anagement 
 
 
 

 LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 RECEIVED BY EXCHANGE 
 
 Class 
 
 
 , - 
 
 
 

 
 
 ', 
 
 we 
 
 K$b 
 
 
 
 
 
LECTURES DELIVERED BEFORE 
 THE STUDENTS OF 
 
 Purdue University 
 
 IN 
 
 RAILWAY ENGINEERING AND 
 ALLIED SUBJECTS. 
 
 1897-98. 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
 LAFAYETTE, INDIANA, 
 MARCH, i8q8. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 American railways are entering upon a period 
 of development the conditions of which are more 
 exacting than any they have hitherto experienced. 
 With an enormous expansion in the volume of 
 traffic, with a demand for increased speed and the 
 consequent necessity for attention to the ques- 
 tion of safety, and with an ever-increasing com- 
 petition, there is need for the highest possible 
 efficiency in every department of railway service, 
 and, consequently, a demand for men who are 
 thoroughly trained for the service they are ex- 
 pected to render. In the future many of these 
 men will come from the technical schools, and for 
 this reason it seems desirable that these schools 
 arrange courses which shall have special refer- 
 ence to the requirements of such service. 
 
 Purdue University has for several years offered 
 work covering a considerable variety of railway 
 
 1398. 15 
 
IV 
 
 subjects, but recently, to provide more perfectly 
 for the railway interests, the plan of work hitherto 
 existing has been revised, new subjects have been 
 added, and as a logical outgrowth of this process 
 of extension and organization, a department of 
 railway engineering and management has been 
 formed. 
 
 The work of the new department is sustained 
 by all of those instructors who have hitherto been 
 identified with the railway subjects given at Pur- 
 due, and by others who have reinforced the old 
 organization. 
 
 But it was realized at the outset that the school 
 could not attain the highest success unless we 
 could bring to our aid the services of those who 
 are in daily contact with the actual problems aris- 
 ing in the practical operation of the railways. 
 
 Some of the most prominent railway men in 
 the country were appealed to, and they readily 
 agreed to lend their aid to the enterprise. As a 
 result we were enabled to supplement the work 
 of the regular corps of professors by a series of 
 lectures delivered by men high in their profes- 
 
sion, representing different departments in the 
 organization of railways, and by others versed in 
 railway law. The lectures were found to be of 
 such great value that it was deemed best to pre- 
 serve them in permanent form ; hence this vol- 
 ume. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 I. " Problems in the Management of a Railway 
 
 System," i 
 
 J. T. BROOKS. Second Vice-Presldent Penn. Lines 
 West of Pittsburg. 
 
 II. "Railways: Their Past, Present and Future," 61 
 
 MELVILLE E. INGALLS, President of the Big Four 
 System, Cincinnati. 
 
 III. " The Mutual Obligations of Railroad Corpor- 
 
 ations and the People," 85 
 
 JOHN W. NOBLE, Ex -Secretary of Interior, St. 
 Louis, Mo. 
 
 IV. " Relation of Railways to the State," 155 
 
 ADDISON C. HARRIS, Attorney at Law, Indianapolis. 
 
 V. " Railroads and the People," 177 
 
 ADDISON C. HARRIS. 
 
 VI. " Railroads and Their Servants," 199 
 
 ADDISON C. HARRIS. 
 
 VII. "Reminiscences of a Locomotive Engineer" 
 
 (omitted) 225 
 
 ANGUS SINCLAIR, Editor Locomotive Engineering, 
 New York City. 
 
VIII 
 
 Page 
 
 VIII. " Business Problems of the Motive Power De- 
 partment," 227 
 
 ROBERT QUAYLE, Supt, Motive Power and Machin- 
 ery, C. & N. W. R'y Co., Chicago. 
 
 IX. "Experiences in the Motive Power Depart- 
 ments of Railways" (omitted) 265 
 
 GODFREY W. RHODES, Supt. Motive Power and 
 Machinery, C. B. & Q. R'y Co., Aurora, III. 
 
 X. "Signaling," 26 7 
 
 FREDERIC A. DELANO, Supt. Freight Terminals, 
 C. B. & Q. R'y Co., Chicago. 
 
 XI. " Car Designing and Construction," 33 
 
 ARTHUR M. WAITT, General Master Car Builder, 
 L. S. & M. S. R'y Co., Cleveland. 
 
I. 
 
 PROBLEMS IN THE MANAGEMENT 
 OF A RAILWAY SYSTEM. 
 
 JOHN T. BROOKS. 
 
 YOU wish to know something of the prac- 
 tical management of railways. I might 
 ask, How is a university or a shop man- 
 aged ? Universities and shops are not all man 
 aged alike, neither are all railways. The man- 
 agement of railways, as of shops and universities, 
 depends on the amount of work they have to do 
 and the kind of men who manage them. 'A sys- 
 tem which controls large mileage and a large vol- 
 ume of traffic naturally requires more diversified 
 and thorough organization than one whose mileage 
 and traffic are small. When the business of a 
 railway is not too large, an intelligent, energetic 
 
President, aided by proper assistants, may direct 
 all its affairs ; but there are few railways whose 
 affairs can be so managed. Generally speaking, 
 the railway of to-day is a combination of several 
 lines ; its traffic is large ; its business is closely 
 blended with that of other lines ; its income is 
 affected by the operation of rival lines. Hence 
 arises the necessity of organization ; a classifica- 
 tion of duties, and a general supervision of policy 
 by a principal executive officer, details being man- 
 aged by associates, each responsible for the opera- 
 tion of his own department. 
 
 The success of railway administration depends 
 on two principal factors : wise policy, careful at- 
 tention to details. Herein is apparent the neces- 
 sity of wise men in control. The measure of their 
 wisdom is the measure of success of the railway. 
 
 The railway system of the United States is the 
 product of evolution. 
 
 First, in the mode of creation. Originally rail- 
 way companies were created by special charter. 
 This means that a State Legislature enacts a law 
 declaring that the persons therein named, their 
 
3 
 
 successors and assigns, are made a corporation, 
 with power to build, operate and maintain a rail- 
 way between designated points ; other specific 
 powers being granted, such as the applicants for 
 the charter wish to have, or as the law-making 
 power is willing to grant. Two evils resulted 
 from this mode of creating a railway corporation ; 
 first, applicants for a charter wished to obtain 
 special and valuable privileges, for which in many 
 cases, they were willing to pay money. Hence 
 resulted bribery of law-makers and sacrifice of 
 public interests. Next, special laws creating rail- 
 way companies were necessarily of great length ; 
 they conferred generally the same powers and 
 privileges ; as applications for charters became 
 numerous, and were generally granted, the statute 
 books became swollen to large size and many vol- 
 umes. Thereupon constitutions were adopted in 
 most States requiring all corporations to be created 
 under general laws, and forbidding special powers 
 to be given to any. Thus a system of laws re- 
 lating to railways has been developed in nearly 
 every State, prescribing in general terms the 
 
 3 
 
4 
 
 mode in which all companies must be created, 
 and the powers which all may enjoy. A corpo- 
 ration is spoken of as a creature of law ; also as 
 a legal entity. These terms are sometimes con- 
 fusing. A corporation is a number of persons 
 associated together for some purpose recognized 
 by law, and permitted by law to do certain things 
 on certain conditions. The privileges granted to 
 persons thus associated, aside from the special 
 object of their association, are chiefly these: 
 They may transact business under one name, 
 selected by themselves ; they may sue and be 
 sued in that name, and they and their successors 
 and assigns may continue to do business for a long 
 period or forever. The death of one member 
 does not, as in case of a partnership, terminate 
 the corporation. The powers and privileges en- 
 joyed by railway companies are called franchises. 
 This word is a mystery to many people. A fran- 
 chise is merely a right, conferred by law, to do or 
 have some particular thing. 
 
 The second step in the evolution of the railway 
 system, consists in consolidation and the acquisi- 
 
5 
 
 tion of additional lines. I have said that origi- 
 nally a railway company is created to build and 
 operate a railway between designated points, as 
 between "A" and "B." So great has been the 
 multiplication of railways in modern times, so 
 fierce has been the rivalry between them, so great 
 has been the necessity of giving the public the 
 best service at the lowest possible cost, that laws 
 have been enacted from time to time, permitting 
 one railway company to lease, operate or buy ad- 
 ditional railways ; also permitting two or more 
 railway companies to consolidate and become a 
 single company. There can be no question that 
 the policy which permits consolidation of railway 
 companies is a wise one. Passengers and freight 
 can be carried long distances without change of 
 cars, in quicker time, and at less cost ; yet many 
 people fear large railway companies, and believe 
 newspapers and stump speakers, who say that 
 these large companies are a menace to the people. 
 There is no ground whatever for this fear. 
 
 A large railway company has no other or greater 
 powers than a small one. A large company does 
 
 5 
 
more business than a small company, but both do 
 the same kind of business, in the same way. 
 You can bring a large company into court, before 
 a Justice of the Peace or an Alderman, as easily 
 and as surely as a small one. No railway corn- 
 pan}- however large, dares disobey the order of a 
 magistrate. If it be said that a large railway 
 company, in receipt of a large income, can bribe 
 public officials, more easily than a small company, 
 two answers may be given : First, elect officials 
 who can not be bribed ; the people always have 
 this remedy in their hands. Second, the resources 
 of a small railway company are ample to bribe an 
 official, if he is willing to be bribed. The millions 
 of a large corporation are not needed for this pur- 
 pose. Put these facts to the next man you hear 
 talking of the danger of large railroad combina- 
 tions. 
 
 The third step in the evolution of the railway 
 system is the object for which a railway is con- 
 structed. Years ago, railways were built because 
 they were needed. People wanted easy access 
 to markets where they wished to buy or sell ; 
 
7 
 
 they subscribed money, applied it as far as it 
 would go, and borrowed what was needed, to com- 
 plete the railway. In modern times, many rail- 
 ways are built not because they are needed, but 
 because certain men wish to make money by 
 building them. They win or lose in proportion as 
 they induce the public to buy the stocks and 
 bonds they issue. It has long been the policy of 
 the law to limit the amount of stock and bonds a 
 railway company may issue, to the necessary and 
 reasonable cost of construction. But the law has 
 not yet become wise enough to limit the amount 
 which may be issued for the purchase of a rail- 
 way. Hence, the exploiters of balloon railways 
 organize two companies : First, a railway com- 
 pany ; second, a construction company. Then, 
 as a railway company, they contract with them- 
 selves as a construction company, and agree, as a 
 railway company, to issue a certain amount of 
 bonds and stock, and deliver all these bonds and 
 stocks to themselves, as a construction company, 
 to pay for building the railroad. There is no re- 
 lation whatever, between the cost of the railway 
 
8 
 
 and the amount of bonds and stock they take for 
 building it, except that universally the latter 
 largely exceed the former. These promoters sel- 
 dom expect to make money by operating the rail- 
 road. If they succeed in selling to an ignorant 
 public the bonds and stock they have issued, then 
 in a short time the public loses its money ; or if 
 the promoters do not succeed in unloading on the 
 public their bonds and stocks, then the loss falls 
 on themselves, and they have their railroad and 
 their pains for nothing. 
 
 A railway once built, though yielding nothing to 
 its owners, is seldom destroyed. It passes from 
 one stage of reorganization to another, always on 
 a downward scale, until it reaches a level where 
 its income may be sufficient to keep it in opera- 
 tion. Meanwhile, in its efforts to avoid repeated 
 bankruptcy, it cuts rates, carries passengers and 
 freight at a loss, and in the process impoverishes 
 and sometimes destroys the value of other railway 
 properties. 
 
 Public opinion in this country has not yet 
 reached the stage of protecting people who have 
 
 8 
 
9 
 
 invested their money in railways which serve the 
 public, by preventing the construction of new rail- 
 ways which are not needed. But people will some 
 day see the folly of permitting speculators to take 
 other men's land and encumber streets and high- 
 ways with a useless railroad, merely to make 
 money for themselves ; and some day they may 
 think it wise to protect the public against worth- 
 less railway stocks and bonds, as they now protect 
 it against quack lawyers, doctors, foods and medi- 
 cines. 
 
 The functions of a railway company are two- 
 fold : First, to serve the public by carrying people 
 and freight ; second, to yield income to its owners 
 by doing so. The public, no less than railway 
 officials, often lose sight of the mutual duties and 
 responsibilities which come of this relationship. 
 The public should be well served by railway com- 
 panies. This means that trains should be moved 
 safely, punctually and at reasonable rates. On 
 the other hand, the public should allow capital 
 thus employed in its service to receive fair in- 
 come. How many persons ever think of this? 
 
IO 
 
 Hostility to railways has come from a variety 
 of sources : First, the owners of a railway are 
 usually numerous, widely scattered and unknown. 
 Hence, in dealing with it, the public loses the sense 
 of personal relationship which is usually observed 
 in dealing with individuals. Men are often re- 
 strained from doing wrong to an individual, because 
 he is personally known, or they know that incon- 
 venience, loss and possibly ruin, would follow their 
 wrongful act. On the other hand, the shipper who 
 gives false weights, the passenger who sneaks his 
 way on a train, the tax commissioner who levies 
 an intolerable assessment, the law-maker who in 
 one session adds to the expenses and cuts down 
 the income of railways, the jury that gives ex- 
 cessive damages against a railroad company, re- 
 gard the particular theft or award they are guilty 
 of as a mere moiety compared with the gross earn- 
 ings of a railway company. They have no idea 
 of injurious, personal loss ; nor do they consider 
 that the number of shippers, passengers, tax offi- 
 cials and juries who are doing precisely as they 
 are doing is infinite, and the result to railways 
 
 destructive. 
 
 10 
 
II 
 
 Next, railways, by reason of the large capital 
 they represent, the magnitude of their operations, 
 the vast number of persons employed, create a 
 jealousy of their operations which is distinctly 
 human. The personal friendship which subsists 
 between employer and employe when they work 
 "side by side, is wanting in the case of a railway 
 company. In the earlier period of railways, their 
 officers were sometimes arbitrary, inconsiderate 
 and unjust ; their employes were often careless, 
 impudent and rude. If freight was delayed, dam- 
 aged or lost, a long time elapsed before compen- 
 sation was paid. When persons were injured, 
 managers did not accept the theory of the injured 
 party, hence arose mutterings, law suits, and re- 
 vengeful feelings. Persons involved in these 
 various mishaps did not make fine distinctions as 
 to their causes. If brakemen were insolent, the 
 passenger did not consider that when employes 
 are counted by thousands it is impossible to se- 
 cure a gentleman in every employe. Shippers 
 did not consider that human beings serving as rail- 
 way employes make mistakes the same as other 
 
 ii 
 
12 
 
 men ; nor the more important fact, that when 
 claims for damages amount to thousands, each 
 must be adjusted in the order of presentation. 
 
 Gradually railway companies have emerged 
 from the feudal stage of administration ; competi- 
 tion has made their managers less arbitrary ; or- 
 ganization has secured promptness in settlement 
 of claims ; experience has taught that railway 
 companies have many points to overcome before 
 they have an even chance. with a private individ- 
 ual before a jury. The result is that under wiser 
 policies huvsuits diminish in number, settlements 
 without suit increase, and the causes of prejudice 
 gradually disappear. 
 
 In the practical administration of a railway the 
 daily object in view is the same as in any other 
 kind of business increase earnings ; reduce ex- 
 penses. Formerly, when railroads were local af- 
 fairs, with limited mileage and traffic, the Presi- 
 dent was usually a prominent business man, 
 banker, lawyer or capitalist. In those days busi- 
 ness- came unbidden to the company. All the lat- 
 ter had to do was to exercise judgment on ques- 
 
 12 
 
13 
 
 tions of policy, aided by experts in matters of 
 construction, operation and traffic. These primi- 
 tive methods have gradually given way to changed 
 conditions. Railways have multiplied, extended, 
 consolidated ; separate lines have been amalga- 
 mated into a single system. There is hardly a 
 fractional point of the compass to which one or 
 more railways is not directed ; traffic no longer 
 flows in natural channels. It is invited, solicited, 
 bought and fought for. Under these conditions, 
 organization, classification, subdivision of duty is 
 the order of the day. Each department has its 
 specially trained employes, most of them having 
 spent their lives in railway service. Every year 
 the management and operation of railways be- 
 comes more and more a distinct, technical profes- 
 sion. 
 
 A majority of railways derive from one-half to 
 three-fourths of their earnings from freight traffic. 
 A few, leading to summer and winter resorts or 
 between large cities, find their main income in 
 passenger traffic. In any event, modern condi- 
 tions require a freight department and a passenger 
 
 13 
 
department to secure traffic ; an operating and 
 maintaining department to haul the traffic ; a 
 treasury department to receive and keep the 
 money that is earned ; an accounting department 
 to show whence the money comes and whither it 
 should go, and a law department to give daily and 
 hourly advice, prepare deeds, contracts and mort- 
 gages, and especially protect the company's rights 
 when the same are involved in litigation. 
 
 For the purpose of securing traffic the freight 
 and passenger departments are conducted on a 
 basis similar to that of wholesale commercial 
 houses. Territory in which the system is located, 
 territory beyond either terminal and on either 
 side of the main line, is divided into districts, each" 
 in charge of division agents, each supplied with 
 solicitors for traffic,who travel from town to town, 
 from city to city, and in cities from house to house, 
 in search of persons who wish to travel or haw 
 something carried. This army of men working 
 to. secure traffic is in hourly communication with 
 superior officers by mail, telegraph and telephone. 
 The typical passenger agent persuades people to 
 
 14 
 
15 
 
 travel by his line who neither wish nor need to 
 travel. The typical freight agent represents a 
 line which carries so safely, swiftly and cheaply 
 ahead of all competitors that even dead freight 
 rejoices in the prospect of traveling over it. 
 Sometimes the cost of securing traffic exceeds all 
 income that is derived from carrying it. 
 
 Closely allied to the question of earning money 
 is the question of earning it at least possible cost. 
 Herein are involved matters of operation and main- 
 tenance. The pole star of train movement is high 
 speed and safety. Transportation is merely means 
 to an end. A person at A. has business at B.; 
 lu- wants to go from A. to B. as fast as he can 
 and get back as soon as he can, but he wants to 
 go and come without injury. Freight traffic not 
 wanted at A. is wanted at B. Capital invested 
 in it is idle till it reaches destination. On the 
 other hand, engines and cars are unproductive 
 when not in motion, and the loss is great unless 
 trains move safely. A thousand conditions are 
 essential to secure speed and safety. It is not 
 difficult to oret engines whose capacity for speed 
 
 15 
 
i6 
 
 will meet the wishes of all. The obstacles are in 
 the track, in grades which limit the speed of move- 
 ment, in curves which increase the distance to be 
 traveled. The nearer a track approaches a 
 straight and level line the greater the possibilities 
 of success in both speed and safety. But while a 
 railroad once straight is always straight, a rail- 
 road once level is not always level. Rain, frost, 
 continuous and heavy pounding of trains perpetu- 
 ally cause defects in the track. These defects 
 must be perpetually repaired ; otherwise, costly 
 engines and cars are injured, and liability to more 
 costly accidents ensues. A good track is, there- 
 fore, the indispensable condition of success. 
 
 I have said that engines and cars are unpro- 
 ductive when not in motion. Their profit is also 
 diminished by slow movement; a small amount 
 of equipment, efficiently handled, answers the 
 purpose of a large amount inefficiently handled. 
 In this connection, it is also important that cars 
 should be quickly loaded and unloaded. The 
 daily mileage of a freight car is an indication of 
 the efficiency with which it is handled. A few 
 
 16 
 
17 
 
 years ago, the average daily mileage of these cars 
 on certain railways was between fifty and sixty 
 miles ; on the same railways, it has declined in 
 some instances to between twenty and thirty 
 miles. Part of this reduction is due to poor man- 
 agement ; a greater part is due to causes which 
 can not be controlled. For want of adequate facili- 
 ties at large cities or terminal stations, loaded and 
 empty cars are detained days and even weeks, 
 waiting to receive or discharge their burden. 
 This evil is to some extent overcome by the mod- 
 ern system of demurrage, under which a nominal 
 charge of a dollar or two per day is made when 
 cars are detained beyond a specified time. 
 
 Speed and safety are not the only requisites of 
 successful railroad operation. It is essential in 
 movement of freight traffic, that the greatest pos- 
 sible number of tons should be carried by each 
 train. I think it may be said that the most inter- 
 esting and complex problem in freight movement 
 is to constantly increase the number of tons per 
 train ; each train must have one engine and staff 
 of men engineer, fireman, conductor, brakemen. 
 
 (a) 
 
i8 
 
 It is easily seen that the more freight this outfit 
 can safely carry, the greater is the profit. Ob- 
 serve now what is developed in order to secure 
 this important result. Large engines take the 
 place of smaller ones ; a heavier load can be 
 hauled over a light than a heavy grade ; there- 
 fore grades are reduced to the lowest possible 
 limit. To make this work effective, it is some- 
 times necessary to reduce only the highest, or, as 
 it is called, the ruling grade, to attain the desired 
 level ; at other times, a number of lighter grades 
 may be reduced, the number of cars or tons per 
 train increased, and the increased load carried 
 over the ruling grade by aid of an extra engine. 
 Sometimes the expense of reducing grades is so 
 great that in view of the amount of traffic, it is 
 not profitable to change them. The expediency 
 of the proposed change is determined by the civil 
 engineer, who reports the cost of the proposed 
 change, and the manager, who calculates what he 
 can save by the increased tonnage per train. It 
 is a pure question of mathematics, and, as I have 
 said, an interesting and important one. 
 
 18 
 
19 
 
 The larger engine needed to haul heavier trains 
 calls for stronger bridges and heavier rails. The 
 longer trains call for longer sidings ; main tracks 
 are doubled and trebled ; additional right of way 
 must be bought, freight stations and platforms 
 must be enlarged. 
 
 Time does not permit a closer examination of 
 these details. Suffice it to say the brightest minds 
 are ever on the alert to devise new means to in- 
 crease the tonnage per train and reduce the cost 
 of operation and maintenance. In this respect 
 the highest encouragement is afforded to students 
 of technical schools, like Purdue University. The 
 graduate of one of these schools, armed with a 
 diploma and clothed in overalls, can make rapid 
 progress in a railroad shop and soon find a place 
 where honorable employment and sure pay will 
 attend him as long as health and life are spared. 
 The maintenance of track is no longer, as form- 
 erly, confided to supervisors who have been used 
 to pick and shovel, and accustomed to work and 
 direct by the rule of thumb or jolt. That most 
 important work is now performed by trained civil 
 
 19 
 
20 
 
 engineers, who bring to their daily task the best 
 and latest methods of their profession. 
 
 A railway company having effected plans to 
 secure traffic and carry it cheaply and safely, 
 must next provide that the money earned shall 
 be received and properly applied ; hence exist the 
 accounting and treasury departments. The former 
 tells whence every dollar of revenue should come 
 and how it should be applied ; the latter receives 
 and pays the cash. 
 
 The operations of a railway are hardly less 
 destructive than those of war. Materials are 
 necessarily consumed daily as if they were cast 
 into a fiery furnace. In spite of all precaution 
 structures give away, trains are wrecked, prop- 
 erty is injured, limb and life are destroyed ; wages 
 accrue every day ; interest on bonds grows every 
 day in the week and every hour of the day. Pay- 
 ments on these accounts must be made every clay, 
 and unless there is an inexorable system of se- 
 curing daily the money which has been earned 
 the movement of trains must cease. 
 
 20 
 
21 
 
 The earnings of a railway company come from 
 persons counted by tens and hundreds of thou- 
 sands ; classification makes the problem simple. 
 This army of persons is made up of passengers, 
 shippers of freight, station agents, conductors ; 
 also treasury officials who receive large sums due 
 on interchange of business ; also on contracts 
 with other railway companies, express and sleep- 
 ing car companies and the government. Passen- 
 gers must pay in advance for the service they 
 receive, either in purchase of a ticket from the 
 station agent, or in cash to the train conductor ; 
 shippers of freight or consignees must pay for 
 freight carried before it is delivered at destination. 
 Conductors are required to deliver cash collected 
 at the end of each trip ; station agents must remit 
 each day the cash receipts of that day. By 
 means of a thorough system of accounting the 
 use of way bills, manifests, daily reports, etc., 
 the accounting department can tell to a dollar how 
 much money each station agent or other receiv- 
 ing agent of the company should remit, and he is 
 charged with that amount. Traveling auditors 
 
 21 
 
22 
 
 call often and at unexpected times to examine 
 the accounts of agents. Between these calls it is 
 possible for an agent to manipulate his accounts, 
 accumulate a considerable sum of money and run 
 away with it. To protect the company in cases 
 of this kind every receiving agent is required to 
 give bond for good behavior. No ingenuity has 
 yet been able to devise a perfect check on the 
 accounts of a conductor who collects cash fares 
 on a train. As railway systems become enlarged 
 and the magnitude of their operations attracts 
 public attention, railway employes naturally ac- 
 quire a higher sense of duty and honor. To this 
 cause equally with the thorough organization of 
 the accounting department, which makes the dis- 
 covery and punishment of dishonesty almost cer- 
 tain, is to be attributed the success of railway 
 companies in collecting their vast revenues. Hun- 
 dreds of millions may be involvecf, and not a case 
 of embezzlement occur in years. 
 
 The relation of a law department to a railway 
 company is so apparent that it is hardly necessary 
 to define it. The law holds railway companies to 
 
 22 
 
23 
 
 a high degree of responsibility, and with few ex- 
 ceptions, makes them liable for acts of their em- 
 ployes, and for the character and condition of 
 track, tools, machinery and equipment. The 
 high speed at which trains are moved causes 
 accidents to employes, passengers and people and 
 domestic animals on the track. The movement 
 of heavy engines and cars in yards and on side 
 tracks, the shifting, coupling and uncoupling of 
 cars in making and dismembering trains, is a pro- 
 lific cause of injury which can not be avoided. 
 In spite of thorough organization and rigid rules 
 for the inspection of track, engines, cars and ma- 
 chinery, passengers and employes are injured. 
 Freight is delayed, injured, stolen or destroyed. 
 Passengers are ejected from trains. Defective 
 culverts and drains cause water to accumulate on 
 adjacent land. Sparks from engines kindle fire 
 in adjoining fields; claims and suits for damages 
 are always pending, based on the accidents and 
 injuries enumerated. It is the duty of the law 
 department to protect the company in cases of 
 this kind. It also begins suits to condemn addi- 
 
24 
 
 tional lands, to enforce the company's contracts, 
 to protect it against unlawful taxes and assess- 
 ments threatened by city, township, county and 
 State authority. It assists in prosecution of per- 
 sons who have committed crime against the 
 property, employes and patrons of the company. 
 It is also called upon hourly to prepare contracts, 
 deeds, leases, mortgages, and to give advice to 
 officers and employes in respect to their duties 
 and the rights of the company. The organiza- 
 tion of the law department of a railway company 
 depends on the magnitude of the company's op- 
 erations. Usually there is a general counsel, 
 aided by assistants, clerks and stenographers at 
 the general offices of the company, and the terri- 
 tory in which the railways of the system are 
 situated is divided into districts, each in charge of 
 a regular solicitor. It is the duty of district 
 solicitors to prosecute and defend in all civil 
 causes arising in their respective districts, also to 
 attend coroner's inquests when persons have 
 been killed by trains ; also to represent the com- 
 pany before city, township and county authorities 
 
 24 
 
25 
 
 in matters where the company's interests are the 
 subject of consideration. 
 
 A prominent feature in a modern railway sys- 
 tem is the department of claims. The destructive 
 character of the operation of a railway creates so 
 many claims for damage that it has been found 
 expedient to establish a special department to ad- 
 just these claims. To this department reports by 
 wire and mail are promptly made of all cases of 
 personal injury and death, in order that experts 
 may at once investigate the cause of the accident, 
 gather proof, name and address of witnesses, and 
 in cases where the company is liable, arrange 
 a speedy and satisfactory settlement. In many 
 cities there are attorneys who give special 
 attention to what are known as personal injury 
 and death claims against railway companies. 
 They read newspapers carefully to get early in- 
 formation of railroad accidents. If persons are 
 injured or killed they go or send an agent to the 
 injured person, or in case of death, to the house 
 of mourning, and offer their services to bring suit 
 against the railway company. Sometimes they 
 
 25 
 
26 
 
 go to the family of a deceased person before the 
 funeral has taken place. Sometimes they begin 
 suit for damages in behalf of persons who have 
 net employed them. It is not surprising to know 
 that attorneys like these rob their clients of from 
 one-third to one-half of all they collect, charging 
 for their unimportant services of a few hours as 
 much as an injured person receives who spends 
 the remainder of his life a cripple, or as much as 
 a family receives which has been bereft of a hus- 
 band or father. To guard against outrages of this 
 kind the claim department, with its thoroughly 
 equipped agents, makes speedy investigation of 
 every accident, and in cases of liability promptly 
 tenders compensation for the injury it has caused. 
 By this arrangement those who have suffered in- 
 jury receive compensation, avoid the exactions of 
 attorneys, and the slow and vexatious course of 
 legal proceedings. This work is both politic and 
 humane, and tends to relieve railway companies 
 of much of the prejudice which has arisen against 
 them. 
 
 26 
 
27 
 
 I have spoken of the classification of the busi- 
 ness of a railway system and its distribution 
 among various departments. Something remains 
 to be said of the general policy of its management. 
 Reference has already been made to the gradual 
 enlargement of different systems of railways ; the 
 'large increase of mileage and the vast amount of 
 capital involved in their operations. Several lead- 
 ing railways have their eastern termini on the 
 Atlantic coast line, and extending westward across 
 several States, have western termini on the great 
 lakes ; also on rivers which find an outlet in the 
 Gulf of Mexico. Their operations are subject to 
 control by State and Federal authority. They are 
 in ceaseless competition with each other. Traffic 
 of the same kind moves in opposite directions on 
 the same line. Their own traffic at one point is 
 in competition with the same kind of traffic at 
 another point. This traffic is local, interstate and 
 international, each demanding consideration pe- 
 culiar to itself. These various lines are operated 
 on unequal conditions. One has the longest dis- 
 tance ; another has easier grades ; a third has. 
 
 27 
 
cheaper fuel ; a fourth traverses a populous coun- 
 try ; another has little traffic, except between 
 terminal stations. Some have no rival lines at 
 important centers of trade ; others have from two 
 to a dozen competitors at one or more terminal 
 points. One company is burdened with a heavy 
 debt ; its rival has moderate interest charges. As 
 a result of all these varieties of condition, the cost 
 of moving traffic is not the same to any two com- 
 panies. Except on rare occasions, the supply of 
 railway service is largely in excess of the demand. 
 Back of all is the ever a^ressive greed of the 
 large shipper, whose custom every railway wants, 
 and is given to the railway which will charge the 
 least for its service. Every hour of the traffic 
 manager's life is afflicted with news that a valued 
 patron has been persuaded to ship by another line, 
 or can be retained only by a deep reduction of 
 rates, involving a loss of revenue to the railway 
 company amounting to hundreds, thousands, tens 
 of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of 
 dollars in a single case. These troubles are inci- 
 dent to the mere acquisition and preservation of 
 
 28 
 
29 
 
 traffic ; they are incessant, corroding and destruc- 
 tive ; they turn men's hair gray, smite them with 
 palsy and drive them to early graves. 
 
 In the intervals between losing traffic and buy- 
 ing it back at deadly cost, how is the railway man- 
 agement occupied? Lands must be bought for 
 additional right of way and depot facilities. Ship- 
 pers want side tracks to their elevators, ware- 
 houses and shops ; coal operators, stone quarriers, 
 furnace men want branch lines built ; connecting 
 railways want a joint use of tracks and facilities ; 
 weak holders of worthless railroads want to sell 
 them ; new lines must be built to protect those 
 already owned ; old employes want pensions ; 
 myriads of outsiders want employment ; village 
 councils want street crossings lighted ; city coun- 
 cils want to pave streets, establish sewers, secure 
 new railways and give bounties to manufacturers, 
 largely at the expense of railways ; others de- 
 mand change of grade of tracks, elevated tracks, 
 viaducts, and sometimes order to destruction one 
 kind of improvement they have ordered to be 
 built, before it is paid for, to make way for another 
 
 29 
 
30 
 
 which will better please their taste or gratify their 
 revenge. People along the line want every con- 
 venience at stations. Boomers of towns and cities 
 want special train service. Lawmakers want to 
 give everything that is asked for against railways, 
 and men in every department of public service, 
 village, city, county, State and Federal, want to 
 ride free ; not all, but nearly all, and not merely 
 for themselves, but for their families, friends and 
 companions ; meanwhile, old debts are maturing 
 and new bonds and mortgages must be created. 
 Current interest and other obligations must be 
 met. No one would expect that in this increase 
 of burdens and decrease of income railways could 
 continue to be solvent. I might with truth add 
 that, except the security holders, no one would 
 care ; and the fact justifies the expectation ; within 
 two years last past more than twenty-five per 
 cent, of the total railway mileage of the United 
 States has been in the hands of receivers. To 
 cap the climax, at a time when railroad property is 
 most worthless ; when more than one-half the 
 capital invested in railways is unproductive, there 
 
 30 
 
3* 
 
 are people who want to lay heavier burdens upon 
 them, reduce still further their income, and in- 
 crease the taxes which are levied upon them. 
 
 The people of the United States- are just, and if 
 they know the facts, they are not willing to be 
 guilty of injustice. They will concede that capital 
 honestly invested should yield reasonable income; 
 especially are they willing that the man who 
 serves them should be compensated for that serv- 
 ice ; no one will deny that railway companies ren- 
 der service to the public. They carry people, 
 freight, express, parcels, newspapers and letters; 
 no inconvenience can be imagined which would 
 affect so large a body of people as that which 
 would result if railway trains should cease to move. 
 Burdens imposed by Legislatures, taxes levied by 
 tax commissioners would not be excessive if it 
 were known that these burdens and taxes were 
 too severe. Law-makers would not reduce the 
 income of railways, nor would they forbid railway 
 companies to make arrangements with each other 
 t<> protect their income, if they believed the income 
 so protected were necessary to properly operate 
 
32 
 
 and maintain these railways, and, in addition, yield 
 a fair dividend to stockholders. The fact is that, 
 at this time, one-third of all railway bonds in the 
 United States are in default of interest, and more 
 than two-thirds of all railway stocks yield no divi- 
 dend. The aggregate amount of these bonds and 
 stocks in default is between five and six billion 
 dollars, and every one of the railways is in opera- 
 tion, serving the public, and more than half of 
 them receiving no pay for the service. 
 
 The blame of this situation rests not wholly on 
 the public. The public can no more guarantee 
 profit to all railways than to all mills or farms. 
 Many railways were built, not because they were 
 needed, but because exploiters wished to make 
 money in building them. Others were built in 
 good faith, but in bad judgment, hence predestined 
 to bankruptcy ; nevertheless, railways built by 
 exploiters and those built by men of bad judgment, 
 no less than those which were built for an honest 
 purpose and in good judgment, serve the public 
 unceasingly, by carrying them and their freight, 
 
33 
 
 their newspapers and their letters. What is the 
 duty of the public toward them ? 
 
 The first duty of the public towards railways is 
 to deal with them with knowledge* not in ignor- 
 ance ; with reason, not in prejudice. How many 
 people know that recently twenty-five per cent, of 
 the entire railway mileage of the country was in 
 bankruptcy ? How many know that one-half the 
 money invested in American railways yields not 
 a cent to its owners ? This knowledge should, 
 and will when it prevails, convince people that 
 railways are not earning too much money. Many 
 people believe that railway property is not taxed, 
 or if taxed, not taxed enough. They learn this 
 from newspapers and street talkers. Go to the 
 Treasurer's office in any township, city or county 
 in the State ; ask your servant, the Treasurer, 
 what is the fact ; you ought to be willing to be- 
 lieve him. If you think railway companies are 
 earning too much money, go to another high serv- 
 ant of yours, the Auditor of State ; ask him to 
 tell you how many railway companies in the State 
 have been bankrupt, how many pay dividends to 
 
 (3) 33 
 
34 
 
 stockholders and interest to bondholders ; ask him 
 and ask the Governor to tell you if they think the 
 railways in Indiana earn too much money, and if 
 they say yes, ask them to specify what companies 
 they refer to, and tell how much they earn and how 
 much less they ought to earn. In this way you 
 will get knowledge, and no longer act in ignor- 
 ance. 
 
 Prejudice is an intangible, impalpable, invisible 
 enemy, most difficult to conquer ; a vague im- 
 pression, derived from unworthy or unreliable 
 sources. The longer it exists in the mind the 
 stronger it becomes, and as it rests not in reason, 
 but wholly in ignorance, you can not assail it with 
 reason. There is no hope for the case unless it is 
 willing to learn facts and become enlightened. 
 
 A prejudice exists against railways. They are 
 feared because times and conditions have consoli- 
 dated them into large systems. But why do you 
 fear a large railway more than a small railway ? 
 Do you think a thousand miles of track under one 
 control more formidable than a hundred miles, or 
 ten ? Is a long train of cars more dangerous to 
 
 34 
 
35 
 
 your liberties than a short train ? Is a spacious, 
 airy, well furnished car a menace to your rights ? 
 Surely danger does not lie in the number or length 
 of rails, or trains, or the furnishing of a car. Do 
 you fear that large railways will set themselves 
 above the law or defy the courts ? Go to any 
 Justice of the Peace in any township, in any State 
 in which is situated the largest railway in America, 
 ask that Justice of the Peace if he has any dif- 
 ficulty in bringing that colossal railway company 
 into his little forum ; he will answer, " Not a bit. 
 I send the constable with a little piece of paper, 
 telling the company to come before me and it 
 comes." Ask any prosecuting attorney in any 
 county in America whether he has any difficulty 
 in indicting or punishing a railway company or 
 employe for a crime ? He will tell you, " Not 
 any more than in case of individuals." Do you 
 fear the influence of large railway companies more 
 than small companies in corrupting juries, public 
 officials and law makers ? Ask any attorney in 
 any county in America whether he knows of rail- 
 way attorneys bribing juries, or whether it is dif- 
 
 35 
 
36 
 
 ficult for a poor man to get a verdict against a 
 great railway company ? He will tell you that it 
 is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a 
 needle than for a large railway company to win a 
 jury, verdict in any kind of a case. 
 
 If you fear large railway companies more than 
 small ones in their power to bribe public officials, 
 consider whether there is really any difference 
 between the two. A large railway company has 
 no greater inclination to bribe than a small com- 
 pany. The value of a local privilege which a 
 railway company might wish to have, is no greater 
 to a large company than to a small one. Neither 
 does the vaster income or credit of the large com- 
 pany count for more than the smaller income of 
 the smaller company. If the small company is 
 disposed to bribe, its smaller resources yield all 
 that is needed to satisfy the corruptible official. 
 
 When you have explored every source of your 
 fear of large railway companies, you find at last 
 that no greater danger is to be apprehended from 
 a large than a small company. Each is managed 
 by men of about the same stature, weight, ability 
 
 36 
 
37 
 
 and sentiment, and the resources of each for the 
 attainment of its wishes or protection of its rights 
 are equal to the other. 
 
 A prejudice exists against railway companies 
 under the vague impression that railway stocks 
 are watered, and on this prejudice rests a demand 
 that railway rates be reduced. In other words, 
 it is said the public is forced to pay higher rates 
 than it should, in order that dividends may be 
 paid on watered stock. If people will take time 
 to learn the facts bearing on this question they 
 will see that their claim is unfounded. What are 
 the facts? First, 70 per cent, of all American 
 railway stocks yield no dividend whatever. Sec- 
 ond, the remaining 30 per cent, receives less than 
 4 per cent, per annum. Third, a considerable 
 part of this 4 per cent, is not earned by the com- 
 pany, but is paid by some other company, under 
 contracts made years ago, when railways were 
 few and the earnings of each railway were greater 
 than now. Fourth, railway stocks are bought 
 and sold hourly ; in many cases the owner of to- 
 day was not the owner of yesterday. Now, bear- 
 
 37 
 
38 
 
 ing in mind that the only proper objects of wrath 
 on the part of the public, in relation to watered 
 stock, are the men who issued it not the men 
 who have since bought it what conclusion can 
 we draw from the foregoing facts? First, that as 
 to 70 per cent, of all railway stocks there is no 
 just cause of complaint, whether watered or not, 
 because the public does not pay dividends on that 
 stock ; second, as to the remaining 30 per cent, 
 on which less than 4 per cent, dividends are paid, 
 a greater part of it is paid, not because it is 
 earned, but because there is a contract which re- 
 quires it to be paid. And, finally, there is no 
 certainty, if railway rates should be reduced, and 
 thereby reduce the dividend which is paid on one- 
 thitd of the railway stocks from less than 4 to less 
 than 3 or less than 2 per cent., that the blow 
 would fall on those guilty of issuing watered stock. 
 Therefore if the people reduce railway rates on 
 account of watered stock, they act like a blind 
 giant who swings a club in a crowd in his aim to 
 strike one man by whom he has been hurt. 
 
39 
 
 Certain railway stocks have been watered ; 
 other stocks are thought to be watered, but in 
 fact are not ; still other stocks are not watered, 
 and are not supposed to be. Let the people know 
 the situation and they will be fair. 
 
 First. When boomers build railways not to 
 operate, but to sell they proceed as stated above. 
 They give a block of stocks and bonds to them- 
 selves as pay for building a railway. The amount 
 of these stocks and bonds has no reference to 
 the cost of the railway. If the cost of con- 
 struction and equipment, honestly incurred, ex- 
 ceeds the amount of stocks and bonds issued, 
 then there is no water in either stocks or bonds. 
 Such a mistake on the part of the boomers has 
 never been heard of. Usually (always so far as 
 is known) they issue stocks and bonds largely in 
 excess of the cost of building and equipping the 
 road. This excess is water, and dirty water too. 
 To avoid being injured by it, the public need not 
 rob all railway companies who have acted in good 
 faith. They can correct the evil by changing the 
 law, which permits anybody to build a railroad 
 
 39 
 
40 
 
 anywhere, and make the building of a railroad a 
 question of public necessity, to be determined by 
 disinterested public officials. Township roads, 
 county roads, city streets, are not opened through 
 private property nor cast upon the public for re- 
 pairs, except on petition of certain persons and 
 their necessity approved by proper public officials. 
 Next, before anybody is allowed to build a rail- 
 way, he should file in some public department 
 sworn estimates of its cost, and be compelled, 
 under heavy penalties, to limit the issue of stocks 
 and bonds to its actual cost. Under such law we 
 would have no watered railway stock. 
 
 Second. When are railway stocks supposed to 
 be watered, but are actually not watered? 1 
 answer, when such stocks are based on extensions 
 and additions to an existing railway, and are paid 
 for at cost out of earnings. 
 
 A railway is built from A to B ; it has cost ten 
 million dollars, honestly expended, for which five 
 million in bonds and five million in stocks have 
 been issued. No one complains of that. The 
 railway begins operations, increasing traffic de- 
 
 40 
 
41 
 
 mands additional tracks, lands and cars. Where 
 shall the money be got to pay for these necessary 
 additions? If additional bonds are offered at that 
 early stage, they will sell at so low a figure that it 
 is not wise to make the attempt. The stockhold- 
 ers, at that early period, are not disposed to sub- 
 ' scribe additional stock and pay in more money. 
 If they were willing so to do, the most rabid enemy 
 of railways would not complain of it. What then 
 is to be done? The public clamors for increased 
 facilities. It is not wise to sell bonds at a discount ; 
 stockholders are not able or willing to make further 
 advances of cash, but they are willing to do some- 
 thing else which enables the public to have the 
 increased facilities it demands. They say to the 
 Directors of the company, make these desired 
 improvements and pay for them out of surplus 
 earnings ; meanwhile we will ask for no dividends. 
 Five or ten years of this policy continues, and at the 
 end of the period, ten additional million dollars have 
 been expended and the railway is worth double what 
 it was at first. The stockholders now say, we will 
 take ten millions of stock to represent that addi- 
 
42 
 
 tional value. Can stock so issued be called watered 
 stock? Certainly not. Why? The public needed 
 the additional facilities ; after they were made, the 
 capacity of the road to do business and accommo- 
 date the public was doubled, and the value of the 
 property was doubled. If stockholders had sub- 
 scribed for additional shares and paid for it monthly 
 or quarterly as the work of extension proceeded, 
 nobody would have thought of complaining ; or, if 
 stockholders had drawn from the company divi- 
 dends, and at once turned those dividends back to 
 the company and received stock for it, no one 
 would have complained. What difference then, is 
 it to the public, whether the stockholder draws 
 dividends and converts it into stock, from time to 
 time, or allows all surplus earnings to be applied 
 to the work of extension and takes his share of 
 stock for the cost of the extensions, when the same 
 are completed. 
 
 I will admit that no additional stock should be 
 issued to represent an increased value of the 
 railway, caused by lapse of time or increase of busi- 
 ness. The public has a right to share that increase 
 
 42 
 
43 
 
 with the stockholder. The right to issue addi- 
 tional stock should rest on the fact of additional 
 cash put into the property to increase its ability 
 to serve the public. If stock issues are restricted 
 to these limits, the people will not complain of 
 watered stock, and they can protect themselves 
 fully in this respect, and innocent stockholders as 
 well, if they will, under heavy penalty, limit the 
 issue of bonds and stock to cost of the railway and 
 additions and to pay debts which can not other- 
 wise be paid. 
 
 This brings us to a phase of the question not 
 often discussed, yet important to be understood. 
 It is clear that a sound policy requires that stock 
 and bond issues of a railway company should be 
 limited as far as possible to cost of the property, 
 but experience has shown that railway companies, 
 in spite of good management, will fall in debt. 
 These debts must be paid in cash, stock or bonds, 
 hence the law has permitted stock and bonds to be 
 issued in payment of debts. Large amounts of 
 stock have been issued in this way. A railway 
 company becomes insolvent and is reorganized. 
 
 43 
 
44 
 
 Its old stockholders cling to the faith that some 
 day in the future, the stock will have value, hence 
 they want to be represented in the new company. 
 For a better reason, bondholders whose interest 
 for years has not been paid, want something to 
 represent their unpaid interest, and are entitled to 
 a place ahead of stockholders, and they receive 
 income bonds or preferred stock in payment of 
 their unpaid interest. Thus a reorganized com- 
 pany begins its career with a large amount of 
 stock, and the suspicion of the public is aroused 
 against it. The cases are exceptional and should 
 receive particular treatment. To compel all rail- 
 road companies to reduce their rates because some 
 companies have issued fictitious stock, and others 
 have issued stock in payment of debts, would be 
 like putting a whole town in jail because one in- 
 habitant was a thief. The newspaper editor, 
 the platform lecturer, the State or National law 
 maker, who, in general terms, denounces railway 
 companies for issuing watered stock, is guilty of 
 gross calumny against the railways of the United 
 States, and does great wrong to hundreds of 
 
 44 
 
45 
 
 thousands of innocent people. We do not de- 
 nounce all editors because some are blackmailers ; 
 we do not condemn all lecturers because a few 
 are ignorant and rash ; we do not call all law 
 makers criminals because some are bribe takers ; 
 we do not say the human race are assassins be- 
 cause some of them are murderers. We should 
 not charge railway companies with swindling the- 
 public because a few companies have issued ficti- 
 tious stock. Let there be light on this subject, 
 and the people will be just to railway companies. 
 Hostility to railway companies exists mainly 
 because they do not give uniform rates to the 
 public, and sometimes charge more for a short 
 than a longer haul in the same direction. In 
 other words, it is said they favor certain shippers 
 at the expense of others. Railway companies 
 derive all their powers from the public ; they are 
 created for the purpose of serving the public, 
 therefore it seems odious that they should give 
 lower rates to one part of the public than to 
 another. Laws are enacted to prevent this dis- 
 crimination, and require rates to be alike to all. 
 
 45 
 
4 6 
 
 The companies evade these laws by charging 
 uniform rates and giving a portion back to fa- 
 vored shippers by way of rebates, drawbacks 
 and other devices. Then other laws are enacted 
 to prevent the companies from giving back any 
 portion of the rate, by any kind of payment or 
 favor, and these laws in turn are disobeyed. 
 Every one knows this to be the situation in 
 respect to every railway company, the result be- 
 ing that all companies are conspicuous, persist- 
 ent, defiant law breakers. No wonder they are 
 scourged by juries, law makers, tax commission- 
 ers and public opinion. Why then do railway 
 companies persist in a course which makes them 
 all criminals and brings the majority of railways 
 to bankruptcy ? 
 
 Public opinion rests on the single fact that rail- 
 way companies are law breakers ; no inquiry is 
 made why railway managers break the law, or 
 whether the law is just. Possibly an investiga- 
 tion will show that law makers as well as law 
 breakers are at fault. 
 
47 
 
 Although the people give corporate life and 
 power to railway companies, they do not furnish 
 the money to build, equip and maintain railways. 
 This money is furnished by private individuals. 
 A railway, therefore, is private property devoted 
 to a public use. Nothing can be more just than 
 that this private property devoted to a public use 
 should be allowed to yield some profit to its own- 
 ers, and at least to protect itself from insolvency. 
 This proposition is not fully nor fairly met by the 
 counter proposition that railway charges should 
 be uniform to the public, unless a reasonable 
 interpretation is given to the phrase " uniform 
 charges." What then are the rights of the public 
 in respect to a railway ? What is meant by uni- 
 form charges ? What are the rights of a railway 
 company in respect to earning money ? 
 
 Take the case of a railway, built from Chicago 
 to the seaboard. The people of Illinois, Indiana 
 or Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania or New York, 
 and of New Jersey have united in giving corporate 
 life and powers to this railway company. Each 
 State expects to be benefited by the existence of 
 
 47 
 
4 8 
 
 the railway. Next, there are many cities, towns 
 and hamlets in each State, along the line of this 
 railway. Some of these places enjoy the advan- 
 tage of competing railway or lake or river service ; 
 others have not this advantage. None of these 
 places are exactly alike in the conditions of labor, 
 materials, workmen or capital. The situation is 
 further complicated by the existence of . several 
 other railways built from Chicago to New York, 
 each on a different route, each under conditions 
 different from either of its rivals. The laws of 
 the different States between Chicago and the sea- 
 board limit the rate which railway companies may 
 charge for their services ; that is, they prescribe 
 the rriaximum rate. None of these States fix a 
 minimum rate ; the theory of the law on this point 
 is, that railway companies might charge too high 
 a rate if not restricted, but there is no danger of 
 their charging too low a rate ; hence, while the 
 law prescribes a maximum rate, it does not pre- 
 scribe a minimum rate. 
 
 The omission of law to fix a minimum rate jus- 
 tifies the public in assuming it is at liberty to get 
 
49 
 
 as low rates as it can, and justifies the companies 
 in assuming that they may lower rates as much 
 as they please. Thus the public gets the benefit 
 of competition, which every one concedes it has a 
 right to get. But railway companies naturally 
 wish to get all they can, and never reduce the 
 rate except under compulsion. Hence, they main- 
 tain rates where they have no competition, and 
 lower rates where they have competition. 
 
 The right of the public to get as low rates as it 
 can applies to every station on a railway ; and in- 
 asmuch as the conditions which induce a railway 
 company to lower its rates are not the same at all 
 stations, it is impossible that rates should be uni- 
 form at all stations. Where competition exists, 
 the public, in the exercise of its undoubted right, 
 will secure lower rates than at points where there 
 is no competition. To force a railway to make a 
 uniform rate at all stations, would be to give to 
 some communities advantages to which they are 
 not entitled, and to deprive other communities of 
 advantages they have rightfully acquired. It is 
 not the duty, nor is it in the power of a railway 
 
 (4) 49 
 
50 
 \ 
 
 company to equalize conditions between different 
 communities. The right of a railway company to 
 lower its rates at competitive points is inseparable 
 from the right of the public to get as low rates as 
 it can. And if it be conceded that in the absence 
 of law fixing a minimum rate which a railway may 
 charge, the public has a right to as low rates as it 
 can get, the conclusion is inevitable that a railway 
 company which charges different rates at different 
 stations is not guilty of discrimination. 
 
 This argument does not apply to different 
 patrons at the same station. The rights of all 
 members of the public at any given point are 
 identical. If rates are lowered to one they should 
 be lowered to all. Though one patron ships ten 
 times as much at one station as another patron, 
 the rights of the public at that station are the 
 same, and what the railway does for one it should 
 do for all. 
 
 This right of the public to have as low rates as 
 it can get is the source of all complaints against 
 railways on account of discrimination. At com- 
 petitive points the railway company lowers the 
 
 50 
 
rate under compulsion ; it makes the best bargain 
 it can, and the result is all shippers are not served 
 alike. In all these cases of so-called discrimina- 
 tion, whether at competitive or non-competitive 
 points, the railway traffic manager acts precisely 
 as the merchant and manufacturer does under 
 ' like circumstances. He reduces the price to those 
 who buy largely ; he sells at little or no profit, 
 rather than lose a customer. 
 
 The public wishes to have as low rates as it 
 can get; it knows the more railways are built the 
 lower will be the rates ; therefore it wishes as 
 many railways as can be built. At this point the 
 public stops wishing and thinking, and begins to 
 smite railways because of discrimination. It fails 
 to see that competition and discrimination are in- 
 terchangeable terms. It passes laws to prevent 
 discrimination, and with incredible folly passes 
 other laws forbidding railway companies to do the 
 only thing that can prevent discrimination, to wit, 
 make arrangements between themselves to main- 
 tain uniform rates and compensate each other by 
 division of traffic or earnings, a subject in which 
 
52 
 
 the public has no conceivable interest what- 
 ever. 
 
 Why are the words " competition " and " dis- 
 crimination" interchangeable terms ? Competi- 
 tion is a condition resulting from the presence of 
 two or more rival railway lines. Discrimination 
 is a condition under which different individuals in 
 the same community do not get the same rates 
 from railway companies; neither one, two or 
 three of the rival lines can do all the business at 
 the competitive point ; each line will and must get 
 a share of the business. The conditions under 
 which the various rival lines are maintained and 
 operated are not alike 'in any two cases. There- 
 fore the rates they can each afford to accept are not 
 the same in any two cases. And inasmuch as no 
 single company can do all the business, leaving 
 the others to starve, a different scale of rates 
 charged by each company is the inevitable result. 
 Thus we find discrimination to be the inevitable 
 concomitant of competition ; for the result to the 
 public is precisely the same, whether one railway 
 company gives a different rate to each of its 
 
 52 
 
53 
 
 patrons, or whether half a dozen different com- 
 panies give different rates to the public. The result 
 in either case is that all shippers at competitive 
 points are not treated alike. 
 
 Certain railways .can afford to accept a less rate 
 than other less favored lines. The less favored 
 'lines must have a portion of the traffic, for small 
 profit is better than none. Here begins scramble 
 for traffic and demoralization of rates. No rail- 
 way company will quietly lie down and die. 
 Neither public opinion or penal statutes will pre- 
 vent its managers from trying to get traffic and 
 continue to do business. In this pell-mell scram- 
 ble for traffic the public is robbed and the railway 
 companies are ruined. The business of large ship- 
 pers is sought after and secured at any price. 
 Smaller shippers do not get as good rates as the 
 larger, and the result is that small dealers are 
 driven out of business and larger dealers increase 
 their power and wealth. Even the large dealer is 
 not wholly at fault in this carnival of ruin. The 
 competition which affects the railways affects the 
 different merchants and manufacturers. Each 
 
 53 
 
54 
 
 must meet his rival in the field of trade on equal 
 terms and get the lowest possible rate for trans- 
 portation. Unrestrained competition crushes and 
 grinds as remorselessly as the wheels of Jugger- 
 naut. 
 
 If railway companies were permitted to make 
 arrangements with each other for division of traffic 
 or earnings, the destructive results of competition 
 could be largely obviated. Hitherto the public 
 mind has associated such arrangements with the 
 idea of pools and monopolies, and forbidden rail- 
 way companies to make them under heavy pen- 
 alties. Nine years ago Congress prohibited pool- 
 ing of railway earnings or tonnage, thinking 
 thereby to secure unrestricted competition and 
 prevent discrimination. It did not understand that 
 unrestricted competition meant unlimited discrim- 
 ination. The country has never known such de- 
 moralization of railway rates, dissatisfaction of 
 shippers and bankruptcy of railway companies as 
 since the passage of the interstate commerce law. 
 
 If railway companies were permitted to make 
 and enforce agreements among themselves rela- 
 
 54 
 
55 
 
 tive to a division of earnings or traffic, they 
 could secure uniformity and stability of rates, and 
 the public would be entirely safe against exorbitant 
 rates. Each State controls the maximum rate 
 which a railway company may charge for the 
 transportation of passengers and freight. That 
 maximum rate can be lowered at the will of every 
 Legislature. If railway companies should agree 
 upon a rate which the public deems unreasona- 
 ble, the remedy is in the hands of the Legislature 
 to reduce the maximum. Whatever rate the law 
 permits to be charged is presumed to be reason- 
 able, and no harm can come to the people if rail- 
 way companies are permitted to agree upon a rate 
 which is equal to or less than the rate which the 
 law declares reasonable. If railway earnings 
 become too large under the operation of pooling 
 contracts, let the maximum rate be further 
 lowered, and railway earnings will at once di- 
 minish. 
 
 A railway pool differs from a pool of manufac- 
 turers or producers in this : The public can not 
 control the price which private persons may charge 
 
 55 
 
56 
 
 for what they produce, hence a pool or monopoly 
 of producers may force prices up to an extravagant 
 figure ; but the public does and always will control 
 the price of transportation, and no railway com- 
 pany will dare to charge above the maximum rate 
 which is fixed by law. Many people think de- 
 moralization of rates and bankruptcy of railways 
 would cease if railway traffic managers were hon- 
 est and wise. They do not understand the situa- 
 tion. First, while a majority of traffic managers 
 are both honest and wise, all are not so, and one 
 foolish, dishonest traffic manager can bring con- 
 fusion to the whole situation. Second, if all were 
 honest and wise, they could do nothing without 
 concert of action, and this concert of action is for- 
 bidden by law. Railway companies are, there- 
 fore, by public opinion and statute law condemned 
 to destruction and forbidden to make any effort to 
 save themselves. The situation is precisely as it 
 would be if a community, made up of wise and 
 ignorant, virtuous and vicious, honest and dis- 
 honest people, were by a higher power prevented 
 from passing laws and establishing courts for mu- 
 
 56 
 
57 
 
 tual protection, and thus left to prey upon each 
 other, like savages in a wilderness. Any kind of 
 despotism is more tolerable than such a state. 
 
 It is noted with pleasure that public opinion is 
 changing on the subject of railway pools. Those 
 who are capable of learning facts, and can under- 
 stand the truth which those facts convey, are no 
 longer opposed to a law which will allow railway 
 companies to make reasonable contracts with each 
 other for division of traffic or earnings. The 
 ignorance of law-makers on this subject has caused 
 stupendous disaster to individual and corporate 
 fortunes. It is hoped that the dawning of a better 
 day is at hand. 
 
 Railway companies being created by law and 
 regulated by law, their officers and employes are 
 in constant touch with servants of the people who 
 make, interpret and enforce the law. The temp- 
 tation is great to give and receive money, in mat- 
 ters wherein the interests of the railways are in 
 conflict with those of the public. Some railway 
 managers are willing to pay the price, and some 
 officials are willing to betray the public. Happily, 
 
 57 
 
58 
 
 these are in the minority. Under our modern 
 system of law, which forbids the granting of cor- 
 porate privilege by special statute, the railway 
 companies are seldom in legislative halls except 
 under compulsion, to try to protect themselves 
 against threatened injury. 
 
 There are men who make a living by work in 
 shops, fields and mines. There are other men 
 who make a living by working legislative bodies. 
 They gather at the State Capitol as buzzards 
 gather about a carcass. Usually they have served 
 one or two terms in a Legislature, and learned in 
 the mysteries of law making. They soon know 
 what members are there to serve the public, and 
 who are there to serve themselves. This is fact 
 number one. The next factor on which they 
 count is the fear of corporation officials that laws 
 will be enacted increasing the burdens on corpora- 
 tions. The third stage is the introduction of bills 
 to increase taxes, impose severe regulations or re 
 duce income of corporations. This blackmailing 
 process is aimed at all manner of corporations, 
 railway, express, sleeping car, telegraph, insur- 
 
 58 
 
59 
 
 ance and loan associations. Sometimes the officers 
 of these corporations are cowards and think it 
 necessary to pay promptly the ransom demanded 
 by legislative brigands ; others whom long experi- 
 ence in the business has made familiar with these 
 operations, pay the tribute as the easiest way out 
 of trouble and regard the exaction as one of the 
 elements of modern civilization ; a third class 
 have faith in the principles of honesty, trust to 
 the people for fair play, and by proper presenta- 
 tion of arguments and facts, defy the blackmailers 
 and defeat their schemes. Corporation officials 
 who act in this way seldom fail to protect the 
 companies they represent to the full extent to 
 which they are entitled to protection, but as long 
 as some officials are willing to pay tribute, so long 
 the system of legislative corruption continues, and 
 all railway companies are denounced by the people 
 as partners in the crime. The same influences, 
 but to a very limited extent, prevail in the action 
 of Tax Commissioners. Prosecuting attorneys, 
 sheriffs, auditors and coroners are in position to 
 help or hurt a railway company. Their opera- 
 
 59 
 
6o 
 
 tions are mainly characterized by a sense of jus- 
 tice, but often they are willing to give and receive. 
 
 In presenting these facts to the young men 
 before me, many of whom will probably some day 
 be called to railway service, and all of whom wish 
 to become upright citizens, I wish to emphasize 
 the following truths : 
 
 Railway employes are, in a certain sense, serv- 
 ants of the public ; the manner in which they dis- 
 charge their duty has much to do with the welfare 
 of the public. Let that duty be performed with 
 courage, but always in the desire to do justice, to 
 the public, no less than the company they serve. 
 When the public learns that railway officers and 
 employes are animated by this sense of duty and 
 of justice, prejudice against railways will disap- 
 pear; the burdens which are laid upon them will 
 be reasonable; the fetters which bind them to 
 disaster will be removed. 
 
 60 
 
II. 
 
 THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE 
 OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS. 
 
 MELVILLE E. INGALLS. 
 
 IN the year 1830 the first complete railway was 
 put in operation. There had been many ex- 
 periments leading up to this ; in fact, in the 
 world's history, all great improvements or inven- 
 tions do not appear at once, but are attained by 
 gradual steps and often appear in different places 
 and through different persons, as though the idea 
 had filled the air, as it were, and different people 
 commenced to work on the same line. The world 
 was ready at that time for something new. For 
 the century ending with the year 1815 and the 
 great and decisive battle of Waterloo, the civilized 
 
 61 
 
world had been in a constant strife. Hardly a 
 year had passed in which one or more of the great 
 nations of Europe were not at war, and for much 
 of the time all of them. The governments had 
 been managed for the benefit of the few ; the con- 
 dition of the common people had been almost 
 hopeless ; every dollar that could be wrung from 
 them by the most onerous taxation in the world 
 had been used to build up armies and navies with 
 which to fight. So oppressive was this system 
 that in 1789 the French revolution broke out with 
 its terrors. The people became like some wild 
 animal liberated from his cage, and, knowing 
 nothing of how to use that liberty, simply struck 
 around in their fierce anger and destroyed what- 
 ever came in their way. Wise men, timid men, 
 lovers of liberty, became frightened and disgusted. 
 Reaction came, and on it Napoleon climbed to 
 power. He soon lost his head and endeavored 
 to rule the world, and the contest to crush him 
 lasted for a score of years. In those years there 
 was no opportunity for industrial improvement. 
 No one attempted to accomplish anything except 
 
 62 
 
3 
 
 to fight or to provide for the necessaries of exist- 
 ence. When finally, in 1815, peace came to the 
 civilized world, it dawned upon nations poor, weak 
 and wounded. The condition of the poor was de- 
 plorable, and that of the rich not much better. 
 The facilities of communication, even in countries 
 of the highest civilization, at that time were very 
 limited. For instance, the news of the battle of 
 Waterloo did not reach London until three days 
 afterwards, and it was then printed in the news- 
 papers and sent over England in mail coaches that 
 ran night and day, at the rate of seven or eight 
 miles per hour. 
 
 In the few years of rest from war, between 1815 
 and 1830, which they had enjoyed, the people had 
 done some work, and more thinking. In France 
 the Bourbons with their despotic notions were 
 driven out, and in England the people secured the 
 "reform bill/' so-called, and it was beginning to 
 be understood all over the civilized world that gov- 
 ernments were for the people and the divine right 
 of kings to oppress and misgovern was disappear- 
 ing. Slowly, as the nations began to recover from 
 
 63 
 
4 
 
 their exhaustion, they devoted their time and en- 
 ergies to industrial improvement. The men in 
 active life in 1815 knew nothing but war and its 
 adjuncts. In 1830 a new generation was upon 
 the stage, ready for another purpose. George 
 Stephenson's railway was completed and civiliza- 
 tion was ready to take it up and carry his ideas 
 forward and beyond even his fondest dreams. In 
 sixty-seven years this weakling has grown to be 
 a o;iant of immense proportions, and has added 
 vastly to the comfort and happiness of mankind. 
 In 1830, when the first railway was opened, travel 
 over any of the civilized countries of the world 
 was slow and wearisome. Communities which 
 to-day are neighbors, then knew but little of each 
 other. England was the richest of the nations 
 and the highest in civilization, and yet a writer at 
 about that time, describing its internal affairs, 
 says, " Each little community set apart from its 
 fellows, following its own customs, cherishing its 
 own prejudices, feeding its own traditions, speak- 
 ing in a dialect which men from a distance failed 
 to understand ; a stranger was ipso facto an 
 
 64 
 
5 
 
 enemy." In our own country at this time civili- 
 zation was even more backward. The people had 
 settled and clustered along the coast and the great 
 lakes and rivers, but the means of communication 
 were slow and wearisome. At this time came the 
 railway, and its development has been one of the 
 greatest industrial revolutions in the world's his- 
 tory. One writer truly says, "It has enabled 
 men from different sections to meet freely, to learn 
 how little there is on either side to hate and how 
 much to love ; ancient prejudices melt away by 
 the fuller knowledge gained from travel and ac- 
 quaintance ; each year as men associate with each 
 other and travel, the unity of the people becomes 
 more and more perfect." 
 
 While railways have benefited Europe and all 
 civilized nations they have proved more of a bless- 
 ing to America on account of its great distances. 
 American genius also seems to be peculiarly 
 adapted to the science of transportation and rail- 
 roading. We have worked out in this country the 
 most perfect system of transportation known on 
 earth. In England the railways have had the 
 
 65 
 
6 
 
 benefit of unlimited capital, and in some respects 
 may be in advance of ours. The journeys there 
 for short distances are more comfortable, but their 
 system, if applied to our long lines, would be an 
 utter failure. A trip to-day from New York to 
 Chicago is not a thing to be dreaded, but a pleasure 
 to be anticipated. With the trains and service, 
 you have (in the parlance of railway advertising) 
 "all the comforts and luxuries of home." The 
 3, 500 miles between New York and San Francisco 
 are covered in less than five days, with ease ; so 
 that even our invalids can avail themselves of the 
 different climates and not grow weary with the 
 journey. The expense of a journey to-day is not 
 one-fifth of what it was in the old days of stage- 
 coaching, saying nothing about time and comfort. 
 Beyond any human calculation, however, is the 
 benefit derived from association and the facilities 
 of communication between different sections of the 
 same country. It has enabled the American Re- 
 public to grow beyond any thought or prediction 
 of its founders, and has rendered distant sections 
 homogeneous to each other which otherwise would 
 
 66 
 
7 
 
 have been distant and unknown countries. It is 
 hard to realize what would have happened in this 
 country of ours if the railway systems had not 
 been perfected. The late William F. Reynolds, 
 of this city of Lafayette, once told me that the 
 hardest day's work he ever did was making a trip 
 from Lebanon to Thorntown. To-day, on trains 
 of the Big Four, you make the journey in ten min- 
 utes. % 
 
 More, however, than in the facilities of travel has 
 been the growth of the freight traffic of the various 
 systems. The statistics of our railways are prob- 
 ably known to almost every schoolboy in the land, 
 yet it is well on an occasion like this, when we 
 have spoken of the birth of the enterprise, to al- 
 lude to and place before your eyes its present 
 gigantic stature, so that you may have the picture 
 more vividly before you. The latest official fig- 
 ures which we have are those for the year ending 
 June 3<Dth, 1896, and they show such marvelous 
 proportions that I can not forbear placing them 
 before you. The industrial enterprise that started 
 a half century or more ago, by the aid of a few 
 
8 
 
 enthusiasts who were themselves doubtful of its 
 success, has now grown to fabulous size ; 182,776 
 miles of main track ; 240,000 miles of all tracks. 
 The little locomotive that George Stephenson ran 
 from Manchester to Liverpool is now represented 
 in these United States by 35,950 monster ma- 
 chines ; i, 297,649 cars are in service; 511,772,737 
 passengers were carried in the year in question ; 
 765,891,385 tons of freight were handled; the 
 number of tons of freight carried one mile was 
 95,328,360,278. These figures are almost beyond 
 the conception of the human mind ; and all this 
 freight was moved at an average charge of four- 
 fifths of one cent per ton per mile. Think of it ! 
 A ton of freight hauled one mile at a charge of 
 four-fifths of a cent. The gross earnings of all 
 the railways were $1,150,169,376. The number 
 of employes upon the payrolls of the companies 
 was 826,620. If you take into consideration those 
 not upon the payrolls but deriving their support 
 from the railways, and consider also the manu- 
 facturers of supplies used by the railways, you 
 will probably thribble this number. In other 
 
 68 
 
9 
 
 words, an army of more than 2,000, ooo of men 
 are engaged in railway business, and more than 
 10,000,000 of our population are supported by this 
 industry. 
 
 I have said that it cost four-fifths of a cent per 
 ton per mile to handle this immense amount of 
 freight, but this is the average charge. The great 
 products of the country, like flour, corn, wheat, 
 coal and iron, are handled for less than one-half 
 this charge, and this low cost has enabled this 
 country to develop its manufactories and its com- 
 merce, until it stands foremost among the civil- 
 ized nations of the earth. One hundred and 
 ninety-one million tons of coal were mined and 
 moved by the railways in this country last 
 year. With the close of the century we shall 
 stand undoubtedly first in the world in the 
 mining of coal, the production of pig iron, the 
 manufacture of flour and the production of wheat 
 and corn. The world stands aghast at our growth, 
 and the great factor in such increase has been the 
 railways. We should have had even greater de- 
 velopment, had it not been for unfortunate legis- 
 
 69 
 
10 
 
 lation and hostility to railway corporations, which, 
 in the last few years, has retarded their develop- 
 ment. The cost of all the railways in this country 
 has been $10,566,865,771. The net income from 
 their operation last year, in the aggregate, was 
 only about $377,000,000, or about 3^ per cent, 
 on their cost. Many of the lines paid more than 
 this, but a vast number nothing; in fact, about 
 one-fifth of all the railway mileage of the country 
 last year was in bankruptcy, and managed by re- 
 ceivers appointed by the courts. Legislatures, 
 National and State, and city governments nearly 
 everywhere, seem to be hostile to these great 
 enterprises. 
 
 I propose in the time I have here to give, briefly, 
 a history of the causes, which in my judgment 
 have led up to this hostility and what is necessary 
 to be done to change it. In the beginning of rail- 
 way development capital was scarce and but few 
 people were willing to invest in such a hazardous 
 business, and the need of the communities was so 
 great that any extraordinary concession asked for 
 was quickly given. Even then, the first pro- 
 
 70 
 
II 
 
 moter-s lost nearly all of their investment. But 
 few of the great trunk lines which were con- 
 structed previous to 1855 were enabled to go 
 through the panic of 1857 without bankruptcy; 
 stocks of some of the best roads in the land, and 
 which to-day are paying large dividends, went 
 down to five and ten cents on the dollar, and 
 many of them were entirely wiped out by fore- 
 closure proceedings. With the close of the war 
 in 1865 a new and enormous development com- 
 menced in railway building, and there came to 
 the front then a practically new class of business 
 men known as railway promoters. It was no un- 
 usual thing for these men to take contracts for 
 building hundreds or even thousands of miles of 
 railway. Their plan was to procure the most 
 favorable charters from the States or the Govern- 
 ment, to obtain large concessions in lands along 
 the line, then organize a company, issue as many 
 bonds per mile and as much stock as they thought 
 the public would take, obtain from cities and 
 towns as large subsidies as possible in money and 
 promises ; then make contracts with themselves 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
12 
 
 by which they received all the lands, subsidies, 
 bonds and stock, for constructing the railway. 
 They constructed it as cheaply as possible ; they 
 sold the lands for the best price obtainable ; sold the 
 bonds and stocks to the public ; and then marched 
 on to take other contracts and conquer other lands. 
 When the day of reckoning came, as it was bound 
 to, the public found themselves the owners of 
 bonds upon which the interest could not be paid ; 
 the communities found themselves with a poor 
 railway in which they had no direct pecuniary 
 interest ; they saw the contractors with enormous 
 fortunes, and they concluded that they had been 
 cheated and robbed. Hence, through their Legis- 
 latures and city and town governments, they be- 
 gan to get back at the railways by imposing 
 onerous taxes and obligations and by attempting 
 to fix rates of fare and freight by legislation. This 
 was the start of the so-called "Granger legisla- 
 tion " in the /o's. This legislation went through 
 the various States and finally, in 1886, Congress 
 passed the Interstate Commerce Law, and since 
 that year the difficulties have been more with 
 
 72 
 
13 
 
 reference to that law than with State laws. That 
 law practically prohibited contracts among rail- 
 ways for the maintenance of tariffs ; or, to be ex- 
 act, it prohibited pooling, which is an agreement 
 between two or more competing lines to divide 
 the business in certain proportions ; it being the 
 judgment of railway managers then, and to-day, 
 that in no other way can permanent and fair 
 rates be obtained except by such division of 
 business. Two individuals in trade can quarrel 
 and sell goods below cost, and one of them 
 soon becomes bankrupt and the other then em- 
 ploys him and holds all the business ; but railways 
 being public corporations continue to exist, and 
 when they fail are managed by a receiver and be- 
 come worse competitors than ever. It is said 
 that the public get the benefit of this competition, 
 but only a certain portion of the public. The 
 large shippers are able to take advantage of this 
 condition of affairs and make their contracts, 
 avoiding the law through one way or another, and 
 then they can undersell the small shipper and 
 drive him out of business, and the result for the 
 
 73 
 
14 
 
 last five years can be seen all over this country 
 in the disappearance of the small shipper, the 
 small manufacturer, and the growth of the larger. 
 This is also true of communities ; the effect of the 
 Interstate Commerce Law has been to build up 
 places like Chicago and break down places like 
 LaFayette. The condition of affairs apparently 
 culminated last spring in the decision of the Su- 
 preme Court of the United States in what was 
 known as the "Trans-Missouri" case, in which 
 that court held that the Sherman Anti-Trust Law 
 applied to railways, and therefore practically any 
 association or agreement was illegal, and since 
 then the railways have been in a chaotic state, 
 rates irregular, the earnings diminishing, and their 
 patrons, the public, suffer ; investors have be- 
 come frightened, foreigners have sent home and 
 sold our bonds and stocks ; and out of these trou- 
 bled times has grown the business of reorganizing 
 railways, until nearly one-third of the mileage of 
 the country has been sold under the hammer and 
 reorganized. The old stockholders have lost their 
 investment or else have secured a new interest by 
 
 74 
 
paying large assessments. In addition to this, the 
 different States and cities. and counties have in- 
 augurated a system of taxation by which all bonds 
 and stocks of railway companies have been sub- 
 ject to listing and taxation, although the corpora- 
 tion paid the taxes upon the property itself. That 
 is, a party in Indiana owning bonds or stocks in a 
 railway is compelled to list them and pay taxes 
 upon them, while if he lived in New York he 
 would not. You can see at once that the Indiana 
 man will sell his securities to the New York man, 
 for, while the rate of taxation may be light, it is 
 enough to change the investment. The result has 
 been that the local communities have sold their 
 bonds and stock ; the investments have drifted to 
 Wall Street, and the bonds and shares of our 
 principal railways are to-day used simply as coun- 
 ters are used in a game of cards, to mark the 
 speculative gains or losses of the holders. This 
 is the most unhealthy condition to which a great 
 business enterprise can arrive, and we must bear 
 in mind in considering this question that there is 
 no one business that involves so much the pros- 
 
 75 
 
i6 
 
 perity and happiness of the people as that of the 
 railways ; the entire community uses them. The 
 railways of this country, as heretofore stated, 
 employ nearly a million of men in their operation. 
 There are more employed directly in the manu- 
 facture of supplies which are used by the rail- 
 ways, and this army of men, with the families 
 dependent upon them, constitute about one-fifth 
 of our population, all of whom are dependent upon 
 the railways. The prosperity of the railways is 
 their prosperity ; the loss of the railways is their 
 loss. There can be no prosperous times in this 
 country unless the railways prosper. No body 
 politic can be healthy when one-fourth or one-fifth 
 of it is diseased. 
 
 What is the future ? There must be changes 
 in legislation and in the management of railways. 
 Some plan must be adopted to increase the own- 
 ership in railways by parties residing along their 
 lines. The first great step towards doing this must 
 be a reform in the tax laws, so that citizens of Indi- 
 ana or other States can be put upon as favorable 
 terms for ownership of bonds and stock in a rail- 
 
 76 
 
17 
 
 way as citizens of New York. Greater perma- 
 nence must be given to the condition and owner- 
 ship of railways. It would be a great step if we 
 could adopt the English method and create deben- 
 tures instead of bonds ; or, in other words, pro- 
 vide that there should be no foreclosure for 
 non-payment of interest. Such a thing as foreclos- 
 ure of a railway in England is unknown. If the in- 
 terest is not paid upon the debentures, there may 
 be a receiver of the profits, but the stockholder 
 still holds his interest in the property. Here, 
 with our system of bonds, if there come a few 
 bad years, when the interest is defaulted, the 
 bondholder takes possession and sells it under his 
 mortgage, the interest of the stockholder is extin- 
 guished, and when prosperity returns he has lost 
 his opportunity to get his share of it. This makes 
 the possession of railway stocks speculative and 
 uncertain ; in fact, for years they have been more 
 subject to assessments than to the receipt of divi- 
 dends. If our form of mortgage could be changed 
 to that of the English debenture, it would stop 
 the immense number of reorganizations, and would 
 
 ( 2 ) 77 
 
i8 
 
 prevent values being wiped out in times of panic, 
 and would encourage investment by the people 
 in the securities of these enterprises for, after 
 all, that is the real improvement that is to come. 
 The New England railways have less trouble with 
 Legislatures and courts, chiefly because they have 
 a great many small holders of stocks along their 
 lines and in the cities, each of whom is an agent 
 of the corporation and aids in creating public sen- 
 timent and procuring fair treatment, while in the 
 great Central States and in the West there are 
 scarcely stockholders enough to provide the officers 
 for a stockholders' meeting. The railway officials 
 themselves must be taught to conduct their busi- 
 ness with care and with due respect to the rights 
 of the people. Their actions must not be secret, 
 but above board and open to the public. There 
 must be but one rate to everybody, and that must 
 be reasonable, and the Legislatures must provide 
 remedies by which railway officials can agree 
 with each other on these rates and their contracts 
 can be enforced. The present State and national 
 laws in reference to railways are crude and crazy- 
 
 78 
 
19 
 
 patch works, passed in some cases out of revenge 
 for wrongs, real or fancied, and in others for polit- 
 ical effect, and all in opposition to the railways. 
 Unfortunately, railway officials have opposed all 
 legislation that looked to the control of their pow- 
 ers, and have not tried to direct and perfect the 
 laws as they might have done. There should be 
 clear and positive legislation authorizing railways 
 to contract with each other for the maintenance 
 of tariffs and the division of business, and it should 
 be made the duty of the Government Commis- 
 sioners, and they should have the power in such 
 cases to see that rates are reasonable, and their 
 decisions as to whether reasonable or not should 
 govern, subject to appeal to the courts. 
 
 The improvement of the country demands that 
 the great articles of export, like cotton, wheat, 
 flour, corn and meats, should be carried at the 
 lowest possible rates. The railways should pat- 
 tern after the English system, and while making 
 extraordinarily low rates for these great articles, 
 should exact a terminal upon the higher classes of 
 freight and upon freight carried short distances, so 
 
 79 
 
20 
 
 as to provide interest upon the immense terminals 
 they have to have. In other words, while a railway 
 from Chicago to New York may possibly haul corn 
 for fifteen cents per hundred pounds without loss, it 
 could not haul it for 100 miles on anything like a 
 proportion of this rate -without great loss. The 
 same is true of many articles that enter into rail- 
 way traffic. Therefore, in order that the country 
 may be benefited by having its great articles of 
 export and of manufacture carried cheaply, there 
 should be a terminal charge affixed to other traffic 
 which would enable the stockholders to receive 
 something for the very large investment they 
 have to make in every city and town for facilities 
 wherewith to do their business. 
 
 Passenger rates are made entirely upon the 
 wrong basis. We charge the same for the man 
 who rides in the palace car, and for whom the 
 railway has to haul two tons of dead weight, as 
 we do for the man who rides in the ordinary 
 coach, and for whom only one-half a ton of dead 
 weight is hauled. We charge practically the 
 same for the passenger who is carried sixty miles 
 
 80 
 
21 
 
 
 
 an hour on the fast and expensive train as we do 
 for the passenger upon the slow and less expen- 
 sive train. These rates should be changed and 
 graded. 
 
 Above all, a better understanding must be ar- 
 rived at with the vast army of employes. They 
 'must have greater interest in the success of the 
 railways, and they must be a part of the power 
 that will produce a better understanding with the 
 communities which the railways serve. This 
 must be done by a system of hospitals, pensions 
 and profit-sharing. 
 
 Probably locomotives propelled by electricity 
 will come in the future. If not, something else 
 may. And we can not tell what the next years 
 have in store in the way of improving our railway 
 facilities. Higher speed, possibly cheaper trains, 
 but it is necessary to this country of ours that the 
 railways should be encouraged, so that they may go 
 on improving their systems, so that branch lines 
 can be built to every county seat in the country. 
 Instead of stopping at 182,00x3 miles of railway we 
 should build at least five thousand miles a year in 
 
 81 
 
22 
 
 short and inexpensive lines as feeders to the main 
 systems, so that the days of the stage coach and 
 the heavy wagons should be unknown. This 
 country will soon have one hundred millions of 
 people. It will require at least 250,000 miles of 
 railways to serve them properly an increase of 
 40 per cent, over the present mileage. They can 
 not be built, they can not be improved and in- 
 creased, with the present system of legislation, 
 and with the present prejudice against them. The 
 development of the country demands that this 
 must be changed. It is through such institutions 
 as this, it is through such students as these, that 
 the change must come. In the centuries that have 
 gone, the youth of the various countries sought 
 fame and preferment in war and its accompani- 
 ments. We live in better days and in a higher 
 civilization, but the service of our railways offers 
 a wider field for advancement, and for fame, than 
 anything of old. The road to success in this line 
 is not through carnage and suffering, but it is 
 none the less sure and requires equally moral 
 courage and intelligence. A new evangel must 
 
 82 
 
23 
 
 be preached in reference to railways ; they must 
 be placed upon a higher order, and instead of be- 
 ing pariahs in business, they must be the bene- 
 factors and friends of all. 
 
 I want to add just one word with reference to 
 Purdue. I had no idea, until I came here to-day, 
 that it was so great an institution as it is. I had 
 learned to respect your President. I had known 
 what hard work he did, and I thought he was 
 building up something here, but I had no notion 
 whatever that he had accomplished so much or 
 raised such a foundation as he has. I congratu- 
 late you that your lines are laid in such pleasant 
 places. You can learn here what it takes years 
 and years of hard work to learn practically if you 
 are going to learn it at the bench, or firing an 
 engine or at work on the railway. The great 
 English world, the great end, is to get rid of what 
 I call the dollar-a-day man, or the man who does 
 the drudgery, and who never gets above it. This 
 college of yours enables you to start above that, 
 and all you have to do is to improve your oppor- 
 tunities and the fortunes of the world are within 
 
 83 
 
24 
 
 your grasp. As I went through these halls to-day 
 it carried me back to the times when I was a stu- 
 dent and a teacher, and I could not help thinking 
 how many more privileges you have than we had 
 years ago, and what a glorious opportunity you 
 have here to learn something practical and prac- 
 ticable, so that when you go out from these halls, 
 instead of going to the drudgery of what I call a 
 dollar-a-day man, you can start on a higher basis, 
 where you can do credit to yourselves and to your 
 university. 
 
III. 
 
 THE MUTUAL OBLIGATIONS OF 
 
 RAILROAD CORPORATIONS 
 
 AND THE PUBLIC. 
 
 JOHN W. NOBLE. 
 
 YOUR attention is invited to-day to a con- 
 sideration of the mutual obligations of rail- 
 road corporations and the people, because 
 we all more frequently hear of the rights claimed 
 by others than their corresponding duties and it 
 may not be unprofitable to take a short survey of 
 both. 
 
 Your studies have already led you to investigate 
 the natural laws applicable to railroad building. 
 A knowledge of the laws of matter is essential 
 to this construction and the mechanical opera- 
 tion of the road requires their application with the 
 
nicest precision. Experience has as yet discov- 
 ered but a portion of these laws, but wherever 
 known they are recognized to be supreme. They 
 are immutable. The structures of antiquity that 
 have come down to our own times are maintained 
 on the same principles of natural philosophy as 
 the most recent product or engineering skill. 
 Where these are obeyed there is harmony and 
 strength, but for their violation the penalty is 
 failure and ruin. 
 
 But how different is it as to human institutions. 
 Reared under laws themselves imperfect, they 
 vary as time or locality seems to demand, and in 
 the same nation they change as man's intelligence 
 advances or retrogrades. The corporation is no 
 exception to this observation. When man comes 
 to deal with this legal creation, by whose instru- 
 mentality the railway is formed and operated, he 
 feels no compulsion to obey the laws of the State 
 regarding it He rather strives to test its author- 
 ity, its claim to any right to continue or exist ; 
 and with a desire to have its benefits yet enjoyed, 
 deems it a hardship that corresponding burdens 
 
 86 
 
3 
 
 are imposed. The railroad manager is restless 
 under the interference of the State and the deci- 
 sions of the courts, and the people while trans- 
 ported by the road would be delighted, apparently, 
 to have the corporation demolished. While they 
 would declare the engineer insane, who having 
 wrought some great and beautiful work should at 
 once overweight it to its crashing fall, or the com- 
 munity demented that should insist upon removing 
 the buttresses and stays of the bridge, and expect 
 it to stand, yet when the railroad company begins 
 its career, it is often, not to say generally, deemed 
 as intended merely for private pecuniary gain, or 
 on the other hand, it becomes an object of indi 
 vidual prejudice or public jealousy, although 
 created by, for and under the immediate control 
 of the people and the State. 
 
 We may depend upon it, however, that as there 
 is a law that knits rock to rock and holds bar to 
 bar, or drives the piston or flashes the subtle elec- 
 tric fluid, so that the tower stands, the bridge 
 remains fixed across the flood, and the train 
 reaches its destination on time, so there are laws 
 
 87 
 
4 
 
 that as they allow the creation of corporations 
 will sustain them in so far as those laws of their 
 being are acknowledged or punish when they are 
 broken, and will wrest the advantages they 
 bestow from a people that for long does them in- 
 justice. The created can not sanely hope to con- 
 trol the creator, and it is madness on the other 
 hand to create only to dwarf or destroy. Never- 
 theless we are all aware that we are amidst a so- 
 cial and political conflict arising from the discon- 
 tent of a large portion of our people that deems 
 there is an unauthorized accumulation of wealth 
 in the hands of corporations, and a consequent 
 power with increasing disregard of obligation to 
 the State, and an opposing activity on the part of 
 these bodies to maintain their privileges and pro 
 tect their property against, as they deem, assaults 
 unwarranted by the law and revolutionary in 
 their tendency. This discontent, working to ad- 
 just affairs to new conditions, has brought up for 
 discussion many most important questions affect- 
 ing our present political and social situation and our 
 future national well-being. To the solution of 
 
 88 
 
5 
 
 these public attention can not be too often drawn, 
 for it can not be denied that the best informed do 
 not feel masters of the subject nor able to form 
 conclusions on which they may confidently rely. 
 It certainly is not assumed by the speaker that he 
 can do so. If, however, by a few reflections, he 
 can help to a just estimate of the mutual obliga- 
 tions of railroad corporations and the people his 
 task will not have been undertaken, it is hoped, 
 in vain. 
 
 You will of course understand the subject must 
 be dealt with for the most part in outlines and re- 
 liance placed more upon suggestion than demon- 
 stration on every point, and as we proceed it is 
 hoped you will not, before we are through, attri- 
 bute what is said at any part of the discussion to 
 a partisan spirit, for the personal interest the 
 speaker has is that of neither a corporation official 
 nor a communist, an anarchist nor a bondholder, 
 but only that of a citizen who, like you all, seeks 
 to understand the signs of the times and to ad- 
 vance the public welfare. 
 
It seems essential to this discussion to recur to 
 some first principles at the risk of being thought 
 to state much that is trite. But as our object is 
 ultimately to deal with obligations it is necessary 
 to bring before us the privileges and benefits en- 
 joyed, all of which have their source in established 
 law and constitutional government. 
 
 Let us then first consider the corporation, and 
 particularly the railroad corporation, and what the 
 State has made it, upon what consideration this 
 has been done, and whether it is claiming more 
 than is warranted it, and whether there is any 
 reason for jealousy of, or discontent with, its action. 
 And, on the other hand, what benefits the people 
 have derived or wrongs suffered from the railroad 
 corporation, and whether there are any substantial 
 grounds to fear legal obligations will not be ob- 
 served, and how, in either case, if abuses exist 
 or dangers threaten, the remedy is to be applied. 
 
 What, then, let us recall, are some of the grants 
 the State through its Legislature conveys and of 
 the privileges it has through its courts bestowed 
 upon these bodies ; for it is true that to the fran 
 
 90 
 
7 
 
 chises originally granted to the corporation by 
 statute the courts of the United States have super- 
 imposed other attributes which have led to most 
 important results, and, among others, placed the 
 decision of corporate rights and obligations largely 
 in the courts of the United States as distinguished 
 from the courts of the several States. 
 
 The growing spirit of antagonism to which we 
 have referred is marked in its disposition to find 
 
 fault with established definitions, and men of but 
 
 i 
 
 slight experience do not hesitate to challenge the 
 expositions given us by Chief Justice Marshall, 
 Justice Story, Daniel Webster, and other eminent 
 founders of our institutions, and plunging headlong 
 against these tempest-worn but yet unshaken but- 
 tresses of constitutional law. Definitions, legal 
 procedure, and constitutional guarantees are ques 
 tioned because they are fixed and will not give 
 way to the theories of late indulged in. The ar- 
 rayed forces seem to feel they could manage better 
 with less law and cut a arger figure in affairs if 
 the fatherly State would let them alone. But let 
 us remember that these very forms were made to 
 
8 
 
 meet just the condition we find at hand a pas- 
 sionate and unreasoning, if not uninformed, spirit 
 of change ; and that the fundamental principles of 
 our Government and the rules for its due admin- 
 istration have been written so as to be read of all 
 men in lines as if engraven on stone and of au- 
 thority derived from the experience of our race. 
 
 We may then, it is submitted, be old-fashioned 
 without being deemed entirely out of fashion, and 
 quote, as has been done for so many years, the 
 words of Chief Justice .Marshall : 
 
 The corporation is "the mere creature of law; 
 it possesses only those properties which the char- 
 ter of its creation confers upon it, either expressly, 
 or as incidental to its very existence. These are 
 such as are supposed best calculated to effect the 
 object for which it was created. Among the most 
 important are immortality, and, if the expression 
 may be allowed, individuality ; properties by 
 which a perpetual succession of many persons are 
 considered as the same and may act as a single 
 individual. They enable a corporation to manage 
 ts own affairs, and to hold property, without the 
 
 92 
 
9 
 
 perplexing intricacies, the hazardous and endless 
 necessity of perpetual conveyances for the pur- 
 pose of transmitting it from hand to hand. It is 
 chiefly for the purpose of clothing bodies of men, 
 in succession, with these qualities and capacities, 
 that corporations were invented and are in use. 
 By this means, a perpetual succession of individ- 
 uals are capable of acting for the promotion of 
 the particular object like one immortal being." * 
 Were the attributes mentioned by the Chief 
 Justice the only, as they were the most general 
 and prominent ones, with which the corporation is 
 clothed, they were enough to have led to its rapid 
 adoption in our country for the transaction of 
 business affairs and the control of property. It 
 was already in the days of Marshall a rapidly de- 
 veloping result from the advancing spirit of the 
 age and of our republican institutions that com- 
 merce and all great ventures and enterprises 
 should be undertaken by associated action. The 
 corporation was itself similar to a republic in form. 
 Its shareholders were its constituents, its directors 
 
 * Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 4 Wheaton, 636. 
 
 93 
 
10 
 
 its legislative body, and its purposes executed 
 through its president or other chief officers. It 
 was not dissolved by the death of any of its mem- 
 bers like a copartnership, and it brought together 
 the means of many to form a capital, and while 
 those contributing were relieved from the immedi- 
 ate care of the business, they shared in the profits. 
 The American was not slow to recognize it as'a 
 most desirable business form and one akin to this 
 new republic. Indeed, President Eliott, in his 
 book, "American Contributions to Civilization/' 
 affirms the corporation is an agency for training 
 masses of people to the high virtues of fidelity and 
 loyalty, and though no longer an exclusively dem- 
 ocratic agency it has given strong support to dem- 
 ocratic institutions. 
 
 But in the case from which the definition stated 
 has been quoted, there was declared a new, addi- 
 tional and most important principle applicable to 
 the relation of these bodies to the State ; and that 
 was that in granting a charter the State made a 
 contract with the corporation, the obligation of 
 which could not be afterwards impaired by the 
 
 94 
 
II 
 
 State, under the inhibition of the Constitution of 
 the United States. This decision was made in 
 1819. Many corporations then existed indeed, 
 but they were few in number and feeble in 
 power compared with those that soon thereafter 
 began to form in all the States for business pur- 
 poses, and that movement was impelled, no doubt, 
 in part, by the great additional security given by 
 the decision just mentioned. Justice Story, at 
 the period stated, to illustrate the difference be- 
 tween a public and a private corporation, could 
 cite as examples of those whose objects and op- 
 erations partook of a public nature, only banks, 
 insurance, canal, bridge and turnpike companies. 
 It was but comparatively a short period, however, 
 before not only the corporations greatly increased 
 in numbers, but the railroad company appeared. 
 But from the beginning there was a spirit of jeal- 
 ousy toward all these organizations and of criti- 
 cism of their influence prevalent. A signal 
 instance of this opposition appeared in the case of 
 Bank of Augusta against Earle, decided in the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, about 
 
 95 
 
12 
 
 twenty years after the Dartmouth case, in which 
 the question was whether a corporation could 
 make a valid contract beyond the confines of the 
 State in which the corporation was created. 
 Counsel of eminence argued this question not 
 only with learning and all the logic at their com- 
 mand, but with very considerable personal feeling 
 and the court decided it with great consideration. 
 It was a question that, judging from his laborious 
 and earnest argument before the court, gave to 
 Daniel Webster, as a statesman and a patriot, 
 great uneasiness. 
 
 Mr. Ingersoll, voicing the feeling and judgment 
 of many, said : 
 
 " At the period of our independence, there were 
 few, if any, corporations, and no banking corpo- 
 rations in America. * * * Not until long after 
 the American Revolution had the corporation be- 
 gun to germinate, and only within a very few 
 years last past has it attained a growth which 
 overshadows all our institutions. Philosophical 
 guards of this formidable imperium in imperio can 
 not be dispensed with without enabling a vast 
 
 96 
 
13 
 
 engine of factitious wealth to crush commun- 
 ties." 
 
 On the other hand, Mr. Ogden, one of the 
 counsel, argued, that: 
 
 " One of the most important objects and inter- 
 ests for the preservation of the Union is the estab- 
 lishment of railroads, and they could not get on 
 without the power to make contracts, such as 
 were then in question." 
 
 These references and quotations show the ad- 
 vance of the corporation in those few years into 
 the broad fields of insurance, manufacturing and 
 transportation, and illustrate how the courts were 
 adapting the powers of corporations, as they ex- 
 isted at common law, to the peculiar relations 
 between the National Government and those of 
 the several States. And we are able to perceive 
 how the genius of our statesmen had to emanci- 
 pate itself from the strict construction of former 
 legal relations to give free scope to our institu- 
 tions. Mr. Webster himself remarked, " We have 
 no second LaPlace, and we never shall have, with 
 his Mechanique politique, able to define and de- 
 
 97 
 
14 
 
 scribe the order of each sphere in our political 
 system, with mathematical precision. There is 
 no such thing as arranging these governments of 
 ours by the laws of gravitation, so that they will 
 be sure to go on forever without impinging." 
 There had to be adaptation of means to the new 
 and then experimental form of our government, 
 and our country was indeed fortunate to have had 
 statesmen then who were equal to the task. We 
 need such men now. The field is open, my 
 young friends, and you need not hesitate to enter. 
 You will not only have to enter, but to act. 
 
 Let us next note how corporations were au- 
 thorized to sue or be sued in the United States, 
 for from this much of importance has resulted. 
 At the period of the Augusta Bank decision it was 
 accepted .doctrine of the United States Supreme 
 Court, that under that clause of the Constitution 
 giving to United States Courts jurisdiction in suits 
 between citizens of different States, a corporation 
 could there sue, or be sued, only when all its 
 members (or stockholders) were actually citizens 
 of the State where the corporation was created. 
 
It could not be affirmed broadly that a corporation 
 was a citizen, and the question was then, how 
 could it sue, or be sued, in a United States Court ? 
 The Supreme Court first held that the artificial 
 being the mere legal entity a corporation aggre 
 gate was not a citizen, and could not sue or be 
 sued in the courts of the United States unless the 
 rights of the members in this respect could be ex- 
 ercised in their corporate name. Subsequently it 
 announced that a corporation created by and doing 
 business in a particular State was to be deemed, 
 to all intents and purposes, as a person, although 
 an artificial person, an inhabitant of the same 
 State, for the purposes of its corporation, capable 
 of being treated as a citizen of that State as much 
 as a natural person ; and especially in the manner 
 in which it can sue and be sued, it was substan- 
 tially, within the meaning of the law, a citizen of 
 the State which created it. These propositions 
 are very familiar to us now, but they were in 
 those days by no means self-evident nor acknowl- 
 edged by many ; and had those presiding in our 
 courts not been statesmen, as well as learned 
 
 99 
 
i6 
 
 Judges, the corporation of to-day would have been 
 for original jurisdiction in the hands of the State 
 courts. Shortly afterwards the courts rather in- 
 veighed against the opinion that the corporation 
 should not be deemed entitled to sue in the na- 
 tional courts, or that other suitors- should be com- 
 pelled to sue the corporation in the State courts, 
 where, it was said, the suitor must contend with 
 powerful corporations in local courts, and where 
 the chances of impartial justice would be greatly 
 against him, and where no prudent man would 
 engage with such an antagonist if he could help it. 
 And it was decided that members of the corporate 
 body must be presumed to be citizens of the State 
 in which the corporation was domiciled, and that 
 both parties were estopped from denying it, and 
 this proposition was finally affirmed and is yet the 
 law. Thus we perceive that, in addition to the 
 ordinary powers possessed by corporations, they 
 have been, against the most earnest opposition, 
 declared by the courts to hold charters that are 
 contracts with the States that can not be constitu- 
 tionally impaired by statute or decision ; that they 
 
 100 
 
17 
 
 can make contracts beyond the limits of the States 
 where they are created, unless there is express 
 prohibition by law of the State where the contract 
 is attempted to be made, and that then bodies 
 may sue or be sued in the United States courts as 
 if citizens of States, without inquiry into the ques- 
 tion of the citizenship of the individuals compos- 
 ing them. You will notice, running like a golden 
 thread through the expressions of the courts, that 
 these bodies, and particularly the railroads, should 
 be thus endowed in support of the union of these 
 States ; and so that the political system then new 
 in operation should not, by too technical decisions 
 of the national tribunals, become an instrument of 
 injustice, and thus fail of the purpose for which it 
 was created. Corporations thus became, in a 
 sense, nationalized. And it is further to be noted 
 that in their opinions rendered and their conclu- 
 sions reached in days so long ago the particular 
 questions now agitated between capital and labor 
 were not in view any more than railroads were 
 when the court was illustrating the subject before 
 it by reference to canals and turnpikes. There 
 
 (2) 101 
 
i8 
 
 was indeed great political agitation as to the banks, 
 and especially the United States Bank, and polit- 
 ical parties were fierce in their support or opposi- 
 tion to these particular institutions ; but the ques- 
 tions to-day so prominent were not up, nor were 
 the decisions named made in view of them. We 
 have now come upon new questions indeed, but 
 the lessons of the past give us reason to believe 
 that they are not beyond adjustment if we adhere 
 to reason and have the wisdom the fathers had. 
 
 Corporations are not in our times usually given 
 perpetual succession, or " immortality," as it was 
 termed by the Chief Justice, but only a continual 
 existence for a number of years. They do enjoy, 
 however, under the decisions of the Court, indi- 
 viduality. Their legal entity is not only equiva- 
 lent in the law to that of persons for the purpose 
 of their creation, but there are added thereto 
 many advantages in the way of franchises that 
 individuals do not possess. And the corporation 
 itself, by almost universal rule, now has itself 
 also the right to mortgage or otherwise encumber 
 and so, if necessary, dispose of all its franchises, 
 
 102 
 
19 
 
 other than that to be a corporation. And when 
 we speak of those engaged in what is deemed 
 public business, and particularly railroad compa- 
 nies, there is added the further and most important 
 right of eminent domain ; the power to take pri- 
 vate property for corporate use, without the own- 
 er's consent, and indeed because he will not con- 
 sent to voluntarily dispose of it upon an offer of 
 an alleged fair remuneration. It matters not how 
 dear from the associations of his life the property 
 thus sought may be to the owner ; how much 
 adorned ; by what labor and care of years pre- 
 served for a home ; or valuable to himself for his 
 own business purposes, the State confers upon 
 the public corporation so much of its sovereign 
 power as will enable it to appropriate upon just 
 compensation, the real estate necessary to its own 
 use. And we may lastly observe that the State 
 declares the roads and bridges thus established 
 are public highways, but with the right of the 
 corporations to demand toll for transporting 
 thereon freight and passengers ; and while the 
 theory may exist-that others could also use these 
 
 103 
 
20 
 
 roads, being public highways, yet in practical 
 effect there is given to the particular bodies con- 
 structing and owning them, the exclusive posses- 
 sion and use. These highways, moreover, when 
 extended from State to State have a business that 
 because it is between the several States or for- 
 eign nations, secures it the protection of the na- 
 tional government, which has the exclusive power 
 to regulate interstate commerce and the property 
 of such corporations is protected by the same 
 power in case of assault under the forms of law 
 or incidentally. 
 
 This short synopsis of the privileges conferred 
 brings into view the peculiar and valuable rights 
 and privileges conferred on these bodies by the 
 State. Multiply these considerations by the num- 
 ber of these bodies, already existing, extending 
 through all our States and territories, authorized 
 by the State and by the Government of the United 
 States, uniting so as to form continuous lines of 
 transportation, some crossing the continent and 
 many projecting through many States, and the 
 privileges conferred may be appreciated by meas- 
 
 104 
 
21 
 
 uring the obvious power bestowed. Our railroads 
 have about two hundred thousand miles of track 
 and transport annually nearly 800,000,000 tons of 
 freight and more than 500,000,000 passengers ; 
 they are served by nearly a million employes, and 
 their liabilities in stock and funded debt amount, 
 apparently, to over nine thousand million dollars 
 of capital ; while statistics indeed fail to adequately 
 present the vast amount of property, business and 
 employment held, whether in great combinations 
 or in ordinary business possession, by other corpo- 
 rate bodies engaged in pursuits of almost endless 
 variety, banking, insurance, real estate, mining, 
 river or canal transportation, manufacturing, trad 
 ing in wares of every kind, and so on as to every 
 human occupation. 
 
 Whether we contemplate the benefit to the real 
 owners of a single corporation or the general ben 
 efit enjoyed by the great mass of these bodies, 
 the advantages bestowed are of a nature and ex- 
 tent that no one can pretend do not carry with 
 them great corresponding obligations. And this 
 brings us to present the consideration for which 
 
 105 
 
22 
 
 these rights and privileges and favors have been 
 bestowed. This, like so many of the great prin- 
 ciples on which our Government laws rest, was 
 declared by Chief Justice Marshall. He said : 
 
 " The objects for which a corporation is created 
 are universally such as the Government wishes 
 to promote. They are deemed beneficial to the 
 country ; and this benefit constitutes the consid- 
 eration, and in most cases the sole consideration, 
 of the grant." 
 
 This lega.1 proposition does not mean that any 
 and every mere material development of its re- 
 sources or accommodation to its inhabitants is the 
 sole benefit the country is entitled to receive from 
 the public corporation to which the State grants 
 existence and power. It means all this indeed, 
 but it means also that in the exercises of its fran- 
 chises the corporation shall primarily regard and 
 promote the public welfare as the sole considera- 
 tion upon which it can claim to continue its career 
 or existence. " The act of incorporation is for the 
 benefit of the unincorporated as much as for the 
 incorporated." 
 
 106 
 
23 
 
 If the charter is a contract, it must be sup- 
 ported by a consideration moving each party to 
 make it, and that to the State is the promotion of 
 the public welfare. If it can make contracts be- 
 yond the limits of the State where created it 
 rests not alone upon comity, but upon the claim 
 ' it has to the privileges and immunities in other 
 States it enjoys when created, and subject to the 
 obligation to support elsewhere, as at home, the 
 public welfare ; if it may sue or be sued in the 
 United States Courts it is because the national 
 government has extended to it the protection of 
 its forum for the promotion of justice and the pro- 
 tection of the vast material interests within cor- 
 porate control, and that it has been deemed from 
 the earliest days of our national existence, could 
 not be safely left to the State courts and juries. 
 And if the sovereign right of eminent domain has 
 been bestowed upon them, it has been because 
 individual interests of the most sacred proprietary 
 character have been deemed insignificant in com- 
 parison with the public good these bodies are 
 expected to secure and the public welfare they 
 
 107 
 
24 
 
 have promised to support. Under other forms of 
 government no titled personages, or private sub- 
 jects have ever been so highly favored. The 
 grants to Lord Baltimore or William Penn, though 
 munificent, sink into insignificance with those 
 rights and privileges given to such a corporation 
 as the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and in 
 the aggregate enjoyed by the hundreds of railroad 
 corporations in the United States, either singly or 
 in combination with each other. In either case 
 there was undoubtedly in contemplation by the 
 State the development of the natural resources of 
 the country, the population of new territory, and 
 thus to increase the strength of the sovereign 
 government. But there was then, as there is 
 now, with the grant the underlying and impera- 
 tive duty imposed of loyalty to the State, fidelity 
 to the interests of its people, and justice with un- 
 questionable integrity in all business relations. 
 
 Hence we may say that the first great obliga- 
 tion of all corporations, and particularly of all pub- 
 lic corporations, such as railroad companies, is 
 scrupulous fidelity to their public trust. 
 
 108 
 
25 
 
 It will not be here claimed, of course, that those 
 seeking the grant of the privileges conferred, may 
 not be properly moved by the purpose of making 
 a personal pecuniary profit thereby, but this must 
 be, necessarily, in view of the grants they secure, 
 subordinate to the interest of the State and with 
 a view to advance the public welfare. 
 
 Creatures of the law's creation, they do not, 
 and should not, attempt to make, control or evade 
 the law, but, from the very source of their origin, 
 should be the most of all obedient thereto and the 
 supporters, without guile or undue influence, of a 
 just administration of the government, and sin- 
 cerely regardful of the enjoyment by others of 
 their rights and privileges as inhabitants and 
 citizens. 
 
 This seems a plain proposition and worthy of 
 all acceptation. That it is present as an influence, 
 either in the minds of those who operate these 
 corporations, or even of 'others who have to deal 
 with them and fear their power, may well be de- 
 nied. The possessors of the privileges conferred 
 strive to make the greatest profit they can, and 
 
 109 
 
26 
 
 leave it to others to look out for themselves, and 
 the citizen rather considers the personal disad- 
 vantage he may suffer or fear. But neither the 
 one nor the other thinks of the source of the ex- 
 istence of the grant or the superior obligation be- 
 cause thereof, resting on the creature to obey the 
 law of its creator, that the public interests may be 
 served. 
 
 Let it not be supposed that these remarks are 
 made from any want of appreciation of the great 
 and manifold benefits derived by the people from 
 their existence and operation, of railroads. The 
 speaker needs not go to history to learn the 
 changes for the better brought about by these 
 bodies. It is within the lifetime of many now liv- 
 ing that the first were constructed in our Western 
 States. The time can yet be well remembered 
 when our legislators, dispersing at the end of a 
 session, went to their homes by the turnpike, or 
 by the dirt roads radiating from the capital. The 
 vehicle of the traveler or of the common carrier 
 was the old stage coach, while the mail was car- 
 ried on the horse in the days of Cowper by the 
 
 1 10 
 
27 
 
 postman with spattered boots and frozen locks. 
 No railroads existed to any considerable extent 
 throughout the middle States and none at all in 
 the great west. Manufacturing, to the small 
 extent carried on, and merchandizing were alto- 
 gether in the hands of individuals. Good roads, 
 so essential to the development of a country, to 
 its advance in intelligence, comfort and civiliza- 
 tion, were wanting. With a foresight and patriot- 
 ism that marked him the greatest statesman and 
 endeared him then to his fellow citizens, as it does 
 his memory now to his countrymen, Henry 
 Clay strove not unsuccessfully for internal im- 
 provements, and had brought into existence the 
 great National Road running to the west; but 
 with all his genius he had not conceived, as no 
 man could, the wonderful development by rail- 
 roads that have since transformed the country. 
 He had advocated a public policy which he 
 believed would develop manufactures in the 
 United States, but he did not, as no man could, 
 conceive of the awakening of that spirit of inven- 
 tion that has united the people of all our States 
 
 in 
 
28 
 
 by the power of instant communication of intelli- 
 gence, the rapid dissemination of printed or writ- 
 ten information and the transportation of freight 
 and persons over mountains and plains, from one 
 confine to another with a celerity and precision, 
 then inconceivable. He, however, had a sublime 
 faith in the people, a love of our country, and he 
 knew that its commerce beneath the State would 
 arise to gigantic force and in time occupy by some 
 means all the wide area of our land, and hold by 
 its unyielding grasp the Union together. The 
 railroad corporations have been that means in 
 large part. They have spanned the continent. 
 They have united every hamlet, not only with 
 the capitals of the States, but with the national 
 capital. The people and the United States gov- 
 ernment having removed the savage tribes and 
 cleared the way for them, and paid to build them 
 in great part, they have, in conjunction with 
 other corporations, supplying them improvements 
 and assistance in various forms, made a journey 
 from San Francisco to New York a pleasant jaunt 
 of a few days. They have made it possible for 
 
 112 
 
2Q 
 
 the merchant in most distant parts to visit easily 
 any metropolis to purchase and again to sell 
 through a wide expanse of territory, and to com- 
 munities before inaccessible. They have pro- 
 duced incomes which great multitudes of our 
 people have enjoyed, and they have employed 
 masses of men with labor more or less requited. 
 They have transported our mails and carried our 
 troops, and upon due compensation performed 
 many of their public duties. More might be said 
 in this regard, but you have probably been told of 
 these things by others who have preceded me. 
 Many persons seem to think the railroad corpora- 
 tions have made our country, but the truth is our 
 country and our people have made, not only the 
 railroads, but the corporations that have solicited 
 the franchise to manage them for the States' pur- 
 poses. Enough has been expressed to remove 
 the thought that what has been done by them has 
 not been valuable and of great benefit and is duly 
 appreciated. 
 
 But to have done well in some, or even many 
 and very important particulars, is but a return in 
 
 113 
 
30 
 
 part to the State of the great consideration due 
 for the privileges conferred. The full measure of 
 that return requires there should have been no 
 delinquencies affecting the public welfare, and 
 certainly no complaint made if such be pointed 
 out and reformation suggested. 
 
 Without endeavoring on this occasion to enter 
 upon an exhaustive statement of the delinquencies 
 of corporations in their relations to the public, but 
 rather to illustrate by a few examples, the sub- 
 ject we are considering, and not attributing the 
 misconduct of their affairs by any means to all 
 such bodies, one as time presses may be prom- 
 inently mentioned as a gross violation of corpo- 
 rate obligation and that which has been the least 
 controlled by statute or court decision. This is 
 the creation of bonded indebtedness far beyond 
 the actual value of the property represented and 
 on which, by mortgage or other form of lien, such 
 liability is professed to be secured. Whatever 
 effort has been made by the State to restrain this 
 evil, has been either too feeble to be effective, or 
 too vague to be enforced ; and while there have 
 
 114 
 
been many foreclosures and sales of property, 
 there have been few or no proceedings by the 
 State to enforce such restriction as may have 
 been enacted, by forfeiture of the franchises en- 
 joyed or the punishment of those officers perpe 
 trating the wrong, as there should have been. 
 
 The aggregate amount of bonded indebtedness 
 of the railroad companies of the United States 
 over and above any fair or even liberal valuation 
 of their property is not only in itself immense, 
 but the reckless disregard of the first principles 
 of fair dealing in such matters has been shown in 
 our courts of justice for many years past and is 
 daily developing. On the 180,000 miles of road 
 equipped the funded debt is over five billion dol- 
 lars ; and the capital stock is about as much more. 
 This little corporate republic has not, in every in- 
 stance, been worthy of its parent in integrity, nor 
 inherited that regard for the rights of others its 
 extraction would lead us to expect. A property, 
 whether of ordinary or of very great value, either 
 in possession or in expectation of acquisition by 
 the company, is first represented by a capital 
 
32 
 
 stock that were there to be no immediate encum- 
 brances whatever on the assets, would be deemed 
 largely fictitious. Every corporation is debtor to 
 its capital, and its possessions should be sufficient 
 in actual value to meet this liability. It is indeed 
 true that these assets need not be real property 
 or other tangible things, but may consist in those 
 very franchises the State has conferred, or the 
 benefits derivable from the use of the other prop- 
 erty singly or in connection with other like pos- 
 sessions. " The capital stock of a corporation 
 and the shares in a joint stock company represent 
 not only the tangible property, but also the in- 
 tangible, including therein the corporate franchises 
 and all contracts, privileges and good will of the 
 concern." But with every allowance for the in- 
 tangible with the tangible, the excessive capitali- 
 zation of very many companies, is not only obvi- 
 ous on the most cursory examination of their 
 condition, but is exhibited in the prices of the 
 stock in the exchanges of the country, ranging at 
 a few cents on its par value. It makes its first 
 appearance on the lists dwarfed and discredited. 
 
 116 
 
33 
 
 To this liability there is added, not only the bonds 
 issued for the construction of the company, as a 
 first mortgage, and which itself demonstrates that 
 the stock has not been issued for any pecuniary 
 equivalent to the company, which otherwise 
 would be sufficient in itself to have built the road, 
 but the first encumbrance is followed in time by 
 another and that by another and so on, until the 
 blanket mortgage is created whose value is but 
 small and whose purpose and early effect is to 
 put the property into the hands of a receiver, to 
 effect a sale ; and through a syndicate of a por- 
 tion of the holders of these last bonds obtain the 
 possession of the effects and franchises of the 
 old company and create a new one free from the 
 old and unsecured legal liabilities and frequently 
 with a scaling of the prior mortgages. Were 
 there no other evil than such willful and unprin- 
 cipled disruption of the system intended by the 
 State and covenanted to the State to be perpetu- 
 ated for the term of the corporate existence, it 
 would be such a violation of the obligation of the 
 corporation to the people, as is unpardonable. 
 
 (3) 
 
34 
 
 But it, in most cases, inflicts much greater wrong. 
 For in the case of a railroad very often many 
 bonded obligations of other and dependent roads 
 are thus almost absolutely destroyed. These are 
 those obligations secured on branch roads or 
 leased lines built by small and separate corpora- 
 tions which alone are legally and primarily liable 
 on the bonds, and whose roads would not be 
 deemed at all a sufficient security but for the con- 
 nection with the greater company, which takes 
 the leases and promises or guarantees the pay- 
 ment of a sufficient rent to pay the interest on 
 the branch mortgages as it accrues. But this 
 promise or guaranty is not itself secured by the 
 main company by lien on any of its own property, 
 and stands on the footing of a merely general ob- 
 ligation, and is made before the blanket incum- 
 brance. And so it results that on the foreclosure 
 on the main or lessee's road, and the utter bank- 
 ruptcy of the older company and its disappear- 
 ance from the field of operation, the holders of 
 the bonds on the leased lines are thrown back on 
 to their original and insufficient security and nec- 
 
 118 
 
35 
 
 essarily suffer an immense loss of the principal 
 invested, with all the intermediate loss of income 
 and in many cases with great individual suffering. 
 For these bonds have been made to sell, and by 
 adroit means are put into the hands of small 
 holders, men, women, trustees for minors and of 
 various charitable and educational institutions, 
 which have, with no sufficient understanding of 
 the insecurity of the guaranty, been misled and 
 seduced by the temporary good reputation of the 
 main company. 
 
 This is not an illustration taken from a single 
 instance, but is drawn from many and notorious 
 instances of railroad management, and is men- 
 tioned, not to harm, but to protect. Nor has the 
 evil ceased. The country is by no means fully 
 supplied with railroads. There will be at least as 
 many more built as already exist, and promoters 
 are to be found ready to sacrifice every principle 
 of honor and play the old game. In some such 
 instances it is charitable to suppose the ultimate 
 disaster was unanticipated, and that it was not 
 intended originally to make the last and destruc- 
 
 119 
 
36 
 
 tive mortgage ; although in such cases it can not 
 be deemed other than an evasive contrivance that 
 left the guaranty unsecured ; but in most cases it 
 has been apparent that the branches then built 
 were leased, and the bonds of these branches 
 floated to the enrichment of either the directors or 
 others interested in the main line, or outside par- 
 ties who were .dishonestly favored. There was 
 no purpose to give to the State its due consider- 
 ation ; no sincere regard for the public welfare. 
 Besides those held by our own people such bonds 
 in the aggregate of immense value are held in 
 other countries, and when such losses are in- 
 curred, not only is dissatisfaction with govern- 
 ment created at home, but the fair fame of the 
 State is tarnished abroad. 
 
 And more than this. While the corporation is 
 able to continue as a going concern, the struggle 
 to pay interest on such an immense fictitious debt, 
 and pay dividends on stock so issued besides, 
 leads necessarily to constant efforts to reduce all 
 ordinary expenses of operation, and among the 
 rest to cut the wages of employes to the greatest 
 
 120 
 
37 
 
 degree possible. Discontent is thus engendered 
 among the bodies of laborers employed, and if the 
 strike is not precipitated, many are thrown out of 
 employment who otherwise it would be desirable 
 to have at work, and the State again suffers from 
 the feeling that it is not adequate to control the 
 wrongdoers, and who are dealing out injustice to 
 those by whose favor their privileges have been 
 bestowed. 
 
 Why this evil is allowed to continue and repeat 
 its work as it does, constantly, it is hard to con- 
 ceive. With the power of the State to prevent 
 it ; with the people, those with capital and those 
 who labor, the sufferers from it; and both means 
 and motive at hand to govern, yet the State does 
 not govern. It would be far easier to have a 
 board to pass upon the right to issue bonds or 
 incur engagements for liabilities to others, which 
 should proceed on thorough investigation of values 
 of the property and already existing debts, if any, 
 by making whose certificate of a sufficiency of 
 assets to justify the indebtedness proposed a 
 necessity, would restrain the corporations either 
 
 121 
 
38 
 
 dishonest, reckless or injudicious action in such 
 matters, than to have those other boards so preva- 
 lent in many States who investigate and appraise 
 the properties for taxation or determine the rates 
 and charges permissible for transportation. In- 
 deed it would seem the natural order of govern- 
 ment to prevent the creation of indebtedness 
 based on fictitious values, prior to and with a view 
 to render easy and desirable lower freights where 
 they are deemed too high, and there is a constant 
 struggle over the question of whether they are 
 just and reasonable. 
 
 "The visitorial or superintending power of the 
 State over corporations created by the legislature 
 may always be exercised, in proper cases, through 
 the medium of the courts of the State, to keep 
 corporations within the limits of their lawful 
 powers and to correct and punish abuses of their 
 franchises. To this end the courts will issue writs 
 of quo warranto, mandamus or injunction, as the 
 exigencies of the particular case require ; will in- 
 quire into the grievance complained of, and, if 
 the same is found to exist, will apply such remedy 
 
 122 
 
39 
 
 as the law prescribes. Every corporation of the 
 State, whether public or private, civil or munici- 
 pal, is subject to this superintending control, al- 
 though in its exercise different rules may be ap- 
 plied to different classes of corporations." * 
 
 It is to this evil, also, that is to be ascribed the 
 dissatisfaction now prevalent with the adminis- 
 tration of railroads through receiverships by the 
 United States Courts. These cases, as we 
 have seen, come into the United States Courts 
 because of the particular decisions made by the 
 Supreme Court itself to the effect that corpora- 
 tions can sue or be sued in these courts the same 
 as individual citizens can be, and for the reason 
 that the members of a corporation will, for the 
 purposes of jurisdiction, be conclusively presumed 
 to be all citizens of the State where the corpora- 
 tion is created, and on this footing, the corpora- 
 tion can sue or be sued by a citizen of another 
 State or a corporation of another State, in the 
 United States tribunals. The suits in equity 
 are almost all brought for the foreclosure of mort- 
 
 * State v. Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce, 47 Wis. 670-680. 
 123 
 
40 
 
 gages the mortgages of the very class of which 
 we have been speaking, and where there is a 
 professed and actual inability to pay, and where 
 a sale of all the property of the company is con- 
 templated. The receivers appointed by the 
 Court have the power to cut off all leases that 
 are deemed undesirable for the road in hand, and 
 the bondholders secured on the leased property 
 are left to their own devices to realize on these 
 separated properties. The receivers are allowed 
 to incur liabilities, which are indeed the debts of 
 the court itself, and therefore, take priority in 
 lien over the very mortgage being foreclosed, and 
 depreciate these bonds still more, while a very 
 great sum in cash has to be paid the receivers 
 themselves for their services, to the master in 
 chancery, and still other sums to the solicitors of 
 different interests represented ; and after all these 
 are paid the remainder of the proceeds is dis- 
 tributed to the bondholders of the foreclosed 
 mortgage. During the years that the receiver- 
 ship is progressing to these ends, the railroad is 
 kept a going concern, both because it has a pub- 
 
 124 
 
41 
 
 lie business to carry on and because it is deemed 
 it will so bring more at the sale as a going con- 
 cern than it would were it allowed to lie unop- 
 erated. Delays are proverbially dangerous, and 
 so it has not infrequently happened that during 
 those attendant upon foreclosure, strikes by labor 
 organizations occur and either directly or indirectly 
 involve the particular property in the custody of 
 the court, and thereupon the court issues its writ 
 of injunction forbidding all persons from interfer 
 ing with the property it for the time controls, and 
 as has sometimes happened also writs of assist- 
 ance to support the receiver. Under the writ of 
 injuction arrests may be made of all violating it, 
 as in contempt of court, and the writ of assist- 
 ance may call forth the whole executive power of 
 the government. 
 
 The country is now agitated by the discussion 
 of the justice or necessity of these judicial pro- 
 ceedings which end, under the circumstances men- 
 tioned, in arrest and punishment by fine and 
 imprisonment of offenders upon investigation by 
 the Court, without intervention of a jury trial, 
 
 125 
 
42 
 
 and without review by any other tribunal if the 
 Court originally acting has had jurisdiction, and 
 so we have the cry against government by injunc- 
 tion. Without at this point entering into a dis- 
 cussion of the merits of this controversy, the fact 
 remains that in most instances these stringent 
 remedies by judicial proceedings are directly the 
 result of the original wrong of an unjust not to 
 say dishonest creation of indebtedness and because 
 the bankrupt concern is taken into the United 
 States Courts. These courts thus incur the dis- 
 like of both the great number of bondholders who 
 suffer such great loss from the inadequacy of their 
 security and the very great expense of realizing 
 on what they have, and on the other hand of 
 those who, however misguided and unreasonable 
 feel the heavy hand of authority laid upon them 
 for their illegal and indefensible proceedings. A 
 judge of the United States Circuit Court, of 
 judgment and experience, in a recent address 
 before the American Bar Association, has pointed 
 out the injurious effect of these causes upon the 
 esteem, respect and obedience heretofore given by 
 
 126 
 
43 
 
 all the people to our national judiciary, and he 
 therein, among many other valuable suggestions, 
 remarks : 
 
 "The abuses which too liberal charters and 
 insufficient visitorial power permit, are either for 
 the State Legislatures or the State Executive and 
 Courts, by quo warranto to correct and remedy. 
 State laws which should forbid the issue of stock 
 or the issue of bonds by any corporation until 
 after an examination by a State Board of Su- 
 pervision into the affairs of the company, and a 
 certificate that the assets justify it, would do much 
 in this direction. The Federal Courts can do 
 nothing to prevent such abuses, and their action 
 is not usually invoked until the evil is done, and 
 only a bankrupt estate is left to administer." 
 
 This is certainly true, but how great is the con- 
 demnation thereby implied of the want of good 
 faith if not absolute dishonesty, of the corporation 
 management, which unless so checked, is prone 
 to heap up the indebtedness from which the bank- 
 ruptcy comes. Such course of conduct by indi 
 viduals in their private affairs would bring down 
 
 127 
 
44 
 
 upon them the utter condemnation of society; 
 how much more do they violate their obligations 
 who have been favored with the State's confidence 
 that they will work for the public welfare and 
 through this confidence have had conferred upon 
 them some of the highest attributes of sovereignty, 
 and of the privileges of citizenship. What greater 
 wrong than to inflict upon the goverment and its 
 courts the slightest suspicion of weakness or injus- 
 tice in them. 
 
 To restrain this evil would harm no one, but 
 would protect all, even the wrongdoers them- 
 selves. It would prevent no construction of any 
 roads that could have a claim to exist, retard no 
 development of the country, for that would be 
 taken up by those just as capable and more trust- 
 worthy and it would be only so much interference 
 by the State as its dignity and claim to the con- 
 fidence of its constituents demand. Looking to 
 those companies where the financial management 
 has been just, we find peace and abiding security, 
 turning to those where it has been unjust and 
 indefensible we find bankruptcy, litigation, com- 
 
 128 
 
45 
 
 motion and State degradation. The axe should 
 be laid at the root of this obvious and still con- 
 tinuing evil, and the obligation to conduct honestly 
 the financial operations of the corporation should 
 be stringently enforced. 
 
 There is another obligation directly connected 
 with that already discussed, of no less binding 
 force, but where there is exhibited a like disposi- 
 tion of evasion. If the considerations we have 
 presented have weight in illustrating the obliga- 
 tion resting upon those corporations to be more 
 just in incurring obligations voluntarily, they 
 should willingly and promptly respond to the bur- 
 den of taxation, according to the value of their 
 property, under the laws imposing it on the 
 possessions of all in the State and proportion- 
 ately. Yet it has been a strange anomaly in our 
 times that the very property that the corporation 
 itself estimates so highly when it is issuing its 
 bonds and mortgages, it immediately, when called 
 before the taxing assessors, depreciates to an ex- 
 tent that puts it in value proportionately below 
 that of individuals. The assessor imposes upon 
 
 129 
 
4 6 
 
 the lot and house of a citizen a value for taxation 
 often quite as high as it could be sold for and cer- 
 tainly as high as it could be mortgaged for, and 
 the burden has to be met with short discussion. 
 But it is not so with the railroad corporation. 
 The Board of Assessors meet, the companies in- 
 terested are assembled and arguments are heard, 
 value for the most part lessened and a result at- 
 tained that even at the lowest is resisted, and the 
 courts, one after another to the highest, resorted 
 to in the hope that somewhere and somehow the 
 obligation may be avoided or diminished. This 
 has been the case where only the tangible prop- 
 erty of the companies has been the subject of 
 taxation. But when the States determined to in 
 elude the franchises enjoyed the conflict deep- 
 ened. Yet it has been the frequently determined 
 and announced law that these franchises are only 
 grants from the State, but they are protected by 
 constitutional limitations the same as any other 
 property. 
 
 " Corporate franchises are legal estate and not 
 mere naked powers granted to the corporation, 
 
 130 
 
47 
 
 but powers coupled with an interest, which rests 
 in the corporation by virtue of their charter ; and 
 the rule is equally well settled that the privileges 
 and franchises of a private corporation, unless 
 exempted in terms that amount to a contract, are 
 as much the legitimate subjects of taxation as any 
 other property of the citizens within the sovereign 
 power of the State." * 
 
 This opposition has, however, been justified in 
 many instances by a disposition on the part of 
 the State to impose burdens not only unjust, but 
 which, had they been allowed to continue, would 
 have been confiscatory and a depreciation of prop- 
 erty without due process of law. The obligation 
 is mutual to make fair returns and to make only 
 just demands. The power of the State has been 
 used to protect the railroads from violence, and 
 citizens of all ages capable have volunteered to 
 serve in the ranks for this purpose. The State 
 has a superlative right to demand this property 
 shall bear its equal burden for revenue. 
 
 * State railroad tax cases, 92 U. S. 575-610. 
 131 
 
4 8 
 
 Connected nearly with this reluctance to bear 
 the legal burdens of taxation has been that course 
 of conduct that called into being the Interstate 
 Commerce Commission. The plain injustice 
 practiced, before this restraint was imposed, was 
 that the charges or tolls imposed, in many in- 
 stances, for transportation, were neither just nor 
 reasonable. Thus, the freight of one man at a 
 greater distance from the point of destination was 
 charged less than that of another at a nearer dis- 
 tance from the same point, arbitrarily and without 
 any attendant circumstances to justify the discrimi- 
 nation. The States were first aroused to control 
 by legislation this and kindred unjust corporate 
 actions ; and at length the United States estab- 
 lished the commission for the same purpose, known 
 as the Interstate Commerce Commission. " It is 
 competent for the State for traffic wholly within 
 the State, either by direct legislative acts or by 
 the instrumentality of a commission, to superin- 
 tend railroads as public highways, to require them 
 to report their tariffs of charges, and subject them 
 to revision, and to impose reasonable regulations 
 
 132 
 
49 
 
 in respect to their fares and charges ; but not to 
 impose unreasonable charges, so as to be con- 
 fiscatory and so in violation of the Fourteenth 
 Amendment of the Constitution of the United 
 States as being a deprivation of property without 
 due process of law or a denial of the equal protec- 
 tion of the laws." 
 
 "The Interstate Commerce act looks to the 
 prevention of discrimination, to the furn : shing of 
 equal facilities for the interchange of traffic, to 
 the rate of compensation for what is termed the 
 long and the short haul, to the attainment of a 
 continuous passage from the point of shipment to 
 the point of destination, at a known or published 
 schedule," and " without reference to those points 
 on the line over which it is necessary for the 
 traffic to pass ; " to procuring uniformity of rates 
 charged by each company to its patrons and to 
 other objects of a similar nature. 
 
 The act was not directed to the securing of 
 uniformity of rates to be charged by competing 
 companies, nor was there any provision therein 
 as to the maximum or minimum rates. 
 
 (4) 133 
 
50 
 
 And, finally, on this head, we notice that com- 
 bination of railroad corporations either directly or 
 indirectly combining to fix charges to be exacted, 
 and which, among other combinations of like kind 
 by other corporate bodies, gave rise to the legis- 
 lation, State rind national, termed anti-trust laws. 
 
 In U.S. v. Feight Assn., U. S. 166, 319, the 
 Court made the following comment : 
 
 "It is said * * * * that a number of 
 combinations in the form of trusts and conspira- 
 cies in restraint of trade were to be found through- 
 out the country, and it was impossible for the 
 State arid government to successfully cope with 
 them because of their commercial character and 
 their business extension through the different 
 States of the Union. Among these trusts, it was 
 said in Congress, were the Beef Trust, the Stan- 
 dard Oil Trust, the Steel Trust, the Barbed Wire 
 Fence Trust, the Sugar Trust, the Cordage Trust, 
 the Cottonseed Oil Trust, the Whiskey Trust, 
 and many others ; and these trusts, it was stated, 
 had assumed an importance, and had acquired a 
 power which was dangerous to the whole country, 
 
 134 
 
and their existence was directly antagonistic to 
 its peace and prosperity." 
 
 And again : 
 
 "Railways are public corporations organized 
 for public purposes, granted valuable franchises 
 and privileges, among which the right to take 
 the private property of citizens in invitum is not 
 the least ; that many of them are the donees of 
 large tracts of public lands and gifts of money 
 by municipal corporations, and that they owe 
 duties to the public of a higher nature even than 
 that of earning large dividends for their share- 
 holders. The business that railroads do is of a 
 public nature, closely affecting almost all classes 
 in the community, the farmer, the artisan, the 
 manufacturer and the trader. It is of such a 
 public nature that it may well be doubted, to say 
 the least, whether any contract which imposes 
 any restraint upon its business would not be prej- 
 udiced to the public interest. This occasion does 
 not permit a discussion in detail of the merits of 
 the defense to these last named delinquencies ; 
 and we must rest for our right to mention them 
 
 135 
 
52 
 
 as such upon the decisions of the courts that they 
 are existing illegalities, and injurious to the public 
 welfare." 
 
 The obligation to take all precautions available 
 for the protection of the lives of passengers and 
 employes ; to be just in wages, and many others 
 that might be presented are passed, as time will 
 not allow their discussion. 
 
 Having thus considered some of the obligations 
 of the railroad corporations, our subject requires 
 us to turn to those of the people towards these 
 creations of the State. The people may be con- 
 templated either as organized 'in the State, or as 
 the unorganized mass of the community composed 
 of the individual citizens, and let us first consider 
 it in the latter condition, for further on and in 
 conclusion we will have to speak of the State as 
 the collected will, supreme over all in executive 
 power. 
 
 This people may be deemed to hold that field 
 of right and action lying between the supreme 
 constituted authority and the organizations under 
 it, and that in which is reserved all the power un- 
 
53 
 
 delegated to the State. This authority constitu- 
 tional government requires should be exercised 
 under due forms of the law ordained to give ex- 
 pression to the popular will, and yielding willing 
 submission to the ordinance established and to be 
 administered for the welfare of all. 
 
 A fundamental obligation here existing is for 
 the people to protect itself by an intelligent study 
 of the benefits conferred by government and just 
 application of its principles to perpetuate these 
 and to eradicate and prevent the evils affecting 
 society or threatening its welfare. It is an obli- 
 gation resting on every one under a free govern- 
 ment to learn the needs of the people and to ap- 
 ply through a personal exercise of the right of 
 suffrage the measures necessary for their ad- 
 vancement or protection. The neglect to meet 
 this obligation is the source of most of the evils 
 of which society to-day complains, in that it 
 allows opportunity for injustice and corruption 
 without remedy or punishment. It is indeed true, 
 as has been aptly and justly stated by an emi- 
 nent statesman, that "we too much rely upon 
 
 137 
 
54 
 
 the government running itself," and when dissat- 
 isfaction arises from its imperfect working we re- 
 sort to an almost despairing criticism of its useful- 
 ness, or to violent and illegal means for correction. 
 The individual citizen demands for himself the 
 protection, under the law, of his life, liberty and 
 property, and for these, by resistance, war and 
 convention, guarantees have been created and 
 embodied in written constitutions. But these 
 guarantees are safe only under that other resting 
 with the people eternal vigilance, that guaranty 
 of guaranties. They must watch for and protect 
 the benefits evolved, as much as challenge and 
 repel approaching evils. This vigilance should 
 be enlivened by a sense of justice to the rights of 
 all. If impelled by prejudice, distorted by cor- 
 ruption or slothful from indifference, the voting 
 power in a republic is represented by ignorance 
 or the enemies of the very reforms demanded. 
 The fault is not in government, but the governed, 
 and the trust reposed in the citizen is betrayed. 
 It is betrayed as to society, as that is evilly 
 affected ; and the trust is most basely betrayed 
 
55 
 
 as the welfare of future generations is endan- 
 gered. It is a crying complaint of the day that 
 our city municipal governments, our State legis- 
 lation and even our National Congress are influ- 
 enced by corrupt manipulation of members of 
 .these representative bodies. In so far as corpo- 
 rations are instrumental in securing this criminal 
 and destructive conduct, they should be utterly 
 condemned, and if their influences to such ends 
 can not be otherwise stopped, they themselves 
 should be destroyed. It would be better that 
 every benefit they confer should be rejected and 
 other instrumentalities for our advancement se- 
 cured than that the foundations of impartial and 
 exact justice should be impaired or discredited. 
 The remedies already exist and their application 
 with the unsparing severity should be demanded 
 wherever guilt in corporation action is apparent. 
 But if the people's representatives are chosen for 
 the public welfare and not to support some pri- 
 vate advantage, there will be no opportunity for 
 the corruptionist. There is an obligation resting 
 on us all, commensurate with our duty to our- 
 
 139 
 
56 
 
 selves, and indeed under governmental forms in- 
 volved in it. The Constitutions under which we 
 live have been established by great sacrifices and 
 are the result of vast experience by our race. 
 And it is our chief obligation to maintain them 
 with fidelity and courage. To corporations within 
 the meaning of the words as used in the consti- 
 tution, life and liberty can not be aptly applied, 
 as they are when contemplated as the rights of 
 individuals. But corporate bodies are entitled 
 to their legal exercise of such franchises as are 
 bestowed, and in regard to property, including 
 their franchises, they are, equally with the indi- 
 vidual, entitled to the full protection of the law 
 of the land. The obligation to regard these rights 
 rests upon others the same as in relation to indi 
 viduals. Indeed there is not only the same legal 
 obligation, but the moral obligation is just as con- 
 trolling ; for after all, the corporation is composed 
 of individuals, and these have involved in the 
 security of the corporate body their personal wel- 
 fare. Moreover, there can be no impairment of 
 a guaranteed right under the law by either a law- 
 
 140 
 
57 
 
 less attack upon it or a refusal to recognize it be- 
 cause belonging to an owner of one kind of prop- 
 erty or another without it affects the same right 
 in others and in regard to other property. 
 
 There is no safety to the people in the action of 
 those who demand there shall be changes made in 
 the long-established and hitherto well-recognized 
 forms of procedure in the courts by which the 
 guarantees of the Constitution have been en- 
 forced, merely because under the peculiar circum- 
 stances of our own immediate times, calling them 
 into exercise, these forms have exhibited great 
 efficiency. These circumstances have been them- 
 selves most extraordinary and threatening to the 
 public peace, and to the action of the lawless in 
 every instance is to be justly attributed the extra- 
 ordinary remedies used by the courts for the main- 
 tenance of property and government. The proc- 
 esses used have not been novel. Their origin 
 has been traced to the times long past, and their 
 application as recently used approved by the Su- 
 preme Court of the United States. They are a 
 part of the law of the land. They have been 
 
 141 
 
58 
 
 known to all the people when the guaranties we 
 enjoy were ordained by their representatives, and 
 may be fairly said to be a part thereof. The writ 
 of injunction that prohibits a lawless attack upon 
 property, or a reckless obstruction of the functions 
 of government, has proven an efficient process of 
 the law to secure at least a fair hearing on the merits 
 of the case, and prevent the destruction in advance 
 of the very central right to be brought before the 
 court for its consideration and determination. It 
 has not been passionately or inopportunely re- 
 sorted to, and it has wronged no man. What 
 person, against whom the proceeding has been 
 had, has established or sought to maintain that 
 he was innocent of any conduct lawfully subject- 
 ing him to its power? The right of the courts of 
 chancery to issue the writ of injunction and to try 
 by the court itself, violators of its command, with- 
 out appeal, has grown up along with the right of 
 trial by jury. They are both results of the same 
 experience and wisdom, and equally entitled to 
 our confidence as a means of administering justice. 
 Proceedings by and under the writ of injunction 
 
 142 
 
59 
 
 are objected to, chiefly, it would seem, because of 
 their efficacy to determine the guilt of and punish 
 the offender. The complaint seems to be not, 
 indeed, that any one has been unjustly condemned, 
 but that some, if they had only had a jury to try 
 them, might have escaped in any event. It has, 
 indeed, been speedy, but only where forces were 
 to be met that were arrayed and rapidly proceed- 
 ing to lawless and destructive results. Where 
 there is no considerable portion of the community 
 interested in the result, other than that justice 
 should be done, it is often difficult to secure a ver 
 diet, because of the unanimity required to produce 
 it. Taking a time and locality of great commotion 
 among the people, affecting the commerce and 
 social intercourse not only of one section, but of 
 the whole country, now so interdependent in 
 every part upon the harmony of the whole, and 
 have it the law that whatever necessity the court 
 may be convinced exists for restraining an alleged 
 interference with the constitutional rights of a 
 part of the people, it may, indeed, issue its re- 
 straining order, but all violators of it must be tried 
 
6o 
 
 by jury with right of appeal, and who does not 
 believe that the writ will be ineffectual, because 
 its violation will have no sufficient and immediate 
 penalty that men so arrayed and aggressive in 
 great numbers will for a moment regard. The 
 plea for the trial by jury in such cases is to over- 
 throw the restraint that should be imposed on 
 those who would condemn without hearing, pro- 
 ceed without judicial inquiry, and having substan- 
 tially destroyed the right of the opposing party, 
 expect the merits of the claim to be adjudicated 
 afterwards, if at all. This method is akin to that 
 which would disarm the State from protecting its 
 courts, its mails, its treasury or any of its prop- 
 erty by its own right hand, and compel it to await 
 the consent of its constituents whether States or 
 citizens. This is not the safe or reasonable means 
 of government. There is just as much need of a 
 preservation of the subject of controversy by pre- 
 venting its destruction as of adjudicating ultimately 
 to whom the same belongs. 
 
 There is, however, above and beyond all these 
 obligations on the one side and on the other, a 
 
 144 
 
6i 
 
 mutual obligation resting upon citizens among 
 themselves, of corporations, and of the States of 
 the Union and the National Government, of 
 greater forbearance and conciliation, one towards 
 another. We stand among the nations of the 
 world as a self-governing people, and for an hun- 
 dred years and more we have maintained with 
 wonderful success a constitutional republic. The 
 Constitution was framed on compromises. States, 
 small and great, were given for the most part 
 equal power to control legislation ; local institu- 
 tions unapproved by other sections were left 
 unchallenged where they were ; the public lands, 
 owned by some of the States, were bestowed upon 
 the United States, and to the National Govern- 
 ment was given the control of the interstate 
 commerce and that with foreign nations. There 
 was a confidence reposed in the governments of the 
 States and of the United States that they would 
 administer public affairs in justice* and with loy- 
 alty to the republican system. Where franchises 
 were given by the State it was in the belief that 
 they would be exercised for the public good. And 
 
 145 
 
62 
 
 to the people was reserved the power of correct- 
 ing all evils, through the people's virtue, intelli- 
 gence and right of suffrage. And being one 
 people, seeking and enjoying civil and religious 
 liberty, our waste places were rapidly occupied, 
 and neighborly feeling was not confined by State 
 lines, but expanded through all the land. There 
 were political parties, fierce and aggressive in the 
 assertion of their respective principles, but there 
 were no classes; those who lived on their in- 
 comes were not separated from those who de- 
 pended on daily labor. We prospered because 
 we were at peace with ourselves, and had a 
 hearty fellow-citizen attachment for each other. 
 It has resulted that under so much and well pro- 
 tected liberty of individual action, the vast re- 
 sources of our continent in their development 
 have made some rich, a few wonderfully so ; but 
 surely no part of our countrymen are poorer than 
 were a proportionate part of our fathers ; nor, 
 indeed, so poor as they, in either material posses- 
 sions or in all the conveniences of social inter- 
 course and personal enjoyment. Those now 
 
 146 
 
63 
 
 deemed by some 'as in the control of unwarranted 
 privileges of wealth and consequent influence, 
 are the sons and descendants, in most instances, 
 of the poor of our earlier days ; and it is open to 
 common observation that the changes of fortune 
 are so rapid in America as to justify no man in 
 designating as a permanent class, or a class to 
 last from one generation to another, either the 
 rich or the poor. The mouth of the demagogue 
 even, as he stirs up strife against others, is often 
 closed by the advent to himself of sufficient wealth 
 to make him conservative and silent. There is 
 no public opinion to support the attempted dis- 
 crimination of class from class. Public opinion 
 does not mean the opinion of a party or a section 
 or a portion of the community. It is the opinion 
 of the mass of the people of all conditions, and it 
 is based upon the appreciation of fundamental 
 truths acknowledged by all. It is a power more 
 potent than physical force, and it carries with it 
 peace and charity. This public opinion exists 
 and it is in favor of the Republic, and refuses to 
 act upon the pretention that because some differ 
 
 147 
 
6 4 
 
 from others in talents and possession we are not 
 all fellow-citizens, or that this government can 
 not or will not be borne safely through another 
 century. It believes it will, and for many an- 
 other century after this. It has been demon- 
 strated, both in Europe and our own country, 
 that when formerly resort was made to strikes 
 and lockouts, boycotts and riots to attain the ends 
 of employer or employed, and where even arbi- 
 tration as a remedy failed, the system of concilia- 
 tion has been and continues to be effective to 
 allay antagonism and secure all parties in the em- 
 ployment of their mutual rights and enforce their 
 mutual obligations. This system or principle of 
 conciliation is that by which the discontented par- 
 ties are brought to a mutual conference, to talk 
 over their differences, not with a view that one 
 shall control or rule or out-influence or out-vote 
 the other, but that all may come to a fair under- 
 standing of the trouble existing and consult upon 
 a means of adjustment.- Let this principle be ex- 
 tended to all such controversies, and an era of 
 good will will ere long leave to the demagogue 
 
 148 
 
65 
 
 but little of the prejudice, passion and ignorance 
 upon which only he can thrive and disturb com- 
 munities. We may find it difficult to obtain a 
 general acceptation of this system for a while, 
 for we have so many inhabitants now imported 
 who have not yet become imbued with a love or 
 knowledge of either our customs, our affairs or 
 our republican principles, that they can not be ex- 
 pected to be influenced to any considerable degree 
 by a love of our country or an appreciation of our 
 government. But the American spirit yet domi- 
 nates our nation, and will yet bring into harmony 
 and health all these discordant and dangerous ele- 
 ments. Men of affairs everywhere are politic. 
 They know that ultimately success must rest 
 upon that good will which comes from a mutual 
 recognition of each other's rights. 
 
 But, in conclusion, let us not deceive ourselves 
 by hugging to our bosoms delusive hopes that 
 physical force can be dispensed with altogether. 
 
 The State must be supreme, and where nothing 
 but force will serve, must be used to preserve the 
 law and order, and to require that changes, if to 
 
 (5) 149 
 
66 
 
 be made at all, shall proceed along the well- 
 marked paths the constitution itself provides. 
 The ballot-box, the legislative bodies, the con- 
 vention, the orderly expression of the will of the 
 majority of all the citizens, are the only legal 
 means by which the principles of some may be 
 made binding upon all. Whatever obligations 
 exist and however flagrantly disregarded by those 
 upon whom they rest, they can* be enforced only 
 through the forms of legal procedure. Whatever 
 rights men may be entitled to, and however vio- 
 lated, their protection must be sought through the 
 courts and under the sanction of the law. To 
 this end is the State created and armed with 
 power. It must maintain and enforce the law as 
 it is. It guards the weak and restrains the strong 
 until disputed claims may be adjusted. The pur- 
 pose is peace and security, but if violence is re- 
 sorted to to defeat this purpose, it becomes the 
 most violent and restores quiet by superlative 
 aggression and force. It maintains itself by pro- 
 tecting the community. It has the first and pre- 
 eminent right to be and to be respected. Beneath 
 
 150 
 
67 
 
 its protection all are equal in right, and beneath 
 its power none can impose opinions upon others 
 by them unrecognized and unassented to. Its 
 voice is law, and on the field of violence its injunc- 
 tion is the bayonet. The fathers of our republic, 
 the people of this nation, have hitherto prospered 
 most because of a reverence for law, and because 
 any resort to violence was condemned utterly as 
 unrepublican and un-American. Let us not lose 
 this reverence. There is no reason why we 
 should. Our courts have done nothing in secret ; 
 their opinions, when most criticised, have been 
 expressed plainly and upon reasons and authority. 
 Those of our National Supreme Court have been 
 worthy of its high reputation for candor and im- 
 partiality and a high sense of justice. When dis- 
 sent existed it has been fully heard and expressed. 
 Where change of opinion has occurred, it has been 
 upon acknowledged error. The American Courts, 
 State and National, are respected in foreign coun- 
 tries for wisdom, learning and integrity, We have 
 no cause to disparage them at home. They are 
 the product of our republican system. Their 
 
68 
 
 members are patriotic citizens. Those of the 
 States, for the most part, are selected by the peo- 
 ple themselves ; those of the United States, ap- 
 pointed upon the approval of the States through 
 the Senators in Congress. There has been no 
 change in the constitutions of any States that have 
 come into the Union, either at its inception or 
 since, from the plan of making the judiciary co- 
 ordinate with the legislative and executive depart- 
 ments, and there is no reason to believe there 
 ever will be so long as our republican govern- 
 mental form exists. The court is, and must re- 
 main, the sole expounder of the law, and to the 
 enforcement of the law thus expounded and adju- 
 dicated the State and the people stand pledged, 
 not alone by the expressed constitutional provi- 
 sions, but also by an intelligent regard for its own 
 safety of society. Let us, then, ourselves respect 
 the law, and demand that it be obeyed, even if it 
 be respected not by others, and let us each per- 
 form his own obligations, whether as an individual 
 or in any representative capacity, and when dif- 
 ferences arise let us seek their peaceful settlement 
 
 152 
 
69 
 
 by conciliation and good will. But, if it can not 
 be otherwise, let us maintain the State, its courts, 
 its laws, by whatever of power to secure the 
 right God has given us. 
 
 53 
 
IV. 
 
 RELATION OF RAILWAYS TO THE 
 STATE.* 
 
 ADDISON C. HARRIS. 
 
 {purpose to discuss the relation of railways 
 to the state, to the people, and to their em- 
 ployes. To-day the subject will be that 
 of railways to the state. By state, I do not mean 
 simply an American state, but rather the whole 
 people of a body politic in the sense of a common- 
 wealth or nation. 
 
 Every community, savage or civilized, will in 
 some manner have means of travel and inter- 
 communication. The Indians made trails through 
 the forests. In Africa the country is covered 
 with a network of paths that lead from village to 
 
 * Reported by Miss Merrill. 
 
 155 
 
village, and one of the first steps toward civiliza- 
 tion is the opening or maintenance of public high- 
 ways. 
 
 In the old time when the Romans conquered 
 a people and established a province, the first 
 step was to open up highways leading from the 
 inland to the sea, so as to provide a means of 
 commerce, and as Rome grew in power and 
 wealth she established magnificent roads leading 
 from the capital city in every direction through- 
 out Italy, the most important and best known 
 being the Appian Way, which was three hun- 
 dred years old at the beginning of the Christian 
 era, and is in use to-day. 
 
 Many years ago I was much impressed with 
 the remark of an old farmer who came to consult 
 me touching a public road, and asked me whether 
 it was not the law that "every man has a right 
 to have a road to meetin', to market and to 
 mill." This may well be taken as a maxim, for 
 there can be no civilization and progress unless 
 every person in a community has the means 
 whereby he may find a market for his produce, 
 
 156 
 
and a place where he can exchange that which 
 he produces for that which he needs. 
 
 It is apparent, therefore, on reflection, that as 
 the first step towards civilization, roads and 
 means of intercommunication must be opened and 
 maintained. As the individual can not do this, it 
 naturally and conclusively follows that it must be 
 done by the state. And so it is in the very 
 nature of things the bounden duty of every gov- 
 ernment to provide for the use of its people road- 
 ways, so that they may interchange, visit and 
 communicate with those about them. This is so 
 essential and has been so long understood that 
 we no longer question the power and duty of the 
 state in this regard. We see about us on every 
 hand streets, township roads, county roads and 
 state roads, laid out and maintained by the power 
 of the state. 
 
 The general government, for the purpose of 
 opening up the great west, many years ago built 
 the great highway known as the National Road, 
 leading from the east across the Ohio and Mis- 
 sissippi valleys to St. Louis, and afterwards the 
 
 157 
 
general government built the great railways 
 reaching from the Missouri River to the Pacific 
 Ocean. 
 
 States and communities, in like manner, in 
 various ways have aided in the construction and 
 maintenance of railroads throughout the country. 
 
 Is there any difference between a township 
 road, a county road, a state road or a national 
 road in its relations to the township, the county, 
 the state or the nation? 
 
 Each and every roadway is an avenue estab- 
 lished by law and maintained at public expense 
 in some way, whereon the people have a right, 
 without trespassing upon the rights of any other, 
 to carry their product to the market, and transact 
 the other business of a civilized community. 
 
 It matters not whether the road is used as a 
 footway, a wagonway or a railway, or whether 
 the vehicle is a carriage, a stage coach or a car, 
 the way must be provided by the state. Neither 
 does it make any difference whether the vehicle 
 is moved by animal power, steam or electricity. 
 In any case, regardless of the vehicle or of the 
 
5 
 
 power, in principle it is a public road, established 
 and dedicated to public use. 
 
 In England roads came to be called the king's 
 highways, for the reason that at a certain time 
 the government assumed the duty of building and 
 establishing public roads leading from London to 
 the various cities and ports, and, it is said, be- 
 cause they were graded above the common level 
 they were called highways. And they were the 
 king's highways for the reason that they were 
 built under the sovereign power of that country. 
 The people are sovereign in this country in the 
 person of the government; in England, in the 
 person of the king. 
 
 Now, if I have made myself clear, we have it 
 somewhat tersely and briefly stated that a road is 
 a highway for the use of all, established and 
 maintained by the sovereign or government for 
 the use of the people. 
 
 Originally, or at least in theory, under English 
 and American law, all title is derived from the 
 king or the government. This implies that the 
 crown or the state was at first the primary owner of 
 
 159 
 
all the land and country. And so it is sometimes 
 said that when the crown or state divides the 
 lands and gives or sells them to its citizens, that, 
 by necessary implication, the government re- 
 served the right to appropriate and use so much 
 of the lands thereafter as might be necessary for 
 public roads. At most it is within the power and 
 duty of any civilized state to appropriate so much 
 of any one's property as may be necessary for 
 the purpose of a public highway. This is some- 
 times called a sovereign right or a governmental 
 right. In my profession we speak of it as the 
 right of eminent domain ; that is to say, the 
 prime or first right which the government has 
 over all the country to take so much of it as may 
 be necessary, against the consent of any sepa- 
 rate and private owner, and appropriate it to the 
 use of the whole people. 
 
 No one doubts the right and power of the gov- 
 ernment to take the property of its citizens, in 
 part or all, in time of war, if necessary for the 
 public defense and the maintenance of the public 
 welfare. But peace is as important as war, and 
 
 160 
 
7 
 
 it is as essential and proper that the state shall 
 take property for the use of a highway as for the 
 maintenance of a fort or any other necessary 
 and public use ; and it may be taken through the 
 agency of a township to establish a township 
 road, or a county a county road, or a state a 
 state road, or by the nation for a national road. 
 
 In the earlier ages there was no duty incum- 
 bent upon government to pay for property appro- 
 priated in war, and sometimes it was neglected 
 in peace. To secure the right of the citizen in 
 this regard, it is now provided by the constitu- 
 tions of all the American states that property of 
 the citizen shall not be appropriated for public 
 highways without compensation being made to 
 the private owner. 
 
 When a state directly appropriates property 
 and establishes a road, it is easy to understand 
 that it is the property of the state devoted to the 
 use of all its people. But, generally speaking, 
 railroads are not constructed immediately by the 
 state. When railroads first came into use the 
 American states were unable to raise the means 
 
 161 
 
8 
 
 necessary to build and operate these great and 
 necessary highways. And so, instead of building 
 the roads directly, and levying heavy and re- 
 curring taxes upon the people to maintain and 
 operate them, the right to build and operate the 
 roads was conferred upon certain of its citizens 
 and their successors, who were united in a body 
 called a corporation and endowed with all the 
 rights of an individual, and given continual suc- 
 cession, or, as it is sometimes said, perpetuity. 
 To this body the state transferred the power of 
 eminent domain, and all the other powers held 
 by the state necessary to the construction and 
 maintenance of a road. 
 
 In this land of peace it is not always easy to 
 conceive of a railroad, owned and operated by a 
 body of citizens united into a corporation, as a 
 public governmental agency. But if you go to a 
 nation which is engaged in warfare, and where 
 the government is maintaining and transporting 
 armies from the interior across the country to 
 the frontier, it is easy to regard a railroad as a 
 governmental, military highway. So, in many 
 
 162 
 
countries, railways are built and maintained as a 
 part of the means of national defense. This is so in 
 France and also in Germany and Italy and other na- 
 tions of the continent. In those countries which are 
 in a continual state of readiness of defense and 
 warfare, the railroads are generally established 
 and operated directly by the government itself. 
 But it is not necessary that the government 
 should own a railroad in order to control it. An 
 illustration of this may be found in France. 
 There no railroad can be built except by permis- 
 sion of the government. No parallel lines or 
 competing lines are permitted. The cost of con- 
 struction is paid, not out of the public chest, but 
 by private persons or stockholders ; yet the road, 
 when built, is regulated and controlled directly 
 by the government. The whole operation of the 
 railroads in France is under the supervision of 
 the Transportation Bureau, so that the speed, the 
 fares, even the style and character of the cars, 
 are determined and fixed by governmental agency. 
 The company can make no alteration in the 
 machinery or rolling stock unless it is submitted 
 
10 
 
 to and approved by the governmental depart- 
 ment. 
 
 I remember reading in a newspaper while there 
 of a passenger who brought a suit against a com- 
 pany because his hand was caught in a car door 
 and injured. The railroad plead in defense that the 
 door was of a different design from that generally in 
 use, that it was compelled to use this new style of 
 door by direction of the government, that the 
 plan was defective, thereby causing the injury to 
 the passenger ; and so, it said, it was not liable 
 in damages for the injury sustained. Neverthe- 
 less the French court held otherwise and required 
 the company to compensate the injured passen- 
 ger. And, on reflection, perhaps this is not un- 
 just, for the reason that a French railway is not 
 private property in the sense in which that term 
 is commonly understood, but is private property 
 devoted to a public use, and in its use the govern- 
 ment has a right to direct the manner and means 
 without assuming the liability consequent upon 
 any defective or improper use. 
 
 England and America have, in the main, been 
 
 164 
 
II 
 
 at peace. Neither keeps large standing armies ; 
 neither has a frontier which must be continually 
 guarded against invasion. And so, in these coun- 
 tries, a railway is not, in the public eye, a mili- 
 tary road, but a peaceful enterprise ; and thus it 
 'has been more or less difficult to get all the people 
 at all times to comprehend and understand that 
 an American and an English railway are public 
 highways. 
 
 Of course, during the late civil war, the gov- 
 ernment laid its hands on the railroads in the 
 states, as well as the other highways and means 
 of transportation, and used them for military 
 purposes. It was the right and duty of the na- 
 tion to do this, but it was not impressed upon the 
 public mind that it was being done through the 
 sovereign power of the government to travel 
 upon public roads, but rather as the taking and 
 using of property for the public defense and 
 welfare. 
 
 Now, I want to invite your attention to the ex- 
 act relation of the American railroad to the 
 American state and the United States. 
 
12 
 
 We have seen that a railroad is not, any more 
 than a turnpike road, a private enterprise. Its 
 owner is created by means of law to carry out a 
 public purpose for the public good. 
 
 When railroads were first being established in 
 this country it was the common thought that 
 they should be held and owned, as well as used, 
 by the state. Many of the early charters so de- 
 clared. Thus, as an example, one of the charters 
 granted in this state on which a railroad was es- 
 tablished and is still maintained as one of the 
 leading lines, provided that, "at any time after 
 the expiration of sixty years, the state reserves 
 the right to purchase said road by paying said 
 company the entire cost of constructing said road 
 and keeping the same in repair, with six per cent, 
 interest thereon." 
 
 A charter in the State of Ohio, connecting a 
 line with the one above mentioned, provided that, 
 " if the legislature shall, after the expiration of 
 thirty-five years, make provision for paying the 
 company the amount expended on the road and 
 six per cent, interest thereon, less dividends paid, 
 
 166 
 
13 
 
 then that such road shall vest in and become the 
 property of the State of Ohio." 
 
 Some of the other states about the same time 
 passed similar charters. 
 
 The Legislature of Pennsylvania conceived 
 that the company should build the roadway, pro- 
 vide the motive power, and that the shippers 
 should have the right to furnish the vehicles in 
 which their products and merchandise should be 
 carried over the road. 
 
 But the magnitude of the capital invested in 
 the highways of the country and the great vol- 
 ume of the traffic has diverted the public attention 
 from the primary concept of the railway, until 
 now we seem to forget the true relation of the 
 railway to the state, and are wont to regard it as 
 a private enterprise ; yet hardly a freight train 
 passes before our eyes but we see the cars of 
 private owners laden with beef or beer or other 
 merchandise, being hauled in compliance with the 
 old notion that the shipper should provide his 
 own cars. 
 
 Throughout the western states many railroads 
 
14 
 
 have been in part at least built by moneys raised 
 by taxation and donated or subscribed to the rail- 
 way company. No one would think for a mo- 
 ment that the state had power by taxation to raise 
 money to build a factory or establish a dry goods 
 store, or tile, or otherwise improve a farm ; yet 
 in the general mind railways have commonly 
 been thought to be private property like a factory 
 or a farm, and so, many years ago, a man enter- 
 taining such views resisted the payment of taxes 
 levied upon his property for the purpose of aiding 
 in the construction of a railway through the 
 county, and the case ultimately got into the Su- 
 preme Court of the United States in 1872. In 
 that case that great court stated with exactness 
 the precise relation of the American railroad to 
 the American state as follows : 
 
 " That railroads, though constructed by private 
 corporations and owned by them, are public high- 
 ways, has been the doctrine of nearly all the 
 courts ever since these conveniences for passage 
 and transportation have had any existence. Very 
 early the question arose whether a state's right 
 
 168 
 
15 
 
 of eminent domain could be exercised by a pri- 
 vate corporation created for the purpose of con- 
 structing a railroad. Clearly it could not unless 
 taking land for such a purpose by such an agency 
 is taking land for public use. The right of emi- 
 nent domain nowhere justifies taking property 
 for private use. Yet it is a doctrine universally 
 accepted that a state legislature may authorize a 
 private corporation to take land for the construc- 
 tion of such a road, making compensation to the 
 owner. What else does this doctrine mean if not 
 that building a railroad, though it be built by a 
 private corporation, is an act done for a public 
 use ? And the reason why the use has always 
 been held a public one, is that such a road is a 
 highway, whether made by the government itself, 
 or by the agency of corporate bodies, or even by 
 individuals when they obtain their power to con- 
 struct it from legislative grant. It would be use- 
 less to cite the numerous decisions to this effect 
 which have been made in the state courts. * * * 
 " Whether the use of a railroad is a public one or 
 a private one depends in no measure upon the 
 
 169 
 
i6 
 
 question who constructed it or who owns it. It 
 has never been considered a matter of any im- 
 portance that the road was built by the agency of 
 a private corporation. No matter who is the 
 agent, the function performed is that of the state. 
 Though the ownership is private, the use is pub- 
 lic. So turnpikes, bridges, ferries and canals, al- 
 though made by individuals under public grants, 
 or by companies, are regarded as publici juris. 
 The right to exact tolls or charge freights is 
 granted for a service to the public. The owners 
 may be private companies, but they are compella- 
 ble to permit the public to use their works in the 
 manner in which such works can be used. That 
 all persons may not put their own cars upon the 
 road and use their own motive power has no bear- 
 ing upon the question whether the road is a pub- 
 lic highway. It bears only upon the mode of use, 
 of which the legislature is the exclusive judge." 
 Olcott v. The Supervisors, 16 Wai. 694. 
 The use of most of the public roads is free to 
 all. A township road is maintained by a town- 
 ship tax; a county road by a county tax; a street 
 
 170 
 
17 
 
 by a city tax. Formerly, turnpikes were, gen- 
 erally speaking, made and owned by corporations 
 created in the same manner as railroad compa- 
 nies, and a toll was charged for their use in the 
 same manner as tolls are charged for the use of 
 railways. But now most of these turnpikes have 
 been purchased by the counties and converted 
 into public roads. The purchase money has been 
 raised by taxation. So, many turnpike roads are 
 now built by taxation and are known as free 
 gravel roads. The same power which can pur- 
 chase or build a free turnpike road could purchase 
 or build a free railroad. But the power has never 
 been, and it is not probable that it will be, exer- 
 cised in America so as to make free railroads. 
 
 The fare which a passenger pays for the use of 
 a railroad is in the nature of a tax for such use, 
 collected ordinarily at the station before the pas- 
 senger enters the train and enjoys the use. So 
 the freight money paid for transportation is like- 
 wise a tax. A person engaged in a private 
 business may sell his goods, wares and merchan- 
 dise at such prices as he may fix. They may 
 
i8 
 
 change from day to day. Prices of all commodi- 
 ties are changing daily in the public markets. 
 But a railroad has not the right to fix the fare at 
 its own pleasure. The state has the right to, and 
 often does, fix it at so much a mile or ton or car. 
 And if a state does not exercise this right directly 
 by a statute, the courts regulate and control it, 
 and will not permit a railway company to charge 
 by way of a tax i. e., a fare more than a rea- 
 sonable sum for the use of the railway under all 
 the circumstances. 
 
 The state may not only regulate the tax for the 
 use, but it may and does exercise the sovereign 
 power in many other ways. It may regulate the 
 speed. The legislature has conferred this power 
 upon the cities and towns throughout this state. 
 They exercise it without stint. 
 
 In many states laws are made providing that 
 engineers shall pass an examination as to the 
 sufficiency of their eyesight before engaging or 
 continuing in the service. One who is color 
 blind is not a safe engineer. So regulations may 
 be made touching sobriety. In this State, and in 
 
 172 
 
19 
 
 almost all the states, the conductors are vested 
 with police powers and may maintain peace and 
 order in a car and arrest and imprison and expel 
 a disturber of the peace without process or war- 
 rant. No person engaged in a private business 
 could be clothed with such powers. 
 
 Immediately after the thirteen American states 
 had established their independence, each state 
 claimed, and exercised in a general way, the sov- 
 ereign powers of any nation touching commerce 
 passing in and out of such state. Each state 
 then had the right to make a tariff for itself and 
 levy a tax upon the goods, wares and merchan- 
 dise coming into the state, or, indeed, going out 
 of the state. This soon led to a very bitter feel- 
 ing between the states, many of which passed 
 severe and arbitrary and retaliatory laws. The se- 
 curity and perpetuity of the United States was 
 put in imminent peril. At the suggestion of 
 Washington and others a convention was called, 
 which ultimately formed and presented to the 
 country our present constitution. It was found 
 necessary, for the maintenance of good feeling 
 
 173 
 
20 
 
 and of the perpetuity of the nation, that this power 
 should be withdrawn from the states, and so it 
 was provided that Congress alone should have 
 power to regulate commerce between the states. 
 This meant, of course, that the states transferred 
 this power of regulating or taxing commerce pass- 
 ing from one to the other entirely to the general 
 government. Under the exercise of this power 
 Congress, some years ago, passed an act known 
 as the interstate commerce law, regulating, in 
 some measure, railroads engaged in traffic moving 
 from state to state. This is an immense power. 
 As yet the government has not undertaken to 
 fix a rate or fare, but only to prohibit partiality 
 and enforce the common rule that all persons 
 shall be treated alike when using the railways for 
 such traffic under similar circumstances. It is a 
 great and growing power. It is not improbable 
 that the members of this class, during the course 
 of their careers, will see the power exercised to 
 the extent that the government shall take a much 
 greater control of the railways throughout the 
 country, establish a railway department, and 
 
 174 
 
21 
 
 place at its head a chief officer and give him a 
 seat in the cabinet. This is the way in which 
 railways are managed in other countries where 
 they are owned by the nation, and also in France, 
 where they are owned by private stockholders. 
 . Institutions grow and develop by reason of pub- 
 lic necessity and demands of the people. Great 
 forces are now at work in the railway world, 
 tending to compel the various companies to merge 
 and unite themselves into fewer and longer lines. 
 In many instances the policy and legislation of 
 the states has been felt by the railways to be antag- 
 onistic and oppressive, and they are seeking to es- 
 cape from future hardships and to place themselves 
 under the control of the general government. And 
 it is not improbable that at no very distant day the 
 great interstate and transcontinental lines will be 
 almost wholly taken from under state control and 
 placed under laws framed by Congress in the exer- 
 cise of its commercial powers; and in this way the 
 railways will be brought back to the original purpose 
 and conception of public highways for public use. 
 
 175 
 
22 
 
 And then it will be easy again to see the true re- 
 lations existing between these great highways 
 and the state, represented by the entire nation. 
 And it is not improbable that such a result will be 
 found beneficial to all the people. This is the 
 true relation which should exist between these 
 great highways and the people ; because, taking 
 into consideration the use and traffic, the railway 
 system is national in its extent and service, and 
 should be national in its government and control. 
 
V. 
 
 RAILROADS AND THE PEOPLE.* 
 
 ADDISON C. HARRIS. 
 
 IT IS self-apparent if a railroad is regarded as a 
 public highway, that everybody has a right to 
 use it. We can hardly think that any man has 
 not a right to walk upon any street or drive upon 
 any state road, or a county road, or a township 
 road ; but we do not always as easily think that 
 everybody has an equal and similar right to use a 
 railroad. That comes from the fact that many of 
 our railroad people, and o'ther people as well, 
 have a notion that a railroad is private property, 
 instead of being a public institution ; and it is for 
 the purpose of bringing our minds closer to the 
 relation of the railroads to the people that I invite 
 your attention this afternoon. 
 
 *Reported by Mr. Evans. 
 
 177 
 
We would open our eyes in surprise at the in- 
 quiry, whether everybody has not the right to 
 use our federal postal system. Of course, every- 
 body has such right. Now, what is the postal 
 system? It is a function performed by the gov- 
 ernment for the transmission and intercommuni- 
 cation of mail matter and news. But it does not 
 stop there. Our government carries books and 
 merchandise; and congressmen send seeds and 
 the like to their constituents ; and the only 
 reason the postal system does not grow into a 
 broader service is simply because Congress has 
 not seen fit to enlarge it. Congress puts 
 limitations upon it, and properly. 
 
 During these Christmas times you will see 
 every postman who goes about the town laden 
 with goods, and books, and toys, and merchan- 
 dise, within a certain weight, being delivered by 
 the general government. 
 
 And so, if you travel upon a German railway, 
 you find the government, through the small pack- 
 age or parcel system, carrying the linen of the 
 students in the schools and universities, home and 
 
 178 
 
back, every week. Indeed, all small parcels are 
 carried by such service in many countries. It is 
 the same in principle exactly as the carrying of 
 the mails. When we put a package in the postal 
 system, whether it be a letter or merchandise, we 
 must first pay the charge. We put a stamp on the 
 letter. We know what the charge is. It is a tax. 
 
 It is like the tax levied during the war, by 
 stamps, upon checks, deeds and other instruments. 
 But if it is a package, we ascertain the weight 
 and pay accordingly. 
 
 So, if one goes to a telegraph station for the 
 purpose of sending a message, which is carried, 
 not mechanically but legally, exactly like a let- 
 ter, we are ordinarily required to pay the cost of 
 transmission in advance. That, too, is a tax for 
 the use of the wire during the conveyance of the 
 message. 
 
 If one goes to a railroad company and asks it 
 to carry goods, or to take passage, it has a right 
 to demand payment in advance, just like and as 
 the government demands similar payment for 
 postal service. 
 
 179 
 
In so far as carrying passengers is concerned, 
 it is almost the universal practice to require the 
 payment of the fare or tax, in the nature of the 
 purchase of a ticket, before the commencement 
 of the service. But as to the carriage of goods, 
 the rule is ordinarily otherwise. While the com- 
 pany has the right to demand and collect the tax 
 or charge in advance, yet it may waive this, and 
 usually does, not collecting until the goods are de- 
 livered to the consignee ; but it has the right to 
 retain the goods until the tax is paid. 
 
 So I want every member of the class to grasp 
 this and hold it firmly that every sum paid by 
 one of the people to a railroad company for the 
 carriage of his person or his property is a tax, 
 which is levied for the service rendered by the 
 railway. 
 
 It is elementary, known not simply to lawyers 
 but to everybody, that taxes must be equal. It 
 will not do for a state or a city to tax some people 
 or their property at higher rates than they tax 
 other people or their property. 
 
 1 80 
 
5 
 
 If government levies a tax on the poll, as is 
 common, then every man must pay so much head 
 tax, whether he has a wise head or a foolish 
 head. 
 
 So, if property is taxed it must be at a per 
 cent, on the value, regardless of the ownership. 
 You can not tax a rich man's property more, 
 or a poor man's property less. Neither has gov- 
 ernment any right to tax property for any more 
 than is ordinarily and necessarily required for 
 the administration of the government. Any tax- 
 payer may rebel if taxes are levied against him 
 which are not to be used for governmental pur- 
 poses. You can bring a suit and the courts will 
 stop it. 
 
 So, now, if a railroad fare is a tax, and as all 
 taxes must be equal, it follows, without further 
 argument or illustration, that the tax which the 
 railroad charges for freight carriage or passenger 
 service must likewise be equal, under similar 
 circumstances. 
 
 And so it is in theory ; and so it ought to be in 
 practice. 
 
 181 
 
It is so, generally speaking, in relation to the 
 carriage of passengers. Of course there are cer- 
 tain special rates allowed for picnics, theatrical 
 parties and the like, but these are exceptions 
 to the rule. Yet, when it comes to paying the 
 tax for freight service, it is not and has not been 
 the invariable practice for railway companies to 
 levy the same tax upon every man's property for 
 the same service ; and that is what has caused 
 much discussion throughout the country and re- 
 sulted in the law heretofore spoken of as the In- 
 terstate Commerce Act. 
 
 What brought about that law? It was because 
 the railway people I mean the superintendent, 
 president and directory came to think that every 
 road was a private affair, and they could operate 
 it as they pleased, and had a right to charge one 
 man more than they charged another. If so, let 
 us see the results. 
 
 Say here are two men doing the same business 
 in the same city or town. It was not an uncom- 
 mon thing to give one man a special rate. How 
 long could the other survive such competition? 
 
 182 
 
7 
 
 Thus, if a railroad should agree with a grain 
 dealer in LaFayette to carry for him to the sea- 
 board for one or two cents a bushel less than it 
 would carry for anybody else, he could have a 
 monopoly of the business. The man thus favored 
 can and will crush every other grain dealer out of 
 the market. That thing went on in many kinds 
 of traffic for years and years, over the chief and 
 important lines in the country. The courts tried 
 to stop it, but courts are slow and cumbersome, and 
 men suffer evil long and patiently rather than 
 enter into a struggle with a great railroad com- 
 pany. 
 
 At last Congress, under the power which I 
 mentioned, of regulating commerce, laid its hand 
 upon the subject, and passed certain laws and 
 regulations for the purpose of compelling railways 
 engaged in national commerce to perform their 
 simple duty of taxing everybody equally for the 
 same service. 
 
 This is all I care to say upon this subject. It 
 is enough, when we come to fully comprehend 
 that a railroad is a public road ; that everybody 
 
 183 
 
8 
 
 has a right to travel upon it, and have their goods 
 carried, and everybody must pay a tax, and all 
 taxes must be equal in proportion to the service 
 had it is enough, I say, to state the elementary 
 principles of that branch of railway jurisprudence. 
 
 But another illustration proves the rule that a 
 railroad is not a private enterprise or affair. 
 Thus, any man who is carrying on a private en- 
 terprise may stop business whenever he pleases. 
 A hotel, which is something of a public institution, 
 inasmuch as it must receive all travelers who seek 
 entertainment, may close its doors ; so, a farmer 
 may quit tilling his fields ; so, a dry goods mer- 
 chant, machinist, blacksmith or shoemaker may 
 stop business at pleasure ; but a railroad, as I say, 
 is a public institution, and can not stop. 
 
 Would any one think that a turnpike company, 
 having a right to charge tolls for traveling upon 
 its gravel road, has a right to shut its gates, put 
 fences across the road and stop travel? Of 
 course not. And why? Because it is a public 
 road, and being public, it must be left and kept 
 open ; and if a turnpike company does not want 
 
 184 
 
to do business upon it, they must leave it, never- 
 theless, for public use. 
 
 On the same principle it must follow that a 
 railroad can not stop doing business. It matters 
 not, so far as the people are concerned, whether 
 the railroad is paying dividends, large or little, or 
 none at all. And if the time comes when the 
 company can not operate its property, then some- 
 body goes into a court and its administration is 
 put into receivership ; that is, the court takes the 
 road, operates and maintains it for public use until 
 such time as some purchaser will buy the prop- 
 erty and continue the use. 
 
 If the practice were that railways should per- 
 mit everybody to put their own cars upon the 
 roads, or if the state owned and ran them, then it 
 is easy to see such would be public roads. But 
 under the general custom in this country, the 
 railways alone undertake to furnish the car. That 
 being so, they must furnish enough cars to do 
 the service, and if they neglect or fail or refuse 
 to furnish cars when called for, they are liable 
 for any damages ensuing thereby. 
 
10 
 
 I had an interesting illustration of that not 
 many years ago. Without stating the reason 
 why, a certain railway company thought it would 
 serve its business interests to refuse to furnish a 
 certain grain dealer with cars. He had a large 
 amount of wheat which he had sold and wanted 
 to ship to the seaboard, and demanded so many 
 cars for so many days say twenty cars a day 
 for thirty days. The railway refused to comply 
 with the demand, put their empty cars on a switch 
 outside of town, and directed the station agent 
 not to furnish them to be used for such service. 
 
 If that superintendent had understood, or re 
 fleeted for a moment upon the relation which the 
 .railway sustains to the public, he would not have 
 been guilty of saying that he would not furnish 
 cars to haul wheat for one member of the public. 
 But yet he did, and it took a long while for the 
 shipper to get at the railway through a law- 
 suit. 
 
 I might say I tried to protect the railroad, but 
 the judgment came, and well came, that the com- 
 pany was bound to pay damages to the full 
 
 1 86 
 
II 
 
 measure brought about and caused by this re- 
 fusal of a public duty. 
 
 The railway statutes of Indiana rest upon the 
 basis that railways are public institutions, and so 
 the laws provide that at all crossings the lines 
 shall be connected with "Y's," so that traffic 
 moving on one line may be put upon and for- 
 warded on another. 
 
 I want to go back a moment and point out the 
 evolution of the railway and the growth and 
 application of the laws which more particularly 
 apply to certain branches of the business, that 
 is, carriage of freight and carriage of passengers ; 
 because the law, upon whatever subject it may 
 be, is the growth and application of the demand 
 or necessity for appropriate rules of action, and 
 it is particularly illustrated in what I am now 
 about to say. 
 
 We have seen that roads are made for the pub- 
 lic use. Why is a road improved? It is that the 
 power which is applied to the movement of ve- 
 hicles may move a larger weight than is possible 
 on an unimproved road. 
 
12 
 
 Two or three centuries ago, in England, there 
 were large coal mines some distance from the 
 waterway upon which the coals were carried to 
 market. As the population of London increased, 
 the demand for coals grew to be enormous. And 
 these people had to haul their coals in wagons, 
 over, let me say, dirt roads, some miles before 
 reaching the vessels upon which they were put 
 and carried to London. The time and money 
 necessarily expended in this short haul was enor- 
 mous, and so here was a demand for a better 
 road from the mine to the waterway. In time a 
 man by the name of Outram thought out the idea 
 that he would overcome this difficulty of a muddy 
 road by laying two parallel wooden sills, smooth 
 and hard, upon which the wheels of the wagons 
 could be made to run, which he saw could be ac- 
 complished by putting a flange on the wheel, either 
 on the inside or the out, or, like the grasp of the 
 hand, over both sides, and thus hold the wagons 
 on the rail. 
 
 It was found to be a great improvement in 
 roads, and horses could draw five or ten times as 
 
 1 88 
 
13 
 
 much tonnage over that road as over the dirt road 
 underneath, and from thence till now all such 
 roads are named, after the inventor, "tram- 
 roads." 
 
 In time the concept came, why not put a stage 
 coach on such a rail so as to move faster and 
 carry more passengers? And so in time such 
 lines were operated, more or less, in England. 
 
 In Charleston, South Carolina, an ingenious 
 mechanic perhaps I ought to give him a higher 
 title thought out that he could put a horse in a 
 tread on a car and thus create the power to move 
 it on the rails. He did, in fact, make for a time 
 a successful horse-power car. 
 
 The same thing was done in Baltimore, and 
 trains were moved at a speed of twelve or thir- 
 teen miles an hour. 
 
 As this thought was ripening into better appli- 
 ances, the time came when Stephenson, an 
 English engineer, conceived that he could put a 
 steam engine on a wagon or vehicle, and pull 
 other vehicles behind it along a tramroad and 
 
 189 
 
14 
 
 use iron rails. While he was not the first, per- 
 haps, to think of it, he was the first to work out 
 a mechanical and commercial success. 
 
 At the time of Stephenson's invention the 
 width of the tramroads was four feet eight and 
 one-half inches, and so he made his steam loco- 
 motive to fit the tram rails. 
 
 Shortly afterwards an English locomotive was 
 brought to America to be used upon one of the 
 lines out of New York City. It was built with 
 the same gauge, and from that we have the stand- 
 ard gauge throughout the United States. 
 
 In short words, that is the mechanical evolu- 
 tion of the railroad. 
 
 Now, as to the legal evolution. 
 
 Long before railroads, there had been estab- 
 lished and maintained in England lines of stage 
 coaches engaged in the business of accommodating 
 passenger traffic. Also lines of vehicles engaged 
 in the carriage of goods over the country. 
 
 The condition of society in those times is famil- 
 iar to every one conversant with English history, 
 and is best illustrated, perhaps, in the character 
 
 190 
 
15 
 
 of Jack Falstaff. Jack and his friends, when 
 they wanted money, having no honest way of 
 gaining it, became, as they styled themselves, 
 "Gentlemen of the shade" that is, they went 
 on the road at night and robbed people. They 
 not only cut purses from travelers, but they took 
 goods from the carriers. Under the old Roman 
 law, which for many centuries was the law of 
 more modern Europe, and England as well, it was 
 a good defense for a carrier to say that the 
 goods had been taken from him by force, so that 
 he could not deliver them. This defense, per- 
 haps honest enough at first, came to be abused. 
 Indeed, the* carrier would not protect his goods. 
 He even might enter into a conspiracy with these 
 robbers to divide. And so, about two centuries 
 ago, an eminent English jurist made a new rule 
 for England, and declared that thereafter the 
 losses by thieves or robbers were to be borne by 
 the carrier, unless he could show that he was de- 
 prived of the goods by an act of God or the 
 public enemy. He said : 
 
 191 
 
i6 
 
 "Though the force be never so great, as if a 
 multitude of people shall rob him, nevertheless he 
 is chargeable ; and this is a politic establishment 
 derived by the power of the law for the safety of 
 all persons, the necessity of whose affairs oblige 
 them to trust this sort of persons that they may 
 be safe in their ways of dealing ; for else these 
 carriers might have an opportunity of undoing 
 all persons that have any dealings with them by 
 combining with the thieves, and yet doing it in 
 such a clandestine manner as would not be possi- 
 ble to be discovered ; and this is the reason that 
 the law is founded upon." 
 
 And this has been the law of carriers from 
 thence till now for all English-speaking peoples. 
 
 And, as governing stage coaches, the law was 
 made by another English judge to be as follows: 
 
 "The coachman must have competent skill, 
 and use that skill with diligence. He must be 
 >vell acquainted with the road he undertakes to 
 drive, he must be provided with steady horses, a 
 coach and harness of sufficient strength and prop- 
 erly made, and also with lights at night. If there 
 
 192 
 
17 
 
 be the least failure in any of these things, the 
 duty of the coach proprietor is not fulfilled, and 
 he will be answerable for any injury or damage 
 that happens." 
 
 You will thus see that the carrier of goods was 
 made an insurer of their safe carriage and de- 
 livery, unless and until he could show that their 
 loss was caused by an act of God or the public 
 enemy ; and the public enemy meant citizens of 
 another country at war with England. But as to 
 passengers he was not an insurer, but he was re- 
 quired to perform the rule above stated, that is, 
 exercise a very high degree of care. And this is 
 the law to-day. 
 
 Now, let us turn to the mechanical evolution a 
 moment. 
 
 The human mind is so slow, that in England 
 and upon the Continent the change of power 
 from animal to steam could not arouse the human 
 mind to use another vehicle than a stage coach ; 
 that is, they kept the old form of entrance at the 
 sides and mechanically put two or three stage 
 coaches upon the same pairs of wheels and made 
 
 193 
 
18 
 
 lthe pas 
 
 In this country the passenger car 
 tibrY 
 
 cd in 
 
 1 frdttf ! aftfmiinfon4tt^ft^^ePidai could 
 tRil*%lftttfflrft^&!^l4^ 
 
 of the ettmpBtt^ Md 'rfi^'felatWns to 
 the goods and passengers being caff^etl^ ^If^vWS 
 o'rfe ^^ 1 1/ thi r sfeiHte in law ( 'ivft'fefth^- they'-AVere 
 hauled by horses or locomotives. And rr so the 
 aftd JATtterfe'drt courts [ 
 
 ! KlWer ie 
 
 ju oJ bnim 
 
 
rise above it. ,.. n ; The ; ffjigip|2pr feijth&jjcqifr 
 SM^taijis.jt^e sarri^i relaftiio/ns; j iAfrdft^n^btbf 
 &$gegfi<H* 
 
 must 
 
 afe,i 
 
 ;W^. bio oriJ ^fii^u ni v/on rnj'O vri/; rii 
 
 CO^ch 045 1 
 
 the law apples it^rn -t^rth^ ch^ng ftfut 
 
 imprpy^ment^j j^v e rip^ f rpmi da/^^^^^n tSsflftb^ 
 
 law doe.s not allow a r ; ai,lfoad c 
 
 on.ce 
 
 inventions are 
 
20 
 
 bound to use and apply them ; because, being a 
 public road and not allowing other people to fur- 
 nish their own vehicles, it must furnish as good 
 and as safe as the people themselves could furnish. 
 
 That is the principle. Thus, when the air 
 brake was demonstrated to be a safer mechanism 
 than the hand brake, it did not require an act of 
 the Legislature or of Congress to make it incum- 
 bent upon the railways to put them on their 
 trains, but the law itself imposed that obligation. 
 So with the vestibule car. Would a railroad be 
 justified in any court now in using the old van 
 and car if an accident happened to a passenger 
 by failure to use the improved vestibule? The 
 court would go back to the old rule and declare 
 the railroad must provide a coach and harness of 
 sufficient strength and properly made. Congress 
 is now compelling air brakes to be put on freight 
 c*rs to protect the lives and limbs of trainmen. 
 
 1 have thus attempted to point out the evolution 
 of the railway, mechanically and legally, and I 
 may pause to say that the same is going on in 
 other lines of commerce and business, and that it 
 
 196 
 
21 
 
 is absolutely essential for any one desiring to 
 understand the reason of things in any business 
 or profession to know their origin and develop- 
 ment, in order that he may understand the state 
 of things at the present. And when it appears 
 that the railroad is the development of the stage 
 coach upon the public highway, and a freight car 
 of a van engaged in handling and delivering mer- 
 chandise throughout the county over public roads, 
 it needs no further argument or illustration to 
 elucidate and determine our proposition that a 
 railway, in so far as it relates to the people, is a 
 public road. 
 
 And it is quite well, when you come into the 
 railway service, that you should understand the 
 relations which you will sustain to the people. 
 And it is because of the failure on the part of the 
 railway officials, as well as on the part of the 
 people themselves, that there has been so long, 
 and is such, an antipathy between the public and 
 the railroad companies. And when the managers 
 and others controlling our great railway systems 
 
 197 
 
public' 
 ' rigM'to g*V theHerttttt'Wd b$ it 
 
 so f fluieh di 
 
 t^parst.^f buoiliin t>dt 
 j; bn/j ,vj:v/rfx;ifl jilduq ^riJ noqu 
 it>ni ^ni'-jviMj bn/: vnilbrifiri n 1 > rn;v >; to 
 
 ,r:Li;ui "jilduq vjvo vlriijoj -jrlt Juodviijoid? -j^ibnKrij 
 ot noiJinJp.ulli 10 jftt>rriuyiL lydni. ^n ti 
 
 i; tiiflt noiiieioqoiq iuo --jriifm^j-jf) LHB 
 B2J ,-)Iqo9q trli ot ^yjuhi ti ^.r. nnt o^ ni f 
 
 otni srno'j uoy nt>rfw ,!bw ttfiup *\ ti bnA 
 bnjjJ^Tjbnu bluorte uoy twit /jjiviyf. yuv/liin 
 [osq srit ot niiit^ua Iliv/ uoy rfoirlw anoitfilsi 
 "1o tii;q 'jfit no oiulifi't ^rit lo o-ijii'^jd ?.[ ti bnA 
 "to tu;q i jdt no ^J; II-jv/ tk < 
 t>d f.firl ^it)flt tfcdt ,< 
 bru; Diidijq arit n-^wt-^d ydt/^qitm; 
 
 ^m yrit ntjriv/ briA .^sin^qmoo bjioiliui t)fit 
 r^y^ yuv/lifii Jii--jii> luo j 
 
 198 
 
the employer or master to the servant. Put in 
 common form, it is that the master shall not know- 
 ingly or carelessly subject the servant to a danger 
 of which he is not aware, and may not protect 
 himself against. Now I shall use the old English 
 terms " master and servant," because they better 
 express the relation, especially in railway service, 
 where there must be a master to command and 
 enforce obedience, else there would be wrecks 
 and disaster all the while ; and, further, because 
 he who is engaged in the important lines of rail- 
 way service must obey. 
 
 I shall not go into details particularly. This 
 duty which I have spoken of, upon the company, 
 is a continuing one and rests upon it at all times, 
 and to all its people. 
 
 One of the cases which I had early at the bar 
 arose by reason of the explosion of a locomotive 
 while out upon the road, resulting in the death of 
 the fireman. I brought an action against the com- 
 pany for furnishing a defective engine, in that the 
 fire box was old and insecure. The railroad com- 
 pany defended along the line that it had built a 
 
 200 
 
good road, furnished years before a good engine, 
 had a competent superintendent, and a well 
 equipped machine shop, and that this was its 
 whole duty ; and if the servants were hurt there- 
 after by reason of defective machinery it was not 
 the fault of the company. The jury did not so 
 believe, and gave a verdict against the company. 
 
 You may be surprised to hear that the Supreme 
 Court decided the company had performed its 
 whole duty, and remanded the case for a new 
 trial. On the second trial, although the Judge 
 told the jury such was the law, yet the jury may 
 I say, having a more conscious insistence as to 
 what the right was refused to follow the instruc- 
 tion and returned a second verdict against the 
 company. Not long after, the Court, and not the 
 jury, changed the law of this State ; and it has 
 now become a settled rule in this and every other 
 State that every railway company must continu- 
 ally do all that it reasonably can, that is fairly 
 practicable, to protect the lives and limbs of its 
 servants. 
 
 You have noticed on either side of a railroad 
 
 20 1 
 
bridge whiplashes attached to a beam across the 
 track, hanging down so as to strike the face of a 
 brakeman on top of the train. This is a means 
 of warning required of the railway to notify its 
 servants of existing danger. Without such notice 
 an injury or death to the servant would be fol- 
 lowed by a verdict and judgment against the com- 
 pany. 
 
 So, if a bridge is so narrow that an engineer or 
 fireman, swinging out at the cab to look ahead, is 
 struck, the railway is responsible. 
 
 So, if a culvert breaks down, or, in general, if 
 anything happens on the line for which a very 
 high degree of care not extraordinary would 
 have discovered, and a man is injured or killed, 
 the railway company is liable under the law and 
 must make good the damages as far as can be 
 done. 
 
 Upon this principle of protecting the lives and 
 limbs of the servants are those laws which in 
 some States provide that engineers shall be ex- 
 amined as to color blindness, so that they may 
 
 202 
 
5 
 
 not, by mistake, cause a collision, by failing to 
 observe a signal of danger. 
 
 Ordinarily, without reflection, we say that this 
 is for the protection of the passengers and freight 
 being carried by the company. It is. But it is 
 likewise security for the trainmen who are be- 
 hind. 
 
 So, if a trainman should be injured by reason 
 of the defective sight of the engineer, it would be 
 negligence as much as by a defective engine, car, 
 and the like. 
 
 But the company must do more. You can not 
 take a thousand or five thousand men, give them 
 the railroad machinery and start them in opera- 
 tion unless there are rules carefully framed for 
 the control of the service, and executed with alt 
 the summariness, if you please, of the rules gov- 
 erning a regiment or a ship. 
 
 So, if a railway company fails to make and en- 
 force practical rules for the handling of its traffic, 
 or having made them, fails to enforce them, and 
 the servant is injured thereby, the company must 
 respond for the injury. 
 
 203 
 
Let us now come to the relation of the ser- 
 vants themselves, because it is fair to assume 
 that in your several careers, many of you will 
 spend your lives in railway service ; for the edu- 
 cation which you are acquiring in this University 
 would seem to indicate that by the rule of natural 
 selection, that is where you will fall. 
 
 Now, what shall you do ? The first thing, of 
 course, is to do your duty. It must be done 
 promptly, exactly and without murmur. 
 
 Some years ago I had a case professionally 
 where it became absolutely essential to know pre- 
 cisely the history of a loaded car from the time 
 it left Dayton, Ohio, until it arrived at Peoria, 
 Illinois, because it was loaded with perishable 
 property which had become valueless during the 
 journey ; and the company which I happened to 
 represent, was sued for not having performed its 
 duty in speeding the car. 
 
 I went to the superintendent and asked for a 
 detailed history of the case. The next day he 
 sent me the information in a general way that it 
 left Dayton at one time and three or four days 
 
 204 
 
afterwards it was found at Indianapolis, and some 
 days thereafter it arrived at Peoria. Of course, 
 this was of no avail. I said, " Have you got any- 
 body who can tell me exactly when the car started, 
 when your company received it, when it gave it 
 to the succeeding line, and, in short, all the facts 
 necessary to be known in order to ascertain 
 whether this company has discharged its bounden 
 duty to the owner of the property ?" 
 
 He replied, " I have a boy in the office who has 
 plenty of time and he might do it." 
 
 I told the lad exactly what was needed. He 
 had begun service carrying water on a section ; 
 afterwards had been a section hand, and after- 
 wards promoted to a clerkship in the superin- 
 tendent's office. 
 
 Within a short time he came back with what 
 might be called an itineracy of the car for every 
 day and hour of its journey. Of course, I was 
 pleased and said, ."If that is the way you do 
 your duty you will be a superintendent yourself 
 some day." 
 
 Not more than ten years afterwards I was sit- 
 
 205 
 
8 
 
 ting in my home one evening when the bell rang 
 and a messenger boy brought a letter. All it con- 
 tained was, " I have got it." He knew how to do, 
 and did do, his duty exactly. That is the prac- 
 tical part rather than the law of it. But let us 
 devote a moment to that question. 
 
 You must obey. If you are in the lower lines 
 of duty, it is not yours to reason why, but if an 
 order comes, it is to obey entirely. 
 
 It at once arises in the minds of some of you 
 that the railway service, then, is a kind of mili- 
 tary employment. So it is. If one goes into a 
 country where the railways are operated as gov- 
 ernmental institutions, and, particularly where 
 they are considered as an arm of the military 
 department, as in Germany, Italy or France, you 
 can hardly conceive of a railway servant except 
 as standing in the rank of a soldier ; because he is 
 in the governmental, and, practically, in the mili- 
 tary service. They wear a governmental uniform. 
 
 And so in this country, now, some lines require 
 distinct badges and uniforms ; and the very fact 
 that the railway men wear a uniform expresses 
 
 206 
 
the almost unthought concept that in some way 
 the railway service is a public service, like a gov- 
 ernment service. 
 
 Our postal men are required to wear a desig- 
 nated uniform. And the notion as to railways 
 is growing, from the fact that it is coming to be 
 recognized by all, that, in a sense, the railway is 
 a government institution and not a private affair. 
 
 Another indication is that the conductors and 
 officers of the trains, by statutes, are made police 
 officers ; and if any one violates the law upon a 
 train, or in connection with it, the conductor is 
 clothed with police powers, as a constable, sheriff 
 or policeman, and may arrest or expel the offender 
 without writ or warrant. 
 
 A question of interest, now in debate through 
 the press, in legislative bodies, and in political 
 campaigns, in so far as it relates to the status of 
 railway men, is the question of wages ; because 
 in that is found the kernel of this question. 
 
 Is the railway servant free, entirely, to do as 
 he pleases ? Or does he sustain such a relation to 
 the service and the public as that he, in some 
 
 207 
 
IO 
 
 measure, surrenders his individual wishes to the 
 wishes and welfare of the greater public ? 
 
 In the first place the law is always careful to 
 protect wage-earners. It used to be that a rail 
 way company could go on and pay out its earn- 
 ings to the bondholders and others, and put off its 
 pay rolls until it came to bankruptcy, and then 
 turn the property into the hands of a receiver, 
 and leave the employes hungry and remediless. 
 
 It does not always take the Legislature to make 
 a good law. The real fact is that more good laws 
 are made outside than inside of the General 
 Assembly. They are made by the courts. 
 
 The very case which I have just stated came 
 on in the Circuit Court of the United States at 
 Indianapolis some years ago. A great number 
 a thousand men engaged in operating a certain 
 line, had not been paid wages for five or six 
 months. The road was put in receivership ; the 
 men appeared at the bar of the court in the person 
 of an eminent lawyer of this State, now dead (Mr. 
 Butler), and presented their claims before that 
 great jurist, Judge Drummond. And what did he 
 
 208 
 
II 
 
 do ? He did an act no less courageous and far- 
 sighted than that of the judges to whom I referred 
 in my last address. He made a law that any rail- 
 road that came into a federal court in this circuit, 
 composed of the states of Indiana, Illinois and 
 Wisconsin, should, out of the assets of the prop- 
 erty, if necessary, pay employes and material 
 men their back wages and demands for the period 
 of six months, before applying the proceeds to the 
 satisfaction of the bonds. It is known as the six 
 months* rule. The hands of some people went up, 
 and a hue and cry went over the land that this 
 was interfering with property rights. And so it 
 was, in a measure. But the rule was sanctioned 
 by other courts throughout the land, and after- 
 wards affirmed by the Supreme Court of the 
 United States ; so that now these millions of rail- 
 way men are, to-day, perfectly secure in their 
 wages by the simple law of Judge'Drummond, as 
 first given, and followed and adopted by the courts 
 in the evolution of right. Now no railroad lawyer, 
 or anybody else, denies the justness of the rule. 
 
 209 
 
12 
 
 The rule is regarded as one of necessity, for 
 that roads can not have the best service unless 
 the men feel that their wages are secure. One 
 who doubts whether he is to receive his pay is 
 not that efficient, loyal and courageous man that 
 the service necessarily requires. 
 
 Now, this thought of protecting a railway ser- 
 vant in his wages was not a new concept on the 
 part of Judge Drummond. Every well-informed 
 lawyer knows that for thousands of years it has 
 been the law of the sea that every sailor has a 
 lien upon the ship and the cargo for his wages. 
 And so when a sailor enters the service upon a 
 ship for a voyage, he is not free to leave the 
 ship at any port during the voyage. It has 
 always been the law of the sea that if a sailor 
 wrongfully leaves the ship deserts it, if you 
 please that the captain has the right, by physical 
 force, to arrest him wherever found, carry him 
 back to the ship, and compel him to continue on 
 the voyage and perform his duties ; and, further, 
 if the captain is not sufficient by himself, or his 
 own force, to compel the seaman to return to the 
 
 210 
 
13 
 
 ship, he may call upon the civil authorities, no 
 matter in what port or nation, and they must aid 
 him to put the sailor back on his ship. 
 
 It is apparent that maritime business could not 
 be done, cargoes could not be carried around the 
 world, and life would not be safe upon the seas, 
 if, whenever a ship came to a dock, the sailors 
 might desert, and leave it without any one to 
 navigate it to the end of the voyage. 
 
 Now, it was this law, taken from the sea and 
 applied to the land, that led Judge Drummond, no 
 doubt, to make the rule which 1 have mentioned. 
 Is there any difference in principle between a 
 vehicle carrying freight or passengers on water, 
 or on land ? It is the same business, and under 
 the same conditions, Judge Drummond applied the 
 same rule. 
 
 Now, if this rule be just and true (and the Su- 
 preme Court of the United States, by a divided 
 bench, has so held), then may a railway servant, 
 of his own free will, at pleasure leave the train or 
 service? On the one hand it is said that Ameri- 
 cans are free men. They have the right to quit 
 
 211 
 
14 
 
 work whenever they want to, in whatsoever ser- 
 vice, and no one can prevent it. On the other 
 side, it is said if one enters any branch of the 
 public service, then he must stand to the service 
 and subject his individual wishes to the welfare 
 of the greater public. Over this there is now 
 and has been for some years a struggle which 
 is not yet settled I can not attempt to settle it, 
 but it may be well to give a little of the history of 
 the question and see how far the evolution has 
 gone. That is as much, perhaps, as we will un- 
 dertake to-day. 
 
 It is sufficient, then, to say that about twenty- 
 five years ago a railroad strike occurred in Indi- 
 ana over wages, and it so happened that Judge 
 Drummond had more than one railroad in his 
 court, under his receivership and management. 
 
 I may pause to say that if some man engaged 
 in private business like a foundry, or dry goods 
 store, finds his property put in receivership, the 
 courts would not carry on his shop or his trade. 
 
 But when a railroad is brought into a court, the 
 court always runs the road because it is a public 
 
 212 
 
15 
 
 highway which can not be closed and must be 
 kept in operation for the public use. 
 
 This strike involved the men engaged upon the 
 lines under the direction and control of Judge 
 Drummond. They would not continue the ser- 
 vice themselves, nor permit others to take their 
 places. Judge Drummond brought his employes 
 and others to the bar of his court, and made the 
 rule that the court would not suffer any person to 
 interfere with the operation of the railway ser- 
 vice ; but he did not declare that he would not al- 
 low as many of the men as desired to quit the 
 service only he would not permit any person to 
 prevent men from entering the service. There 
 was a good deal of discussion, but finally that has 
 been accepted throughout the country as the 
 proper rule. 
 
 You see the precise question whether a railway 
 man has a right to leave the employ of the court 
 or railroad was not then and there involved ; but 
 later, and within the recollection of each of you, 
 the question did arise in the railway strike of 1894, 
 or rather boycott, because a strike is where the 
 
 213 
 
16 
 
 men say, "We will not work;" a boycott is 
 where they add, "Neither will we allow any 
 others to work on the road," and thus stop its 
 business. 
 
 In 1894 it was attempted to stop the entire rail- 
 way traffic throughout the country, to force a set- 
 tlement between the Pullman Company and its 
 employes. Practically all the traffic throughout 
 the country was at a standstill. Merchants and 
 bankers could not send their letters or goods and 
 merchandise ; the farmers' freight lay at the sta- 
 tions and on the side tracks ; live stock at the 
 yards remained there. It was as if a great earth- 
 quake had destroyed the railway commerce of the 
 country. 
 
 Now, what was to be done? A thing was done 
 that until that time had never been thought of 
 before. The Attorney-General of the United 
 States, in the name of the United States, filed a 
 bill in the Federal Court at Chicago, stating in 
 substance there were twenty-two railroads doing 
 business through Chicago, and engaged in the 
 business of carrying passengers and freight from 
 
 214 
 
17 
 
 one state to another. These railways were also 
 engaged in carrying the mails and express matter 
 for all the people of the country. 
 
 The case showed that this immense traffic was 
 arrested so that no railroad could do business, and 
 that this was brought about by certain persons 
 having control of the boycott. 
 
 Upon the bill being filed, the Judges issued an 
 injunction which read something like this : 
 
 "We command you and all other persons to 
 desist and refrain from in any way or manner in- 
 terfering with, hindering, obstructing or stopping 
 any of the business of any of these named rail- 
 roads as common carriers of passengers or freight 
 between and among any of the states of the Union, 
 or obstructing or stopping any mail train, express 
 train, or other train, whether freight or passenger, 
 engaged in interstate traffic." 
 
 Almost the entire volume of railway traffic in 
 this country has now come to cross state lines in 
 the journey, so as to fall within the protection of 
 the Federal Constitution and laws. 
 
 2I 5 
 
i8 
 
 This was an evolution in railway jurisprudence 
 such as had never before been applied. 
 
 A court that issues such a writ or command is 
 bound to enforce it, and the enforcement leads to 
 the arrest of the wrongdoer, bringing him to the 
 bar, trying him without a jury, and if found guilty, 
 fining, or sentencing him to imprisonment within 
 the discretion of the court. There is no jury 
 trial. 
 
 Mr. Debs and others were brought to the bar of 
 the court, tried and sentenced. They carried the 
 case in a way 'I need not stop to explain, to the 
 Supreme Court of the United States. 
 
 Here, then, was a test that challenged the 
 thought of every man throughout the country, 
 whether he was a professional man or a layman. 
 What power has a state or the United States to 
 keep open these great highways of commerce? 
 Because the United States has no more power 
 over the interstate railroads than the State of In- 
 diana or any other state has over the railways 
 lying and doing business wholly within such state. 
 It is a governmental power a sovereign power. 
 
 216 
 
19 
 
 And by sovereign I mean a power above which 
 there can be no higher power, and which springs 
 from itself and executes itself. 
 
 The Supreme Court of the United States held 
 there was such a power, and held a court did 
 right in issuing the injunction. But this case, you 
 will observe, did not reach to the precise question 
 of the right of the railway man to quit work ; the 
 scope and purpose of the case was to restrain the 
 forcible obstruction of these great national high- 
 ways along which interstate commerce traveled, 
 mails are carried, and the business of the country 
 interchanged and done. 
 
 In substance the Court said : " The strong arm 
 of the National Government may be put forth to 
 brush away all obstructions to the freedom of 
 Interstate Commerce or the transportation of the 
 mails. If an emergency arises, the army of the 
 Nation and all its militia are at the service of the 
 Government to compel obedience to the laws." 
 
 And in consonance with this last thought, Pres- 
 ident Cleveland did a thing that never had been 
 
 217 
 
20 
 
 done before, and for which a great number of 
 people have criticised him. What did he do? 
 
 Here were these national highways of commerce 
 obstructed so that vehicles could not move ; the 
 mails could not be carried and distributed ; and he 
 sent the army into Chicago to open the roads. 
 That is all there is of it. He opened the roads 
 by force. To open the roads he put armed sol- 
 diers on the locomotives and on the trains, so that 
 they could not be stopped in their movements. 
 He did not send the army to Chicago to put down 
 the mob. Whether he had a right to do so or not 
 is not within the province of this discussion. He 
 had a right to open these national roads just as 
 much right, and no more, as a road supervisor in 
 any road district in Indiana has a right to open a 
 road if one wrongfully fells a tree across it, or 
 raises a barricade, or tears up a bridge, or refuses 
 to let wagons go by. 
 
 So that this much is settled, namely : All the 
 railroads in this country engaged in national busi- 
 ness are national roads, and the Nation will see 
 that there is no obstruction put by anybody at 
 
 218 
 
21 
 
 any time upon the movement of the mails or 
 national traffic. And the same is true as to the 
 several states. 
 
 There is a notion in the minds of some that 
 there is a difference between a mail car and a 
 passenger car or a freight car. There is none. 
 The freight car that is loaded with interstate 
 freight, the mail car that is loaded with national 
 mails, or the passenger car that has one or more 
 interstate passengers, are alike entitled to national 
 protection, because they are each and all under 
 the jurisdiction and within the protection and 
 control of the United States Government, under 
 that great power of the Constitution which gives 
 to Congress " power to regulate commerce be- 
 tween the states." Each state has the same 
 power over its own commerce. 
 
 It thus appears we have not yet reached the 
 precise question, whether a railway man, or a 
 number of railway men, may leave the service at 
 any time at their own will. If they are, in fact, 
 engaged in a public service, like unto soldiers in 
 the army, seamen on a merchantman or sailors in 
 
 219 
 
22 
 
 the navy, or policemen in the municipal service, 
 it is easy to see they can not. It would not be 
 thought that all the police officers in LaFayette, 
 Indianapolis, Chicago or New York, at roM-call at 
 night, when there was likely to be a disturbance 
 and melees in the streets, might, willy-nilly, aban- 
 don the peace of the city and retire from service, 
 leaving the whole city without protection to lives 
 and property. No more could a city fire force 
 leave the service in face of a conflagration. 
 
 But do railway men sustain the same relation 
 as policemen, firemen, soldiers and sailors? 
 
 Perhaps that can not be settled until another 
 proposition is put at rest; and that is whether 
 railway men, as between themselves and the com 
 panics are in law in the public service. That 
 question did arise two or three years ago, in what 
 is known as the Northern Pacific Railroad case. 
 That road, reaching from the lakes to the Pacific 
 Ocean, and being one of the great national high- 
 ways, came into the control of the Federal Court 
 in Wisconsin. The men entered into an arrange- 
 ment or understanding that if their wages were 
 
 220 
 
23 
 
 not made satisfactory to them, then, at a certain 
 time, everywhere between the lakes and the Pa- 
 cific, they would all leave their trains and service, 
 and the whole railway would thus be blocked. 
 Had they such a right? The Judge presiding in the 
 court issued a writ in the nature of an injunction, 
 in which he said, in substance, that they should 
 not leave the service in a body or singly for the 
 purpose of stopping operations of the road under 
 his administration and control, and declaring, if 
 they did, he would hold it a contempt of his court, 
 and punish them accordingly. The case was re- 
 moved by appeal into the Federal Court of Ap- 
 peals, sitting in Chicago, and came on to be heard 
 with Mr. Justice Harlan presiding. He is one of 
 the Supreme Justices of the United States, and 
 delivered the opinion in this case. He denied any 
 such power, and declared: "It would be an in- 
 vasion of one's natural liberty to compel him to 
 work for or to remain in the personal service of 
 another. One who is placed under such con- 
 straint is in a condition of involuntary servitude 
 a condition which the supreme law of the land 
 
 221 
 
24 
 
 declares shall not exist within the United States 
 or any place subject to their jurisdiction." 
 
 And he added, in effect, that the fact that the em- 
 ployes of railways might quit under circumstances 
 bringing about inconvenience and injury to the 
 great public would not justify a departure from 
 the well-settled rule that a court would not com- 
 pel the actual affirmative performance of merely 
 personal service against the will of such servant. 
 It is fair to say this dissented from the decision 
 in regard to sailors mentioned a few minutes since. 
 And so the question rests. It has not been de- 
 termined by the Supreme Court of the United 
 States. 
 
 I have said enough to show that railway law 
 grows by the process of necessity or evolution ; 
 and in this country, where questions of this kind 
 are more or less controlled by public discussion 
 and political debate and contention, it can not be 
 affirmed with certainty what form the settlement 
 which must come, will ultimately assume. It is 
 not improbable that in the end, Congress, under 
 the power to regulate national commerce, will pass 
 
 222 
 
25 
 
 laws regulating the question when and how men 
 may enter and withdraw from what I may now 
 call the national railway service. And if so, it 
 necessarily follows that provision must be made 
 for settling and protecting the men in their 
 rights and wages and at the same time, also, 
 protecting the rights of all the people to use the 
 national railways without partiality or favor. 
 And this would seem at the present time to be 
 the consensus of public opinion. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I have done the task which I 
 set before me, arid if, in your lives, from time to 
 time, these questions meet you, and you shall 
 happen to find that what 1 have said may have 
 helped you in the performance of your duties, 1 
 will be, 1 beg to assure you, amply repaid for the 
 little labor I have found it necessary to expend in 
 the preparation of these addresses. 
 
 (3) 223 
 
VII. 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF A LOCOMO 
 TIVE ENGINEER. 
 
 ANGUS SINCLAIR. 
 
 [In obedience to a request of the author, this lecture 
 will not appear in published form. It should be said con- 
 cerning it, however, that the incidents related were drawn 
 from an extensive experience and illustrated with remark- 
 able force many of the conditions attending the early 
 development of railways in our western states. Each 
 story was utilized to give emphasis to some important 
 truth. Indeed, the lecture was made up of fun and phil- 
 osophy mixed, in proportions which gave to both their 
 maximum value. ED.] 
 
 225 
 
VIII. 
 
 BUSINESS PROBLEMS OF THE 
 MOTIVE POWER DEPARTMENT. 
 
 ROBERT QUAYLE. 
 
 SIXTY-FIVE years ago railroads were prac- 
 tically unknown. History records their 
 small beginnings with crude equipment. 
 Strange looking locomotives were used that 
 weighed hardly more than a modern dray. The 
 cars were modeled from the stage coaches of 
 that time, and they were run on track of the most 
 flimsy character. The speeds were slow and the 
 service very uncertain, but from this small and. 
 crude beginning evolved the world's great sys- 
 tems of rail transportation, which in this country 
 alone aggregate over 184,000 miles of track, and 
 
 227 
 
require in the conduct of its immense business 
 36,000 locomotives, 34,000 passenger cars and 
 1,200,000 freight cars, while the capital employed 
 is calculated by hundreds of millions, and the 
 great army of employes by hundreds of thou- 
 sands. The development of the resources of our 
 country resulting therefrom has been remarkable, 
 and the advancement of civilization not less 
 notable. 
 
 It goes without saying that the financial and 
 commercial problems involved in the creation and 
 operation of these great properties complicated 
 as the situation often was by the fact that rail- 
 road construction did not wait the development of 
 the country, but was generally in the lead and 
 opened up the way for it have become complex 
 in character and of great magnitude. 
 
 It is not my purpose, however, to dwell upon 
 the wonderfully rapid growth of our railroads, nor 
 ^he effect upon the prosperity of our country, nor 
 even upon the business and financial problems 
 arising in the government of these great proper- 
 ties as a whole, but rather to take the situation as 
 
 228 
 
we find it to-day and to give you some insight into 
 a few of the business problems of the motive- 
 power departments of fairly large railroad corpo- 
 rations. 
 
 To many of you, who have for several years 
 been studying various branches of engineering 
 and fitting yourselves for battling successfully 
 with the many technical problems that are sure 
 to confront you in the practice of your chosen 
 professions, it may appear as if the technical 
 problems requiring solution by those in charge of 
 motive power, are more numerous, if not more 
 important, than the business problems they are 
 called upon to solve. That this is not the case 
 will be clear upon proper reflection. You have 
 doubtless learned, under the excellent practical 
 instruction you have received at this university, 
 that every engineering question has its commer- 
 cial and business side ; and the importance of 
 always seeing this side and giving it due promi- 
 nence will be impressed upon you more and more as 
 you add to your experience in the practice of your 
 profession. In fact, every situation or condition of 
 
 229 
 
affairs that requires the services of the engineer 
 calls for the production by him of structures or 
 mechanisms that will not only meet the require- 
 ments of the situation but will do it with a mini- 
 mum expenditure of capital, or will give the 
 greatest returns from the investment. The suc- 
 cessful engineer is he whose judgment is so 
 trained that the capital of those who depend upon 
 it will be wisely and safely invested. He must not 
 only answer such questions as, "Can this or that 
 be done?" and "How can it best be done?" but 
 he must give equally reliable answers to such 
 questions as, "Will it pay to do it?" Thus, the 
 rule is that his engineering problems are closely 
 interwoven with considerations of a commercial 
 nature. The conduct of a motive-power depart- 
 ment of a large railroad system forms no excep- 
 tion to this rule. 
 
 In the earlier days of railroading the duties of 
 General Manager, Superintendent, Master Me- 
 chanic, etc., were usually performed by one per- 
 son, but as the business became more extensive 
 it was found necessary to divide the work among 
 
 230 
 
5 
 
 several men, each with specific duties and respon- 
 sibilities, and as the business still further in- 
 creased, the division of the duties became more 
 complete, and the organization was separated 
 into numerous departments, each with a certain 
 designated work to perform, and the work of all to 
 be directed to the welfare of the organization as a 
 whole. The mechanical or motive-power depart- 
 ment is one of these several departments in such 
 an organization, and its duties involve the design, 
 construction, maintenance, and operation of the 
 locomotive and the supervision of the men who 
 operate it, except as these men come under the 
 rules and direction of the operating department. 
 The end for which the department was created is 
 of course that of keeping the wheels turning. It 
 must be apparent, however, that as one of the 
 many departments it is necessary to make the 
 work of this one to fit into the needs of the oth- 
 ers, and to so conduct its own affairs as to bring 
 them in harmony with the aims and resources of 
 the organization as a whole. This might properly 
 be designated as the grand business problem of 
 
 231 
 
6 
 
 the department. The department is not an iso- 
 lated organization, but is closely interwoven, in 
 its work and interests, with the operating and 
 other departments, and to successfully carry on 
 its business there is need of a breadth of mind 
 that will clearly discern the relations of the mo- 
 tive power to other departments, and the effect of 
 any given policy within the department upon the 
 work of the others ; for a policy that looks all 
 right when viewed only from the standpoint of 
 the single department may be all wrong when 
 considered in its effect upon the organization as a 
 whole. If the carrying out of a certain policy 
 would result in a saving in the mechanical depart- 
 ment of $10,000 per year, but would involve ex- 
 penditures in other departments of $10,500, it 
 would not be justified, unless the benefit to the 
 company through the improvement of its service 
 would be worth the $500 increased expenditure. 
 Thus at the outset we find that what we might 
 call the external relations of the department form 
 a problem that can be solved only by the applica- 
 tion of strictly business principles, and we will 
 
 232 
 
see later on that the effect is so far-reaching as to 
 have an influence even on locomotive designs and 
 shop practices. To ignore these facts is to travel 
 in ruts that are constantly narrowing and deepen- 
 ing until the best work of the mechanical depart- 
 ment is wholly lost to the company. 
 
 Before turning to the problems within the de- 
 partment it may be well to give you some idea of 
 its expenses, from which you can judge of the 
 magnitude of its problems. The average cost of 
 the locomotives may be placed at $9,000, while 
 the average capital expenditure per locomotive for 
 round houses, shops, tools, etc., is in the neigh- 
 borhood of $5,000. Thus each locomotive and 
 the equipment necessary to take care of it repre- 
 sents an approximate expenditure of $14,000. 
 
 The cost of the operation of the locomotive in- 
 cludes the fuel, oil, waste, enginemen's wages, 
 round-house labor, cost of repairs and supplies. 
 The cost of the fuel varies in different localities, 
 being less than one dollar per ton for coal in some 
 eastern districts and more than five dollars in 
 parts of the far west. If, however, we assume 
 
 233 
 
8 
 
 an average of $1.75 per ton for coal we will not 
 be far out of the way. 
 
 We will also assume that an engine runs 26 
 miles to a ton of coal, and makes 36,000 miles per 
 year ; then the cost of fuel per annum will be 
 $2,423. The wages of the engineer and fireman 
 will average about 6.2 cents per mile, and all 
 round-house labor will average about 1.4 cents 
 per mile, or a total for labor of 7.6 cents per mile, 
 or $2,736 per year. The oil and waste will cost 
 about .2 cent per mile, or $72 per year. The 
 repairs and supplies will cost approximately 4 
 cents per mile, or a total of $1,440 per year. 
 The cost of water we will estimate at .2 cent per 
 mile, or $72 per year. We thus find the several 
 items of " cost of operation " to aggregate $6,743, 
 exclusive of all interest charges on capital em- 
 ployed. It is not unusual for large railroad sys- 
 tems to possess 500 locomotives, and quite a 
 number of them own more than 1,000. From the 
 above figures it will be seen that the operation of 
 500 locomotives calls for an average expenditure, 
 
 234 
 
through the mechanical department, of $3,371,- 
 500, and for 1,000 engines the sum becomes 
 $6,743,000 per year. It is, therefore, needless 
 to say that in the expenditure of such large sums 
 as these, and the treatment of a portion of a com- 
 pany's business so important and having such an 
 important bearing on its interests, every prob- 
 lem, no matter what its character, has its business 
 side as distinguished from its narrower or purely 
 technical nature. 
 
 Turning now to affairs within the department, 
 we find that there are several important problems 
 in connection with the operation of the locomotive 
 and the service it renders the company. We all 
 look upon the locomotive with a great deal of 
 sentiment, the proof of which is constantly forth- 
 coming in the interest manifested in its perform- 
 ance. Every account of a fast run is read with 
 interest by the general public, as well as by the 
 railroad men, and we are thrilled by the records 
 of great bursts of speed made on the rails. The 
 modern locomotive, with its great boiler and gen 
 erally massive and powerful appearance, hauling 
 
 235 
 
10 
 
 a passenger train of ten or twelve long, heavy 
 cars at the rate of forty-five or fifty miles per 
 hour, gives an impression of majesty and power 
 not soon forgotten by the observer, who is only 
 far enough away from it to be safe. And as we 
 stand in the depots in some of our large cities and 
 see these trains arrive, at the end of their long 
 and rapid journeys of one thousand miles or 
 more, often on time to the minute, and realize 
 that in daylight and darkness, sunshine or storm, 
 they sweep over great plains, and over or through 
 mountain ranges, sometimes toiling slowly and 
 powerfully up heavy grades only to dash with 
 renewed speed down the mountain sides and into 
 the valleys, that this great burden has been car- 
 ried such immense distances in safety by ma- 
 chinery that is the creation of man's ingenuity 
 and industry, we feel that it is indeed wonderful. 
 Our great freight locomotives, of slower speed 
 but of much greater weight and power, also en- 
 gage our attention as we see them coupled to 
 fifty, sixty, or more, loaded cars working heroic- 
 ally to reach their destination on time. 
 
 236 
 
II 
 
 Many students of the steam engine are inter- 
 ested in the performance of the locomotive as a 
 heat motor and peruse carefully the figures for the 
 coal and water consumption obtained by elaborate 
 tests, and are gratified to note the economy ob- 
 tained as the result of gradual improvement in 
 design. The motive-power official may possess 
 his share of sentiment, and certainly should be 
 alive to all improvements that will increase the 
 economy of the locomotive as a heat engine, but 
 he must also look upon his motive power from afar 
 more business-like standpoint. He must consider 
 the locomotive as a machine a tool created for a 
 purpose representing a large investment of capi- 
 tal and costing annually a considerable sum for its 
 operation, and must be deeply concerned in mak- 
 ing it give the largest possible return to the com- 
 pany. If to attain this end he must violate, in- 
 the construction or operation of the engine, prin- 
 ciples which he knows tend toward economy of 
 water and fuel, it is his business to do it. And I 
 have no hesitation in saying that to the carrying 
 out of this wise and business-like policy are due 
 
 237 
 
12 
 
 some features of locomotive practice that are 
 sometimes condemned by those who are apt to 
 look upon the subject entirely from the standpoint 
 of economy in fuel. 
 
 Perhaps I can best illustrate this business prob- 
 lem by a comparison which every motive power 
 official has had to make at some time, in connec- 
 tion with the rating of his engines. The tests 
 that have been made upon the locomotive in the 
 testing laboratory of this university demonstrate 
 that the most economical point of cut-off is be- 
 tween one-quarter and one-third of the stroke. 
 Other tests made on this same plant show that 
 as the locomotive boiler is forced and the rate of 
 combustion increased, the rate of evaporation 
 falls off rapidly. The conclusion is therefore 
 warranted that with a given speed a cut-off later 
 than one-third of the stroke will result in a loss 
 of economy, both in the boiler and the cylinders. 
 Are we, therefore, warranted in endeavoring to 
 operate our locomotives under these conditions of 
 maximum fuel economy? The work of the en- 
 gine varies so much with the grades that we can 
 
 238 
 
13 
 
 not expect to run at a uniform rate of cut-off, but 
 is it economy to endeavor to give the locomotive 
 such a load that it will average one-quarter to one- 
 third cut-off ? Let us look into the question. 
 Suppose ours is a nineteen inch engine in freight 
 service on a hilly division and that under a limita- 
 tion of the average cut-off to one-third, the ton- 
 nage which it can haul over the division is six 
 hundred tons, exclusive of its own weight and 
 that of the waycar. Let us further assume that 
 if the engine is worked to its utmost capacity 
 on the ruling grades, even if by so doing we 
 must run it for many miles at from one-half 
 to full stroke, we will be able to haul seven 
 hundred and fifty tons. The train and engine 
 crews' wages will amount to about 13.2 cents 
 per mile or $13.20 per one hundred miles. 
 When hauling the heavier train we are getting 
 25 per cent, more tonnage over the division for 
 the same cost in wages, and thereby effecting a 
 saving of $3.30 for each hundred miles the seven 
 hundred and fifty tons are hauled. This is a 
 clear gain in operating expenses. Now, let us 
 
 239 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
 O 
 
14 
 
 look at the actual consumption of fuel and in 
 doing this we must bear in mind that while 
 our nominal weights of trains are six hundred, 
 and seven hundred and fifty tons, respectively, 
 the real weights, allowing one hundred tons 
 for the engine and tender and fifteen tons for 
 the waycar, are seven hundred and fifteen, and 
 eight hundred and sixty-five tons, respectively. 
 Evidently the weights of the engine, tender 
 and waycar form a fixed quantity in our calcula- 
 tions and that the heavier the train the less 
 the percentage of the total work of the engine 
 needed to overcome their resistance, and the in- 
 ternal resistance of the engine. Evidently the 
 coal consumption in our comparison should be 
 figured on the basis of the tonnage of the cars and 
 their contents only, for upon this is based the 
 earnings of the train. For the six hundred ton 
 train the coal consumption may be taken at say 
 seventeen pounds of coal per hundred ton-miles, 
 or ten thousand two hundred pounds to haul 
 the train one hundred miles. For the seven 
 hundred and fifty ton train the consumption 
 
 240 
 
15 
 
 per hundred ton-miles will be about one and 
 one- half pounds less, or say fifteen and five-tenths 
 pounds per hundred ton-miles. In other words, 
 the lesser percentage of the total work of the en 
 gine expended upon itself, its tender and the way- 
 car, more than offsets the increased consumption 
 of coal per indicated horse power. The total con- 
 sumption for the seven hundred and fifty tons 
 hauled one hundred miles will be about eleven 
 thousand six hundred and twenty-five pounds. 
 Thus, while the total consumption of coal per trip 
 is of course greater for the heavier train, the con- 
 sumption per hundred ton-miles is less ; conse- 
 quently the fuel bill to haul three thousand tons of 
 cars and contents will be less if it is taken over 
 the road in four trains of seven hundred and fifty 
 tons instead of five trains of six hundred tons. So 
 we have saved money in both wages and fuel per 
 hundred ton-miles. But the question is broader 
 still. Evidently fewer engines resulting in a lesser 
 investment are required ; furthermore, while the 
 cost of repairs per mile run by the engine may be 
 greater, the cost per hundred ton-miles of train 
 
 241 
 
i6 
 
 hauled will be less. Again, the fewer engines will 
 mean a smaller investment in round houses, shops, 
 machinery, etc., and last, but not least, the opera- 
 ting expenses will be reduced in more ways than 
 train crew wages, and the liability of accident will 
 be lessened by the fewer number of trains. Thus 
 the broader the light in which this question is 
 viewed the greater the economy of working the 
 locomotive beyond the point of maximum economy 
 per indicated horse power. 
 
 That this view of this business problem is correct 
 will be acceded to by every motive-power official. 
 The situation may appear to you to be paradox- 
 ical, particularly in regard to the item of fuel, 
 but that coal can be saved by loading an engine 
 heavily we have proof of daily. The road with 
 which the writer is connected keeps an individual 
 coal record by which the consumption of coal per 
 hundred ton-miles by each engineer is recorded. 
 In a group of men in comparable freight service 
 on one division the best performance in November 
 last was fifteen and nine-tenths pounds per hun- 
 dred ton-miles, the engineer having an average 
 
 242 
 
17 
 
 train of eight hundred and fifty-three tons. The 
 poorest record was twenty-eight and seven-tenths 
 pounds, but the average train was only three 
 hundred and seventy-eight tons. Of course 
 there are differences in engines, which was true 
 in this case, but all our coal accounts support the 
 statement that, other things being equal, the 
 heavier the train the less the consumption per 
 hundred ton-miles. The limit to this rule is not 
 reached before the engine is so overloaded that 
 the required time can not be made. So evident 
 is this to our engineers that they are anxious to 
 haul the heaviest trains of which their engines are 
 capable, as by. this means only will their records 
 compare favorably with others in the same class 
 of work. 
 
 This same mode of reasoning, by which the 
 work of the engine is viewed by its effect upon 
 the net cost of hauling tonnage rather than its 
 economy in fuel per horse power, must apply to 
 other questions involved in locomotive construc- 
 tion and operation. On this basis the size of 
 locomotives have been constantly increasing and 
 
 243 
 
i8 
 
 will continue to increase. Anything which adds 
 to the economy of performance, but limits the 
 amount of work that can be obtained from the 
 engine, either by reducing the tonnage it can 
 haul per trip or reducing the mileage it can make 
 per year, can not hope to succeed. If a compli- 
 cated valve gear would save five or ten per cent. 
 in fuel, but would cause the engine to miss a trip 
 occasionally because of repairs necessary to the 
 mechanism, the loss of the service of the engine 
 to the company in busy seasons would possibly 
 more than offset the saving in fuel. On the 
 other hand, simple, strong and reliable construc- 
 tion of the locomotive, facilities for quickly repair- 
 ing it, and everything that will add to its useful 
 mileage per year, is worthy of careful study. At 
 the same time the necessity of meeting these 
 conditions does not relieve the motive power offi- 
 cial of getting the greatest possible economy out 
 of the locomotive as an engine, after he has met 
 the conditions noted, and if he does his whole 
 duty he will be eager enough, in his attempt to 
 
 244 
 
19 
 
 obtain this economy, to satisfy the most enthusi- 
 astic student of the steam engine. 
 
 In connection with the shops and the work done 
 in them there are numerous business problems. 
 It is not given to every superintendent of motive 
 power to locate and build up a great plant that 
 shall meet the company's needs. But when such 
 a plant is to be built, the same business consider- 
 ations obtain as in the creation of a manufactur- 
 ing establishment. Most of us, however, find on 
 the roads we serve a more or less complete equip- 
 ment of round houses and shops, with which we 
 must do the best we can. Oftentimes these 
 shops, in their location, size and character of their 
 buildings, are far from being perfect, not neces- 
 sarily because some one blundered when they 
 were built, but because no one could foresee the 
 extent of the growth of the company's business 
 and the extension of its track and equipment. 
 Furthermore, as most of our large railroad systems 
 have reached their present size by the consolida 
 tion and absorption of smaller lines, each of which, 
 when independent, had shops of its own, it is not 
 
 245 
 
2O 
 
 surprising to find a system provided with many 
 shops, more or less completely equipped for doing 
 the work of general repairs, and yet not one of 
 them with all the facilities for doing work cheaply 
 and on a large scale. This situation presents 
 another business problem. The round houses, 
 also, may have been originally located with refer- 
 ence to the needs of the short lines now consoli- 
 dated into the larger system, and with the prac- 
 tice of having our locomotive runs average but 
 little more than one hundred miles, which pre- 
 vailed until recent years, these houses may all be 
 in use. Again, we have a business problem 
 before us. Every such point involves certain 
 expenditures for superintendence, etc., and the 
 smaller the number of locomotives handled at a 
 given point the higher the ratio of these expendi- 
 tures to the total outlay. Then the cost of dis- 
 patching and round-house labor is not dependent 
 upon the length of the run the locomotive has 
 made, but is as great for a trip of one hundred 
 miles as it is for two hundred miles. Conse- 
 quently, where division terminals can be so 
 
 246 
 
21 
 
 changed as to give the locomotives longer runs, 
 round houses can be closed, resulting in a consid- 
 erable reduction in the amount of labor required 
 to handle locomotives at terminals, as well as a 
 material reduction in the cost of the labor remain- 
 ing to be done in the houses retained. Another 
 advantage gained is the greater mileage that can 
 be obtained from locomotives when the runs are 
 lengthened. 
 
 If we find the number and equipment of the 
 shops to be as already indicated, a change will be 
 necessary, if the cost of repairs is to be reduced 
 to a minimum. You will remember that we as- 
 sumed the repairs would cost four cents per mile. 
 That amounts to $1,440 per locomotive per an- 
 num, or $1,440,000 per 1,000 locomotives. If 
 we can reduce the figure by one-half cent per 
 mile, the cost per annum will be reduced by 
 $180,000. To effect such a reduction we must 
 have improved machinery and up-to-date meth- 
 ods. But much of this machinery, if installed in 
 a small shop, would be idle most of the time so 
 
 247 
 
22 
 
 much of the time that it might not pay to pur- 
 chase it unless more work can be found for it. 
 To illustrate : Suppose a railroad finds it has no 
 boiler shop that is properly equipped for econom- 
 ical work ; at one of its main shops it takes out 
 antiquated machinery, such as old punches and 
 shears, single-spindle post-drills, bending rolls, 
 operated by hand, etc., and in the place of this 
 machinery is installed a powerful punch with 
 throat deep enough to permit reaching the center 
 of the widest sheet to be operated upon, a mod- 
 ern shear, an hydraulic riveting machine with at 
 least a twelve-foot gap, multiple-spindle drills, 
 power bending rolls, an hydraulic flanging ma- 
 chine, and other modern machinery, including 
 traveling cranes. All hand work is now reduced 
 to a minimum, and the shop is prepared to do the 
 best of boiler work with great economy over the 
 old methods. When this is accomplished it will 
 be found that the shop is capable of doing a much 
 larger amount of work than formerly ; in fact it 
 can probably do the heavy boiler work for 800 
 locomotives, even if in its equipment there was 
 
 248 
 
23 
 
 installed only one of each of the more important 
 tools. It will not pay to improve every boiler 
 shop on the road in this manner, nor will it be 
 necessary. By concentrating the heavy boiler 
 work at a few places the maximum of economy 
 can be obtained and with the minimum capital in- 
 vested in tools. And so we might go through the 
 blacksmith shop, machine shop and other shops 
 and find many similar cases where the introduction 
 of improved machinery and methods must go hand- 
 in-hand with a concentration of the class or classes 
 of work affected thereby. 
 
 Now nothing is more certain than the need of 
 modern methods and first-class machinery in rail- 
 road shops; from which it follows that concen- 
 tration of work must be accomplished, at least to 
 the extent of keeping properly employed this 
 modern machinery. This leads us to turn our 
 attention to the small shops on the various divis- 
 ions, with a view of deciding how much of the 
 work performed in them can be profitably trans- 
 ferred to the larger and better equipped shops. 
 
 249 
 
24 
 
 We may find that with proper round-house facili- 
 ties for making the running repairs, some of them 
 can be closed entirely. In such cases we gain 
 not only the benefit of a lower cost on the work 
 thus transferred to a better equipped shop, but 
 we save in such items as light, heat, power, su- 
 perintendence, etc. As superintendence itself is 
 a large item amounting to about ten per cent, of 
 the total expenses of the department the saving 
 in this direction is not inconsiderable. There will 
 still remain, however, numerous shops that must 
 be maintained, and in which certain classes of 
 repairs can be as cheaply done as in the main 
 shops. It will be found economical, nevertheless, 
 to take from them the heaviest classes of repair 
 work, and also to relieve them of the manufactur- 
 ing of much of the standard materials. 
 
 Perhaps I have used the word manufacturing 
 unadvisedly, for if each outside shop is allowed 
 to furnish all the new parts necessary in the course 
 of its repair work there will be little manufactur- 
 ing done. When a locomotive is overhauled, 
 such parts as driving boxes, shoes and wedges, 
 
25 
 
 rods, crank pins, cross-heads, etc., need more or 
 less work done upon them to take up the wear, 
 and evidently such work never can be put upon 
 a manufacturing basis. Here and there a new 
 crosshead, crank pin, driving box or other part is 
 needed, but in many shops the number required 
 at any one time is too small to introduce the labor- 
 saving methods that would be possible if they 
 were made in quantity. Evidently, however, if 
 the main shop undertook to supply these parts in 
 a finished condition to all the outlying shops, they 
 could be made in such quantities as to greatly re- 
 duce their cost. This, I believe, is what should 
 be done, and to a larger extent than is usually 
 practiced. The main shops should undertake to 
 make on a large scale as many of the new parts 
 required in repairs over the system as the con- 
 ditions will admit of, and this work should be 
 done upon a manufacturing basis so far as prac- 
 ticable. By this means the cost is reduced and 
 there is every incentive to keep on cheapening 
 the work and raising the quality of it by special 
 
 251 
 
26 
 
 and ingenious methods, by templates, jigs, special 
 cutters and other tools. 
 
 To carry out this policy, two things are neces- 
 sary : A standardizing of the parts of the various 
 locomotives owned by the company, and liberal 
 appropriations for the machinery needed in the 
 work. The appropriations are matters which 
 must be settled by the management. Without 
 them these economies can not be effected and it is 
 a matter of regret at times that there is not more 
 money forthcoming for these purposes. But we 
 will assume that this matter has been satisfac- 
 torily disposed of and consider for a moment the 
 work of standardizing. 
 
 When you stop to think of the rapid changes 
 that have taken place in locomotive design in the 
 last ten years, by which steam pressures have 
 been increased about fifty pounds and the size 
 and weight of locomotives greatly augmented, 
 you will readily understand that railroad com- 
 panies which have purchased many engines in 
 that time have a variety of designs in service. 
 The consolidation of companies has in some cases 
 
 252 
 
27 
 
 added to the variety of equipment under the care 
 of the motive-power department. To manufac- 
 ture parts for these engines it is necessary to use 
 the same patterns and sizes on as many engines 
 as possible. By so doing the quantity of stock 
 required to be kept on hand will be less a most 
 important consideration. To show you the need 
 that may exist for standardizing and what can be 
 accomplished I will quote you a few of the results 
 obtained along this line in the motive-power de- 
 partment with which I am connected. 
 
 We have reduced to one or two sizes most of 
 our cocks and valves, oil cups, injector checks, 
 glands and all other brass work and small parts. 
 At one time we had 113 different kinds of cabs on 
 the 1,010 engines owned by the company; now 
 their number has been reduced to nine. Pilots at 
 one time were built of fifteen different heights; 
 now there are but three. The number of kinds and 
 sizes of smoke stacks have been reduced from 
 legion to four. Two patterns of exhaust pipes 
 have replaced forty-five old ones. Ten cross- 
 head patterns take the place of twenty formerly 
 
 253 
 
28 
 
 used. Three standard eccentrics take the place 
 of eleven needed heretofore. Sixteen cylinder 
 head casings and seven cylinder head patterns 
 have been discarded ; also, six steam chests and 
 casings. Six standard wheel centers now take 
 the place of twenty-two formerly used. And so 
 1 might go through the entire list, but those al- 
 ready mentioned are enough to indicate the great 
 saving that can be accomplished both in the stocks 
 carried and the cost of production. Not a week 
 passes without seeing more of this work accom- 
 plished ; and yet, in it all, one must be constantly 
 on the alert for improvements and must not hold 
 these standards too sacred. They have to be 
 discarded occasionally if we are to profit by our 
 own experience and that of others. But with 
 both large and small parts properly standardized 
 and special tools and methods introduced, prac- 
 tically all the small standard parts can be manu- 
 factured at one shop and many of the large parts 
 can be produced in the same way. 
 
 Some roads do nothing but repair work in their 
 shops, but a few undertake to build quite a number 
 
 254 
 
29 
 
 of their own engines. Rebuilding of locomo- 
 tives is carried on to some extent in nearly every 
 railroad shop. Where to draw the line in rebuild- 
 ing it is difficult to determine. By this term I do 
 riot mean the making of extensive repairs and yet 
 retaining the original design. Most roads find 
 themselves possessed of engines of moderate size, 
 provided with boilers much too small for the cyl- 
 inders, and carrying a low steam pressure. If 
 these engines were rebuilt and given new boilers 
 the tractive weight and power would be largely 
 increased by the larger boiler and higher steam 
 pressure. Whether it is advisable to do this de- 
 pends upon the service the rebuilt engines are 
 intended for. Perhaps I can best illustrate the 
 manner in which this matter should be viewed by 
 taking actual cases. A road needs for its passen-' 
 ger service an engine, the equivalent in power of 
 a seventeen inch engine carrying 180 pounds of 
 steam. Its modern power is all large and the 
 seventeen and eighteen inch engines owned by it 
 will not do the work because the boilers are too 
 small and they only carry 140 to 150 pounds steam 
 
 255 
 
,30 
 
 pressure. To rebuild one of these seventeen inch 
 engines, giving it a new boiler, will cost, say four 
 thousand five hundred dollars. I believe it will 
 pay to do it, if the machinery is heavy enough 
 for the higher pressure, as a new engine for the 
 service required will cost about eight thousand 
 dollars. We save not only the difference in 
 the cost, but we have one less small engine on 
 our hands. But suppose we expect to use these 
 rebuilt engines in freight service and have no 
 particular place for them, but only contemplate 
 increasing their capacity by the rebuilding, we 
 would gain about twenty per cent, in power by 
 the change. If the tractive power of the old 
 engine be expressed by the number 100, then 
 three engines rebuilt would have a total tractive 
 power of 360. The cost of rebuilding the three 
 engines would be thirteen thousand five hundred 
 dollars. Now if we leave the old engines as they 
 are and spend eleven thousand five hundred 
 dollars of this money in purchasing a heavy 
 modern freight engine we will be able to get one 
 with a tractive power represented by 175, and 
 
 256 
 
we would then have four engines, three old and 
 one new, with a combined tractive power repre- 
 sented by 475, or an average of 118.75 P er 
 engine. If we should scrap one of the seventeen 
 inch engines we would have three engines with a 
 tractive power of 375, or an average of 125. 
 Thus we find that for two thousand dollars less 
 money we can, by purchasing new power and 
 keeping all our old power, get almost exactly the 
 same average tractive power as by rebuilding, and 
 that if we would scrap one old engine for each 
 new one purchased the average tractive power of 
 our engines would be considerably increased over 
 what we could obtain by rebuilding. Evidently 
 the figures are against rebuilding except where 
 the rebuilt engines will fit into some particular 
 place, generally in passenger service. 
 
 I have shown you enough of the work of the 
 motive-power department to make it evident that 
 to successfully carry on a business as large as we 
 have been considering, a complete and thorough 
 organization is necessary. The peculiar charac- 
 ter of the work, involving shop management 
 
 257 
 
32 
 
 on the one hand and the control of a large body 
 of men and the movement of many locomotives 
 on the other, maintenance of the locomotives 
 already owned and the designing of new ones, 
 and the necessity of carrying on some of this 
 work at points widely separated from each other, 
 are all arguments against the possibility of any 
 one man giving the details of this work his per- 
 sonal supervision. And to trust these details to 
 others, a unity of purpose and practice is required. 
 The business at each point must be conducted as 
 a part of the great whole and not on independent 
 lines. Improved methods or designs worked out 
 at one point should become the practice at all 
 others, if capable of more than a local application ;. 
 in this manner only can advantage be taken of 
 the ability and ingenuity of those in charge at 
 each and every point. Without this unity, stand- 
 ards would soon be disregarded and would be of 
 little value because they would not be based upon 
 the experience of the whole department. A suc- 
 cessful organization must not only assign to each 
 person in it certain responsibilities and duties, but 
 
 258 
 
33 
 
 it must be of such a character as to utilize the 
 best work of each one. By giving to all as much 
 of a voice in shaping the policies of the depart- 
 ment as is consistent with the responsibility 
 which must rest with the head of the department, 
 I believe the best results will be obtained. If the 
 men in charge at the various offices of a large 
 department are asked to carry out instructions 
 issued from headquarters without being consulted 
 as to the effect of such instructions upon their 
 work, the faithfulness with which they may carry 
 out orders will never compensate for the loss to 
 the department of the judgment and experience 
 of these men, and the free expression of opinion 
 which should prevail. Without attempting to 
 lead you into the details of organization, I can 
 assure you that, after the selection of capable 
 men to fill the various positions of responsibility, 
 an organization that will call out the hearty co- 
 operation of each and every one of them is essen- 
 tial to the success of the work. 
 
 Co-operation, however, should not be confined 
 to those in official positions. The further this 
 
 259 
 
34 
 
 spirit of co-operation can extend into the rank and 
 file of the department, the better it is for the 
 company, its officers and the men themselves. 
 This desirable result can be brought about by 
 honest, fair dealing toward the men by those in 
 authority over them. There is a wonderful 
 amount of loyalty on the part of the men towards 
 a great railway corporation that always endeavors 
 to treat them justly, and fortunate is the company 
 that wins that loyalty. Its value can not be 
 computed. Many corporations, and many offi- 
 cials possess it, and they have won it without 
 yielding any of their own rights to the men, but 
 simply by according them justice at all times. We 
 need to bear in mind constantly that our employes 
 are men and that a large percentage of them are 
 manly men and should be treated as such. With 
 this thought directing our dealings with them we 
 cherish those much-to-be-desired relations between 
 employer and employe, that conserve the interests 
 of both. 
 
 Statistics are usually so uninteresting that I 
 have made but little use of them this evening. 
 
 260 
 
35 
 
 Properly kept they are, however, of great value. 
 By their use the business of the department can 
 be grasped in its entirety. But in order that they 
 should not mislead, they must not only be accu- 
 rate, but must be on the right basis. In the past 
 nearly all of the statistical work of the depart- 
 ment has been computed on the engine-mile basis. 
 In many respects this is most undesirable, as the 
 engine-mile is far from being a constant unit. 
 The ton-mile is a much better basis for much of 
 our statistical work. Already we have placed all 
 our coal records on this basis, and it is probably 
 only a question of time when repairs and supplies 
 will be computed in like manner. The impor- 
 tance of this matter is nicely illustrated in our 
 coal records. On the engine-mile basis the engi- 
 neer who hauled the lightest train made the finest 
 showing, other things being equal. On the ton- 
 mile basis the man who hauls the heaviest train 
 may expect to have the best record. Thus we 
 furnish an incentive to actual economy of opera- 
 tion, instead of putting a premium on extrava- 
 gance. Furthermore, you can readily see that if 
 
 261 
 
we had not considered the ton-miles we would not 
 have seen any economy in fuel in our 75o-ton 
 train, as compared with a 6oo-ton train, in our 
 example of engine-rating. The value of the 
 ton-mile statistics are also illustrated by the 
 records heavy modern power is making on many 
 roads. When these engines are first put in serv- 
 ice the men find they burn a large amount of coal 
 per mile run, and use more oil than the smaller 
 engines. Computing their fuel supplies and re- 
 pairs on the ton-mile basis, however, the perform- 
 ance is seen to be a wonderful improvement over 
 the smaller engines, and fully justifies their use 
 on divisions whose business is heavy enough to 
 properly utilize them. It will be clear upon re- 
 flection that the statistics on the ton-mile basis 
 would determine the true cost for a unit of work ; 
 and furthermore, as this unit is also a fairly accu- 
 rate measure of the value of the service rendered 
 the company, we are able at all times to deter- 
 mine with a fair degree of accuracy the cost of 
 the locomotive performance per unit of revenue- 
 producing service. 
 
 262 
 
37 
 
 In my address to you this evening I have en- 
 deavored to keep within the limits of the subject 
 assigned to me, and have avoided as much as 
 possible the discussion of technical matters. The 
 .business problems of the motive power depart- 
 ment are so numerous, however, that it would 
 have been impossible in the time at my disposal 
 to have touched even lightly upon them all. I 
 have preferred, therefore, to take up only a few 
 that confront us, with the hope that they would 
 demonstrate how essential is the proper solution of 
 such problems to the success of the work of the de- 
 partment. These problems are not new, and in the 
 near future some of them may cease to exist, their 
 place being taken by others, brought about by new 
 conditions and the rapid progress being made in 
 economic railroad operation. The tendency of pas- 
 senger and freight rates is steadily downward, and 
 that the railroads may live on the reduced rates 
 the cost of operation must decrease likewise. The 
 motive-power department must contribute its share 
 to the reduction of expenses, and must do it by 
 giving careful attention to its business problems. 
 
 263 
 
IX. 
 
 EXPERIENCES IN THE MOTIVE- 
 POWER DEPARTMENTS 
 OF RAILWAYS. 
 
 GODFREY W. RHODES. 
 
 [ Not many superintendents of motive-power have en- 
 joyed a wider experience than has Mr. Rhodes, and few 
 have observed more carefully. His lecture, while dealing 
 with incidents, was full of valuable suggestion. 
 
 He discussed the fundamental principles which apply in 
 the management of men, and urged the value of pains- 
 taking and considerate attention on the part of heads of 
 departments, sketching briefly some of his personal ex- 
 periences and leading his audience to a broad view of the 
 responsibilities resting upon those who are called to direct 
 the work of others. The dependence of practice upon the 
 application of correct principles was emphasized and the 
 necessity for conducting experimental investigations under 
 conditions of actual service was presented in a most force- 
 ful and attractive manner. 
 
 The value of experimental research was illustrated by a 
 brief account of the Burlington Brake Tests, but the mod- 
 esty with which the speaker referred to the difficulties 
 encountered, and to the far-reaching effect of the results 
 obtained, aroused but slight suspicion in the minds of the 
 student audience that he was the masterful leader in that 
 great work. 
 
 In deference to the urgent desire of the author, this 
 lecture will not appear in published form. ED.] 
 
 265 
 
X. 
 
 RAILWAY SIGNALING. 
 
 FREDERIC A. DELANO. 
 
 THIS subject, as you can readily understand, 
 is a pretty broad one, but in its use in 
 connection with railway operation, it is 
 restricted to a comparatively narrow field. In 
 railway operation, signals may be classified as 
 follows : 
 
 1. Fixed signals designed to protect railway crossings, 
 
 turn-outs, cross-overs, switches and the like, such 
 as semaphores and switch targets. 
 
 2. Fixed signals to space trains, called block signals. 
 
 3. Fixed signals designed to stop trains for train orders. 
 
 4. Audible signals, such, for example, as whistle signals, 
 
 torpedoes, etc. 
 
 5. Hand and lantern signals used by train and yard men 
 
 in handling trains, or in switching cars. 
 
 6. Bell or whistle cord signals used by train men in pas- 
 
 senger train service only. 
 
 267 
 
Our time this afternoon will be confined entirely 
 to the consideration of fixed signals, and by the 
 term fixed signals we must not get confused with 
 stationary signs and posts. It has not been un- 
 common for writers on this subject to call mile 
 posts, whistling posts, stationary road crossing 
 signs, and slow boards, fixed signals. In point of 
 fact, these are stationary signs, and can not be 
 considered signals, all definitions in the dictionary 
 to the contrary, notwithstanding. 
 
 To my mind a signal must, in the nature of 
 things, be capable of two or more interpretations, 
 in the most simple form a positive and negative one, 
 and under this conception of a signal all stationary 
 signs, which can only be susceptible of one inter- 
 pretation, would be excluded from the term sig- 
 nal. On the other hand a fixed signal is so 
 named to distinguish it from a movable signal, 
 such as hand or lantern signals, or from audible 
 signals, such as whistle or bell signals. By a fixed 
 signal we mean that there is a stationary staff or 
 mast at which the various indications are dis- 
 played, be these two or more. 
 
 268 
 
3 
 
 When fixed signals were first employed on rail- 
 ways, the important thought was to make the 
 cautionary or danger indications prominent. The 
 reverse or opposite indication of the signal was 
 considered unimportant; thus, the earliest form 
 of signal to indicate the position of switches was 
 the old target, a simple revolving disk, which 
 showed the entire face of the disk when the 
 switch was thrown for the side track and against 
 the through line, but simply the edge of the disk 
 when the switch was thrown in the reverse posi- 
 tion or with the through line clear. In the same 
 way the earliest form of semaphore, when in the 
 "all-clear" position, disappeared behind the post 
 on which it was mounted, or, in some cases, into 
 a case or box, thus completely hiding it from 
 view. 
 
 It has only been in recent years, say twenty- 
 five years in this country and somewhat longer 
 in England, that the principle has become gener- 
 ally established, that it is quite as important to 
 show a definite unmistakable indication for each 
 interpretation of the signal. In other words, it is 
 
 269 
 
as important for the locomotive engineer to know 
 that the line is all-clear, as it is to know that 
 the road is blocked, and the rule has been generally 
 adopted that the absence of a clear signal must 
 be interpreted as a danger signal ; also, that the 
 normal position of all signals is at danger, and any 
 failure of parts allows the signal to go to danger. 
 The fixed signal may be classified under two 
 general types : First, the semaphore signal ; and 
 second, the disk signal. The semaphore signal 
 seems first to have been described by the Greek 
 author Polybius, but came into use in modern 
 times toward the end of the last century, when 
 it was proved to be the signal best suited to be 
 seen at long distances. The signal was simply a 
 hinged or pivoted board projecting from an up- 
 right mast. It was found by experiment that a 
 signal made in this way could be seen against the 
 sky for very long distances, and that various in- 
 dications could be made by changing the position 
 or angle of the board relative to the mast. It was 
 first introduced in France about the time of the 
 
 270 
 
5 
 
 French Revolution for conveying messages be- 
 tween distant signal towers, and the name of the 
 engineer who first introduced the system was 
 Claude Chappe. He was made Engineer of 
 Telegraphic Lines in France. Subsequently the 
 semaphore signal came into use in marine ser- 
 vice, and later, on railways. 
 
 Under the general type of disk signals there 
 may be included all forms of revolving signals 
 and swiveling or otherwise disappearing shutters, 
 within a fixed frame. Both these types of signals, 
 i. ., the semaphore and the disk signal, are ef- 
 fective only in daylight, and must be supple- 
 mented by lamps and colored lenses at night. 
 Thus while by daylight we differentiate fixed sig- 
 nals into two main divisions, we must make our 
 night signals all of one general type ; for while 
 ingenious devices have been suggested and suc- 
 cessfully operated to make an illuminated sema- 
 phore blade, the best practice to-day returns to 
 the lamp and colored lenses. 
 
 The technique of signaling, and the various 
 appliances which go with it, is too elaborate and 
 
 271 
 
complex to consider fully in this lecture. The 
 system, as we find it to-day, is an evolution, and 
 every inch of the way of progress has been fought 
 over ; every part has been added or altered to fit 
 a want, either actual or supposed. Ingenuity has 
 constantly been creating new devices, many of 
 which have later been discarded. Not a few of 
 the difficulties in relation to the use of signals are 
 those incident to the severe climatic conditions 
 prevalent in England and in this country. To 
 understand the subject we must consider it in 
 approximately the order of its development. 
 
 Semaphore signals came into general use first 
 in Great Britain, and, in fact, on account of the 
 density of traffic and governmental requirements, 
 reached quite a high state of development before 
 the art of signaling was much considered in this 
 country. In England, as grade railway crossings 
 were rare and stations with sidings and turn-outs 
 numerous, the first necessity of signals was to 
 protect trains in the use of these sidings and turn- 
 outs, and indicate to the locomotive drivers the 
 position of the switches. 
 
 272 
 
As I have said before, the first form of signal 
 or indication at a switch was the target or revolv- 
 ing switch stand, used in an improved form to 
 this day ; but as speed increased it soon became 
 evident that locomotive drivers must be fore- 
 warned of the position of the switches by a signal 
 that could be seen at considerable distances. This 
 led to the introduction of the semaphore signal 
 near the switch, and when the alignment of the 
 track precluded the possibility of seeing these 
 signals at considerable distances, an additional 
 signal repeating the position of the signal near the 
 switch was put in advance further up the line.* 
 
 *At first these semaphore signals near the switch or the repeating 
 signals in advance were thrown independently of the switch, and the em- 
 ployes were trusted to follow prescribed rules as to throwing these signals 
 first, and before throwing the switch, but it was soon found that this was 
 putting too much dependence on humanity, and a simple mechanism was 
 devised by which the signal was locked or slotted with the switch in such 
 a way that before the switch could be moved the signal must first be placed 
 at danger, its normal position, and after the switch was thrown the proper 
 signal again cleared. Thus we see that the interlocking system began in 
 England with the locking of a single switch with the signal which gov- 
 erned it. This developed into the locking of several switches with a single 
 semaphore, and finally of making a certain succession of movements on 
 any desired route or line of movement, dependent upon certain other suc- 
 cessive movements for some other route, with a view of making it impos- 
 sible for an operator to give clear signals for conflicting routes. And 
 whereas, the earliest interlocking: machine was out of doors, or as we now 
 say, " in the field," with perhaps two levers, one to throw the signal and 
 the other to throw the switch, the highly developed machine of to-day is in 
 a central tower containing perhaps one hundred or more levers, some 
 operating signals, some operating- locks, and some operating switches. 
 
 273 
 
8 
 
 This, then, was the first use of what became 
 and are still known as "home" and "distant" 
 signals. As important stations became equipped 
 with these safeguards the increase in traffic cre- 
 ated the further necessity of spacing trains, which 
 was, of course, especially important in England 
 on account of fogs, and subsequently these signals 
 at stations, when connected, station to station, 
 by electric telegraph, came to be used to space 
 trains. This was the embryo block system, be- 
 ginning by spacing trains on a time interval, and 
 developed gradually into the discarding of the time 
 interval block, and the adoption of what is usually 
 spoken of as the "absolute block." 
 
 Under the theory of absolute block no train 
 could start from any station, until the next train 
 ahead of it had cleared the station next in ad- 
 vance. This met with objections, in that it de- 
 layed traffic. Two courses remained open ; one 
 was to allow more than one train to pass into the 
 block, or space, and this was done by using a dis- 
 tinctive signal to indicate that there was already 
 a train in the block. The other course, which, 
 
 274 
 
9 
 
 because it meant considerable additional expense, 
 did not come in at once, has since come into more 
 and more general use, displacing the first, namely, 
 dividing the space by putting in signals and cabins 
 at which they could be operated, intermediate be- 
 tween the former stations. This plan has pre- 
 served the good features of the absolute block, 
 and, according as the space or blocks have been 
 shortened, has increased the traffic capacity of 
 the line to the theoretical limit. 
 
 The block system, as developed up to that point, 
 
 was perfect so far as it went. If the rules were 
 obeyed, trains on a double track line were spaced 
 with absolute safety, but this "if" was found to 
 be a very important one, for it meant that a 
 great deal of dependence was put on the human 
 frailty of the operators in the towers (variously 
 called cabins or boxes, and in this country, towers 
 or cabins). 
 
 Ingenuity again set to work to overcome this 
 difficulty, and the development has been along 
 the following lines : First, there has been an 
 effort to simplify the intercommunication between 
 
 275 
 
10 
 
 towers, and, whether using the electric telegraph, 
 or a bell signal electrically transmitted over a wire, 
 the effort has been to prescribe a very simple kind 
 of a signal, and to prescribe the method to be fol- 
 lowed with such precision that operators become 
 accustomed to a regular procedure, and follow it 
 like automatoms. The second notable improve- 
 ment has been in making one operator a check on 
 another, and by a combination of electrical and 
 mechanical means, interlocking one operator with 
 another, so that it is impossible for one operator 
 to give a "clear" signal until the next operator 
 has given his consent, and " released " him. The 
 third, and by far the most advanced stage of the 
 development, has been to make the operation of 
 the signals entirely automatic. Advancement 
 along the first and second line has been notable 
 in England, whereas the last development of the 
 automatic block signal has been confined entirely 
 to this country. 
 
 To return to the development of signaling in 
 the United States, it is important to bear in mind 
 that owing to the very different necessities in this 
 
 276 
 
II 
 
 country, it has been in a way entirely different 
 from that in England. What had been done in 
 this country prior to 1874 need hardly be con- 
 sidered, except in respect to the ' 'train-order" 
 signal, which need not be especially described 
 here. Whatever advance had been made prior 
 to 1874, was practically discarded, and superseded 
 by the English system which began to be intro- 
 duced here at that time. In this country, how- 
 ever, the first necessity for signals was to protect 
 the crossing of one railroad with another at the 
 same grade, and the first modern signal plant in- 
 troduced, was the Saxby & Farmer interlocking 
 machine, put in by the Pennsylvania Road at 
 East Newark Junction, in 1874. This machine 
 is now a permanent exhibit in the Field Columbian 
 Museum in Chicago. Following closely on this 
 was a necessity for a block system on lines of 
 heavy traffic. It will be seen, therefore, that 
 while in England, signals at stations interlocked 
 with switches and cross-overs, came first, and 
 that successive stations equipped with signals 
 became, subsequently, a block system with 
 
 277 
 
12 
 
 intermediate blocks added as the necessity arose ; 
 in this country the necessities developed a sort of 
 double system not co-ordinate : First, signals to 
 protect occasional crossings of railroads at grade, 
 and, second, a block system independent of 
 switches and turn-outs, to space trains and pre- 
 vent rear-end collisions. In England, in the 
 nature of things, no block system could grow up 
 independent of the signals interlocked with 
 switches, turn-outs, and cross-overs, but in 
 America there has grown up a block system side 
 by side with an interlocking system, and many of 
 our railroad men to-day, and among them, able 
 signal engineers, treat the two systems as sepa- 
 rate and distinct, urging the use of a different 
 form of signal for the interlocked signal, than for 
 the signal which is simply designed to space 
 trains. 
 
 To the man up a tree, this distinction is objec- 
 tionable and certain to lead to great confusion 
 sooner or later. To him it seems that as neces- 
 sity grows, all our switches and cross-overs on the 
 main lines, as well as junctions and crossings, 
 
 278 
 
13 
 
 must be protected by signals completely inter- 
 locked with each other. At the same time, as the 
 block system grows, one will soon overlay the 
 other, and become very confusing. To come 
 nearer to earth, the man running the engine recog- 
 nizes primarily only one of two meanings in sig- 
 nals, whether they be of one form or another ; to 
 him they must mean either that it is safe for him 
 to go ahead, or that he must stop. He must know 
 this as distinctively as possible, and in as few 
 words. A circumstance that has added to the 
 confusion is that while the semaphore signal has 
 always been retained as the best signal for our 
 interlocking plants, it has been found that some 
 form of disk signal, incased in a weather-proof 
 frame, could be more conveniently and economic- 
 ally operated in an automatic block system. This 
 confusion bids fair to find an early solution in the 
 general selection of the semaphore as the proper 
 type of signal, whether it be interlocked with 
 switches at stations and junctions, or whether it 
 be simply a block signal, operated manually or 
 automatically, for there is no denying that the 
 
 279 
 
14 
 
 semaphore is the preferable type of signal. Until 
 this time shall have been reached, however, we 
 shall have on some of our railroads three styles of 
 fixed signals, differing slightly by day, and in- 
 tended to convey slightly different shades of 
 meaning to the engineer running the train, but at 
 night not differing at all. These three styles of 
 fixed signals are : First, the interlocked signal, 
 which tells the engineer whether he must stop, or 
 whether he may proceed, and, if he may proceed, 
 by which route he is to be sent ; second, the block 
 signal, which tells the engineer he must stop or go 
 ahead, because the road is blocked or clear ahead 
 of him ; and third, the train-order signal, which 
 tells the engineer to stop if there is a train-order 
 for him, or to go ahead if there is none. 
 
 Great as has been the development in signal- 
 ing in recent years, what is needed now is a ra- 
 tionalizing of many of the inconsistencies which 
 now exist, and a simplifying of the indications of 
 the signals, and of the signals themselves as 
 much as possible. The importance of this state- 
 ment can best be appreciated by those who 
 
 280 
 
15 
 
 frequently ride in a locomotive cab, not by sitting 
 at the office desk. An engineer on an engine haul- 
 ing a train at the rate of 60 miles an hour ad- 
 vances at the rate of 88 feet per second, and a 
 signal must mean something decisive to him, im- 
 mediately. One of the greatest arguments 
 against the differentiation in the style of signals 
 made in daylight signals is that no similar differ- 
 entiation can be made in the night signals, and at 
 best there is confusion in night signals arising 
 from the multiplicity of signal lights at switch- 
 targets, on trains, in neighboring buildings, and 
 elsewhere, all of which add very much to the 
 possibilities of confusion. The remedy for this is 
 to diminish unnecessary signals as much as pos- 
 sible, and I am inclined to think that much more 
 can be done in this direction than has ever yet 
 been done. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF SIGNALS. 
 
 The home or stop signal, when made of the 
 semaphore type, consists of a board with a square 
 or straight end, painted red, with a white stripe 
 
 281 
 
i6 
 
 on the face, and white with a black band on the 
 back. (See illustration.) It is so mounted that 
 it always points to the right of the mast on which 
 it is located, and the mast is placed on the right- 
 hand side of the track it governs, to an observer, 
 facing in the direction of the train movement. 
 When it is not possible, as sometimes occurs, to 
 place the mast of the signal on the right-hand side 
 next to the track it governs, the mast is sometimes 
 placed on a bridge or on a branched or bracketed 
 post. By night the home signal, under the prac- 
 tice that is practically universal in this country, 
 shows a white light when it is " pulled off" or at 
 all-clear, and a red -light when it is displayed at 
 danger or stop. This signal always means pri- 
 marily the same thing, whether it is used as a 
 signal interlocked with the switch or whether it 
 is used as a block signal or train-order signal ; 
 that is to say, it always means stop or go-ahead. 
 The secondary meaning in each case may be 
 different, but the primary meaning is certainly 
 the all-important one. It will readily be seen that 
 the term home signal, although it has come into 
 
 282 
 
such general use that it can hardly be discarded, is 
 nearly a misnomer when the general use of this 
 signal is considered. It was well named home 
 signal when it was the signal close to the switch 
 point which it was intended to govern, and close 
 to the tower, cabin or station from which it was 
 operated. It seems improperly named a home 
 signal when it is used as a block signal or a 
 station signal far beyond a station, or in advance, 
 to protect a train which is stopping at the station. 
 
 Home Semaphore Signal. 
 (Horizontal, meaning stop.) 
 
 Home Semaphore Signal. 
 (Pulled down, meaning proceed.) 
 
 283 
 
i8 
 
 This semaphore or pivoted board displayed hor- 
 izontally means stop ; pulled to clear or, as they 
 say in England, "pulled off " not, as formerly, 
 so that it disappears behind the post, but as is 
 now the usual practice, pulled so that it drops to 
 an acute angle with the post or mast, or, as is the 
 practice of some roads, to a vertical position par- 
 allel to the mast, it means proceed, or all-clear. 
 Some roads make this same semaphore give an 
 intermediate indication between the stop position 
 and the all-clear position to mean proceed with 
 caution. At junctions, or where there are one or 
 more lines of track opening into several, it has 
 become necessary to use this same semaphore 
 signal to indicate not only to stop and to go-ahead, 
 but, if it is safe to go-ahead, by which route the 
 train is to proceed. The first plan of doing this 
 was to put as many semaphore blades on the 
 mast as there were routes. The top blade. was 
 intended to indicate whether the right-hand route 
 was clear or blocked ; the second, whether the 
 next route to the left was clear or blocked, and so 
 on. This soon lead to great confusion, and was 
 
 284 
 
19 
 
 discarded in this country, although it is still in use 
 in England, where I have seen semaphore posts 
 with as many as six or ten blades on a single mast. 
 In this country a comparatively simple rule has 
 been adopted : That the number of signals on 
 any mast is limited to two, the top blade to indi- 
 cate whether the main or superior route is clear 
 
 FIG. 3. 
 Two-arm Home Semaphore Signal. 
 
 or not, and the lower blade to indicate whether 
 the engineer must stop, or whether he may pro- 
 ceed by any other route. In other words, this 
 plan contemplates that the lower blade governs 
 
 285 
 
2O 
 
 the procedure of the train on all other than the 
 superior route, whether the inferior routes num- 
 ber one or a dozen. In some quarters the objec- 
 tion has been made that where one line divides 
 into two lines of practically equal importance, and 
 into less important routes besides, it is impossible 
 for the engineer to judge, when he gets a signal 
 
 FIG. 4. 
 Two-arm Distant Semaphore Signal. 
 
 to proceed by the inferior route, whether he is to 
 be sent by a high-speed route or into a yard 
 siding. To overcome this objection, two distant 
 signals are placed sufficiently in advance of the 
 
 286 
 
21 
 
 home signals to repeat the positions of the home 
 signals, and the top distant signal operates with 
 the top home signal, showing whether the supe- 
 rior route is clear or not, while the bottom distant 
 signal works with the bottom home signal, and is 
 cleared only when the bottom signal is cleared for 
 the second important or high-speed route, but can 
 not be cleared when the bottom home signal is 
 cleared for any unimportant route. 
 
 When the home signal is made of the disk signal 
 type, the disk or swiveling shutter shows trans- 
 parent or white when the signal is clear, and red 
 when the signal is at danger or stop. 
 
 CLEAR DANGER. CAUTtON. DOUBLE 
 POST. 
 
 CLEAR DANGER. CAUTION. DOU3LE 
 POST. 
 
 FIG. 5. 
 Some of the many forms of Disk Signals used in Block Signaling. 
 
 287 
 
22 
 
 A distant signal when made of the semaphore 
 type, is very similar to the home signal, but with 
 a fork or fish-tail end, and painted green with a 
 forked white stripe on the face, and white with a 
 black band on the back. Although the usual prac- 
 tice to paint the face of the home semaphore signal 
 red, and the face of the distant semaphore signal 
 green, the form of the signal and not the color is 
 of prime importance, and some companies paint 
 the face of both home and distant signal a lemon 
 yellow color. By night the distant signal, by 
 the usual practice followed in this country, shows 
 a white light when it is pulled off, or clear, and a 
 green light when it is horizontally displayed to 
 show that the home signal, whose position it re- 
 peats, is displayed at danger or stop. 
 
 Distant signals of the disk signal type when 
 used, have a disk or swiveling shutter, displaying 
 a green disk or shutter when the home signal in 
 advance is at stop, and the white or transparent 
 disk or shutter, when the home signal in advance 
 is clear. 
 
 288 
 
23 
 
 The distant signal, or a signal of precisely the 
 same description, is not infrequently known by 
 railway men as a " cautionary signal." This 
 arises from the use of signals in a permissive 
 block system, that is, where more than one train 
 is allowed in a block, and where the signal simply 
 
 FIG. 6. FIG. 7. 
 
 Distant Semaphore Signal. Distant Semaphore Signal. 
 
 (Horizontal, meaning stop at the (Pulled down, meaning proceed.) 
 Home Signal.) 
 
 means to the engineer, "there is a train in the 
 block ; you must proceed with caution, expecting 
 to meet it." In England, because the permissive 
 block has practically gone out of use, the distant 
 
 289 
 
24 
 
 signal is always called a distant signal, and never 
 a cautionary signal. It is painted the same color 
 as the home signal, and displays the same colored 
 light at night as the home signal, although the 
 signal has a fish-tail end and so differs in respect 
 to form from the home signal. 
 
 It does not require much thought to see that 
 these two meanings of the distant signal are 
 wholly different and distinct, not to say some- 
 what inconsistent. In its use as a distant signal 
 it simply repeats the position of the home or the 
 stop signal, forewarning the engineer of the posi- 
 tion of the stop signal, which he may or may not 
 be able to see, but the cautionary signal, as used 
 in this country, means to the engineer that he 
 must proceed with caution expecting to find a 
 train in the block. In the automatic block signal 
 system as it has been frequently introduced in 
 this country, it is common to put a distant signal 
 on the same mast as the home signal. The dis- 
 tant signal in this case is a distant signal, and 
 not a cautionary signal, for it means not that 
 there is a train in the block in advance, but that 
 
 290 
 
25 
 
 the next block signal at the beginning of the 
 block beyond, is at danger or stop. In other 
 words, it does not, if displayed horizontally, mean 
 to proceed with caution expecting to find a train 
 in the block, but it means that the block signal 
 next in advance of this one is at danger or stop. 
 It is obvious, therefore, that with the further in- 
 troduction of the automatic block signal, and with 
 the discarding of the permissive manual block 
 system, except with a written order or printed 
 card, the cautionary signal must go, and the dis- 
 tant signal alone remain. 
 
 As explained in the beginning of this lecture, 
 the reason the semaphore signal was first intro- 
 duced is that it could readily be seen at great dis- 
 tances. This is true regardless of the color it is 
 painted, and, in fact, at a distance the color of a 
 signal of this form is not distinguishable. If seen 
 in shadow, it appears dark gray, or nearly black 
 against the sky, and if seen in bright sunlight it 
 appears a lighter gray. The principal arguments 
 for painting signals of the semaphore type is so 
 that engine and train men may better recognize 
 
 291 
 
26 
 
 and understand them at close range. Thus the 
 face of the signal, or the side from which it is to 
 be interpreted, is always painted a distinctive 
 color, red for home or stop signals, green for 
 distant signals, or, as I said, on some roads, 
 lemon color for the face in both cases. The back 
 of the signal, or the side from which it is never 
 to be interpreted, is always painted white with a 
 black band across it. The semaphore post or 
 mast is usually painted white or yellow with 
 black trimmings at the bottom, and black on all 
 iron work. 
 
 The importance of placing signals so that they 
 can readily be seen at considerable distances has 
 not been as fully considered in this country as in 
 England. Here, the usual rule is to make sema- 
 phore masts of a standard height, so that the 
 signals shall be displayed at a standard height 
 above the rails, usually about 20 feet for a sin- 
 gle signal or for the lowest one of two, 
 and 4 feet higher for the next signal above 
 it, in case there are two signals on the mast. This 
 seems a convenient and good rule, but there are 
 
 292 
 
27 
 
 times when exceptions should be made to it. 
 This is illustrated by the English practice of 
 "sighting" signals. There, before the signals 
 are set, the signal engineer is required to de- 
 termine the position and height of the signal with 
 a view of making it readily visible at consider- 
 able distances, and obtaining a good background 
 for the signal. Sometimes artificial backgrounds 
 are built behind signals, and not infrequently sig- 
 nals are placed on masts as high as 40 to 50 feet, 
 with a repeating arm close to the ground, so as to 
 enable the engineer to see the arm high in the air, 
 or near the ground, at all times. 
 
 Dwarf signals are used to a considerable extent 
 on slow speed tracks in freight yards, and for 
 " back up" signals on main lines. As their name 
 implies, they are simply miniature semaphore sig- 
 nals which can be conveniently located between 
 tracks without causing serious obstruction. 
 
 The development of the interlocking machine is 
 an interesting study in itself, and I will only in- 
 dicate the line of progress. As explained already, 
 
 293 
 
28 
 
 the embryo interlocking machine was a very sim- 
 ple affair. Each switch and each signal was han- 
 dled by separate levers and a simple mechanical 
 device made to interlock them. It was soon found 
 that there was enough lost motion or spring in 
 the parts to make it possible to give a clear signal 
 when the switch points with which the signal was 
 to operate were not in proper position close to 
 the stock rail. This made it necessary to use a 
 separate "lock" or "plunger" to lock the switch 
 in both positions for the main or for the side 
 track. This considerably increased the number 
 of levers necessary to handle the ordinary 
 switches about a junction point, thereby increas- 
 ing the cost of installation and making the manip- 
 ulation both clumsy and slow. This led to put- 
 ting several switches or locks on the same lever ; 
 for example, throwing both ends of a cross-over 
 with a single lever, and this process of hanging 
 additional switches and locks on the same lever 
 greatly simplified the locking arrangement in the 
 machine, but, on the other hand, made the work 
 
 294 
 
of throwing the levers more difficult. Develop- 
 ment along this line continued, however, and in 
 many cases locks and detector bars were thrown 
 with the same lever that handled switches, using 
 an ingenious device, known as a switch and lock 
 movement. Along the same lines several signals 
 were frequently operated by a single lever by 
 various ingenious devices called "selectors," and 
 these are still in use to this day in several forms, 
 although less popular than at one time, as they 
 are open to certain serious objections. The pro- 
 cess of combining various movements, and thus 
 centralizing in one machine the handling of many 
 switches, some of them at considerable distances 
 from the operating tower, went so far that it was 
 found in some cases that something more than man 
 power would be required to throw the levers, and 
 hence at complicated junctions and at many termi- 
 nal stations the actual movement of the switches, 
 locks and signals is effected by hydraulic pressure, 
 air pressure or electricity; the operator simply 
 manipulating the valves controlling the power. 
 The interlocking machine of to-day, whether 
 
 295 
 
29 6 
 
purely manual, or operated with the assistance of 
 power, is a great improvement over the older 
 machines, and the improvement has been en- 
 tirely in the direction of greatly simplifying the 
 interlocking in the machine in the manner already 
 indicated, and by simplifying and strengthening 
 the design of various moving parts. 
 
 The development of the automatic block signal, 
 which, as already indicated, represents the highest 
 state of the art in block signaling, has been the 
 result of an immense amount of ingenuity. Vari-. 
 ous plans, more or less successful, have been de- 
 vised by which a signal at the entrance of a block 
 is displayed at danger by the entrance of a train 
 into the block, and cleared again by the departure 
 of the train at the other end of the block. The 
 consensus of opinion seems to be that none of 
 these devices are satisfactory, except those which 
 make use of an electric current passing through 
 the rails of the track in what is called the "track 
 circuit," the reason for this being that no treadle 
 or track instrument can properly provide for the 
 emergency of a " break-in-two," whereas with a 
 
 297 
 
32 
 
 track circuit, a single pair of wheels left in the 
 block will hold the signal at danger as effectually 
 as if the entire train was there. The track cir- 
 cuit has the further advantage of showing a dan- 
 ger signal if the line is blocked by a broken rail, 
 .a wash out, or a burned bridge, which is in itself 
 a very important feature. 
 
 Briefly, the principle on which a track circuit 
 works is this : The rails at the beginning and end 
 of the block are insulated from the track adjoin- 
 ing. This is effected by wood or indurated fibre 
 joints ; then the rails within the block are bonded 
 or electrically connected by means of track wires, 
 because the angle bars can not be trusted to carry 
 the current. At the farther end of each block is 
 located a track battery, consisting of say two 
 gravity cells which supplies the current for the 
 rails and the track relay. Each pole of this 
 battery is connected to one line of rails and at 
 the near end of the block the two lines of rails 
 are connected with the poles of a track relay. 
 When the track is in its normal condition, 
 no rails broken, all switches set for the main 
 
 298 
 
33 
 
 route, and no train within the limits of the block, 
 the current will flow from one pole of the battery 
 through one line of rails, thence through the 
 track relay and the other line of rails, back to the 
 other pole of the track battery; but if a rail is 
 broken, or a switch misplaced, or a train or 
 any part of a train is within the block, the 
 current from the track battery, which is very 
 light, is prevented from reaching the track relay, 
 and the track relay, which has comparatively high 
 internal resistance, remains unexcited. When the 
 track relay is excited, a circuit is closed in the 
 signal circuit operated by a battery located at the 
 signal, and the operation of this is so arranged 
 that so long as the track relay remains excited 
 and the signal circuit complete, the signal will be 
 held at safety or all-clear, but if from any cause 
 the track relay is unexcited, the armature bar is 
 released, the signal circuit broken, and the signal 
 allowed to go to danger or stop by gravity. This 
 is the track circuit in its first and simplest form. 
 In recent years it has been modified so as to make 
 the automatic signals remain nominally at danger 
 
 (3) 
 
34 
 
 and go to the clear position in advance of an 
 approaching train, if the block into which the 
 train is entering is clear and the track unbroken. 
 There are several methods of operating the sig- 
 nals themselves. Those most commonly in use 
 make use of air pressure, or of an electric current, 
 either operating on the signal directly, or through 
 an electric motor. In the first case, the signal 
 circuit simply operates to open and close valves 
 while the air pressure does the work of moving 
 the signal; in the second case, the signal must be 
 made very light and almost perfectly balanced, 
 and incased in a weather-proof frame, thus pre- 
 cluding the possibility of the use of an ordinary 
 exposed semaphore, so that the signal circuit 
 may operate it ; but in the third case, the signal 
 circuit simply opens or closes a switch for a 
 dynamo current operating through a small electric 
 motor located on the signal post, operating the sig- 
 nal by means of an ordinary rack and pinion. 
 
 300 
 
XI. 
 
 CAR DESIGNING AND 
 CONSTRUCTION. 
 
 ARTHUR M. WAITT. 
 
 SO far as my information goes, in the past 
 little or no attention has been given to the 
 elements or principles of car design and 
 construction in the instruction given to young 
 men in our technical institutions, and it is grati- 
 fying, and to my mind a sign of progress, that 
 Purdue University, in outlining a course in 
 Railway Engineering, has given to this important 
 but greatly misappreciated feature of railway 
 operation its due consideration. 
 
 Few of those of us who have had the good 
 fortune to have the benefit of a mechanical train- 
 ing in a technical school, but have sought to 
 
 303 
 
obtain as thorough a knowledge as possible of the 
 fundamental features of locomotive design and 
 operation, but until coming in actual contact with 
 the railway service we have been in complete 
 ignorance of the vast extent of the problems of 
 car design, construction, maintenance and inter- 
 change. It is to be hoped that the graduates in 
 Mechanical Engineering in future years, who 
 may choose railroading for their career, may be 
 more fully equipped for handling the perplexing 
 problems which confront the mechanical super- 
 intendent in the car department work, as well 
 as the locomotive department. 
 
 When the statistics, found in the 1897 issue of 
 Poor's Manual, show that in 1896 there were on 
 American railroads 36,080 locomotives, 32,627 
 passenger equipment cars, and 1,189,927 freight 
 equipment cars, and when it is considered that 
 the locomotives, as a rule, are continually run- 
 ning on the home road, while the vast number 
 of cars are largely moving on foreign roads, often- 
 times never being in the shops of the home road 
 for months and sometimes years at a time, it will 
 
 304 
 
3 
 
 be seen that the problems which confront the 
 mechanical superintendent, in connection with the 
 maintenance of his migratory car equipment, are 
 likely to be much more complicated and arduous 
 than those arising in the maintenance of the smaller 
 number of locomotives which are constantly under 
 the watchful care of the road most interested in 
 them . From the fact that the cars have to be main- 
 tained and repaired by foreign roads far removed 
 from the lines of the owning company, it has be- 
 come necessary in their design to so construct them 
 that they can readily be repaired at the shops of 
 foreign companies. In order to bring about this 
 result an organization was formed, some thirty 
 years ago, called the Master Car Builders' Asso- 
 ciation. This Association was composed of 
 representative men in charge of the car depart- 
 ments of the leading roads in the country. Their 
 primary objects were to agree upon methods and 
 bases of exchange of cars between the different 
 roads, and in conjunction with that to carefully 
 consider and adopt, where possible, standard 
 shapes and sizes to be used by all companies 
 
 305 
 
for parts of the cars which were most liable to 
 breakage, and would have to be most frequently 
 renewed by foreign roads. This Association is 
 still in active operation, and is one of the most 
 important and influential of the railroad associa- 
 tions now in existence. At its yearly convention 
 the best mechanical minds in the railroad service 
 gather to consider advance steps in connection 
 with the most practical methods of car inter- 
 change, car design and the adoption of standards. 
 The proceedings of this Association furnish the 
 best condensation of the forward movement in 
 car construction and design that can be had, and 
 I would recommend the perusal of its reports and 
 discussions to any of you who wish to become 
 conversant with up-to-date practice in this line of 
 work. 
 
 It will be my endeavor in the time that is 
 allotted to me to convey to the young men before 
 me, in a somewhat elementary manner, some of 
 the important features of car design and construc- 
 tion, with which some of you may be confronted 
 in the near future. 
 
5 
 
 The primitive railway coach for transporting 
 passengers resembled a small log cabin on wheels, 
 the wheels having flanges to guide the car on the 
 track. The primitive form of freight car was 
 simply a platform carried by four flanged wheels. 
 These crude forms were soon superseded by sub- 
 stituting a stage coach for the log cabin, and a 
 wagon for the plain platform. From these simple 
 beginnings there have been gradually developed 
 the elegant palaces on wheels in which we ride at 
 ease in these last days of the nineteenth century, 
 and the multitudinous variety of freight cars, 
 suited in detail to the numerous classes of freight 
 to be hauled. All of the primitive cars were of 
 the four wheel variety, but now, except for a few 
 special uses, none of this type are built. It is 
 needless on the present occasion for me to take 
 the time to trace in its rapid advance the various 
 stages of progress in car construction and design, 
 as there are books in print giving this information 
 in detail open to every one. 
 
 I desire now, in a brief way, to place before 
 you some of the elements in the construction of 
 
 307 
 
the prevailing types of cars used in this country 
 at the present day. Cars may be divided into 
 two general classes, passenger equipment and 
 freight equipment. 
 
 Of the former the principal varieties are sleep- 
 ing, parlor, dining, cafe, coaches, baggage, mail 
 and express cars, and combinations of the above. 
 The latter may be divided into box or house, 
 stock, gondola, coal and flat cars, of each of which 
 there is an almost endless variety, suiting the cars 
 to the special class of traffic for which they are 
 used. 
 
 CAR DESIGNING. 
 
 In designing railway cars the mechanical en- 
 gineer is met with a series of problems far 
 different from those found in the design of any 
 stationary structure. With stationary structures, 
 like buildings and bridges, there are well known 
 formulas on which to base calculations as to the 
 proper size of materials to be used, but in the 
 case of a car moving in a rapid train, sometimes 
 over rough tracks, around curves and over 
 
frogs and switches, and subject to the severe 
 shocks and jars incident to railway service, there 
 are no rules or formulas which can be used in 
 designing the work. Experience, observation, the 
 experience of others, and good judgment, are the 
 principal factors which it is necessary to rely 
 upon in car design. To one in practical railway 
 service, the frequent inspection of the scrap pile 
 will give valuable data to assist in eliminating 
 from a car weak features in its construction. 
 Cars being structures subject to such unusually 
 severe usage, necessarily require frequent repairs 
 and renewal of parts, hence in designing great 
 consideration must be given to so construct as to 
 provide for ease in maintenance and repairs, as 
 well as strength and symmetry in the first con- 
 struction. 
 
 As cars do not remain always on the home road, 
 but are dispatched to all parts of the country, and 
 require repairs in shops many miles from the 
 home road, it is desirable, as far as possible, to 
 have uniformity in dimensions and shapes, so that 
 no unnecessary expense or delays in getting 
 
 309 
 
8 
 
 material may occur when a car has to be repaired 
 away from home, hence the use of the so-called 
 Master Car Builders' standards, as far as possible, 
 should be a fundamental principle in the car 
 builder's mind. 
 
 DIMENSIONS AND CAPACITY. 
 
 With cars of the present day, there seems to be 
 no limit to the variety of sizes and capacities. In 
 passenger service the sleeping cars have now 
 reached a length of eighty feet over all, and between 
 ten and eleven feet wide, while passenger coaches 
 and baggage and mail cars range from forty to 
 sixty feet over all, according to the necessities of 
 the roads. In freight equipment the cars vary 
 from about twenty-eight up to fifty feet in length, 
 varying according to the possibilities of gaining 
 extra tonnage by the increase in dimensions of 
 cars a few inches in length, width or height, above 
 that of a competitor. Many efforts have been 
 made to obtain uniformity in the general dimen- 
 sions of freight equipment, but little has thus far 
 been accomplished. It has been agreed by the 
 
 310 
 
American Railway Association that for general 
 traffic box cars should be limited in size to thirty- 
 seven feet in length, nine feet one inch in width 
 over sheathing, nine feet in height from bottom of 
 sheathing to top of eaves, and should have a max- 
 imum capacity of sixty thousand pounds. For 
 special lines of traffic these limits are often ex- 
 ceeded. 
 
 Railway cars may properly be considered as 
 consisting of two principal parts a platform or 
 superstructure called the body, and a set of wheels 
 with their necessary controlling frame work of 
 wood or metal, called the trucks. 
 
 In giving a running description of some of the 
 more essential features of car construction, as 
 there is a wide difference in detail between pas- 
 senger and freight equipment, it may be best to 
 consider some of the more important features of 
 freight equipment cars, this class of cars being by 
 far the most numerous, the most frequently de- 
 signed by the railway mechanical superintendent, 
 and having in them the foundation principles from 
 which passenger equipment cars were evolved. 
 
 311 
 
IO 
 
 FREIGHT CAR BODIES. .? 
 
 Sills: The foundation or floor frame of freight 
 cars usually consists of from six to eight longitudi- 
 nal sills. (See Fig. i.) There are two side sills of 
 proper length made of either yellow or Norway 
 pine. These are generally from eight to nine 
 inches deep by from four to five inches wide, and 
 in cars like flat cars, having no superstructure to 
 help carry the load, they are made twelve and 
 even fourteen inches deep. In the center of the 
 floor frame are two center sills, usually of yellow 
 or Norway pine, spaced from four to ten inches 
 apart, and made from four to five inches wide and 
 from eight to nine inches deep. Between these 
 and each side sill there are usually placed one or 
 two intermediate sills of the same material, from 
 three and one-half to five inches wide and from 
 eight to nine inches deep, spaced conveniently to 
 suit the general design of car. At each end of 
 the frame is an end sill, usually made of white 
 oak, from six to eight inches thick by from eight to 
 
 312 
 
II 
 
 nine inches deep, extending clear across frame, 
 and into which all the longitudinal sills are framed, 
 generally with double tenons. 
 
 Cross Tie Timbers: Near center of car, spaced 
 from five to nine feet apart, are generally located 
 two cross tie timbers of white oak, from three and 
 one-half to four and one-half inches wide by from 
 six to ten inches deep, and extending from outside 
 to outside of side sills. (See Figs, i and 2.) These 
 timbers are securely bolted to the under side of the 
 sills, and are generally gained out one-half inch or 
 more deep to receive the sills, thereby holding the 
 sills at their proper spacing, and serving also to 
 transmit equally to all the sills the support fur- 
 nished by the truss rods, as will be explained later. 
 
 Body Bolster: The support given to the car 
 body by the trucks is transmitted by means of 
 body bolsters, located usually about five feet from 
 each end of the car. (See Figs, i, 2 and 3.) The 
 bolsters are usually iron trusses composed of a top 
 or tension member from six to ten inches wide by 
 from five-eighths to one inch thick, and an in- 
 verted arch compression member of the same 
 
 313 
 
13 
 
 width and from seven-eighths to one inch thick. 
 The body bolsters generally'have both members 
 below the sills, but sometimes in more recent de- 
 sign, the top or tension member is located on top 
 of the sills, the truss enclosing the sills, thereby 
 obtaining a deeper and much stiffer truss. 
 Where both members are below the sills, there 
 is an arch of from five to six inches between the 
 members. The bolsters extend from outside to out- 
 side of the sills, and the sills are oftentimes notched 
 or gained out to receive the top member. Body 
 bolsters are securely bolted to all the sills. These 
 bolsters are sometimes made compound in form, 
 that is, instead of one wide bolster, two narrow 
 ones spaced a foot or more apart are used. At 
 the present time many patented styles of con- 
 struction from rolled and pressed steel shapes are 
 being put upon the market, all of which have 
 more or less claims for consideration, but which 
 the limits of this talk will not permit describing. 
 Center Plates: In order to permit the proper 
 easy swiveling of the trucks when passing around 
 curves, and when bearing the weight of the car 
 
 315 
 
14 
 
 body, circular bearing center plates are interposed 
 between the car body and trucks to transmit the 
 load. (See Figs. 2 and 3. ) These are made of cast 
 or malleable iron or pressed steel, the truck center 
 plate being concave or cup shaped to receive the 
 convex or projecting part of the body plate. The 
 center plates are shaped so as to keep the car body 
 from getting off its center, as well as to provide for 
 the easy swiveling motion. The body center plates 
 are secured by bolts or rivets to the under side of 
 the body bolsters. 
 
 Side Bearings: In order to keep the car body 
 from oscillating under various conditions in serv- 
 ice, it is necessary to provide additional points of 
 contact between car body and truck, and about 
 thirty inches each side of center plate, side bear- 
 ings are provided. (See Fig. 3.) These are usually 
 made of cast iron or pressed steel, the body bear- 
 ings being secured to the body bolster and the 
 truck bearings to the truck bolster ; usually they 
 are adjusted so as to have from one-half to one 
 inch opening between them. Sometimes the 
 bearings are made with rollers in them to assist 
 
in relieving the friction while the bearings are in 
 contact when the cars are going around a curve. 
 
 Center Pins: To make the connection between 
 body and truck more complete, and to provide 
 against the body center plate jumping out from 
 the truck plate, a center pin of round iron about 
 one and one-half to two inches in diameter, ex- 
 tends loosely from the top to the body bolster 
 down through the body and truck center plates 
 and projects through the truck bolster. (See 
 Fig. 3.) These pins have a proper head or key at 
 the top to prevent their dropping down. 
 
 Body Truss Rods: In order to carry the load in 
 flat cars, and also to act as an auxiliary support to 
 take care of unusual strains in other styles of cars, 
 from two to four truss rods of from one inch to one 
 and one-quarter inch round iron are used. (See 
 Fig. 2.) These generally extend from outside to 
 outside of end sills, having a suitable bearing on 
 top of body bolster, and passing under and resting 
 in castor malleable iron truss rod bearings, secured 
 to under side of cross tie timbers. Truss rods 
 usually have the ends upset, so that the strength 
 
 317 
 
10 
 
 will not be too greatly reduced by cutting the 
 thread for the nut which secures each outer end, 
 and for the turnbuckle with which each is pro- 
 vided in the middle. These turnbuckles are used 
 for convenience in applying and removing truss 
 rods, and to provide an easy way* to tighten up 
 the truss when the car settles, or when it is desired 
 to camber it. On flat cars which have no super- 
 structure, counter-truss rods (see Fig. 2) have to 
 be provided in order to prevent them from buck- 
 ling and breaking in two, when they have no lading 
 and are subjected to the crushing strains due to 
 being placed between heavy cars in trains. These 
 are generally two in number of one or one and 
 one-eighth-inch iron, and extend from body bolster 
 to body bolster, passing over suitable bearings near 
 center of car, the bearings being located as near top 
 of sills as possible. 
 
 Camber: In setting up that portion of the car 
 body so far described, it is always the practice to 
 slightly camber the frame upward by tightening 
 up on the truss rods, so that when the car is under 
 heavy load it will not sag enough to bring the body 
 
 318 
 
17 
 
 straight or below the straight. By thus cambering 
 the car from one and one-quarter to two inches, the 
 sills are kept, as they should be, compression 
 members of a truss, and therefore in a position to 
 do most effective service in sustaining the load on 
 the car. 
 
 Flooring: Freight car floors are generally made 
 of yellow or Norway pine, though occasionally 
 white oak is used. Floors are laid across the car 
 from side to side, and are from one and one-half 
 to two and one-half inches in thickness, according 
 to the service in which the cars are used, and the 
 boards are from six to ten inches wide, and are 
 either tongued and grooved or lap jointed. The 
 boards are all securely nailed to each sill. 
 
 Draft Rigging: One of the most important, as 
 well as the most frequently damaged part of a 
 freight car, is the draft rigging. The prevalent 
 style of such rigging is composed of draft timbers 
 of white oak, from four to five inches wide, and 
 about eight inches deep, bolted securely under- 
 neath each of the two center sills, and extending 
 from the outside of the end sill, or buffer block, 
 
 () 319 
 
i8 
 
 back to the body bolster, and in some cases 
 through the body bolster from one end of the car 
 to the other. (See Fig. 2.) In the latter case they 
 are often divided into five separate lengths, one 
 from each end sill to bolster, one from each bolster 
 to cross tie timber, and one between cross tie tim- 
 bers. To the inside faces of these draft timbers, 
 spaced about eleven inches on each side of a center 
 line, which is located about twenty-four and one- 
 half inches back from outside face of wooden buffer 
 block, drawbar stop castings are located ; these are 
 castings about six inches wide, ten and one-half 
 inches long, and two and one-quarter inches 
 thick, conveniently cored out to avoid unneces- 
 sary weight, and securely bolted to draft timbers 
 and tied together at top and bottom by tie pieces 
 of about two and one-quarter by one-half or 
 three-quarters wrought iron, the whole forming a 
 pocket on each draft timber about eleven inches 
 long, six and one-quarter inches wide, and two 
 and one-quarter inches deep. Between the draft 
 timbers, with ends resting in these pockets and 
 
 320 
 
19 
 
 supported by the bottom tie piece, are two follow- 
 ers, generally made of solid wrought iron one and 
 one-half inches thick, and from eight and three- 
 quarters to eleven and three-quarters inches long. 
 Between these followers is placed either a sin- 
 gle draft spring, or, in some cases, two draft 
 springs side by side. The draft springs are gen- 
 erally two coil spiral springs about five and one-half 
 to six and one-quarter inches in diameter, and 
 eight inches long, having a capacity of from 16,000 
 to 19,000 pounds. Enclosing the followers and 
 springs, so they are kept in place and close to- 
 gether, is a wrought iron pocket of necessary size, 
 made of about four inch by one inch iron, the front 
 or open end of the pocket encloses and is firmly 
 bolted or riveted to the rear end of the coupler 
 casting in such a way that coupler, pocket, springs 
 and followers are in one compact and solid group. 
 (See Fig. 4.) It will be perceived that when the 
 draft springs are compressed, the followers are 
 free to move in the direction of the compression, 
 the whole being upheld and guided by the bottom 
 tie piece previously referred to. The couplers 
 
 321 
 
20 
 
 322 
 
21 
 
 now used, in accordance with United States stat- 
 ute, are known as the Master Car Builders' type. 
 The coupler extends from the outer follower for- 
 ward to the outer end of the car with the main part 
 or head extending out beyond the end sills and its 
 projecting wooden buffer block. The outer end 
 of the coupler is supported by a carrier iron, three 
 or four inches wide by about three-quarters of an 
 inch thick, which passes under the shank of the 
 coupler, and is securely bolted to the under side 
 of the end sill or wooden buffer block. It will be 
 seen that the coupler is secured to the car body, 
 by means of a spring cushioned attachment, which 
 relieves the body from the severity of the vari- 
 ous shocks received in pulling and pushing in 
 service. In connection with the draft rigging 
 many patented devices are in the market, having, 
 in most cases, as an object the substitution of 
 malleable iron or steel for wood, and the consoli- 
 dation of as many separate parts as possible into 
 one piece, and providing the best possible resist- 
 ance to the alternate tension and compression 
 
 323 
 
22 
 
 strains which are so destructive to the draft 
 rigging. 
 
 The M. C. B. type of coupler, with the general 
 shape of which you are doubtless all familiar, is 
 made with a thousand and one different locking 
 devices of various degrees of merit. The essen- 
 tial features are a movable knuckle, which, when 
 released, allows the couplers to pull apart, and 
 when closed will lock automatically and keep the 
 couplers securely attached. The contour lines of 
 the locking faces of the couplers and knuckles are 
 all made to a fixed standard, adopted by the Mas- 
 ter Car Builders' Association. 
 
 Stake Pockets: On the outside of the side sills, 
 and also on the outside or inside of the end sills, 
 are located stake pockets, about seven. to ten of 
 them, equally spaced, on each side sill, and two or 
 four on each end sill. These stake pockets are 
 either castings or of pressed steel of U-shaped sec- 
 tion some six or eight inches deep, with an opening 
 large enough to receive the end of a stake having a 
 section of three and one-half to four and one-half 
 by four to five inches. Oak or pine stakes of 
 
 324 
 
23 
 
 required height are driven into these stake pockets 
 for a skeleton side and end, to prevent any high 
 load of movable freight from slipping off when the 
 cars are in service. 
 
 The parts of cars so far covered in this talk, 
 with the exception of the stake pockets, are ap- 
 plicable in general to all styles of freight cars, 
 and aside from numerous minor parts, which lack 
 of time prevents mentioning on this occasion, 
 constitute the main features of the construction 
 of a flat car. On such a foundation, box, refrig- 
 erator, gondola and stock cars are built. 
 
 GONDOLA CARS. 
 
 The gondola car is constructed on the flat car 
 body by simply erecting sides and ends, securely 
 fastened together. The frame for the gondola 
 car sides and ends consists of white oak stakes, 
 fitted and driven into each stake pocket, the 
 stakes being at the bottom about five inches deep 
 and tapering to about four inches at the top, the 
 length varying according to the height of the sides. 
 
 325 
 
24 
 
 These are usually from three to five feet high. 
 To the inside of the stakes, planks of yellow or 
 Norway pine, from two and one-half to three and 
 one-half inches thick are bolted, the planks run- 
 ning lengthwise of the car ; the width of the planks 
 varying from ten to twelve or more inches, as 
 convenience may dictate. The top edges of these 
 side and end planks are usually protected by a 
 strip of three-eighth-inch thick iron, fastened down 
 with lag screws. 
 
 Such is the general construction of the gondola 
 car. Many variations of this car are constructed, 
 some having the ends made in form of a gate 
 hinged at the floor, so they can swing down and 
 rest on the floor ; others have the ends to lift up, 
 being guided 'and held in place by suitable grooves 
 and guide plates. In some cases there are hinged 
 doors constructed in the floors, which can be 
 dropped down for convenient unloading of coal, ore 
 or other similar freight. In these cases there is a 
 suitable mechanism provided for closing or winding 
 up the doors from the outside of the car. Such 
 cars are called drop door or drop bottom gondolas, 
 
 326 
 
25 
 
 Another variety is the hopper bottom car, which 
 has a hopper formed near the center of the car 
 below the floor, with sloping sides, and having at 
 the bottom a door opening outward, with its proper 
 operating mechanism. This style of car is desired 
 in some cases from the fact that a large portion, 
 and in some constructions, all of the lading is self 
 unloading when the doors at the bottom of the 
 hopper are opened. Many other varieties of this 
 car are constructed, but those just mentioned are 
 the more important types. 
 
 BOX CARS. 
 
 In constructing a box car the floor frame is made 
 practically the same as the flat car, except that the 
 side sills are, as a rule, lighter than in the flat car, 
 the side sills being usually from four and one-half 
 to five and one-half inches wide by from eight to 
 nine inches deep. This decrease in the depth of 
 side sills is made possible from the fact that the 
 side framing of the superstructure of a box car is 
 
 327 
 
26 
 
 made in truss form, and is well calculated to sus- 
 tain a major part of the lading of the car. 
 
 Side Frame: There are many styles of side 
 frame trussing for box cars. Perhaps the most 
 substantial and most satisfactory style in use is 
 the combination truss (see Fig. 5), consisting of 
 a series of uprights or posts, with diagonal braces 
 running between side sill and plate, from the 
 bottom of each post to the top of the next adjacent 
 post and having a tie rod between sill and plate 
 at each post, and in addition diagonal brace rods, 
 running from the top of the posts to the bottom of 
 sills, nearly under the next adjacent posts. These 
 brace rods, in connection with the posts, form a 
 truss, capable of easy adjustment, and permitting 
 the taking up of slack, and where used cars can 
 be kept up in good shape and free from that very 
 prevalent sign of depreciation, sagging down in 
 the middle. 
 
 In designing the side frame of the box car, the 
 main post is properly located directly over the 
 body bolster, and is made generally of white oak 
 or yellow pine ; these are from four to five inches 
 
 328 
 
CONC POST 
 
 329 
 
28 
 
 / 
 
 wide, and from two to two and three-quarter inches 
 thick, the length varying according to the height 
 of the car. In the middle of the frame, spaced 
 from five to six feet apart, are the door posts, 
 forming the frame for the door opening ; these are 
 generally made of white oak, and are about four 
 and one-half by five or five and one-half inches in 
 section. Between the door posts and the main post 
 over the bolster the space is divided by a suitable 
 number of oak or yellow pine side posts into two, 
 three, or four panels, the number depending upon 
 the length and height of the car, and the judgment 
 of the designer. At each end of side sill, or at each 
 corner of floor frame, are located oak or yellow 
 pine corner posts, which are usually about five by 
 five inches in section. The space between corner 
 posts and bolster post is sometimes divided by a 
 side post into two panels, but generally it forms 
 one panel only. The side posts are about five by 
 two and one-half inches in section. All the posts 
 are usually framed with tenon into the side sills, 
 and at the top are framed into and support the side 
 plate or top member of the truss. 
 
 330 
 
2Q 
 
 Side Plates: The side plates are generally 
 made of yellow or Norway pine ; they extend 
 from end to end of car and are about four by six 
 and one-half inches in section. In each panel of 
 the side frame, in the best approved style, oak or 
 yellow pine braces, about two and one-half thick 
 by four to six inches wide, extend diagonally, 
 commencing at the bolster post and extending 
 upward to intersection of next post with plate. 
 At the side of each door, corner and side post, 
 sometimes let in flush, are five-eighth or three- 
 quarter-inch tie rods, extending from top of plate 
 to bottom of side sills, tying them together. This 
 combination of posts, braces, sills, plates and tie 
 rods forms a complete truss of itself, but in addi- 
 tion, in the strongest construction, three-quarter 
 or seven-eighth brace rods extend diagonally 
 downward to bottom of sill from top of plate over 
 each post, commencing at the bolster post. The 
 combination of these brace rods with door, corner 
 and side posts and sills and plates forms a sepa- 
 rate truss capable of easily supporting the car and 
 
 331 
 
30 
 
 lading. In a car constructed as above described 
 there are three sets of trussing. (See Fig. 5.) 
 
 1. Truss rods under floor frame. 
 
 2. Post, brace and tie rod truss. 
 
 3. Post and diagonal brace rod truss. 
 
 The end frame of the superstructure of box cars 
 usually consists of the corner posts before de- 
 scribed and two intermediate end posts of oak or 
 yellow pine of three and one-half by four inch 
 section or larger. These posts extend from end 
 sills to end plates, into both of which they are 
 framed, the whole being tied together by the rods 
 beside each end post. The end plates are gen- 
 erally of oak, about three and one-half inches 
 wide by twelve inches deep in center, and taper- 
 ing to about six and one-half inches at outer ends. 
 End plates are framed with double tenons into 
 side plates. In modern construction it is fre- 
 quently the custom to use malleable or gray iron 
 castings for ends of braces and side and end posts 
 to set in, instead of having wood fitting to wood. 
 In the end framing braces of oak or yellow pine, 
 
 332 
 
about two and one-half by four to five inches, ex- 
 tend from junction of corner posts and sills up- 
 ward to junction of end post and plate. 
 
 Roof Frame: The box car roof is usually sup- 
 ported by the end plates on each end, and yellow 
 or Norway pine carlines, spaced from three feet to 
 three feet six inches apart. These carlines are 
 about two inches thick and about eight and one- 
 half inches deep in center and taper to about two 
 and one-half inches at outer ends where they 
 frame into the side plates. The taper on carlines 
 and end plates gives the necessary slope to the roof. 
 When the carlines are in place the roof frame is 
 tied together by one-half inch tie rods, let in flush 
 in carlines and end plates and extending from out- 
 side to outside of side plates, or by strap bolts 
 secured to each end of carlines and passing through 
 side plates. Each carline and end plate is notched 
 out at top about one and one-half inches deep and 
 four to five inches wide, to receive ridge piece of 
 yellow or Norway pine, extending from end to end 
 of car. The ridge pieces are about one and three- 
 quarters by five inches in section, properly tapered 
 
 333 
 
32 
 
 to shape of roof, and are screwed or bolted to 
 each carline. To further support the roof two or 
 four purlines of yellow or Norway pine, about one 
 and one-half by four to five inches, extending 
 from end to end of roof, are located, spaced equally 
 between ridge piece and plate ; these are let into 
 the top side of carlines and are securely screwed 
 or bolted to each one. 
 
 Roofs : The variety of car roofs is so great that 
 it is not practicable, within the limits of this talk, to 
 describe them. Most of them are patented styles 
 of construction, and are devised to protect the con- 
 tents of the car from the elements, and at the same 
 time be economical to repair, long-lived in service 
 and cheap in cost. The plain board roof, consist- 
 ing of two courses of fluted pine boards seven- 
 eighths by six, laid so as to lap joints, is now 
 being almost universally superseded by patented 
 roofs. 
 
 Siding and Lining: The frames of box cars are 
 covered with seven-eighth-inch seasoned pine or 
 fir sheathing, tongued and grooved, and having 
 beading or V groove at edges for finish. This 
 
 334 
 
33 
 
 sheathing is made generally to show from four to 
 six inches face, and is securely nailed to the plate, 
 sill and one or two lines of side and end girths. 
 These girths are of white oak, from about three 
 by four to four by four in section, and extend be- 
 tween door and corner posts and between corner 
 posts on ends. They are notched out so as to let 
 them down over posts and braces and set flush 
 with outside of posts, and are spaced equidistant 
 between sills and plates. These are used simply 
 for a nailing piece for the sheathing. The inside 
 of cars is wholly or partly lined with similar 
 sheathing, but of poorer quality, laid lengthwise 
 of car. The varieties of door finish, of frieze and 
 facia, trimmings, etc., is a matter of taste and ex- 
 perience, -which takes such a variety of shapes 
 that time will not permit of its consideration. 
 
 STOCK CARS. 
 
 In the construction of a stock car we start with 
 the floor and upper frame of a box car, but in- 
 stead of sheathing this inside and out, the car is 
 
 (?) 335 
 
34 
 
 partially closed up on the inside by use of oak 
 slats about five to six inches wide and seven- 
 eighths inch thick, spaced about two and one-half 
 or three inches apart, from sill to plate. With 
 these cars a simple roof of single or double course 
 of boards is generally used, it not being necessary 
 for them to be weatherproof. Many varieties 
 and modifications of this simple construction, 
 suiting the cars to the special service in which 
 they are engaged, are matters which it is needless 
 to discuss at this time. 
 
 On the general lines that I have hurriedly de- 
 scribed nearly all the prevailing kinds of freight 
 equipment cars are constructed, in each case 
 modifications being made and additions provided 
 to adapt the general construction to the detailed 
 requirements of many various lines of special 
 service. 
 
 In passenger equipment elements enter into the 
 construction which call for elaborate modifications 
 on the simple foundation construction of a common 
 box car. These features are so numerous and so 
 
 336 
 
35 
 
 intricate as to require more time for presentation 
 than I have at my disposal at present. 
 
 FREIGHT CAR TRUCKS. 
 
 A freight car truck consists of the following es- 
 sential parts : Wheels and axles, journal boxes 
 with their contained parts, truck frame, truck 
 bolster, and springs. The special features of each 
 of these parts I will discuss separately. 
 
 Wheels: The foundation portion of all railroad 
 cars consists of the wheels. In freight car con- 
 struction at present the wheels are of cast iron, 
 generally thirty-three inches in diameter, and 
 having a chilled tread about four inches wide, and 
 a flange about one and three-eighths inches thick 
 and one and one-eighth inches deep. The wheels 
 weigh from 5 50 to 650 pounds each, and have hubs 
 bored out from four and seven-eighths to five and 
 three-eighths inches in diameter to receive the 
 wheel fit of the axles. The wheel fit of axle is 
 turned up just a trifle larger than the bore of 
 wheel hub, the amount of difference varying with 
 
 337 
 
36 
 
 the hardness of wheel and material of which axles 
 are made. The fit is so close that the wheels are 
 pressed into position on the axles under a hy- 
 draulic pressure of from 50,000 to 60,000 pounds. 
 
 Axles : Axles are made of steel or wrought iron. 
 At the present time preference seems to be given 
 to mild open-hearth steel, owing to the difficulty 
 experienced in getting the iron axles to turn up in 
 lathe free from flaws in the journals. The axles 
 on the present 60,000 pounds capacity cars are 
 seven feet and one-quarter inch long over all, and 
 six feet three inches between centers of journals. 
 
 The journals are four and one-quarter inches in 
 diameter and eight inches long, and axles are four 
 and five-eighths inches in diameter at centers and 
 five and three-eighths inches at wheel fit. 
 
 Journal Boxes : The journal boxes are made of 
 common cast or malleable iron, of size sufficient 
 to take in and cover the end of axle projecting 
 beyond the wheel hub. The inside of box is so 
 shaped as to receive and hold in proper position 
 the journal bearing and wedge. The outer end 
 of box is closed by a hinged or swing cover held 
 
 338 
 
37 
 
 down tightly in its closed position by means of a 
 spring. The bottom of the journal box below the 
 axle is the receptacle for cotton, or preferably, 
 wool packing, which is well saturated with oil, 
 and which is pressed up close under the journal, 
 and thereby feeds to the journal the necessary 
 amount of lubricating oil to keep it free from heat- 
 ing when the car is in motion. 
 
 Journal Bearing and Wedge: The weight of car 
 is transmitted from the truck frame to the top of 
 the journal box, and then by means of a journal 
 bearing and its wedge, or key, to the journal on 
 the axle. The journal bearings are made from 
 brass or bronze, usually in the proportion of about 
 seven parts of copper to one part of tin ; though 
 sometimes this mixture is varied by the introduc- 
 tion of from one to ten per cent, of lead. The 
 journal bearings are concave on the bottom side 
 to fit the journal and are usually lined with one- 
 eighth inch or more of lead, or babbitt metal, 
 which is softer than the brass and facilitates 
 obtaining quickly a good bearing surface between 
 the journal and journal bearing. On the top of 
 
 339 
 
the journal bearings is placed the wedge, or key, 
 usually of gray or malleable iron or cast steel. 
 This slips over the top of the bearing, which it 
 loosely fits, and sets just back of a downwardly 
 projecting lip on top of the oil box, so that when 
 the weight of the car rests on the oil box the 
 wedge prevents the journal bearing from getting 
 displaced. 
 
 The proper dimensions and shapes for journal 
 box bearing and wedge, as well as the axles, have 
 been established by standards of the Master Car 
 Builders' Association. 
 
 Truck Frames: Truck frames are of two gen- 
 eral types, the arch bar frame and the pressed or 
 rolled steel frame. The simplest and most com- 
 mon form of truck has the diamond arch bar frame, 
 so called from its shape. There are two diamond 
 side frames, connected togetHer by a cross frame 
 which supports the truck bolster on which the 
 body bolster and car body rests. The diamond 
 side frames consist of a truss, with ends resting 
 on top of oil boxes, which are spread about five 
 feet apart. The truss has an upwardly arched 
 
 340 
 
39 
 
 top, or compression member, which for 60,000 
 pound capacity cars is made of about four by one 
 and one-quarter inch iron. This rests at the ends 
 on the bottom arch bar or tension member, which 
 is downwardly arched, and made of about four by 
 one inch iron. The maximum distance between 
 top and bottom members is generally about six- 
 teen inches, and they are held apart by either a 
 center casting, or in the simpler form of truck, by 
 two column castings of gray or malleable iron, 
 spaced from thirteen to fourteen inches apart, and 
 forming a guide for the vertical motion of the 
 truck bolster, which extends across from one side 
 frame to the other, and projects through beyond 
 the frames several inches. The column castings 
 or bolster guides are made hollow for taking the 
 column bolts, which pass through from the top to 
 the bottom arch bars, and also include the bottom 
 tie bar, firmly securing the truss frame together 
 near the center. The bottom tie bar is a bar of 
 about four by five-eighths inch iron, extending 
 between journal boxes underneath, and held in 
 place by the column bolts and the bolts which 
 
40 
 
 hold ends of diamond frames to oil boxes. In the 
 simpler form of diamond trucks the cross frame 
 consists of an oak spring plank about twelve or 
 fourteen inches wide and about four inches thick, 
 extending across from side frame to side frame, 
 and extending a little beyond the frames. 
 
 This timber is secured by being bolted to the bot- 
 tom of the column castings. In the most approved 
 form of trucks a steel channel about twelve 
 inches deep, with flanges about three inches deep, 
 is substituted for the wood spring plank. In some 
 styles of diamond trucks, instead of the arch bars 
 having column castings between them, there are 
 two channel irons about twelve inches apart used, 
 connecting the two side frames to which they are 
 well bolted or riveted ; these form the cross 
 frame. These cross channels are called transoms, 
 and from them depend fixed or swinging supports 
 for the springs upon which the truck bolsters rest. 
 These transoms were formerly made of oak tim- 
 bers. Where swinging hangers are used, these 
 hangers are attached to and support the spring 
 plank, which in such cases is a little shorter than 
 
 342 
 
the distance between the side frames. Trucks 
 having transoms and a. spring plank supported by 
 swinging hangers at each end are called swing 
 motion trucks, and are strongly advocated by 
 some car-builders. The general practice is to use 
 trucks having fixed spring planks, which are 
 known as rigid trucks. These are simpler in 
 construction, cheaper in first cost and in cost of 
 maintenance. As far as possible the springs are 
 located near the ends of the spring planks -and 
 over the center of the side frames of the trucks. 
 
 Springs: The springs are sometimes of elliptic 
 form, but usually consist of groups of helical 
 springs, held together in a suitable case by means 
 of light bolts. The springs are generally made of 
 open-hearth steel, and are of a capacity which 
 will allow them to compress from about one-half 
 to three-quarters of an inch under the load of the 
 car body, and from about one to one and one-half 
 inches under the weight of car and load. 
 
 Truck Bolsters: Resting on the springs and ex- 
 tending across the truck, passing through the side 
 frames and guided by the column castings, is the 
 
 343 
 
' 42 
 
 truck bolster. This in its simplest form consists of 
 a piece of white oak about ^nine by thirteen inches 
 and seven feet six inches long, trussed by two 
 one-inch iron rods resting under wood or iron 
 center bearings below center of timber, and hav- 
 ing nuts on the ends, bearing against suitable iron 
 washers or end castings. Proper castings near 
 each end act as a guide to the bolster as it moves 
 up or down between the column castings, and pre- 
 vent its having any excessive end motion. On 
 the top of the bolsters at the center is located the 
 truck center plate, which properly engages with 
 the body center plate, thereby providing means 
 for the truck to freely swivel when in motion. 
 Also, properly spaced on each side of the center 
 plate are truck side bearings, so located as to 
 receive the weight transmitted by the body side 
 bearings. In the latest designs of trucks special 
 bolsters, either made up of rolled or pressed steel 
 shapes or of cast steel, are used, these being more 
 durable and being considered more economical in 
 the long run. As these are nearly all special 
 
 344 
 
43 
 
 patented devices, it is not best to describe them 
 at this time. 
 
 Pressed Steel Truck Frames: A prominent com- 
 petitor for consideration as a substitute for the 
 diamond frame arch bar truck is the pressed or 
 rolled steel type. The side frames and cross 
 frames of these trucks are made up of either 
 rolled or pressed steel members, very securely 
 riveted together, so that both side frames and the 
 cross frames are practically one rigid piece, free 
 from bolts. As there are many varieties of this 
 type of frame and they are all covered by patents, 
 I will not attempt to describe them. 
 
 PASSENGER CAR TRUCKS. 
 
 Passenger car trucks are a much more compli- 
 cated structure, having, in addition to the elemen- 
 tary features pertaining to freight trucks, many 
 added features calculated especially to give ease 
 in riding. The details are too extensive to war- 
 rant discussion at this time. 
 
 345 
 
44 
 
 Many details of car construction in the way of 
 air brakes, safety attachments, brake beams, un- 
 coupling rigging, etc., can not be touched upon at 
 this time, but the student who desires to become 
 more familiar with them can best do so by a study 
 of the numerous articles which are appearing from 
 time to time in the various railroad technical 
 journals, and in the reports of the Master Car 
 Builders' Association, as well as those of the 
 various Railway Clubs. 
 
 There is at the present time a rapidly growing 
 tendency to greatly increased capacity of cars 
 and the construction of all the parts possible of 
 steel, either in rolled or pressed shapes. As de- 
 signers are considerably at variance at present as 
 to what style of design is best from all stand- 
 points, it may not be wise to attempt to describe 
 any of the all-steel cars, but it may be a matter 
 of interest to examine a photograph which I have 
 brought of one of the latest all-steel coal cars just 
 built by the Schoen Pressed Steel Co., of Pitts- 
 burgh. By the courtesy of the Pullman Palace 
 Car Co., the Michigan-Peninsular Car Co., the 
 
 346 
 
45 
 
 Barney & Smith Car Co. and the Wells & French 
 Co., I am able to present for your examination 
 photographs of a large number of types of car 
 construction, showing in some cases the detail of 
 construction. 
 
 347 
 
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