The Railways and 
 Prosperity 
 
 ADDRESS BY 
 WARREN G. HARDING 
 
 At the Annual Dinner of the 
 Railway Business Association 
 
 December 10, 1914 
 
1^1 
 
 
 ^t 
 
The Railways and ProsDcrity 
 
 Address by 
 
 Warren G. Harding 
 United States Senator-elect from Ohio 
 
 Delivered at the Sixth Annual Dinner of the Railway Business 
 Association, the national association of manufacturers of 
 railway materials, equipment and supplies, at the Waldorf- 
 Astoria Hotel, New York, December 10, 1914 
 
 MY only participation in railroad- 
 ing was when, at that early 
 age when nearly every nor- 
 mal boy manifests some of the at- 
 tributes of a barbarian, I used to join 
 a gang of youngsters at the village of 
 Caledonia, mount a west-bound train 
 of flat cars while the engine was tak- 
 ing on water, ride two miles west of 
 town for the joy of a stolen ride, then 
 ten of us would set brakes simultane- 
 ously and slow down the train, dis- 
 mount and escape before the "cuss- 
 ing" engineer had determined what 
 was the matter. It was great sport 
 for a few days, and I thus early de- 
 veloped a qualification in boyhood for 
 the making of a politician with a per- 
 fectly natural bent to hamper and 
 harass railway operation. There is an 
 abiding conviction of thirty years' 
 standing, however, that I would not 
 have the pleasure of addressing you to- 
 night had not the trainman, who 
 picked me for an example, stumbled 
 
 3 
 
 in his pursuit ot me on the last night 
 that our gang indulged its joy-riding 
 propensity. 
 
 EARLY RAILWAY PROMOTION 
 
 As a newspaper publisher, I can 
 boast some knowledge of railway pro- 
 motion and construction, a sort of a 
 recording knowledge of the good old 
 days in Ohio when the acquirement of 
 a railroad marked an epoch to the am- 
 bitious community, and was heralded 
 as a great and glorious accomplish- 
 ment, as, in truth, it was. The news- 
 paper workers were a part of the sys- 
 tem of promotion, fostering friendly 
 public sentiment, and shaming the 
 tightwads who did not shell out in 
 their donations in accordance with 
 their proclamations of local pride. 
 
 I can recall that our office, approxi- 
 mately thirty years ago, was a sort of 
 civic center, when Colonel Albert E. 
 Boone, a typical promoter, as strong 
 
 3j 
 
in the faith as he was short In •finan- 
 cial resources, came into our commu- 
 nity, proclaiming the great Black Dia- 
 mond railway, to hook up with the 
 then Chicago & Atlantic, now the Chi- 
 cago & Erie, and thus put the coal 
 fields of southeastern Ohio and West 
 X^irginia on a new route with the 
 Westward Star of Empire. The 
 colonel or the Blackie Daw in his com- 
 bination furnished us with the ammu- 
 nition and our office did the firing, and 
 the people of my town subscribed a 
 hundred thousand dollars to be paid 
 on the arrival of the first train over 
 the Zanesville and Marion division. 
 That train has not come in yet. 
 Our people believed in the enter- 
 prise and rejoiced over the proposed 
 new highway of trade, but were so 
 practical in their endeavors that in 
 putting that subscription in escrow 
 they put the promotion on a staUing 
 grade. But we had given new proof 
 of popular readiness to contribute to 
 railway development, changing only 
 the plan of remitting in advance by 
 bargaining for payment C. O. D. 
 
 That was probably one of the last 
 endeavors in Ohio in steam railway 
 promotion by popular subscription, but 
 the adoption of the scheme in electric 
 line promotion is still much in vogue, 
 though there is perceptible diminution 
 in the practice, temporarily, until the 
 public policy in dealing with public 
 utilities points a safe way for invest- 
 ment in transportation. 
 
 CONSTRUCTION DAYS 
 
 I have cited this earlier experience 
 to recall the intense public interest of 
 former days in railway development, 
 
 because my home city was like a thou- 
 sand others. It was the natural atti- 
 tude of the public, not only to rejoice 
 in railway development, but willingly 
 contribute generously thereto. Why, 
 my own city contributed with an open 
 hand toward the construction of the 
 Chicago and Atlantic; it subscribed 
 liberally, and with profit, to the build- 
 ing of the Hocking Valley, and gave 
 beyond present day realization toward 
 the building of the old Bee line, the 
 first of railway lines to put us on a 
 highway of commerce. That was in 
 the constructive days. That was when 
 railways generally were looked upon 
 as an agency of public good and the 
 people were assisting them in behalf 
 of the common weal. That was be- 
 fore the politicians began the profes- 
 sion of hammering them for political 
 gain. That was when we were seek- 
 ing, and before we developed the 
 American inclination to be of scant ap- 
 preciation. That was prior to our 
 present day conviction that lack of 
 realization and appreciation is the 
 greatest weakness of a people popu- 
 larly governed. 
 
 ENTHUSIASM EBBED 
 
 Perhaps our "hot or cold" afifections 
 for our transportation lines are due to 
 inherent traits in human nature. We 
 are seemingly eager to seek that which 
 we have not and find excessive fault 
 with that which we possess. The en- 
 thusiasm over our railway acquirement 
 ebbed when transportation gave us an 
 era of development unmatched in all 
 the progress of mankind. Older civ- 
 ilizations builded railways after our 
 fashioning, but they had less areas and 
 
less natural resources, and more ac- 
 cessible water routes — long estab- 
 lished, and a less primitive stage-setting 
 for the marvel of transformation. 
 Thus it was that the magic of trans- 
 portation wrought the astonishing 
 American development. No sooner 
 was the triumph recorded than senti- 
 ment veered, and hostility to railroads 
 became a gospel of wide popularity. 
 
 RAILWAYS LINKED WITH 
 PROSPERITY 
 
 But popular sentiment eventually 
 gets right, and I can say to-night that 
 the intelligent public thought of this 
 land of ours is demanding just treat- 
 ment of the American railroads. 
 
 Amid all the clamor and appeal, two 
 thoughts are indisputably established 
 — the efificienQy of American railways 
 is absolutely essential to American 
 agricultural, mining and manufactur- 
 ing industries, which are the compon- 
 ent parts of our boasted commerce, 
 and the good fortunes of the Ameri- 
 can railways and the American people 
 are indissolubly linked together. The 
 present distress of our industrial and 
 commercial interests, happily showing 
 some signs of relief, has its reflex in 
 the distress of our railroads, or if you 
 prefer it differently expressed, the dis- 
 tress of our American railroads is 
 very evident in the halted condition of 
 business throughout the land. This is 
 not to say that the ebb-tide of Ameri- 
 can good fortune is wholly due to the 
 distressed conditions of our railroads, 
 but the fortunes of the transportation 
 lines and our people are so indissolubly 
 linked together that the one can not be 
 
 injuriously affected without finding its 
 reflex in the other. 
 
 FOR FAIRNESS AND JUSTICE 
 
 The argument never has strongly 
 appealed to me that we ought to pros- 
 per our railroads for the specific pur- 
 pose of promoting general prosperity. 
 It seems to me more important to pros- 
 per our transportation lines as a sim- 
 ple matter of fairness and justice to 
 this important single agency in our 
 modern lives. The popular mind has 
 been slow to grasp the surpassing im- 
 portance of railway transportation. 
 
 Ten thousand captains of industry, 
 notably in the interior, have realized 
 that railway facilities made their en- 
 terprises possible and profitable, but 
 the toiler in the ranks has taken it all 
 as a matter of course. The interior 
 farmer, far from water routes, has 
 seen the market brought to his door 
 almost, and has been a beneficiary of 
 the elevation of farming from a mere 
 struggle for subsistence to a conquest 
 for accomplishment, but has been un- 
 mindful of the contributing agency 
 which did so much to open the way. 
 
 DEPENDENCE OF AGRICUL- 
 TURE 
 
 It was my fortune to spend several 
 weeks in Kansas, a few years ago, 
 when that turbulent garden spot was 
 seething with the unrest of good for- 
 tune. Nearly every agriculturist and 
 many a villager had a "knock" for the 
 Santa Fe system, but it was my dis- 
 interested and unprejudiced conviction 
 that the ramifying lines of the Santa 
 Fe railroad had as much to do with 
 
making Kansas a garden of growing 
 wealth as did the fortunate farmers 
 who made the soil yield its mighty 
 harvests of corn, wheat and alfalfa. 
 Nature had bestowed its bounty, and 
 the Kansas farmers were effective toil- 
 ers as well as politicians, but the steel 
 rail was the reqiiisite to the profitable 
 market. 
 
 TRANSFORMATION OF 
 FLORIDA 
 
 I have witnessed a still more mar- 
 velous transformation, beneath the 
 magic wand of the steel rail, directed 
 by a master hand. Less than twenty- 
 five years ago I began visiting Florida, 
 when that land of sunshine was still a 
 wilderness for the most part, when its 
 hammocks and swamps were as wild 
 and primitive as the wandering Indians 
 knew them, with romantic borders 
 here and there, following the lines of 
 primitive transportation by water. 
 Birds of the air, fowls of the sea and 
 beasts of the forest reveled in such a 
 fairyland that man had reason to envy 
 them, but civilization left endless 
 stretches almost untouched, except 
 where here and there some man with 
 a love of wilderness, in a genial clime, 
 pitched a rude habitation. Down the 
 lagoons of the East coast were gar- 
 dens needing only human eft'ort to 
 make them blossom and bear in boun- 
 teous willingness, and there were 
 acres eager to scatter the redolence of 
 fruitful groves, with stretches of para- 
 dise for the traveler seeking recrea- 
 tion. 
 
 Nature had done its part, and man 
 was awakening to appreciation when 
 the late Henry j\I. Flagler, attracted to 
 
 the playground at St. Augustine, 
 caught the possibilities with his dis- 
 cerning eye, and began with railway 
 construction the development of the 
 East coast, while Henry B. Plant took 
 up the development of the gulf coast. 
 Transportation wrought the miracle 
 of transformation. The playground 
 was extended, but the surpassing ac- 
 complishment was the planting of 
 farm, garden and grove, the harvest 
 of which all of this great people, east 
 of the Rockies, is consuming, and 
 Florida sunshine is turned to profitable 
 production and wider enjoyment. 
 Meanwhile we extended the areas of 
 our real civilization, and turned to new 
 usefulness the bounties of creation. 
 
 The glory and honor are largely 
 Henry M. Flagler's, who gave the 
 transforming touch of railway trans- 
 portation. His work gave real value 
 to areas of sand so seemingly worth- 
 less prior to his pioneering that one 
 would not accept it as a gift and pay 
 for recording the deed. To-day the 
 same acres rate in values far into the 
 thousands. Mr. Flagler did not do it 
 all. for the toil of man was required 
 to develop, but he brought the market 
 over ties and rails, and gave the in- 
 centive and promise of reward. 
 
 REASONS FOR RESENTMENT 
 
 I can recall full well how the rail- 
 way extensions were heralded with 
 glad acclaim, and I have heard, since 
 tlien, the inevitable reverse which 
 comes in the loud complain of those 
 who quickly forget the agency which 
 made possible the astonishing shift 
 from wilderness to the glorious gar- 
 
den, where sunshine is shaped intd 
 I)rofitable products of commerce. 
 
 This reversal of popular sentiment 
 toward railroads in general is not 
 wholh' without reason. There had 
 been profligacy of management, ex- 
 cessive profits in promotion, piracy in 
 financing, along with unrighteous dis- 
 crimination and contempt for popular 
 opinion, more or less heralded in the 
 ])ress. These were s'eized upon by 
 politicians, more eager to profit in the 
 proclamation thereof than to correct 
 the abuse, until there was good rea- 
 son for popular suspicion and unrest. 
 Hateful as these things are in public 
 estimate, there was some extenuation. 
 Many a railway was constructed for 
 the profit in promotion, else it had 
 never been projected. In this fact lies 
 the explanation of much of our devel- 
 opment. Builders were not content 
 to wait for the profits of carrying, be- 
 cause the awakened production and 
 carrying thereof had to come of too 
 slow a process. 
 
 It is fair to sa}', however, that in 
 most cases the fictitious values have 
 t)ecome very real in the processes of 
 attending growth. The piracy of high 
 financing — watered stock and exces- 
 si\e bonding — is not to be so readily 
 excused, and is, in fact, mainly re- 
 >ponsible for the hostile frame of the 
 public mind. ]\luch of the predatory 
 plundering attended the evolution of 
 lines into systems, an accomplishment 
 which none of us would undo, because 
 the advent of systems marked'a higher 
 stage of capacity for public service, 
 and our people must not let their 
 righteous hostility to this plundering 
 blind them to the progress made. 
 Hateful as it was, it nevertheless was 
 
 a practice of the period, partly to de- 
 serve our tolerance, because of im- 
 proved capacity for service. 
 
 One thing is certain, though our 
 people cry out against the great pred- 
 atory captains who dashed by in their 
 special cars, the lumbering trains of 
 honest investment have traversed the 
 same rails, and the honest endeavor 
 and best thought and best energies of 
 American life have reared this Ameri- 
 can railway giant and furnished us the 
 best and cheapest rail transportation 
 in the world. There must be — there is 
 — a righteous mean between plunder- 
 ing on the one hand and popular as- 
 sault on the other, and the problem 
 of the day is to find that righteous 
 mean, and give to our railroads our 
 boasted square deal. 
 
 NEW ERA HAS COME 
 
 I believe, in all sincerity, that the 
 day of plundering financing has 
 passed. I should like to proclaim, in 
 the same breath, the passing of rail- 
 road baiting on the part of press and 
 politicians, who have been less inspired 
 by public good than by personal profits 
 and political gain. It has been a great 
 stunt to hammer the railroads. 
 
 Fortunately the drift is toward the 
 sober, second thought, and there is a 
 realization that these vital factors in 
 making for profitable production and 
 general good fortune are entitled to 
 just treatment. There is the convic- 
 tion that when governmental regula- 
 tion leads to paralysis, we require less 
 of it — that is to say, less of doctoring 
 in order to give the patient a chance 
 it can not be disputed — there has been 
 an excess of commissioning, and our 
 
people have not stopped to count the 
 pubHc cost of the practice, nor to 
 measure its hampering influence. Do 
 not mistake my meaning. I beheve, 
 most heartily, in the government regu- 
 lation of public utilities, but it must 
 be righteous and understanding regu- 
 lation. The best railway knowledge 
 in all the land ought to light the way. 
 
 MENACE OF GOVERNMENT 
 OWNERSHIP 
 
 Public service ought to be the im- 
 pelling purpose, unheeding of public 
 clamor. There can be a species of ex- 
 cessive regulation which will lead to 
 but one logical result — and that is 
 government ownership. It is the log- 
 ical outcome of the present drift, it is 
 the only remedy if we are to require a 
 service at rates inadequate to meet 
 fixed charges and provide means for 
 maintenance and needed improve- 
 ments. The answer to this statement 
 is readily anticipated. Ten thousand 
 tongues are ready to cry out about 
 over-capitalization in stocks and 
 bonds. It is true, in the main, but the 
 over-capitalization comes of a previous 
 era. It comes of the evolution into 
 systems, and the crime of over-issue 
 does not justify the wreck of the sur- 
 passing structure of American rail- 
 roading. 
 
 Our problem is not of yesterday, it 
 is of to-day and the morrow. It is up 
 to fair-minded American intelligence 
 to deal with the rail transportation 
 problem as it exists to-day, recogniz- 
 ing that increased cost in transporta- 
 tion is quite as natural as increased 
 cost in labor and taxes. Transporta- 
 tion can not be eliminated from the 
 
 cost of a single article of commerce, in 
 the complexity of our modern life, nor 
 escape the upward trend of cost. 
 
 ENTITLED TO RATE ADVANCE 
 
 I believe it is the opinion of ninety- 
 nine of every hundred thinking people 
 that the railways of the country are 
 entitled to an increase of rates, and 
 would gladly see it granted. The 
 thinking citizen not only desires that 
 the railroads shall be able to exist in 
 dull times, and earn to meet their obli- 
 gations, but they are entitled to a rate 
 which will permit them to earn a profit 
 in fortunate years, which may be 
 turned to betterment when the lull 
 comes. 
 
 A good many years ago a son of 
 Israel was sold into Egypt and became 
 famous and highly trusted for his in- 
 terpretation of Potiphar's dreams. 
 Some of you have heard of him, but 
 I fear you were more interested in the 
 provincial scandal which recited the 
 infatuation of Potiphar's wife than in 
 his more noteworthy accomplishments. 
 However that may be, I recall that 
 Joseph read the master's dream and 
 proclaimed the warning to lay by an 
 abundant store during the seven fat 
 years, which were then beginning, in 
 order to be prepared for the seven lean 
 years which were to follow them. And 
 Egypt prospered wonderfully thereby, 
 incidentally recording the first corner 
 on the corn market ever written in 
 sacred or profane history. 
 
 FAT YEARS AND LEAN 
 
 At any rate the wisdom of Joseph 
 holds good to this day, and my ap- 
 plication of the story to American 
 
railways is that they ought to 'he ^bl6 . - 
 to earn enough in the fat years to be 
 prepared to carry on their vast im- 
 provements in the lean years which in- 
 evitably come. Under our present 
 system of reduced and insufficient 
 earnings, along with increased cost of 
 operation, there are no marked rail- 
 way betterments except in the high 
 tide of earnings, when cost is highest 
 and improvements are hampered by 
 traffic operations. 
 
 TO PROMOTE STABILITY 
 
 We ought to reverse this order, and 
 provide an ample earning in good 
 times to enable extensive betterment 
 to be made in the dull period, all of 
 which would tend to better service in 
 the days of the revival, and, mean- 
 while, the expenditure for betterments 
 would relieve the general dullness 
 amid such conditions as we complain 
 of to-day. 
 
 This thought grows upon me when 
 I am reminded that billions are said to 
 be required to be expended to bring 
 our railroads up to the facility for effi- 
 cient service which managers them- 
 selves believe to be the due of our peo- 
 ple. I have heard railway men say 
 that they gladly would be making ex- 
 penditures now, but they cannot bor- 
 row and do not earn sufficiently. 
 Through agitation and restriction 
 there has come impaired credit, until 
 there is a threatened collapse of the 
 railroad edifice, and it's up to Ameri- 
 can fairness to make the restoration 
 and provide for maintained eminence. 
 These items of maintenance and bet- 
 terments have been overlooked by the 
 political exhorters who have baited the 
 
 icaikeaefsztii tatth unthinking popular 
 favor. 
 
 COST OF PROGRESS 
 
 The advance from the dinkey wood- 
 burner, which I helped to wood-up as 
 a boy willingly while Dad's wood-pile 
 needed attention, to the great locomo- 
 tive of to-day, with heavier rails, and 
 the thousand conceits of modern 
 genius, which add to safety and en- 
 hance the service, has involved costs 
 of supersedure beyond all comprehen- 
 sion. When we come to a physical val- 
 uation, if we must commit that colos- 
 sal and costly folly, I wonder where 
 the genius will be found who can ap- 
 ply apt figures to cost and worth of 
 experience and evolution. The agi- 
 tating politician makes no new invest- 
 ment and knows no cost of supersed- 
 ure, but continues to blow with the 
 same old blather. 
 
 AGAINST GOVERNMENT 
 OWNERSHIP 
 
 This railway problem is so big and 
 so important that I feel the inadequacy 
 of my words to portray it. We do not 
 w^ant government ownership, though 
 that is the logical drift. I am opposed 
 to it because it is contrary to the spirit 
 of our institutions and violates the 
 very conception of the rights and 
 duties of government and citizenship 
 which has given us an individual ac- 
 complishment which the world can 
 nowhere match. It would stifle our 
 further development and take from in- 
 dividuals the impelling purpose to ac- 
 complish and achieve. We might as 
 well adopt paralyzing socialism, and 
 fling aside, once and for all, the sur- 
 
passing American accomplishriienf ' 
 which has been the pride of our own 
 people and the admiration of the 
 world. 
 
 Does any one believe that govern- 
 ment ownership would have pushed 
 the railway along the sands, and con- 
 nected up the Florida Keys with 
 arched concrete and bonds of steel, 
 which clipped twenty-four hours from 
 ;hc commercial time between Cuba 
 and the United States, and set fairy- 
 land abloom for three hundred miles 
 en route? Does any one believe that 
 federal ownership would have 
 threaded the plains and pierced the 
 Rockies as individual enterprise has 
 opened the way from coast to coast, 
 and touched the desert as well as the 
 valley and mine with man's develop- 
 ing hand ? 
 
 I shall be fearful of government 
 ownership until France and Germkiiy 
 have given real proof of government 
 efficiency and economy in railway 
 management, and our own govern- 
 ment has given some assurance that it 
 may carry on any business with the 
 economy which characterizes every 
 well-managed, individual enterprise. 
 Nay, more, I shall doubt all wisdom 
 of government control until we have 
 acceptable proof that the government 
 can fairly regulate through its com- 
 missions, when real railroad men are 
 making the tremendous struggle to 
 conserve their properties and serve the 
 public with these vastly important 
 agencies. 
 
 REGULATION EVOLVING 
 
 Perhaps the lack of successful regu- 
 lation is due to the newness of the un- 
 dertaking, to the unavoidable political 
 
 agitatfon and to the harassment of 
 conflicting authority because of varied 
 state legislation and state commis- . 
 sions. Our American railroad enter- 
 prises are so vast that it has seemed 
 to me that none is longer small enough 
 to be encompassed by intrastate lines, 
 and we ought to put the entire service 
 under interstate control. Such a 
 policy would save miUions in public 
 expense and put us on a broad plane 
 which is befitting the gigantic charac- 
 ter of American railway operation. 
 We should then escape the excess of 
 state legislation. I speak deliberately 
 — the law-making industry is too often 
 worked overtime. It is the only in- 
 dustry in the country that is going lOO 
 per cent. This country needs to-day 
 less legislative bills pending and more 
 railroad bills of lading. 
 
 Having started with the explanation 
 that I have ho railway connection, and 
 having had no experience in recent 
 legislative endeavor, I am not sup- 
 posed to point the way to specific cor- 
 rection. I have been reporting the 
 impressions of a layman, who has no 
 ax to grind, no stock to enhance, and 
 yet belongs to the ranks of those who 
 pay the freight. 
 
 FOR ADVANCE IN RATES 
 
 It is apparent that the Interstate 
 Commerce Commission believes in the 
 pressing necessity for increased earn- 
 ings for our railroads. The sug- 
 gestions of increased passenger rates, 
 baggage charges and other collections 
 for service not charged for heretofore, 
 indicate the controlling body favors 
 increased earnings but opposes the 
 short and direct route. The rate in- 
 crease would be direct and immediate. 
 
 10 
 
and these other remedial efforts could 
 be left to follow by this slower process 
 of evolved adoption. If the combined 
 income from increased rates and 
 added service charges made excessive 
 earnings contrary to public policy, the 
 same authority which grants the in- 
 crease could order a reduction. 
 
 The simple public mind, unbiased 
 in the matter, thinking only of fair- 
 ness and the common good, favors the 
 increase and does not expect a later 
 reduction. We have seen the advance 
 of wages. We know of mounting 
 taxes. We can understand all about 
 more costly equipment. Having come 
 to pay more for our food, we only 
 wonder that we have not been charged 
 more for its transportation. Knowing 
 the increased cost of operation in 
 every other industrial and commercial 
 enterprise, we have wondered how 
 any one could escape added cost in the 
 chief agency of exchange and distribu- 
 tion. 
 
 SHOULD ADVANCE FREIGHTS 
 
 Our American wage scale is twice 
 to thrice that of Europe. Our rates 
 of interest are generally higher. Our 
 distances are greater and our popula- 
 tion less dense. Under all these condi- 
 tions it would be very natural for our 
 railway transportation to be higher. 
 (Jur freight rates are notably less, and 
 our passenger service only a trifle 
 liigher. and it is vastly superior. 
 When classification is taken into ac- 
 count. I believe ours is the cheaper. 
 .And yet on this very branch of busi- 
 ness which costs the more in this coun- 
 try, the railway commission recom- 
 mends the increase which it is power- 
 
 less to grant. If argument were 
 needed for the general advance, the 
 commission has presented it. 
 
 I hope it will speedily come. It will 
 not bring the complete revival of 
 American activity, but it will not only 
 save the crash of the temple of trans- 
 portation, but will reestablish railway 
 credit, and lead to that physical re- 
 habilitation which is of prime im- 
 portance in ministering to greater 
 American activities. More, and very 
 significant too, the governmental as- 
 sistance in the hour of need will be 
 new assurance that it is neither the 
 function nor the purpose of govern- 
 ment to destroy, but to foster and pro- 
 tect, and American business success, 
 lawfully achieved, is to be encouraged 
 and heralded as important to Ameri- 
 can progress. 
 
 PEOPLE OWN THE RAILROADS 
 
 Perhaps a considerable part of polit- 
 ical play in hostility to our railroads 
 is due to the mistaken impression that 
 they are the property of a few of the 
 enormously rich. If this were true it 
 would not alter the demand for just 
 treatment, for the civilization which 
 ignores property rights will quickly 
 trespass human rights. As a matter 
 of fact, however, our railroads are 
 largely the property of those we term 
 the people, and their securities are in 
 the assets of savings banks, Hfe insur- 
 ance companies, hospital and college 
 funds, and the foundation of thou- 
 sands of sacred trusts. The directing 
 heads of these lines and systems are 
 not the scions of wealth, nor the 
 creatures of privilege ; they are the fin- 
 est examples of the reward of merit 
 
 11 
 
which we have developed in the 
 boasted opportunities of American 
 life. When the moneyless American 
 youth may climb from the humblest 
 rank of railroading to the direction of 
 the energies of hundreds of millions 
 of capital and many thousands of men, 
 through sheer force of ability and con- 
 scientious service, fine examples of 
 which are gracing this presence to- 
 night, the system can not be far wrong. 
 It is our inspiration to developing 
 youth and assurance doubly sure that 
 ours is the civilization of opportunity. 
 In every city throughout the land is 
 some allied industry, and at the head 
 of these are the worthy captains of 
 American endeavor, who have grown 
 up from village or farm, and toiling 
 with them, when the tide runs full, is 
 a thrifty, well-compensated, prosper- 
 ing people, rejoicing in American tri- 
 umphs and eager to go on. 
 
 HONESTY AND INTIMACY 
 
 There are two things to commend 
 to the public, to railway managers and 
 to members of the Railway Business 
 
 Association. One is simple honesty, 
 the other is greater intimacy — the full- 
 ness of understanding between the 
 railway management and the public 
 served. There has been too much 
 aloofness, sometimes a contempt for 
 public regard. The minds which lead 
 in making dependable public opinion 
 mean to be fair, and need only to be 
 informed. Railways have suffered 
 needlessly because of the lack of pub- 
 lic understanding. The public has an 
 ear for the manager as well as the 
 railway baiters, and the growth of fa- 
 vorable public opinion to-day is trace- 
 able to the fact that railways have 
 given their cause to public considera- 
 tion. The importance of railway 
 service to the people, the public charac- 
 ter of the business, and public regula- 
 tion — all demand intimacy of under- 
 standing and mutual confidence. Add 
 to this the unalterable honesty that is 
 essential to right management and the 
 abiding honesty that makes for sincer- 
 ity in politics, and we shall hail a new 
 era, which shall mark a greater and 
 swifter stride to our American aston- 
 ishment of all the world. 
 
 12 
 
REQUESTS FOR COPIES 
 
 of this pamphlet will be welcome from all 
 those desiring to place it in the hands of 
 their representatives or friends. Copies fur- 
 nished or sent direct to lists upon application 
 to Frank W. Noxon, Sec'y, Railway Business 
 Association, 30 Church Street, New York. 
 
 Form B164 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA LIBRARY