benefactor. It brought to the markets of the East the produce of
the South and West. It opened up new and inaccessible territory
and made oases of waste places. It brought to the city coal,
lumber, food and other prime necessaries of life, taking back to
the farmer and the woodsman in exchange, clothes and other
manufactured goods. Thus, little by little, the railroad wormed
itself into the affections of the people and gradually became an
indispensable part of the life it had itself created. Tear up the
railroad and life itself is extinguished.

So when the railroad found it could not be dispensed with, it grew
dissatisfied with the size of its earnings. Legitimate profits
were not enough. Its directors cried out for bigger dividends, and
from then on the railroad became a conscienceless tyrant, fawning
on those it feared and crushing without mercy those who were
defenceless. It raised its rates for hauling freight,
discriminating against certain localities without reason or
justice, and favouring other points where its own interests lay.
By corrupting government officials and other unlawful methods it
appropriated lands, and there was no escape from its exactions and
brigandage. Other roads were built, and for a brief period there
was held out the hope of relief that invariably comes from honest
competition. But the railroad either absorbed its rivals or pooled
interests with them, and thereafter there were several masters
instead of one.

Soon the railroads began to war among themselves, and in a mad
scramble to secure business at any price they cut each other's
rates and unlawfully entered into secret compacts with certain big
shippers, permitting the latter to enjoy lower freight rates than