This article written by C. Wood Davis was published in volume 3 of The Arena in February 1891. Davis explores the inequities between farmers and the railroads and their investors. He admits that the construction of railroads has benefited the farmers but also argues that railroads have too great an influence over the lives and income of farmers. He provides a number of statistics related to railroads from the 1870s and 1880s. He believes that it is much harder for farmers to organize to work together because of their independent and dispersed nature than it is for the few owners of the nation's railroads. Davis presents the views of the Populists in regard to the railroad industry.