Let me most earnestly say that these recommendations are not made in any spirit of hostility to the railroads.  On ethical grounds, on grounds of right, such hostility would be intolerable; and on grounds of mere National self-interest we must remember that such hostility would tell against the welfare not merely of some few rich men, but of a multitude of small investors, a multitude of railway employes, wage workers, and most severely against the interest of the public as a whole.  I believe that on the whole our railroads have done well and not ill; but the railroad men who wish to do well should not be exposed to competition with those who have no such desire, and the only way to secure this end is to give to some Government tribunal the power to see that justice is done by the unwilling exactly as it is gladly done by the willing.  Moreover, if some Government body is given increased power the effect will be to furnish authoritative answer on behalf of the railroad whenever irrational clamor against it is raised, or whenever charges made against it are disproved.  I ask this legislation not only in the interest of the public but in the interest of the honest railroad man and the honest shipper alike, for it is they who are chiefly jeoparded by the practices of their dishonest competitors.  This legislation should be enacted in a spirit as remote as possible from hysteria and rancor.  If we of the American body politic are true to the traditions we have inherited we shall always scorn any effort to make us hate any man because he is rich, just as much as we should scorn any effort to make us look down upon or treat contemptuously any man because he is poor.  We judge a man by his conduct—­that is, by his character—­and not by his wealth or intellect.  If he makes his fortune honestly, there is no just cause of quarrel with him.  Indeed, we have nothing but the kindliest feelings of admiration for the successful business man who behaves decently, whether he has made his success by building or managing a railroad or by shipping goods over that railroad.  The big railroad men and big shippers are simply Americans of the ordinary type who have developed to an extraordinary degree certain great business qualities.  They are neither better nor worse than their fellow-citizens of smaller means.  They are merely more able in certain lines and therefore exposed to certain peculiarly strong temptations.  These temptations have not sprung newly into being; the exceptionally successful among mankind have always been exposed to them; but they have grown amazingly in power as a result of the extraordinary development of industrialism along new lines, and under these new conditions, which the law-makers of old could not foresee and therefore could not provide against, they have become so serious and menacing as to demand entirely new remedies.  It is in the interest of the best type of railroad man and the best type of shipper no less than of the public that there should be Governmental supervision