. The National Civic Federation review . lvania, Ohio,Indiana and Illinois. Who can think for a singlemoment that the result in public service would beeither adequate, economical or satisfactory? More-over, if the national government, despite everydifficulty, were to succeed in absorbing the railroadsof the entire Union, every State would lose the con-trol of its intrastate traffic that it now enjoys; andevery State would lose all the income which it nowcollects from the railroads by taxation, becauseUnited States property is not subject to taxationin any State. Every State, therefore, in such
. The National Civic Federation review . lvania, Ohio,Indiana and Illinois. Who can think for a singlemoment that the result in public service would beeither adequate, economical or satisfactory? More-over, if the national government, despite everydifficulty, were to succeed in absorbing the railroadsof the entire Union, every State would lose the con-trol of its intrastate traffic that it now enjoys; andevery State would lose all the income which it nowcollects from the railroads by taxation, becauseUnited States property is not subject to taxationin any State. Every State, therefore, in such a case,would be confronted with both an economic and asocial problem, born of our Federal system, and thescale upon which these effects would be felt wouldgreatly magnify the embarrassments. But, assuming for a moment that this great eco-nomic and social change had been sanctioned andactually put into force, try to imagine, if you can,how the conflicting interests of different parts of theUnited States could be harmonized when the same. SETH LOW,President of The National Civic Federation. government is responsible for railroad operationeverywhere. The annual bill for the construction ofpublic buildings for the Federal government has ac-quired the popular name of pork-barrel because itis so universally recognized that appropriations forthis purpose are made to gratify local sentiment andto promote the interests of individual congressmenmore than upon the merits of the matter, as deter-mined by careful inquiry. What possibility is therethat the administration of a system of national rail-roads would be, or could be, carried on under ourdemocratic government in any other spirit? Andin what possible way could the general interest ofthe people of the United States, in the matter oftransportation, be less well served? Furthermore,the political consequences of centering such powerin Washington are beyond calculation .... Our privately-owned railroads are themselveslargely responsible
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