gains to the people at large offer an inducement to capital, while the many considerations of health and morals offer men who desire to use their means for the benefit of their kind an opportunity that has not existed in the past. From my knowledge of some of the men who have been foremost in projecting lines of rapid transit, but who have been accused of doing it for entirely selfish motives, I learn that public benevolence has influenced them to a sufficient extent to induce them to take the great risks which are apparently involved. I believe that could the real, underlying patriotism of such men be known, and the confidence of the public in their willingness to do work for the public benefit gained, the solution of the rapid transit problem would be much easier.
Capital is securing less and less margin of profit through its investments, whether in manufacturing or in other enterprises. The capitalist is satisfied with a safe and sure return of from three to five per cent, and the spirit of altruism, which seems to be growing more and more rapidly among our millionaires, and which is leading them to the establishment of great institutions for public good, will lead them ultimately to such operations as those essential to secure the best results of rapid transit. Private capital, encouraged and protected by public sentiment and municipal enactments, may be capable of solving this problem. If it is not, then public sentiment, interested in the welfare of the people at large, not only from an economic point of view, but from sanitary and ethical considerations, will insist uj3on a public solution of the question. It is an important study, and the officers of the eleventh census are entitled to great credit for their efforts to bring out the partial results they have published, and, later, to give to the country the full data relative to rapid transit in cities.
