The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1885-05-08
The Shame of Railway Management.
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ways, ana winch mas, UlIneS without
number destroyed the most solemn agree
ments of railway officers with each other,
almost as soon as made. The evil, to put
it plainly, is lying. Railway officers, as
a class, in their private capacities, are as
honorable and conscientious as any other
business men /; but so fierce is railway
competition and so eager are all engaged
in it to command all or more than their
natural share of the business, and more
over, so little confidence have they in
each other that honesty is too often sac
rificed to expediency, and compacts are
broken almost as soon as made.
The lying is not always done openly
it is generally done by cquivocation or
indirection, and the violation of solemn
agreements which it involves is gener-
ally excused by the assertion that some
other party to the agreement first often
! ded. It is seldom the managers or Off
GERS signing the compacts who are the
direct yiolators almost invariably the
sin is charged upon some subordinate,
and thus the responsibility is shifted.
And yet everybody knows that railway
manager can control the action of his
subordinates if he chooses. Several of
the railways centering in this city re-
Gently made an agreement in regard to
certain passenger business. The mana
ger of one of the roads felt that the ag-
reement did not do his line justice
nevertheless, for the sake of peace, he
signed. Then, going to his president, he
said : 81 do not think this agreement
ought to have been made, but my name
is appended to it, and wish to say that
if it is ever violated by our company my
resignation must be accepted" Then
this officer wrote to the head of his pas
senger department, calling attention to
the agreement, and notifying him that
if it was broken his-the subordinate's
resignation would be required. OF
course, the latter officer took measures to
see that none of his subOrdinates infring-
ed, in the letter or spirit, upon the COM
pact, and it is safe to say that, so far as
this company is concerned, the agree
ment will be observed with the utmost
scrupulousness to the end. There are
many other managers equally conscien-
tious and equally inspired by the old
fashioned principles of honesty, which |
teach that though a man 'swear to his |
own hurt" yet he must keep his oath, |
let the consequences be what they may. |
Upon such men rests largely the work of |
reforming the railway service by their |
example.
1t certainly is not too much for the |
public to expect from railway officials |
the same exact adherence to truth to-
ward each other and toward the world |
that is expected from all other reputable |
business men. When a bank official |
makes promise, no matter how much
it may involve, it is considered as good |
as his bond, and no one fears that it will |
be violated, directly or by equivocation |
or trickery. Does this high standard |
prevail among railway men, and is their
professional reputation for truth and We
racity as good as that of banker: HUI
initiating as it is to say it, the answer
must be no. When railway officers make
an agreement with each other, they do
it feeling sure that something will vio-
late it, and they are seldom disappointed.
So common have equivocation, decep-
ton, and downright lying become among
railway men that their agreements are
now a subject of ridicule, and the public
estimate of railway integrity has been
lowered to the unworthy standard estab-
lished by the repeated examples of the
bad faith on the part of railway officials
towards each other.
1t is shame that these statements are
true, and yet who will deny their truth
Is it not time for a general elevation of
the standard of honesty in railway cir
cles? Is it not time for every manager
to determine to ''turn the liars out" and
to demand, under the penalty of sum-
mary discharge, the most absolute and
literal observance of agreements by all
his subordinates? Until lying is stopped
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all efforts to maintain rates by the means
of agreements, however skillfully pre-
pared, will be in vain. On the other
hand, as soon as railway men begin and
continue to ''speak the truth every man
with another" and to act the truth with
out equivocation, it will be easy to form
and to keep agreements that will be vast
! " beneficial to all concerned.
! Said a distinguished gentleman the
other day ''The coming railway man
will be the honest man." This, we be-
heve, win in the future, become the key
note of railway official reputation. No
| matter how able or how experienced,
khow shrewd in making contracts, how
skillful in financial management, how
thoroughly educated in all the details of