unsteady but cer tain increase in the number of socialists in the country; and those who thus fa vor public ownership and management of all of the means of both production and distribution must be counted in with those others who favor public acquisition of the principal means of distribution. There has also been an increase in the number of those who advocate public ownership of all public utilities, of which steam railways are the largest. Finally, there has been a mighty growth in the number who favor very stringent regulation of railways, and who have succeeded in getting this policy adopted. The last-named class, which is much the largest, may finally turn the scale for public ownership. For its members now expect much from regulation lower rates, better service, smaller railway dividends, complete elimination of traffic discriminations. 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.