But once the railroads had acquired their political influence, they naturally used it for their own purposes.

They arranged that the state railroad commissioners should be their clerks, and that taxation should not press too heavily upon them.
They were big enough to control the public officials whose duty it was to supervise them; and they were content with a situation which left them free from embarrassing interference without being over-expensive.
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.