Howard Elliott

“ It is true that a few large fortunes have been made in the railroad business, but no more than in the iron, coal, lumber, and manufacturing businesses, if as much. They are the capital prizes in the lottery of life that are open to every ambitious American. But of the great army of railroad-owners, officers, and employees, a very small proportion obtain more than enough for their daily living, whatever their position in society may be, and some saving for old age and their children outside of that. ”

“ What is business? Professor James Mark Baldwin, in his volume “The Individual and Society,” says that “business has to do with the production and distribution of valuable things; money, utensils, anything for which there is a demand in society, or on which society or some individuals of it set value”; and again, “to produce such things in response to the demand and to distribute them to those from whom the demand comes, is the undertaking of business.” Here is set forth very clearly the idea that the distribution of things is business just as much as is the production of them. ”

“ If the Government has to fix the rate, what right will it have to refuse to the wool-grower of Kentucky, the wheat-grower of Ohio, the lumber-producer of Mississippi, the butter man of Pennsylvania, the same rate per mile that is charged the producer in North Dakota, Iowa, Montana, and Washington? No matter how low the rate is made for the first ten miles, or for one mile of railroad transportation, when the haul is one thousand or two thousand miles and the mileage basis is used, the rate will be so high that the business will not move. ”

“ In this short space a foreign observer and admirer has placed his finger on one danger that threatens the American people to-day, namely, the tendency to take away by law the freedom of action of the individual and to attempt to shift upon numerous and often half-digested laws burdens that the individual himself should carry, and to try to solve problems by law that public opinion should settle,—based on a few of the great fundamental laws of life that no legislature or commission can change. ”

“ Will not greater progress be made in trying to put this great railway business on a sound basis, if all who are interested “look up” at the best features of it and of the men engaged in it, and do not assume, without knowing, that the business is conducted improperly and that the men giving their lives to the work are incompetent or dishonest? Will not the best results come if all “look out” from their own surroundings and see the difficulties confronting others as well as themselves, instead of thinking only of their selfish, local advancement? ”

“ We all of us want these things, and we all want agriculture, banking, and the carrier to go on with their work, and to succeed. The practical question is, What can any one of us do to help out, that we are not doing?
It is gratifying that the country generally is awakening to the fact that agriculture is an occupation that needs the best attention and the best brains that can be given to it. Too long has the farmer’s life been pictured as unattractive, unremunerative, and something that the young men and young women should shun. ”

“ Without attempting a long discussion over old contentions, or looking back to what the people ought to have done or what the railways ought not to have done in the past, I want to call your attention to some things in which the people, who need and use the railways, for whose service the railways are created, and who regulate the railways, can, with fairness and justice to themselves, be of assistance in conserving railway service for the common good. ”

“ I have faith in the future of New England and in the good sense and judgment of her people in arriving at the right conclusions when they understand and appreciate the real facts. I have hope that a better understanding of the railroad side of the problem will be brought home to the people, so that they can see the difficulties which directors, officers, and employees in the railroad service are trying to overcome, and that the people will realize the sincere spirit which animates these men to do the best they can with a difficult situation. ”

“ So dependent is the welfare of the whole country upon regular transportation that in time public opinion will declare that men on a railroad have no more right to disobey reasonable rules than have the men in the army, have no more right to leave in a body than have the men in the army. When they act thus in the army they are punished for mutiny and desertion. Probably no law could be framed at the present time that would cover these ideas, because it is contrary to our American ideas to say that a man shall or shall not work as he may wish. ”

“ The essential condition to the development of energy is liberty. Every restriction on liberty, with however good purpose, diminishes the individual responsibility and initiative. Yet we often hear mooted in America, as elsewhere, measures which, under the pretext of correcting abuses, would immeasurably extend the state’s field of action, and reduce the liberty of citizens. It is my earnest hope that the American democracy will reject such enervating proposals, and will remain true to the virile and liberal traditions that have insured the United States so wonderful a growth. ”

“ Our commerce is great, and our trade extends to the corners of the earth,—the product of a hundred years. Our transportation system, with a capitalization which is the lowest in any civilized country in the world, with the lowest rates, and with the highest efficiency of service and ability to meet the demands of business, is second to none. ”

“ Sound public opinion should be encouraged, and the sentiment of farmers, as a body, should be such that poor farming will be stamped as a moral crime, a crime against one’s fellows, for shiftless farm methods injure the property and offset the labor of the adjacent farmer who is trying to produce the best results; and a crime against the people as a whole, for they have charged the farmer with production of their food and expect him to meet the responsibilities they have imposed. ”

“ On the Northern Pacific road, for example,—comprising about six thousand miles,—there are no rebates; there are no private-car abuses; there are no side-track abuses. There are, of course, differences of opinion about the relations of rates, as there always will be under any system. Railroad business, being conducted by human beings who are no more infallible than those in other walks of life, is not conducted with absolute perfection. ”

“ Is it not to the interest of bankers to try so to shape public opinion that not only will the particular business in which they are engaged receive fair treatment, and agriculture receive help and fair treatment, but the great business of the carrier will receive like encouragement and fair treatment, so that the capital now invested in that important business, and needed so much in the future, will receive a return sufficient to justify bankers in recommending and obtaining the funds to be used for expanding the facilities of this great country? ”

“ When I decided to come back to my old home in New England, some of my friends said, Why leave this great and growing West for a country that is developed and finished? I told them that in my judgment there was going to be just as much growth and development in New England in the next twenty-five years as anywhere else, and there will be if the intellectual and financial ability of the men in New England can coöperate unselfishly with that end in view. ”

“ The use that the railways make of their cars is, therefore, of the utmost importance, not only to the railways but to the people. When a freight-car is standing still, it is doing no good to the railway or to the people, but the railways have had to pay for that car, and a part of their capital is invested in it. When it is standing still, it is not earning anything on that capital, and as the capital of the railways is a part of the national wealth, the usefulness of the national wealth is impaired by the loss incurred through the idleness of the car. ”

“ The railway employee has a responsibility to the railway-user to be sober, industrious, and careful, so as to furnish the best and safest transportation to the public, and he has a responsibility to the railway-owner to furnish a full day's honest and efficient work for the compensation that he receives, whatever it maybe. The industrial supremacy of America cannot be maintained unless that is done, and every patriotic man, no matter what his employment, should stop waste in labor as well as in material, and expect hard work and rigid economy. ”

“ Let us all work for the best development of all New England first, and not be swayed too much by the local or selfish interest of one community. The highest development and conservation of the resources of New England—country, town, and city, especially the country—will, in the long run, mean the best development for the particular community in which any individual may be interested. ”

“ The average American enjoys luxuries and conveniences which were not dreamed of twenty-five years ago, and the inventive genius of Americans is daily placing in the hands of every man new and improved tools with which to do his work. Our prosperity has increased the complications of government, and the close attention given by our people to business has resulted in less personal attention to public affairs, about which there is not the feeling of interest and responsibility that characterized the American people when there were fewer people and less wealth. ”

“ The work done by the American investor, railroad-builder, owner, and manager in the last thirty years has been enormous in producing the present railroad system of the country,—a system which, on the whole, is one of the most wonderful things ever produced by human energy. ”

“ If railroad rates, as a whole, were unjust, unreasonable, wrongly discriminatory, as between individuals and localities, this condition would not exist. It has been held that the power to fix a railroad rate should be lodged with some other authority than with the railroad-owner, because railroad transportation enters into the life of the people in every way, and, therefore, the railroad-owner should not fix that price. Is it not also true that the price of producing power enters into the life of the people in every way? ”

“ When one sees the ordinary operation of the railroad going on without much interruption, except from heavy weather, one does not always realize the great work that has been done in creating the railroad machine in the United States, and the really vast amount of expense and work to keep it going day by day. It seems very simple to see the passenger-trains run in and out of the station, to order the freight-car and send the grain to market, to telegraph to the nearest large town for supplies and in twenty-four or forty-eight hours have them delivered. ”

“ It is impossible to limit the size of the companies, for that would limit business and hurt the common welfare. The bigger and more numerous they are, the better for everybody. If a merchant is not perfectly free to do business in Germany he will go elsewhere, to Germany’s loss. Any one can see what harm and evil such an action would mean to us. If a merchant cannot do business above a certain amount, what is he to do with his surplus money? ”

“ The American people are strong enough to have any kind of railroad ownership and management that they want, and if they want government ownership they can have it. I submit, however, that the management of business enterprises in this country by the Government has not given evidence of thoroughness, efficiency, and economy equal to that displayed by private individuals, and that it is not to the best interest of this country to have government-owned and government-managed railroads. ”

“ The railway-owner may make rules and regulations and make effort to continue in business, but he cannot always do so unless public opinion in time makes it clear that when a man chooses as his means of livelihood work on a railroad, he assumes a duty to society as a whole to give absolute obedience to rules, and to remain at work until suitable arrangements are made to relieve him. ”

“ During a hundred years Americans have taken a pride in the extent of the country, in its great natural wealth and resources, in its development, and in the large machinery of business and industry that has grown up under their hands. ”

“ The ultimate good sense of the American people and their belief in the rights of property will, in the long run, I believe, prevail over the misstatements and misrepresentations of some public men who, without careful study and full knowledge of the situation, and without due regard to the effect of their extravagant language, make indiscriminate attacks upon the railway system of the United States, and upon the men who are giving the best that is in them to the work of advancing that system. ”

“ We hear much about quasi-public corporations, and public opinion has gone a long way in taking away from the owner of public-service corporations the right to manage his own property, to name his own rates or prices, to decide about his methods, and has imposed on him the responsibility of providing safe and adequate public service from his private means, but so far has exerted little influence upon the men who have to make the quasi-public corporation of use to the public. ”

“ Without effective banking the great railroad systems of the country could not have been developed to the extent that they have been, and one of the great problems confronting the carriers to-day is that of making both ends meet, and having enough money left over so that bankers will be able to obtain from investors new funds to increase the facilities. It is a matter of common knowledge and evident in the lives of all of us that expenses and the cost of living are greater to-day than a few years ago, and the same causes that affect the individual affect the great transportation companies. ”

“ The great mass of the American people are honest and fair, and when they really understand the great questions of the day, they will solve them correctly, just as they did the slavery and silver questions. But the individual must exert himself to obtain correct information and to form a sane public opinion. ”

“ This very fact of size is important in its bearing on the industrial, railroad, and economic questions of the day. Being a big nation, we need big tools to do our work. We must have big railroads; we must have big banks; we must have big lumber operations; we must have big insurance companies; we must have big manufacturing establishments. In working out the problem of providing food shelter, clothing, heat, light, and transportation for the American people we have developed great systems of railroads, great industrial corporations, great financial institutions. ”

“ As a rule, the railroad officer or employee is as conscientious, high-minded, and devoted to the interest that employs him as any man in any other walk of life, and he appreciates that the best interests of his employer are served by building up the tributary country, which can be done only by adjusting rates and giving service that will develop the natural resources. He is also fair-minded and anxious to be fair and square with the user of the railroad, as well as with the company, because he realizes that the greatest success to the company comes from fair treatment to the patron ”