wealth in the United States. Place no embargo on enterprise by a dead-line on which is written, "Thus far shalt thou go and no farther." Let the incentive of ambition, of avarice, if you will, be keen to the last, but hedge the opportunities so that no one man's opportunity greatly exceeds that of others; put the strain, not on getting a living, a competence, but on getting enormous multiples of these. Even then extraordinary fortunes may come, but they will come as the result of circumstances that could not be guarded against, and as the result of commanding and extraordinary talent that never comes in rafts (which would be implied if the present great fortunes were taken as a criterion of ability), and these sporadic fortunes will not be a threat to and a corrupter of society; they will not build up a separate class; they will be seen as only one of the unusual things in social development.
A government relation to and regulation of railroads is classed with a larger general regulation of society by Government than we have heretofore had, and which is in course of development in Germany under the leadership of Bismarck; which is constantly attaining greater ground in England in the popular mind under the leadership of Chamberlain and others, which is not strenuously objected to by Gladstone, and which bids fair, when that at present disturbed country gets rest from the exciting Irish question and has time to recover itself from the excitement of its recent foreign complications, to express itself in laws bearing on the internal polity of the country. The United States has not greatly entered the lists in this respect. It has not enlarged upon the principles of government incorporated by it in the Constitution; it has been almost the last to yield the principle of slavery, and now stands by, seeing Germany, at least, trying experiments in government which it has not ventured upon. It must be ranked at present among the conservative governments of the world. The national trepidation of "reforms" is greatest in Great Britain, where there is not the absolutism to hold them in check that there is in Germany.
Suppose we want to stand on the ground of incorporating no new principle in our Government, where does that leave the railroad problem? We see the consolidations that have taken and are taking place. Those consolidations mean centralization, and centralization has been the bête noir of the United States. The question is, Shall that centralization remain in private hands, with the various ills and violence to our institutions that we are positive of, or shall it come under subjection to, or be shared by, the agents and representatives of the people?
Certain things are natural in their regulation and government. The first of them is the war-power, which is the starting-point of civilization. Next is the preservation of order from disturbance by internal outbreaks and violence, which is the function of the police.
