The Monticellonian., 1894-09-21
RAILROADS AND I'll
An Excellent Address by Pr

An Excellent Address by Pr
 Ingalls, of the Big Four, o
 tions. the One to the otheA
 On the occasion ci the
 Ing of the new and
 terminal station of the NJ
 cifc t& Iron Mountain, tl
 the Louisville & Nashville more t Ohio SouthwesteI e Big Four at St. Louis, begun Is
 ago. President NJ. E. Inga e
 Big Four, delivered an addrl be Necessity for Better Feelin en
 the Railways and the Peopl er
 reviewing briefly the history ef- fort which had had its fruit as
 he declared, the best, the II tis.
 tic, the most commodious of hil- way station in the world" on- graduating the people of St. on its completion, President alls paid a just tribute Dr. Taussig, president of the I inal association, to whose eff large part of the success of t new structure is due. He then refe ed to the phenomenal growth Of u - rail- roads in this country during past sixty years, and claimed the urlb baral- ieled development and prosperity of this country during that time was it's direct result and that it's future de pended upon the success of it's trans portation facilities. That the rail ways should prosper" he said, lis to the interest of every man, woman and child in this great country of ours, no matter what his calling or business. To attain this success there must be better feeling between the railways and the people, between the railways and their employees.
 Referring to the recent strike as athe greatest, the most causeless and the most unsuccessful" in the history of strikes and questioning what con ditions made it possible that "a few worthless demagogues" could induce such q large number of railway e1n- ployes to neglect their interest and forget the loyalty due the companies, the speaker asked what was the cause of the great dissatisfaction? As man agers it behooves them to consider the question carefully and endeavor to find d solution, for somewhere there was an answer. The great strike was not without its lessons, one of which was that mo strike can succeed which has no real ground of grievance and which public opinion does not sup port Continuing, President Ingalls, said:
 But out of 1t the wise men should seek for the cause of the evil and It's cure. If the sys- tenn of proft-Sharing among employees could be adopted. l have always believed that it would be a cure fer these evils; but before this can De successfully adopted we must secure the profits We ought also to establish Il system of pensions for those disa- bled In the service, and for annultieS for those who have been worn out serving their corporations There must also be T better feeling built up between the railways and the communities they serve. The situation is much improved now and it is not as fashion able as it used to be for newspa pers and public bodies to abuse railways and their manage mcnt. but there are many states and eommuni- ties to-day where there exists feeling of great hostility towards railway corporations This is unfortunate, and il Is the duty of rail- way managers and of statesmen to discover wherein lies the trouble and endeavot to cure 1t.
 To-day more than one-fifth of all the rail- ways in the country are in the hands Of re- ceiyers, and nearly one-hfth of all the invest mcnt in railways is unproductive This repre- sCutS q capital of over two thousand millions of dollars And yet you will find people preaching a crusade to-day through the ballot box against railway property and itS management. You will find all man ner of threats of hostile legislation Taxes in every state and city are being increased almost beyond endurance and yet these very communities depend for their existence and their future prosperity upon the railways which they would destroy. This must be cured in some manner The railway man agcrs themselves are responsible iu many cases and to great extent for this trouble They have managed their railways arbl- trarily they have endeavored to main tain that they were private corporations and could not be controlled by the public, but that day has gone by. The wise manager to-day has accepted the situation. he fully realizes that railway corporation is not a private partnership 1t is great public n- stitutton with public duties te perform and with responsibility to the public and sub ject in certain ways to public control Even the interstate commerce law, which was bit terly opposed by the great majority Of the rail- way managers, has teen accepted; they all be- lieye il has come to stay and that 1t will take the place Of the disjointed legislation ofthe diff fercnt states, and out of it future good to the business communities and to the railways can be obtained.
 We must have certain reforms, and railway managers must work these out subject to law and legislation. It seems to be the consensus of opinion that the interstate commerce law should be amended; amended so us 10 legaize contracts between railways, so as to bring this vast interest of our country under the protec- tion as well as the burden of the law. Our sys- tenn of freight rates must be changed. We can not raise the rates on the great products which are exported and which have to be carried long distances for they will not bear higher rates of transportation, but terminal charge should be exaeted on all frcights as il is in England One cent hundred pounds terminal charge would not be felt by the great mass of the people, but it would bring prosperity and comfort to the railway owners and employees and would enable them to better serve the communities which are their patrons
 "The system of running passenger trains and Of making passenger fares must be changed We haul a Pullman or Wagner car. weighing fifty tons with twenty-five paSSen- Rers fifty miles an hour and charge the same rate per mile to the passenger occu- pying the same that we do to the one oeeu- pying coach that weighs twenty-five tons and carries fifty people at speed of thirty-1ve miles an hour. The rail ways should own. either by contract or lease, their own sleeping cars; they should sell their tickets at one rate good on limited trains and this ticket should furnish sleeping and parlor car accommodations, and they should sell ticket at another rate on their slow trains, which should furnish merely seat aceommoda- tiOns.
 Finally, better state of feeling between employees and the management between husi- ness communities and the management should be built up by association, by an accommodate ing spirit on the part oi each pledge you to- night the railways tc work to this end"
 
 BEUSH AND PALETTE.