superior to law, had found itself checked in its career of
outlawry and oppression. The railroad, this modern octopus of
steam and steel which stretches its greedy tentacles out over the
land, had at last been brought to book.

At first, when the country was in the earlier stages of its
development, the railroad appeared in the guise of a public
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