The situation thereby created, however, was not only extremely
undesirable in the public interest, but it was at bottom extremely
dangerous to the railroads. These companies were constantly extending
their mileage, increasing their equipment, improving their terminals,
and enlarging their capital stock. Their operations covered many
different states, and their total investments ran far into the hundreds
of millions of dollars. In the meantime they remained subject to one or
several different political authorities whose jurisdiction extended over
only a portion of their line and a fraction of their business, but who
could none the less by unwise interference throw the whole system out of
gear, and compromise the earning power of many millions of dollars
invested in other states. Moreover, they could, if they chose, make all
this trouble with a comparative lack of responsibility, because only a
fraction of the ill effects of this foolish regulation would be felt
within the guilty state. As a matter of fact many railroads had
experiences of this kind with the Western states, and were obliged to
defend themselves against legislative and administrative dictation,
which if it did not amount to confiscation, always applied narrow and
rigid restrictive methods to a delicate and complicated economic
situation.
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