AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PENNSYLVANIAN
way and soon found it more profitable to carry freight than passengers. Then trolleys were given, free of expense, the right to use the highways in order that men, women and children might be transported. When they begin to carry freight the same old situation will return except that they occupy the highways. For twenty-five years, at enormous expense, we have been endeavoring to escape from grade crossings and in this way we create anew ten times as many as we eliminate. A fixing of fares ought only to be attempted after the most careful investigation.
Practically all of my recommendations were accepted and enacted, including Greater Pittsburgh, reapportionment and the corrupt practices act. For only trying to bring about some of this legislation in New York, Charles E. Hughes was made a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, which shows how sometimes exploitation is more effective than achievement. I have already quoted Roosevelt's reply to Knox when the latter advised that professional man of courage to appoint me to the Supreme Bench. About the special session he, however, said: “It is surely not too much to say that this body of substantive legislation marks an epoch in the history of the practical betterment of political conditions, not merely for your state but for all our states.”
The legislature itself passed this resolution, the signed original of which now hangs in my library:
In the Senate,
February 14, 1906.
