The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-06-12
ara. might have solo my whole en-
terprise out for 5000, 600 soon after /

began IL, ana IL would probably have
been thought a small thing. We have
never called upon the public for money
in this company except as an invest
ment to extend our business, and we
now have $50, 0o0, 900 Of capital. Our
contracts were made for many years
for no longer a period than Eve pears
Now they are made for twenty-five
years. I never solicited business for
this company. Col Thomas A. Scott,
whose picture you see there, came Of
his own accord to visit me at nv
house and proposed to extend my serv-
ice to his road. Nor do we attempt to
make extraordinary profit The BUSH
ness of this company is never secreted
from anybody. Our accounts are in,
such state that we can show any.
body who comes here the exact
state of our business with any other
roads. Some years ago the II
1inois legislature concluded to 60 into
the investigation of sleeping-car COM
panies, and started with ours. As:soon
as saw what they were driving at /
sent an invitation for them to come to
our Office and look at our books. took
it for granted that they wanted to see
for themselves and perhaps to be seen.
When they came, however, had the
reporters here of the different news
papers. They found that it cost 81 Les
to make up bed for every passenger
we carried. It then occurred to them
that we must secrete our earnings In
some way, and they called for our sal
ary list. They found that the. presi-
dent got $4,000 year instead of $s5,-
900, and the superintendent $4,000 .
year"
The system Of bookkeeping in an Of
fee like this must be interesting"
''We have 1900 employees, of whom
5000 or 5000 are mechanics and
mechanical operatives. We serve
100000 of meals over the land,
between the st. Lawrence and
Texas, and every one of these meals
has to have voucher in this office.
We have built over 400 cars for the
worlds fair alone, at a cost Of $780,
600, and we own Of palace cars be-
tween 1900 and 0,3oo, and carried last
year more than 100000 passengers;
our mileage in this country is Eve
times the circumference Of the globe.
Besides, we are car-builders for any
body, and manufactured 800 600
worth Of cars last year. At the town
of Pullman, outside of Chicago, we pay
SO 1000, 900 a year in wages. Our savings
bank has over $500, 0o0."
II have always been sustained in my
own mind and resources by loving to
create something. First the sleeping
car, then the Pacific railroad train,
and next the dining car, next the vesti-
buled car, now the vestibuled engine
and train. still hold to the belief
that the United States and its people
will give better return to capital in
any portion of the world than any
other portion of the world they can
venture their capital in. Our English
friends have tried Canada, Australia
and India, supposing that they could
make another United States In some
other portion Of the earth, and what
has taken place in Australia is the
economical reply. But we must not
over extend ourselves. A reasonable
imagination and a progressive develop
ment upon safe lines can go together.
This company has paid its quarterly
dividends with regularity from the very
outset, and as dividends and interest
in the general mercantile world have
become smaller our thirty mil
lion dollar capital has appreciated
to double that amount. There
are over thirty-three hundred
stockholders in this company, and
more than half of them are women.
have been criticised for carrying too
much Of the company in my own head,
but think you will find that our
bookkeeping is always up to date, and
that every fact in this office can be laid
hold of by any person almost as quick
ly as If he should ask it from memory.
The worlds fair is remarkable piece
of labor done on the level prairie,
where lakes have been made within
the Enclosure, but we showed the feast.
bility of all this when we built the
town of Pullman upon thirty-five hum
dred acres of ground, and took the
bleak prairie and gave it water front,
dockage, drainage and utilized it's sew
erage. believe that that town, which
is just as far from the worlds fair as il
the Chicago river, will be worth all the
capital stock of this company"
What do you think of the Sunday
question and the fair2''
The people OF Chicago are cosmo-
politan. and each element observes its
Sunday according to its traditions,
without clashing with any other ele-
ment. The park where the worlds
fair stands belongs to the public They
have had the use Of it on Sundays here
tofore. It is unreasonable to deprive
them of it, when they can now learn
for the general good and for their own
expansion and improvement the pass.
ing lesson of this fair. If they are de-
prived of the use Of the fair they will
go to some other amusement not SO i'm
proving. In this state of facts, why
should they not see the fair on Sunday,
nobody being compelled to go there
who will be better satisfied going some
| where else?" GATH.