of raw iron of the New England mills, it imposes a high freight charge upon the coke which forms the staple and only fuel for the steel making and foundry work of New England.

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'The intention to keep raw material scarce and high, and to introduce manufactured iron and steel at low rates, until under the combined pressure of customs duties and discriminating freight rates, the New England iron and steel industries are killed off, is too clear to be mistaken."

And then the memorial goes on to say that the surviving mills engaged in heavy iron work in New England owed their existence chiefly to the fact that the manufacturers of New England "have through the compulsion of circumstances, been systematically engaged in the degradation of American labor in New England. A skilled operative in a New England rolling-mill does not, on an average, receive one half the pay that a man similarly employed in a Pittsburgh mill receives for the same work," and yet, says this memorial, the only cause for the decadence of the iron industries of New England is the prevailing system of transport taxation.

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As long ago as 1871, the Railroad Commission of Massachusetts, headed by Charles Francis Adams, Jr., issued the following statement to the people: All sums exacted from the community for transportation, whether of persons or property constitutes an exaction in the nature of a tax, just as much a tax as water rates or the assessments on property

or the tariff duties on imports. That it is wholly or in part a necessary tax, one which can, at most, only be reduced to a certain point, but never abolished, this in no degree affects the principle.

IS STILL A TAX.

IT

The reduction of this tax to the lowest possible amount paid for the greatest possible service rendered, always observing, of course, the precepts of good faith and the conditions of a sound railroad system, this must be the great object which the Commissioners retain always in view."

And again they say that it is doubtful if this transportation tax weighs as heavily upon a farming and agricultural region (like the West) as it does upon a manufacturing district as peculiarly situated as Massachusetts.

"It here appears in every possible shape; it is encountered at every step. It may be safely asserted that there is no branch of Massachusetts industry which is not carried on against competitors more advantageously located. This state has few natural advantages; everything with her depends on the intelligence of her people and the COST OF TRANSPORTATION. Every reduction of the transportation tax acts then as a direct encouragement to the industry of Massachusetts, just as much so as if it were a bounty or a bonus; it is just so much weight taken off in the race of competition. Such is the nature of THE TRANSPORTATION TAX; it next remains to inquire as to its amount,' and the Commissioners estimated that in the year 1871, the

amount of this tax was $13.81 per head of all the citizens of Massachusetts, men, women, and children, nearly seventy dollars per family, or about as much as all the other taxes levied in the state together. Taking a particular case, that of the Washburn Company of Worcester, the Commission said that a reduction in the transportation tax on coal alone, brought by the Providence & Worcester and the Boston & Albany roads for the use of this company, from $1.65 to 85 cents, would amount to a reduction in their annual power tax from $29,700 to $15,300 a year, or three per cent. on its capital. This may make all the difference between success and failure."

And yet these taxes still continue to be levied by private individuals who keep up their toll-gates at every cross-road and (save to their favorites) allow communication between one town and another only on condition that the value of each man's purse is accurately measured and the greater part of the contents are turned over to the gate-keeper. This statement, though not quite true as to each particular piece of merchandise or to the individual traveller, is altogether true as to the principle on which the general business is transacted. The tolls levied on travel are actually higher in many cases than they were in 1850, and we have seen the statement of Mr. George M. Mead of Boston to the effect that in some cases the tolls on freight are fifty per cent. higher than they were in 1871.

Is it any wonder that, under these conditions,

the whole world of business and of labor is in chaos? Is it any wonder that under these conditions the sky is dark, the atmosphere thick with omens of coming storm? And yet the remedy for these evils is so simple that understand it.

even a little child might

Let the National Government assume its legitimate function as the manager of the National highways, the collector of the taxes levied for the support of these highways, and let these taxes be determined on the cost of the service principle, and the nation will quickly emerge from its present darkness into a marvellous light.

Whether the substitution of the Government of the United States for the Government of the United Railways is to be quiet and peaceful or whether it is to be attended with lightning and tempest will depend on the wisdom and the courage of the men who compose the National Council at Washington. Upon them lies the responsibility of the hour.

If Congress passes the bill which we have suggested, or if similar legislation be enacted before the masses of the people are rendered desperate by unnecessary suffering, there will be no tumult. If the needed legislation be delayed too long, we will not answer for the consequences.

Whatever happens, we have done our best to point the way to a prolonged era of happiness and prosperity for our country, and not for our country only, but for the world.

"Men, my brothers, Men, the workers, ever reaping something new ;

That they have done but the earnest of the things that they shall do ;

"For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,

Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonders that would

be;

"Saw the heavens filled with commerce, argosies of magic

sails,

Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly

bales;

"Heard the heavens filled with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew,

From the nation's airy navies grappling in the central blue; "Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm,

"With the standards of the peoples plunging through the thunder storm;

"Till the war drum throbbed no longer, and the battle flags were furl'd

In the Parliament of Man, the Federation of the World." (ALFRED TENNYSON.)

CLOSING NOTE.

The New York Tribune, of Sunday, December 12, 1897, gave a glowing account of the success of the municipal tramway lines of Great Britain for the preceding year. The Glasgow lines were managed so efficiently and economically that the net profit on the business of the past year was $416,335 after all interest charges on the investment in tracks and plant had been met. And this followed a reduction in fares, a shortening in the hours of the