There was no less than sixteen pages of these raptures—­quite a section of a small magazine like the “Outlook”.  “The New Haven ramifies to every spot where industry flourishes, where business thrives.”  “As a purveyor of transportation it supplies the public with just the sort desired.”  “Here we have the new efficiency in a nutshell.”  In short, here we have what Dr. Lyman Abbott means when he glorifies “the great mass of American wealth”.  “It is serving the community; it is building a railway to open a new country to settlement by the homeless; it is operating a railway to carry grain from the harvests of the West to the unfed millions of the East,” etc.  The unfed millions—­my typewriter started to write “underfed millions”—­are humbly grateful for these services, and hasten to buy copies of the pious weekly which tells about them.

The “Outlook” runs a column of “current events” in which it tells what is happening in the world; and sometimes it is compelled to tell of happenings against the interests of “the great mass of American wealth”.  The cynical reader will find amusement in following its narrative of the affairs of the New Haven during the five years subsequent to the publication of the Baxter article.

First came the collapse of the road’s service; a series of accidents so frightful that they roused even clergymen and chambers of commerce to protest.  A number of the “Outlook’s” subscribers are New Haven “commuters”, and the magazine could not fail to refer to their troubles.  In the issue of Jan. 4th, 1913, three years and ten days after the Baxter rhapsody, we read: 

The most numerous accidents on a single road since the last fiscal year have been, we believe, those on the New Haven.  In the opinion of the Connecticut Commission, the Westport wreck would not have occurred if the railway company had followed the recommendation of the Chief Inspector of Safety Appliances of the Interstate Commerce Commission in its report on a similar accident at Bridgeport a year ago.

And by June 28th, matters had gone farther yet; we find the “Outlook” reporting: 

     Within a few hours of the collision at Stamford, the wrecked
     Pullman car was taken away and burned.  Is this criminal
     destruction of evidence?

This collapse of the railroad service started a clamor for investigation by the Interstate Commerce Commission, which of course brought terror to the bosoms of the plunderers.  On Dec. 20,1913, we find the “Outlook” “putting the soft pedal” on the public indignation.  “It must not be forgotten that such a road as the New Haven is, in fact if not in terms, a National possession, and as it goes down or up, public interests go down or up with it.”  But in spite of all pious admonitions, the Interstate Commerce Commission yielded to the public clamor, and an investigation was made—­revealing such conditions of rottenness as to shock even the