The record-union., 1893-01-14
THE ABSURD IDEAS OF A DEMA
GOGUE.

The present attempt to work up rail-
road agitation antagonistic to transpor-
tation interests in this State is the result
of an effort to put producers and carriers
by the ears, promoted mainly by two in
f1uences-the jealousy of metropolitan
merchants, because of the recognition of
interior rights and natural advantages,
| and the watery logic and misrepresenta-
ton of the hypocritical demagogue,
Traffic Manager Leeds, who made a
sublime exhibition of himself this week
as witness before the Railroad Commits
sion, where he wriggled and twisted and
evaded until he was an object for pity.
In the annals of absurdity there has
been nothing to compare with the propo-
sition of this six-by-nine, third-rate
freight clerk capacity, in which he de-
clared that whoever invests, with skill,
money and brains in the business of
transportation is entitled to only such
return as he could get if his money were
loaned to a bank or put out on mort
gage.
That is simply to say, executive skill,
capacity to conceive, plan and originate
in detail, the grasp of the idea, the cour-
age to make conception reality, the ability
to carry out and the labor in building up
and making successful, are all to count
for nothing in fixing the reward of the
| investment.
Or, in other words, Mr.. Leeds would
reduce all enterprise employing capital,
involving energy. patient waiting and
tireless labor in developing resources,
founding great industries and realizing
progressive ideas, to the level of mere
money earning capacity at ordinary in
terest. In short, he would bring com
mercial, business and inventive genius
to the level of the pawnshop.
That we do not misinterpret this blatant
and wriggling demagogue, we quote his
words:
'Then you think that man who invests
mis- money and takes chances. said the attor-
ney, should be only entitled TO as much in
terest as he would get by putting it in the
bank or mortgages, or similar inNestments?'
Il never argued anything else," was the
answer.
Pushed to corner on the logic of this
communistic proposition, he lost the
grasp of it, and attempted the most pitt
full hedging, by saying that skill and ca
pacity in enterprise are rewarded by
salary" The sublimity of opacity in
idea is reached in this statement, and to
grasp it or attempt to understand it in
connection with the preceding declaration
quoted, that ordinary interest is to be the
sole reward on the basis Of the actual cap
ital invested, will daze the mind of the
intelligent reader.
The paradoxical statements of Leeds
are on par with that other ridiculous
proposition advanced by this traffic man
ager, who appears to revel in illogical.
unbusinesslike and bumptious PROPOSE
tions, that the cost of transportation cuts
no figure in measuring the charge for the
tions elbowing each other to get in out of
the light for very shame of their naked
ness, this manager" insists that carriers
must provide sinking funds, out of which
to meet the wet day when the investment
depreciates because of the possibility that
similar enterprise can be started at less
original cost, and the elder capitaliza-
ton in its capacity to earn interest be
reduced by Mr.. Leeds rule to the level
of the later and competing investment;
but of what the sinking fund is to come,
or the salaries that are to reward skill and
creative energy and executive capacity,
while only interest is to be earned, Leeds
leaves the world to wonder.