Some of the great express companies' officials have been undergoing examination by the officers of the United States Government. They have been asked to explain regarding their business; and it has been learned, for instance, that the Wells Fargo Company had made an average net profit of two million dollars a year for a great many years, and had accumulated thirty million dollars of surplus which only recently had been distributed to the stockholders. The question was pressed home why this vast amount of surplus had been kept all these years instead of dividing it among the stockholders; how much of it had been used for the purpose of speculating in stocks or corrupting legislators.