HE 
 2771 
 
 AI3C3 
 
A DOR ESS 
 
 -OF- 
 
 MR. PATRICK CALHOUN, 
 
 DEFJVERED AT THE 
 
 FIRST ANNUAL BANQUET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ATLANTA CHAMBER OF COMMHKCH 
 
 FEBRUARY 13, 1890. 
 
 ATLANTA, GA.: 
 Thb Constitution Job Office^ 
 
Digitized by the Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 httpV/www.archive.org/det^ils/addressofmrpatriOOcalhrich 
 
ADDRBSS 
 
 -OF 
 
 MR, PATRICK CALHOUN, 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE 
 
 FIRST ANNUAL BANQUET 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ATLANTA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, 
 
 FEBRUARY 13, 1890. 
 
 "What we need is that character of railroad 
 combination which will enable the Southeast to 
 enter vigorously into competition with the North 
 lor a share of the commerce of the continent, and 
 that will tend to promote the industrial develop- 
 ment ot our Piedmont and mountain sections and 
 build up our South Atlantic seaports.'" 
 
 ATLANTA, GA. 
 
 The Constitution Job Office, 
 
 189<). 
 
/^Cs 
 
 t c 
 
 « • • *. • « < 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 — or — ^,- t' - t • 
 
 Mr. Patrick Calhoun, 
 
 Delivered at the First Annual Banquet of th« 
 
 Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, 
 
 on 13th February, 1890. 
 
 J/r. Chairman and Gentlemen — Atlanta is the result of a 
 railroad accident — of a collision between swift-tooted 
 progress, the forerunner of railroad development, and that 
 slow moving conservatism which sees danger in the shadow 
 that follows every form of progress. Early in the railroad 
 history of the State, it became apparent that the most im- 
 portant roads then projected, would meet near this spot. 
 The necessity of connecting the South Atlantic sea ports with 
 the Mississippi Valley, commanded the attention of the 
 leading men of the South. A committee of the Legislature, 
 in an able report, urged that this State should build a grand 
 trunk line, from a point on the Tennessee river near Look- 
 out Mountain, to a point near the southeastern bank of the 
 Chattahoochee, and branches thence to her important 
 towns, which, like veins of the human body, should lead to 
 a common center. The widespread sentiment in favor of 
 reaching out to the West, resulted in the Act for building 
 the Western and Atlantic Railroad, and in an invitation to 
 the roads projected in the State, to meet the grand " trunk 
 at its eastern terminus* * At that time Decatur was one 
 of the prosperous towns of Georgia ; the county .seat of 
 a large county, which included the land on which At- 
 lanta is situated, and stretched westward to the Chattahoo- 
 chee river. Its citizens were 'intelligent, but they failed to 
 
 M80328 ^ 
 
appreciate their opportunity. Tradition tells us, that they 
 objected tD Decatur being made the terminus. They did 
 not want tlieir slumbers disturbed by the blowing and 
 Wilvbipg (^jekgi^ies, and they feared the contaminating in- 
 fluences of the immoral characters which, it was supposed, 
 the railroads would gather about the terminus. They ob- 
 jected to the State Road being built to Decatur, and per- 
 mitted the Georgia Railroad to be extended through their 
 town to an unpeopled spot, where it met the State Road. 
 Around that spot has grown this city. Thus, once pros- 
 perous Decatur, startled by a shadow, escapes obscurity 
 only as a suburb of Atlanta; while Atlanta, fair daughter of a 
 railroad union, known in infancy as the Terminus, and de- 
 scribed in youth as '^a point in DeKalb county, Georgia, 
 not far from Decatur,'^ stands to-day in her majesty and 
 might, with the bloom of youth still fresh upon her cheeks, 
 a great, opulent and populous city, the capital of her 
 State, the pride of her section, the metropolis of the South- 
 east, the very embodiment, indeed, of those broad and 
 liberal sentiments of progress and patriotism which most 
 distinguish and adorn the highest development of Ameri- 
 can civilization. There is no marriage more prolific than 
 that between an important, healthy railroad terminus, and a 
 liberal, vigorous spirit of progress. From such an union 
 sprung this beautiful city — the child of the railroad, the 
 child of progress ; dowered with health and wealth, with 
 energy and strength, with virtue and public spirit, and 
 with every noble, quality to fit her for leadership in the race of 
 material development, and to make her the exponent of 
 the highest culture, the broadest patriotism and the loftiest 
 aspirations of her State and section. How little did the 
 people of Decatur foresee this result ! Not here the con- 
 taminating influences that corrupt society, but the church 
 and the school house — the merchant and the manufacturer 
 with their great stores and factories, giving employment to 
 
5 
 
 thousaads — and their homes, the centers of culture and re- 
 finement. And at their table, the foremost men of the coun- 
 try — the Governor of the great State of Ohio, who has so 
 recently led his Democi-atic cohorts to glorious victory, and 
 whom his party may yet call to lead greater cohorts to 
 higher victory ; the distinguished Congressman of West 
 Virginia, whose great speech on the tarifiF attracted the 
 attention of the whole country — the President of our sister 
 chamber of the greatest city of the Western world — the bril- 
 liant Democratic leader of Massachusetts, that grand old 
 Commonwealth of which every American is proud, and 
 which is doubly dear to us now because of the royal wel- 
 come extended to our immortal Grady — and all these men, 
 so distinguished in their respective callings, with what 
 pride we welcome them ! 
 
 Sir! What single factor was common to this whole result? 
 What instrument most has fashioned it? 
 
 THE THROB OF THE ENGINE IS THE HEART-BEAT OF CIV- 
 ILIZATION. 
 
 Intelligence, wealth, Christianity, follow it everywhere. 
 Less than a century ago, it was gravely argued that the vast 
 territory west of the Alleghany mountains, not contiguous to 
 the great rivers, was practically useless, because what it pro- 
 duced could not be transported to the markets of the world. 
 But the railroad has penetrated the mountain fastnesses and 
 rendered their hidden wealth available, has crossed the prai- 
 ries, peopled them with cities, and transformed their treeless 
 solitudes into fruitful farms; has stretched from ocean to 
 ocean, driving before it the savage with his war paint and his 
 tomahawk, bringing with it the home, the school house and 
 the church, and moves the commerce of the continent, carry- 
 ing peace and plenty to the dwellings of the poor, and has 
 made it practicable for a young girl, unattended and alone, 
 to travel unarmed and unmolested around the world. It is 
 
the railroad that has built up, peopled and developed this 
 country with rapidity unequalled. It is the railroad that 
 has contributed most to national wealth. It has done all 
 it could, and is doing all it can, to promote the welfare of 
 the people. The country is dependent upon the railroad 
 for its growth, and the railroad,more than any other industry, 
 is dependent upon the growth of the country. The railroad 
 has a direct interest in the prosperity of every kind of busi- 
 ness. Every additional inhabitant, every additional store, 
 every additional factory, means increased freight, and in- 
 creased freight means increased prosperity for the road. 
 The railroads have been built at an enormous cost. It re- 
 quires a vast volume of freight to enable them even to pay 
 operating expenses, and it is only by increasing this volume 
 to such proportions that it can be handled economically, that 
 the roads can earn any profit for their stockholders. 
 
 THE WELFARE OF THE PEOPLE MEANS THE WELFARE OF 
 THE RAILROAS. 
 
 The greatest concern of those who manage the railway 
 systems of the country is, how can they best reconcile all 
 conflicting interests; how can they best promote the welfare 
 of the section tributary to their roads; how can they render 
 their patrons the most efficient service. Nor are these ques- 
 tions born of philanthropy. To answer them correctly is 
 the best way to serve the interest of those whose money is 
 invested in the roads. 
 
 It is absurd to suppose that the welfare of the roads and 
 the welfare of the people are antagonistic. They go hand 
 in hand ; and it is therefore ridiculous to suspect that the 
 railroads would strike a blow at the prosperity of the 
 country. Men do not go contrary to their own interests. 
 Every intelligent man admits these facts, and yet there is a 
 widespread effort to create antagonism between the people 
 and their railroads. It is clear that none should exist. It 
 
is clear that that which exists is often unjust, and nearly 
 always unreasoning. What is the cause? Have the rail- 
 roads performed their duties to the public? Have they 
 decreased the cost of transportation, and increased the facil- 
 ities for travel? If so, why should dissatisfaction exist? 
 It arises from two classes of causes ; one is adventitious ; 
 the other inherent, springing from conditions beyond human 
 control. Among the first may be classed railw^ay misman- 
 agement, resulting too often from railroad competition, 
 producing unjust discrimination and railroad wars; the 
 efforts of those engaged in building new roads, who, for 
 selfish purposes, antagonize the old; and last, but not least, 
 the misstatements of designing men who would excite pop- 
 ular prejudice to secure personal advancement. My time 
 is too short to discuss the mere adventitious causes of dis- 
 satisfaction. Suffice it to say, they will w ilt and die beneath 
 the summer heat of enlightened thought. But, underlying 
 the railroad situation, there are conditions, permanent in 
 their character, which the public must recognize are beyond 
 the power of the roads to control. Without a clear concep- 
 tion of them, no correct opinion can be formed. 
 
 THE DISCRIMINATIOXS OF NATURE. 
 
 God discriminated when He created the world. At one point. 
 He put lime and coal and iron so near together, that a man 
 can throw a stone across the veins of all. At another. He ran 
 His rocky hills so close to the shore, that the rivers come 
 tumbling to the sea, enabling the. sailing vessel to bring the 
 raw material to the factory's door, run by the only power 
 practicable for moving heavy machinery, prior to the intro- 
 duction of steam, and enablingthe merchant to reload the ves- 
 sel with the factory's product, and send it by Avater, the then 
 only practicable means for distant transportation, to the 
 markets of the country; and here great factories rose. At 
 another, He made his mountain ranges recede so far inland, 
 
that vast lowlands, through which rivers sluggish run, lie 
 between the mountains and the sea — lowlands where the 
 cotton grows. At another. He stretched great prairies, 
 adapted best to grain. Through the center of the continent, 
 from north to south. He directed the course of a mighty 
 river, giving, with its tributaries, thousands of miles of 
 navigable waters, emptying, before the day of railroads, the 
 commerce of its imperial territory into the splendid Gulf of 
 Mexico; and on its banks mighty cities grew. From east 
 to west, along our northern frontier, He stretched a chain 
 of great and navigable lakes. On the eastern coast. He 
 opened a noble bay, into which pours the splendid Hudson, 
 broad and deep, whose waters were easily connected by 
 canals with this great chain of western lakes. With these 
 natural conditions the railroads have had to deal, and deal- 
 ing, find that man demands that they shall destroy the dis- 
 criminations nature made. The planter, who formerly hauled 
 his products by wagon, to the city on the river, at a post 
 greater than he can ship them now a thousand miles by rail, 
 and who before paid readily the river freights in addition 
 to the cost of his private conveyance, demands — since the 
 railroads have been built^ — not only to be put on an equal- 
 ity with the city, but, if he is nearer, that he shall pay even 
 less freight to the sea. The city, in turn, complains that its 
 former trade now goes direct to distant markets. The town, 
 situated nearer the coal and iron fields, demands that it 
 shall be given the full benefit of its natural position. The 
 town, a hundred miles away, wants coal just as cheap, and 
 feels discriminated against if it does not get it. The wheat 
 grower on the distant prairies of Dakota, in order to get 
 his wheat to market, requires from the railroad a very small 
 through rate. The wheat grower, nearer the sea, complains 
 that this is discrimination against him. The manufacturers 
 of the east demand a rate sufficiently low to enable their 
 products to reach the distant markets of the west, but the 
 
9 
 
 western manufactures, nearer those markets, complain that 
 this is discrimination against them. Conflict — conflict — 
 everywhere ! Every point, with natural advantages, demand- 
 ing that the railroads shall arrange rates so as not to inter- 
 fere with them, and every point, not so well located, demand- 
 ing rates that will put it on a full equality with its more 
 favored rival. Through all these complicated and conflict- 
 ing interests, the railroads must steer their difficult way. 
 They are forced to recognize that the wheat grown on the 
 plains of the west, comes into competition in the markets of 
 the world with the wheat grown on the steppes of Russia, 
 or on the fertile fields of India; and that, for the wheat of 
 Dakota to reach the bakery at London, it must be carried 
 at a rate so low as to leave but an infinitesimal profit for 
 each mile transported; and yet, because the roads take this 
 wheat to distant markets at so small a profit, it is claimed 
 that they ought to haul the wheat grown along their lines 
 to local stations, at the same rate per mile. To raise their 
 through rates to the local standard, would bankrupt the 
 farmer of Dakota, destroy the wheat-growing industry of 
 the west, involve in one grand catastrophe the development 
 of that vast section, and raise the price of food throughout 
 the world; to lower their local rates to the through stand- 
 ard, would bankrupt the railroads, destroy their usefulness 
 and further development, and produce a financial crash that 
 would overwhelm in one common ruin the credit and pros- 
 perity of the whole country. 
 
 THE RAILROAD IS THE CREATOR OF WIDESPREAD COMPE- 
 TITION. 
 
 Sir, no instrument ever devised by man has so tended to 
 destroy the discriminations of nature as the railroad. An- 
 nihilating space and time, it makes Florida a market garden 
 for New York and Chicago; the prairies of the West, the 
 granaries of the world ; and brings into active competition 
 
10 
 
 similar products of all sections. It is the creation of 
 wide-spread competition. Through it the iron and the 
 coal of Pennsylvania and Ohio, of Alabama and Tennessee, 
 compete. Through it, the tjotton factories of Georgia and 
 Carolina, of Massachusetts and Connecticut, compete. 
 Through it India and Russia, Idaho and Kansas, sell the 
 product of their golden harvest, in active competition, to the 
 cities of Europe. But, sir, not content with bringing similar 
 products, from all countries, "into vigorous competition every- 
 where, it brings all classes of articles adapted to the 
 same Vise, into competition with each other. It enables 
 brick to compete with wood, granite, with marble, and 
 permits the Indiana farmer to sell his surplus corn, once 
 burned for fuel, in close competition with the food products 
 of Europe. 
 
 RAILWAY COMBINATIONS NECESSARY. 
 
 Sir, the Railroad must solve vast and complicated com- 
 mercial problems. It must protect vast and complicated 
 interests. It must consider factors world-wide in their 
 bearings. To meet these demands — to partially destroy 
 the discriminations of nature — to put the productions of 
 one section into the distant markets of another — to put the . 
 products of this country into the markets of the world, 
 in competition with the products of other countries — 
 to make the charge on commerce small enough to permit 
 that commerce to grow to immense proportions — to create 
 universal individual competition — vast railway combina- 
 tions have become necessary. These have created a feeling 
 of distrust among the people, who, conscious daily of 
 the existence of the great combinations, but feeling, only 
 indirectly, their benefits and their lessening charges, are 
 educated, by the designing, or the uninformed, to look upon 
 the very means of their prosperity as a monster of destruc- 
 tion, ready to enwrap them in its mighty folds. Is it won- 
 
11 
 
 derful that an interest of such enormous proportions, that 
 has grown with such rapidity, that has had to meet and solve 
 such vast and complicated problems, should have made 
 mistakes, created dissatisfactions, and aroused many bitter 
 and vindicative enemies? But the great practical questions 
 are: How have the railroads served the people? How have 
 they met the demands upon them ? Are the injuries com- 
 plained of the result of voluntary injustice, or have they 
 been produced by forces and environments, for which the 
 railroads are not responsible, and which are beyond their 
 control ? At what cost to the people do the roads conduct 
 their business? What facilities do they furnish? What 
 charge do they make upon the commerce of the country for 
 the vast service which they render to the dev^elopment of its 
 material resources and its enlightened civilization ? Sir, no 
 other business has ever reached the same perfection in detail, 
 or has accomplished such grand results. The prompt dis- 
 patch with which freight is handled, the safety and the speed 
 with which millions of people are conveyed, demand our 
 admiration and respect. How readily the railroad adopts 
 every improvement, seizes upon ever\^ invention, that can 
 promote the comfort of passengers, or facilitate the delivery 
 of freight. But as rapid as has been the development of 
 this industry, as enormous as has been the sum of money 
 expended in its creation, as striking as are the facilities it 
 affords for handling merchandise, as remarkable as are the 
 comfort and safety with which it transports countless mill- 
 ions of passengers, the most astounding fact is 
 
 THE CHEAPNESS OF THE CHAKGE IT MAKES 
 
 for the incalculable service it renders. The immense vol- 
 ume of freight carried by the roads, of all classes, the heavy 
 and the light, the car-load and the bundle, pays an average 
 charge of not more than one cent, per ton, per mile. The 
 average charge, made by the trunk lines north of the Ohio, 
 
12 
 
 is only seven mills, per ton, per mile on all classes of com- 
 modities transported. Think of it — seven mills per ton, per 
 mile. Out of this sum, smaller than any coin of our Gov- 
 ernment, must be paid all the cost of carriage, all the 
 maintenance of way, all the taxes, and all the improvements, 
 and all the general expenses of the roads. These expenses, 
 so tremendous in the aggregate, have been reduced until 
 they average only about five mills per ton, per mile. 
 
 At least five-sevenths of all that the railroads earn, is 
 spent in the employment of labor and in expenses, almost 
 entirely in the sections through which they run. The profit 
 upon the millions and millions invested in building and im- 
 proving the roads must come out of the remaining two mills 
 per ton, per mile. Reflect upon it ! The bondholder and 
 stockholder must rely upon an income of one-fifth of a 
 single cent per ton, per mile, for their interest and their divi- 
 dends. How insignificant this charge upon the commerce 
 of the country — less for carrying a ton of merchandise a 
 mile, than the postage you pay on a single letter mailed for 
 local delivery I 
 
 Assuming that the silk in your wife's dress weighs five 
 pounds, and that, paying the highest rate of freight, the 
 profit to the road for carrying, in bulk, the silk from which 
 it was made, was four mills per ton per mile, double the 
 average profit on the freight hauled by the trunk lines, 
 then all the profit the road received for hauling it a mile 
 was one-thousandth of a single cent. Ponder it ! To make 
 a single cent it was necessary to haul that dress, costing fifty 
 dollars, perhaps, and paying the merchant a profit of ten 
 dollars, one thousand miles. 
 
 Mr. Edward Atkinson estimates that the cost of trans- 
 porting wheat from Dakota to the city of Boston enters less 
 as an element into the price of bread than the delivery by 
 the baker, which is supposed to be free ; and yet, the ten- 
 dency everywhere is to lower the rates of freight. To per- 
 
13 
 
 mit the pig iron of Birmingham to be sold in the Pittsburg 
 market, the Southern roads charge about five mills per ton, 
 per mile. To put the Georgia melon on the table in Cin- 
 cinnati or Chicago — a perishable freight requiring rapid 
 movement and entailing great risk — the railroad charges 
 only eight mills per ton, per mile — less for carrying a ton of 
 melons a mile than one-sixth of the nickel which you would 
 pay a boy to carry a single melon across the street. Is it 
 any wonder that millions upon millions of money, invested 
 in railroads, pay no interest or dividends ? Is it any wonder 
 that the $9,369,000,000, representing the railroad invest- 
 ment of America, pay an average interest to the bondhold- 
 ers and creditors of only 4.17 per cent, and an average 
 dividend to the stockholders of only 1.77 per cent. — a less 
 rate of interest than is earned by capital invested in any 
 other industry in the country. 
 
 While there has been a steady reduction in freight rates 
 and in passenger fares, there has been a steady increase in 
 the demands of the public for still greater dispatch of busi- 
 ness and better facilities. Compare our railroads of to-day 
 with those of fifty years ago ; the sleeping cars and vestibule 
 trains, the ninety ton locomotives, the rock ballasted road- 
 beds and the heavy steel rails, with the old fashioned coach, 
 the little engines and flat rails on stringers. Then compare 
 the rate per ton on freight to-day, with the rate per ton on 
 freight then. 
 
 We have in Georgia a striking illustration of the differ- 
 ence between the conditions which surround roads now and 
 in 1840. The Central Railroad was then about 110 miles 
 long ; it earned $113,000 ; it ran but a single train for both 
 passengers and freight, and its entire operating expenses 
 and maintainance of way was only about $34,000. It paid 
 a handsome dividend and had a good surplus left. To-day, 
 the Atlanta and Florida, 105 miles in length, earns about 
 $120,000 per annum — more per mile than the Central 
 
14 
 
 earned in 1840 — and yet it costs over $80,000 per annum 
 to operate it. 
 
 It is difficult to appreciate how cheaply freight is now 
 hauled. See the ponderous locomotive as it passes, bearing 
 a train of thirty cars or more, each loaded with more than 
 thirty tons of freight. Watch it as it speeds on its way. 
 Reflect upon the care that must be exercised by the train 
 dispatcher, who controls its movement; the thousands of 
 men employed by that railroad ; the intricate and compli- 
 cated machinery that enables that train to be moved with 
 dispatch, and with safety to the thousands of passengers 
 who are carried on the same line — then ask yourself, what 
 tribute was levied upon the commodities in that great, pon- 
 derous train for each mile it traversed. 
 
 And yet, sir, in 1840 so vast was the improvement of 
 the railroads over the wagon and the stage coach, and so 
 much less was their charge, that the people hailed with 
 delight their building, granted them charters of unlimited 
 power, voted millions of the public treasure to aid in their 
 construction, and held in the highest esteem the men who 
 risked their fortunes in the country's development. We 
 do not sufficiently appreciate the vast difference in the con- 
 ditions with which society was confronted fifty years ago 
 and now. At that time the commerce of the country was 
 limited. It was localized by natural obstacles that confined 
 it within narrow boundaries. In relation to the then exist- 
 ing means of internal transportation, Atlanta was farther 
 from Augusta, Augusta from Charleston, and each from 
 Macon than they are to-day from New York, Cincinnati, 
 Chicago and St. Louis. When the Central Railroad, in 
 1852, was authorized to lease any road with which it then 
 connected, or might thereafter connect, built or to be built, 
 it was given a power relatively more potential, in regard to 
 the railroads then existing, than that possessed by any rail- 
 road combination of today, however wide its ramifications. 
 
15 
 
 The discriminations of nature which have before been 
 described, the immense growth of the country, the perfec- 
 tion of inventions giving more complete control over steam 
 and electricity, enabling the rapid despatch of business and 
 the instantaneous transmission of thought, the widening 
 and constantly extending avenues of trade, the vigorous 
 and active competition of distant markets, the necessity to 
 commerce for low rates, require agencies of transportation 
 as potential and as far reaching, as the conditions which 
 surround them. 
 
 THE RAILROAD COMBINATIONS OF TO-DAY BARELY KEEP 
 PACE WITH THE SURROUNDING CONDITIONS. 
 
 The railroad combinations of to-day barely keep pace 
 with the steady and growing demands of these condi- 
 tions. New York and San Francisco, New Orleans and 
 Chicago, are actually neighbors. Electricity, out-run- 
 ning time, places the prices of commodities, in London and 
 Paris, on the breakfast table of the American merchant, 
 and makes what once were distant cities but warehouses in 
 one common market. The merchant of New York finds his 
 market in London and his storehouse in Chicago, or some 
 other distant city, and in order to determine the prices at 
 which he can trade he must know the rates of freight from 
 the most distant points. So clear is the necessity for poten- 
 tial agencies of transportation that if there is a single fact 
 admitted by all, it is that railroad combinations, in some 
 form, must exist, should exist, and are positively beneficial 
 to the country. Railroads are but arteries of commerce, 
 but instruments of transportation, and it requires no wis- 
 dom to see that the more powerful the means, the stronger 
 the instruments, the better they serve the purpose of their 
 creation. Sir, if now, as fifty years ago, there existed no 
 means of communication save the wagon, the stage coach 
 and the boat, it would require no argument to convince 
 
16 
 
 you that it would be better to locate your store-bouse or 
 your factory on the banks of the mighty Mississippi, with 
 its thousands of miles of navigable tributaries, than on 
 Peachtree creek or the Chattahoochee river. It requires 
 no argument to show that it is better to-day to locate your 
 storehouse or your factory upon a vast system of railroads, 
 stretching with its connections from ocean to ocean, from 
 lake to gulf, and carrying the commerce of the continent, 
 than to locate it on a little narrow gauge road running 
 from Cartersville to Cedartown and handling merely the 
 commerce of local communities. 
 
 CAUSE OF THE CONTINUOUS THROUGH LINE THEORY. 
 
 But it is said that the only beneficial kind of combina- 
 tion is that between continuous through lines; that it is 
 good, all others bad; that it should be promoted, encour- 
 aged and fostered ; that all others should be destroyed. 
 Whence sprung this continuous through-line theory ? Put 
 your finger on New York bay, then run it along the Hud- 
 son and the Erie canal, connecting its deep and navigable 
 waters with the broad and navigable waters of the western 
 lakes. Look at the railroad lines on each side stretching 
 out to western markets. It requires no historical state- 
 ment to show that the continuous through-line theory grew 
 up in that section of the country ; that before the days of 
 railroads the means of communication between the north 
 Atlantic sea coast and the great northwest, were these great 
 western lakes and the canals, connecting with the rivers that 
 emptied into the sea ; that the railroads were built to com- 
 pete with these waterways. It was, therefore, a logical 
 deduction that the form of railroad combination best adap- 
 ted to the development of that section of the country, was 
 that which ran in parallel lines to the waterways; and yet, 
 in spite of these natural conditions, you find the New 
 York Central system controlling the double-tracked lines 
 
17 
 
 on both sides of the Hudsou, stretching out two continuous, 
 through, parallel lines all the way from the eastern seacoast 
 to the city of Chicago, to say nothing of the lines from 
 point to point which it controls in addition. And you find 
 every great railroad system in that section owning or con- 
 trolling parallel lines of roads, in the face of obsolete laws, 
 passed before the people had become enlightened to the 
 true relation the railroads bear to them, and to the com- 
 merce of the continent. 
 
 BEST FORM OF COMBINATION FOR THE SOUTHEAST. 
 
 But, sir, I deny that the same theory of combination is 
 best for every section of the country; that the railroad 
 combination which parallels our seacoast, drying up our sea- 
 coast cities, is best for this section of the country. Sir, that 
 claas of railroad combination is best, which is best adapted 
 to the development of the material resources of the country 
 through which it runs, which is most conducive to the 
 promotion of its industries, to the increase of its population 
 and wealth. It is well, sir, not to adopt blindly the theo- 
 ries and dogmas of others, but to look deeper and ascertain 
 what natural causes underlie them, and then to study closely 
 our own natural conditions and ascertain whether those 
 theories are adapted to the promotion of our welfare and 
 prosperity. 
 
 This brings us to the southeast. In order to determine 
 the class of railroad combination which is best adapted for 
 our welfare, we must study our topographical and 
 geographical position, the conditions that underlie our 
 present and future development, and our situation in 
 relation to the other sections of the country. We 
 have no great waterway running at right angles from 
 our sea coast to the center of the northwest, along which 
 parallel systems of railroads can be built. On the contrary, 
 a mountain chain runs down from the northeast to the 
 
18 
 
 southwest, steadily receding iroiii tiie Atlantic sea coast until 
 at a point wher« we stand, it runs off in ridges to the coastal 
 })laiu, and turning westward impinges on the GulPs sIo])e, 
 the Mississippi and the Ohio valleys. The rivers rising in 
 this mountain region run to the Atlantic, to the Gulf and 
 to the Ohio, near where it joins th« Mississippi. They all rise 
 in a common section. The springs of one of the branches 
 of the Tennessee lie further east than the s])rings from which 
 flows the beautiful Savannah. Their crystal waters sparkling 
 in the mountain sunlight, run near each other, but in oppo- 
 site directions, one seeeking the Ohio, the other the Atlantic ; 
 while the Chattahoochee, rising near by, empties into the 
 Gulf. What is true of these three rivers is true of others. 
 The whole face of the country is broken and uneven, full of 
 mountain peaks and fertile valleys, and a perfect network 
 of streams, running in all directions. The rain that falls on 
 one side of the ridge on which this building stands seeks 
 the Gulf, while that falling on the other flows into the 
 Atlantic. With the Potomac on the northeast, the Ohio on 
 the northwest, the Mississippi on the west, the Gulf on the 
 S()uth and the Atlantic on the east, our section is almost an 
 island, widening as it approaches the southwest, highest in 
 the center, and sloping off gradually to the Ohio, the Mis- 
 sissippi, the Gulf and the Atlantic. The high latitude, the 
 splendid climate, the inexhaustible supply of coal, iron and 
 limestone, the hard woods, the cotton, the pine forests near 
 by on our coastal plains, combine to make this Piedmont 
 region the fitting home for thriving millions, and to furnish 
 fruitful sources for the supply of the raw material needed 
 in the manufacture of the important articles of modern com- 
 merce. How splendidly the situation of this section is 
 adapted to the purpose of enabling its inhabitants to com- 
 pete for a share of the commerce of the world ! Take Atlanta 
 as its center. She is almost equi-distant from Charleston, 
 Port Royal, Savannah and Brunswick — on the Atlantic — 
 
n> 
 
 door- way through which to seek a share of the commence 
 floated on the bosom of that splendid ocean; from Pensacola 
 and Mobile^ — on the Gulf — safe harbors for the trade of 
 South America, and when the Nicaraguan canal shall be 
 opened for that of the western coast of the Americas, and 
 distant Asia; from New Orleans, Vicksburg, Greenville and 
 Memphis on the Mississippi, where connections are made 
 with the great systems of roads gridironing the southwest and 
 the northwest; from Louisville and Cincinnati on the Ohio, 
 gate- ways to the great central western states, now the center 
 of the population of the country. From the northeast, 
 running to the southwest, you find vast forests of yellow 
 pine. From the west to the east of north you find coal 
 and iron and limestone in limitless quantities. Circling 
 everywhere you find the cotton fields, and abundant water 
 power in the very midst of those which are upon the higher 
 lands; and on the coastal plains and the gulf slope, in the 
 Mississippi and Ohio valleys, along all the streams and 
 rivers, everywhere, fertile fields ada])ted to every kind of 
 agriculture. 
 
 Xow, sir, with the conditions that surround us, with our 
 vast natural resources, with powerful railway systems already 
 formed north of the Ohio seeking to monopolize the markets 
 of the north and west, I ask you what system of railroads, 
 what character of combinations, is best calculated for the 
 development of our section and the welfare of our people ? 
 Suppose to-day there was not a railroad system in the south- 
 east, that we were entangled in the meshes of no theories or 
 dogmas imported from a section governed by different nat- 
 ural conditions, what character of railroad system would 
 you build? As our splendid climate and wealth of raw 
 material lie in the center, you would build a network of 
 roads stretching everywhere, to gather the varied classes of 
 raw material and bring them to the common productive 
 centers, and thence, radiating in all directions, to send the 
 
20 
 
 commerce of this section pulsating outward again into 
 every market in America, and not content there, to en- 
 able you to send it in iron ships made from American 
 material, and flying the American flag to every port in 
 Christendom ! 
 
 It was the natural formation of our country that enabled 
 the president of the great commercial convention at Mem- 
 phis, in 1845, to foresee that all the important roads then 
 projected would meet, as he expressed it, ^^at a point in 
 DeKalb county, Georgia, not far from Decatur,'' where each, 
 looking only to its isolated rival interest, would contribute 
 to the prosperity of the whole, forming one system of roads 
 — a prophecy remarkable because made long before there 
 was a system of roads in the world, and because it recog- 
 nized that railroad development would and should conform 
 itself to natural surrounding conditions. 
 
 If all your roads were formed under the continuous 
 through line theory and stretched from towards New York 
 and Pennsylvania southwest to the Gulf and the Mississippi, 
 paralleling the Atlantic coast with branches into your mines 
 and your cotton fields, would it not be to their interest to 
 close up your sea-ports, to take your raw material to the 
 factories of Pennsylvania and New England, and return to 
 you their manufactured products and the imports of the 
 world, brought in through the harbor of New York, and to 
 make your section in every way tributary to the northeast? 
 On the other hand, it Avould be the direct interest of a great 
 system of roads centering in our Piedmont section, covering 
 it with lines and radiating out to the ports of the Atlantic 
 and to the cities of the Mississippi and the Ohio to develop 
 all our material resources, and to make our section the seat 
 of a productive activity unsurpassed in the history of the 
 world. 
 
 Sir, I glory in the development of Massachusetts and 
 New York, of Pennsylvania and Ohio. I would not, if I 
 
21 
 
 could, cripple one industry within their borders, but I 
 would see this Southern country in generous rivalry and 
 noble emulation, enter upon an earnest effort to equal and 
 surpass their slvill in manufacture and in wealth-producing 
 power. I would see formed here those strong and power- 
 ful avenues of commerce that would enable us to compete 
 with them in every market of the world. This has been 
 impossible under the conditions which has-e until recently 
 existed and which are now only partially destroyed. As a 
 matter of fact, every railroad system in the South, however 
 far extended, is now essentially local, in that, it handles but 
 little save the business tributary to its own lines, and is 
 debarred from participation in the commerce of the country, 
 which, beyond the Mississippi, is gathered up by the sys- 
 tems of western roads, and is poured to the east over the 
 trunk lines north of the Ohio. We only get that portion 
 which eddies in from the great commercial, streams and set- 
 tles here for local consumption. From the commerce of 
 the continent, flowing over the trunk lines through the 
 ports of the east, a small stream turns down our south At- 
 lantic sea cost, and, entering through our ports, eddies into 
 the interior, and there stops. Another small current 
 breaking away from the great streams north of the Ohio, 
 flows in more directly from the west until broken to pieces 
 upon our mountain ranges. Very little of it gets over the 
 ridge and flows on to the sea. The result is that the rates 
 of freight, on western produce, regulated by the volume of 
 traffic, grow higher in the interior of the Southeast, creat- 
 ing a ridge of rates, small in themselves, cheap in their 
 charges, but relatively dear compared with those on either 
 side. Measured by freight rates produced by external con- 
 ditions, the interior southeast is farthest from the produc- 
 tive centers of the West. This condition is due to the 
 lines on which our railroad systems have been formed- 
 This formation in turn is due partly to the absorbing com- 
 
22 
 
 incrcial power ot New York, partly to the through line 
 theory specially applicable to different natural conditions, 
 but chiefly to the fact that just at the period of time when 
 the central Western States were being developed by rail- 
 roads, and when we of the South were seeking through 
 State aid, through private enterprise, and through every 
 means in our power to reach the West, the destroying 
 blight of the civil war overtook us, and paralyzed all our 
 efforts to reach the Western markets. The South was shut 
 off for four long years from intercourse with the world, and 
 this gave her Eastern competitors an enormous start in the 
 race for the control of the Western markets ; but worse, 
 the wreck of the war carried down her fortunes, destroyed 
 her property — not alone in slaves, but in bonds and stocks 
 and every species of personal property — leaving her with 
 nothing but her land and the energies of her people, and 
 confronting them with social and political problems which 
 have taxed their resources to the utmost to solve. Her 
 credit ^vas destroyed and the success of great enterprises 
 rendered impossible. Recognizing the necessity for railroad 
 development our people made vain endeavors, through the 
 credit of the States, to extend our lines, but such was the po- 
 sition in which we were placed that financial ruin followed 
 close upon the steps of every railroad enterprise, and the 
 most the railroads could do was to handle, in an imperfect 
 way, their local business. During this whole period the 
 North was extending her railroads, combining short lines 
 into great systems, and manning the commercial forts of 
 Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis and other important 
 commercial centers. Her wealth and her population in- 
 creased with phenomenal rapidity, while our seaboard cities, 
 too poor to aspire to the control of systems reaching the 
 Northwest, lost largely even the business that was formerly 
 tributary to them. Our important systems, except the 
 Central of Georgia, attracted by the business of the North- 
 
east, aud the all-absorbing commercial power of New York, 
 assumed the continuous line form, and stretching from, the 
 North and Northeast in a southwesterly direction, steadily 
 took the business of our section away from the South 
 Atlantic ports. 
 
 The cx)mmerce of the continent gave to the great systems 
 n<»rth of the Ohio a vast volume of frieght, and this 
 volume of freight enabled them t(^ give very low rates, 
 white the southern roads, serving a section shut out from 
 any share in tlie commerce of the northwest, compelled to 
 look only to local business, have been forced to charge 
 more. The result of these conditions is, that the railroads 
 of the southeastern group earn less per mile than any 
 other group of railroads in the country. They earn gross 
 about $3,800 a mile, with an average rate of freight of 
 one and eighteen thousands of a cent per ton per mile; 
 while the central group north of the Ohio river on an 
 average rate of eighty-three hundredths of a cent per ton 
 per mile, earn about S14,775 gross per mile, and about 
 §4,900 net or Si, 100 more net per mile, than the south- 
 eastern group earns gross. The larger the volume of 
 freight, the lower the rate is the rule. 
 
 What we need is that character of railroad combination 
 which will enable the southeast to enter vigorously into 
 competition with the north for a skare of the commerce of 
 the continent, and that will tend to promote the industrial 
 development of our Piedmont and mountain section and 
 build up our South Atlantic seaports. 
 
 EFFPXT OF PUOPEK FOIiM OF COMBIXATIOX AN1> OF WIDE- 
 SPREAD COMPETITION UPON THE SOUTHEAST. 
 
 What will be the effect of such a railroad combination and 
 such widespread competition upon the southeast no one can 
 estimate. When the Pennsylvania road was being built it was 
 vigorously opposed. Simon Cameron, its earnest supporter. 
 
24 
 
 making a speech in its favor, predicted that the time would 
 come when the people of Harrisburg would be able to go 
 to Philadelphia in a single day. When he had finished 
 his speech, a friend said to him: '^That^s all very well, 
 Simon, to tell the boys, but you and I are no such infernal 
 fools as to believe it." To-day the trip is made in two 
 hours. The development of the country has always out- 
 run the expectation of the most sanguine. The day is not 
 far distant when a population of a quarter of a million will 
 crowd the streets of this city, when places now unnamed, 
 will be the sites of vigorous manufacturing towns, when 
 Chattanooga, and Birmingham, and Knox vi lie, and Mem- 
 phis Avill be great and " important cities, the seats of 
 splendid enterprises; when our South Atlantic ports, from 
 Norfolk to Brunswick will feel the quickening influences of 
 commercial prosperity, and when the commerce of this 
 section will again flow through their harbors, making them 
 as relatively more important than they were in earlier days, 
 as the prosperity and wealth of this section in the future 
 will be greater than it was in the past. 
 
 And through it all we see the roads lessening their rates 
 as they increase the volume of their freights, the one 
 acting and re-acting upon the other. 
 
 THE SOUTH CAN ENTER SUCCESSFULLY THE FIELD OF COM- 
 MERCIAL COMPETITION. 
 
 The great questions arc : Can the South enter success- 
 fully the field of widespread, commercial competition ? Can 
 a railroad system be formed in her midst that will be able 
 to compete w^ith the great systems north of the Ohio ? ^yhy 
 not? We have already considered her wonderful natural 
 resources. But in the coves of the mountains, on the slopes 
 of the foot hills, on the plains of the Atlantic, you find a 
 wealth greater than all of these. You find an active, vigor- 
 ous, intelligent, white population, through whose veins 
 
25 
 
 courses the Auglo-Saxoii blood, and that of the races which 
 have dominated and controlled the world — men who have 
 learned the power of controlling their passions and their 
 prejudices, and, uniting with their brothers of the North 
 and West, have furnished history its noblest example of 
 self-government. Men who, meeting bravely and with 
 forbearance the poverty and ills of re-construction days, 
 have rehabilitated our glorious South, restored to her good 
 government, clothed her with rich raiments, and set upon 
 her fair brow the laurels won in the victories of peace. 
 These people are capable of the highest development in 
 every walk of life. From them have sprung the majority of 
 those who have built this splendid city. From them have 
 sprung the business and professional men, who through 
 their capacity, intelligence and honesty, have won reputa- 
 tions and fortunes in distant cities. From them have sprung 
 the statesmen who helped to form the government of our 
 common country, and helped to crown it with fame imper- 
 ishable. There are millions of white people throughout 
 the South capable of attaining the highest skill in manu- 
 facturing arts, and our section will yet surprise the world 
 by its industrial development. 
 
 And how advatageous is the situation of this section with 
 relation to the other sections of the country, and what 
 advantages it offers for the formation of great railway sys- 
 tems ! The shortest line from the southwest, and from the 
 central portions of the northwest to the Atlantic seacoast, 
 runs directly through Georgia. From Kansas City to New 
 York is 1,348 miles, to Savannah 1,187 miles; from Fort 
 Worth, Tex., to New York 1,728 miles, to Savannah 1,147 
 miles. But more pronounced still is the advantage of our 
 interior cities, which are so well located for great manu- 
 facturing activity. From Atlanta to Waco, the central city 
 of Texas, is 941 miles; from Waco to New York is 1,816 
 miles; from Kansas City to Birmingham is 738 miles, to 
 
26 
 
 Pittsburg 905 miles ; from Denver to Columbus, Ga., 
 1,541 miles; to Lowell, Mass., 2,274 miles. What is true 
 of these places is true in an equal degree of the whole south- 
 east and of the whole southwest. The latter, which is 
 increasing so rapidly in population and wealth, is largely 
 an agricultural section, while our raw materials can be 
 readily manufactured into all articles needed to supply the 
 wants of its inhabitants; and in the interchange of traffic 
 the roads will be able to secure loads for their cars both 
 ways. With the shortest lines, we have the lowest capital- 
 ization per mile. The central group of roads lying north 
 of the Ohio river are capitalized at ^121,267 per mile; the 
 southeastern group at $41,359; while the great southern 
 system, which niore particularly embraces the Georgia 
 roads, is capitalized at only $37,140 per mile. More impor- 
 tant still, there has been a steady approximation of freight 
 rates all over the country. Twenty years ago the rate on 
 the six great western lines centering in Chicago was 2 cents 
 and 4 mills per ton per mile, and on the seven trunk 
 lines east of Chicago 1 cent and 6 mills per ton per mile. 
 In 1888, the average rates on those roads west of Chicago 
 had fallen to nine mills per ton per mile, and the average 
 rate on those roads east of Chicago to seven mills per ton 
 per mile. Where there was a difference of eight mills per 
 ton per mile twenty years ago, there is now less than two. 
 The reductions on the Southern roads have been equally 
 striking. Take the East Tennessee for example: 
 
 In 1885 its average rate per ton per mile was .0119 
 
 In 1886 its average rate per ton per mile was. .0114 
 
 In 1887 its average rate per ton per mile was 0103 
 
 In 1888 its average rate per ton per mile was .0097 
 
 In 1889 its average rate per ton per mile was 0091 
 
 It is an important fact worthy of very careful note, that 
 the average rate on the East Tennessee Road is now the same 
 as the average on the six great systems west of Chicago wais 
 
ill 1888, and that there is a difference of only two mills 
 per ton per mile between the average rate on the l^ast Ten- 
 nessee and that on the eastern trunk lines. The mtes on 
 the latter have reached, or nearly reached, the minimum. 
 It is inconceivable that they can move freight at a much 
 less cost, while the increase of traffic will enable the south- 
 ern roads to meet their rates. It takes but a mathematical 
 calculation to demonstrate that when the rates on the south- 
 ern roads closely approximate the rates on the northern 
 lines, the shortness of the southern lines to the sea will tell 
 with tremendous effect upon the commerce of the continent. 
 That portion of the rate accruing to the roads west of the 
 Mississippi will necessarily be greater, and the inducement 
 for the independent systems of the southwest to send their 
 business over the lines of the southeast will be overwhelm- 
 ing. Not five years ago the gauge of the railroads of the 
 south was for the first time brought into unison with the 
 standard of the country, and already we see vast combina- 
 tions ready to enter the field to win for lier a share of the 
 commerce of the continent. Surrounding conditions con- 
 spire to favor their efforts. It is difficult to appreciate the 
 increase of business in the south or its effect upon reducing 
 the average milroad charges upon commerce. In 188-3, the 
 tonnage of the East Tennessee Road reduced to miles was 
 201,700,000; in 1888 it had grown to 424,800,000, more 
 than double. Without this increase of tonnage the East 
 Tennessee Road could not have handled its business at the 
 average rate of last year and escaped bankruptcy. With 
 it, it was able to increase its net earnings. 
 
 Atlanta's oppoRTrxiTV. 
 
 Sir, the South's opportunity has come. If she can but 
 rouse the slumbering energies of her people she will 
 astound the world by the splendor of her career. It is 
 especially important that our glorious city should wake to 
 
28 
 
 the realization of the opportunities offered her. Let her 
 ' '^p as (lid Decatur fifty years ago, but let her, with 
 .strong and powerful hand, grasp what fate has tendered, 
 and become what she ought to be, the center of a great 
 system of roads stretching with its connections over all 
 parts of the country, bringing to her door all classes of 
 raw material, and offering to her manufacturers the distant 
 markets of the continent for their products. See how our 
 local territory is being invaded by a line stretching down 
 from Chattanooga to Carrollton and projected on to Co- 
 lumbus, by another projected across from Chattanooga to 
 Augusta, by another already built from Athens to Macon, 
 and by another being built from Macon to Birmingham. 
 From the east the Georgia, Carolina and Northern, meeting 
 the Macon and Covington at Athens, which at Macon con- 
 nects with the Georgia, Florida and Southern, offers the 
 whole business of the section traversed by these lines a 
 shorter outlet to the east than that through Atlanta. Let 
 Atlanta not forget that those natural conditions of mountain 
 and of valley, which made her truly the gateway of the 
 southeast, are being destroyed by the feats of the civil 
 engineer and the lessening price of steel. Let her remember 
 that new roads may offer greater facilities to her rivals than 
 to her. Fate has put within her grasp a higher destiny 
 than mere competition for local markets. Her future lies 
 in becoming a great productive center. If she realizes and 
 seizes her opportunities the inroads upon her local territory 
 will be a thousand fold off-set by the great avenues of com- 
 merce opened by her railway combinations. 
 
 THE CONTROL OF THE RAILROADS REST WITH THE PEOPLE. 
 
 Sir, the final argument of the demagogue, when driven 
 from debate by reason and incontrovertible statistics, is the 
 cry of alarm and the charge of monopoly. He falls back 
 upon the statement that the combinations will control the 
 
29 
 
 people. Sir, to-day the throned monarch trembles at the 
 people's voice, and throughout the civilized world the 
 people are persistently asserting their rights. To say that 
 in this country, the people cannot control their railroads, 
 however great, however strong, however powerful the roads 
 may grow, is to charge the people with incompetency. Do 
 they deserve this insult? Their glorious achievements 
 answer, Xo ! The principle that every railroad, great or 
 small, is subject to the people's control has become a funda- 
 mental doctrine of our national jurisprudence. Embodied 
 in our constitutions, enacted by our statutes, declared by our 
 Supreme Courts, State and Federal, it receives universal 
 recognition and commands universal obedience. The rail- 
 roads get their power from the people. They hold it at the 
 people's will ; and, should any combination of roads at any 
 time undertake to oppress or injure, the people would rise 
 in their might and tear them limb from limb. But a 
 recognition of these facts should make the people most 
 conservative. They want their country developed ; they 
 want more railroads ; they want new avenues of commerce; 
 and they cannot expect them unless the man who puts his 
 capital into them can rely upon the people's protection. 
 Around your home and around your factories the law has 
 planted hedges, but to the railroads the law has said : 
 " You hold your powers subject to the people's will." 
 
 Sir, Thomas Jefferson, the great apostle of civil liberty 
 and equal rights, believed no more firmly in people's capac- 
 ity for self-government than I, and with faith unquestion- 
 ing, I trust to the wisdom and the common sense of the 
 people, the solution of the issues of the present and the 
 future. Determine what character of combination will best 
 promote your interest and your welfare, and then dismiss 
 forever the shadow cast by the fear that the people will fail 
 to control their creatures. 
 
 Sir, in societv as in nature two forces are always at work. 
 
;K) 
 
 Co-existciit witli the formation of the world, we find them 
 everywhere, through everything, the animate and the inan- 
 imate. They are the principles of creation and destruction. 
 They constantly contend and men unconsciously range 
 themselves under their respective banners, and society be- 
 (;()mes di voided into two classes — those w4io would create 
 and build up ; those who would tear down and destroy. 
 Among the one we find the })atriot, the philanthropist — 
 those who would devek)p the material resources of their 
 country, would promote its happiness and prosperity, would 
 knit it together in indissoluble bonds; those w^ho love man- 
 kind. Among the other — those who, without capacity for 
 adding to the prosperity of their State or section, are filled 
 with jealousy by the work of others — those who arc ready 
 to destroy, but offer to erect nothing in the place of the 
 edifice they would pull down ; those who live upon the 
 accidents and misfortunes of their fellows; the political agi- 
 tators, the prototypes of him who fell because he would 
 rather rule in hell than serve in heaven, who fan the em- 
 bers of discontent, nor care what the flames may burn so 
 they but light the pathway of their ambitions. Destruction 
 sometimes wins — death has its victim ; but creation con- 
 quers and life springs from decay. Destruction's victories 
 are short lived. As rejuvenating spring soon wipes out the 
 scars of winter, so the warm. and patriotic love of the cre- 
 ative element, fashioned after Him who made and redeemed 
 mankind, always triumphs. Inspired with this thought, let 
 us, with broad and liberal views, seek to create and pro- 
 mote the wealth and prosperity of this State and section 
 until its people rank among the foremost industrial people 
 of the world ; nor let us stop there, but w ith a patriotism 
 too deep and too broad to be sectional or selfish, let us wipe 
 out the last vestige of difference between the North and 
 South; and, recognizing that the problems of one are the 
 problems of all, stand with our faces to the East, ready to 
 
hail the day that breaks upon a country wedded to a com- 
 mon interest, whose Stiates and sections are tied with the 
 bonds of fraternal love, and w hich reveals the American flag 
 in every part of Christendom, the highest emblem of com- 
 mercial enterprise and Christian civilization. 
 
Gaylord Bros.. Inc. 
 
 Stockton, Calif. 
 
 T.M. Reg. U.S. Pat. Off. 
 
 M80328 H^J-n 
 
 A\lt 
 
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