practically all instances these syndicates adopted precisely the
same plan of operation. In so far as their activities resulted in
cheap, comfortable, rapid, and comprehensive transit systems and
low-priced illumination, their activities greatly benefited the
public. The future historian of American society will probably
attribute enormous influence to the trolley car in linking urban
community with urban community, in extending the radius of the
modern city, in freeing urban workers from the demoralizing
influences of the tenement, in offering the poorer classes
comfortable homes in the surrounding country, and in extending
general enlightenment by bringing about a closer human
intercourse. Indeed, there is probably no single influence that
has contributed so much to the pleasure and comfort of the masses
as the trolley car.

Yet the story that I shall have to tell is not a pleasant one. It
is impossible to write even a brief outline of this development
without plunging deeply into the two phases of American life of
which we have most cause to be ashamed; these are American
municipal politics and the speculative aspects of Wall Street.
The predominating influences in American city life have been the
great franchise corporations. Practically all the men that have
had most to do with developing our public utilities have also had
the greatest influence in city politics. In New York, Thomas F.
Ryan and William C. Whitney were the powerful, though invisible,
powers in Tammany Hall. In Chicago, Charles T. Yerkes controlled
mayors and city councils; he even extended his influence into the
state government, controlling governors and legislatures. In
Philadelphia, Widener and Elkins dominated the City Hall and also
became part of the Quay machine of Pennsylvania. Mark Hanna, the