SPECIAL VALUE OF THE LIBRARY From the Springfield, Mass., Republican Under the title of "The Railway Library 1909" are presented a number of papers and addresses of that year dealing with various phases of the transportation problem. The book is compiled and edited by Slason Thompson, manager of the bureau of railway news and statistics in Chicago. As much of the material so liberally supplied the public is hostile to the railroads, this presentation of their side of the story will be of special value to readers and students. Among the contributors may be mentioned J. Edgar Thomson, chief engineer of the Pennsylvania railroad company, James J. Hill, Senator John C. Spooner, etc. For Tables of Contents-1909 and 1910 issues- see end of this volume The Railway Library may be obtained on the following terms: THE RAILWAY LIBRARY 1911 [THIRD SERIES] A COLLECTION OF NOTEWORTHY ADDRESSES AND INTRODUCTION. From Life and Letters of Charles Butler. BRITISH RAILWAYS EIGHTY YEARS AGO....... PHYSICAL VALUATION OF THE NEW YORK, NEW HAVEN & HARTFORD R.R.. Report of Prof. Geo. F. Swain, Engineer in Charge. PROSPECTS OF STATE OWNERSHIP IN ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES.. Transport. T INTRODUCTION HE issue of the Railway Library for 1911 follows the general scheme of its predecessors in bringing between boards selections from the noteworthy papers and addresses of the year relating to railway subjects. In order to preserve a just appreciation of what American railways have meant to the social, industrial and political life of this continent, it has been deemed well to present extracts from the experiences of Charles Butler, financier and philanthropist, in making a journey from the East to Chicago in 1833. As a companion picture to this, a brief review of British railways by S. M. Phillp is reprinted from the Railway and Travel Monthly. The contrast between the conditions confronting and inspiring the railway builders of the two countries eighty years ago cannot be overlooked in any study of the railway problems of to-day. In Great Britain, the traffic of a congested civilization awaited transportation; in the United States, transportation was needed to reclaim almost unpeopled territories for the uses of civilization. There the railway displaced other common carriers; here it was the "pioneer of peoples yet to be." Following these retrospects of four score years ago, it has been deemed timely to reprint the first report of the Interstate Commerce Commission, written by Judge Thomas M. Cooley, its first chairman. This remarkable exposition of the Act to Regulate Commerce, even more than the Act itself, may be said to have indicated the lines along which railway regulation on this continent was to proceed. For broad comprehension of the vast potentialities involved, for judicial equipoise and statesmanlike appreciation of the necessities and difficulties involved in federal (3) |