Semi=weekly graphic., 1897-09-08
COL. FoRDYCE's SPEECH

and pleasing to me because or tne laGt bnat it was in this city more than sixteen years ago that my first official acts in connection with construction of this road were per formed. As Vice president and Treasurer l came to you almosta stranger, but shall never cease to be grateful for the kindly reception vou then accorded me and the other officials of the company To tlie late w. j. Paramofe' the first President of the road, you are more indebted for its. building than any one else. He if was who first conceived the idea of eX- tending what was then the Texas and st' Louis Railroad in Texas, northward through this State and Missouri to Cairo, Illinois. IL was then that was called upon by him to assume the duties previously outiinedi so that since the winter of 1881 my connection with the enterprise has been continuous; as vice President and Treasurer ana as receiver and President, Twice as re- ceiver and twice as President
 It was in my official capacity as President that original and main line was changed from narrow to.standard gauge, and more 1 than six hundred tmiles of new road were builtnnd acquired in the States of Missouri l Arkansas Texas, and Louisiana. Worthy | and contemplating citizens of Tyler Texas, made the beginning. and from that beginning has grewn,the Cotton Belt System of nearly | .500 miles of main line, spur tracts and sidng.s
 In order to give our patrons better faeili- ties. and to increase the volume of business, we are having constructed line from one ol urnorthern terminals to Grays Point on the Miss. River. i'll Missouri, where the cross ine of trains will never be interfered with by ice. or high or low water, as it has been in the past at Birds Point and Cairo. We shall now overcome that difficulty. In connection with two other associated. lines, we are ma king extensions in Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana. One from the St. Francis near Paragould to the Little River in southeast Missouri and one from Magnolia, Arkansas 10 Homer. Louisiana linus we.are constant ly pressing forward in the construction Of new lines, and in the opening of new chan nels of trade and the development of new territory.
 I have given this brief outline of the early history of this road, not thatitis new to the old citizens of Pine Bluff Or the older em- pInyes of the line; they are eonyersant with all that has been done; have seen it grow from a small beginning to great system; have rejoiced with us in success and shared with us in the sorrow of our trials and trihu- lations, but in the belief that history of the road may be of interest to the newer and younger employees, and to those from other States and other parts of this State who have become citizens since G1 and '62. Pine Bluff was then small and insignificant as compar- ed with it's present population and wealth it's manufacturing, banking, mercantile and other industries. All this, and more. is the result of united labor. and capital l men ton labor first because it isl the cornerstone and lies at the very foundation of our cfyiliz
 ation and r sperity. Labor was created be fore capitf and without labor capital coult never have gean acquired. Hence the dignf ty of labor is superior 10 and surpasses tht dignity of capital. The dinge of the work shop and the dust of the field are equally a' honorable IS the gaudy epaulets worn b5 officers of the army or the ieweled crowns of kings and queens.
 The interest of labor and capital is essen. tially the same. They allies and not enemies Concentration of capital provides employ ment for labor, stimulates enterprise. cheap. ems ne1essaries of life and thus elevates the standard of living. Without concentration of capital great railway systems are not possi- ble. Cheap transportation facilitates an ad- vantageous division of laBor, enables each section of the country to devote itself tc
 those industries for which its natural con dttlOns best adapt itand makes the prices of staple articles virtually uniform through out the country by converting the nation as a whoIe into one market, eliminating local conditions as factors in the law of supply and demand. The profits of those who have spent their lives and risked their money in the building up of your railway facilities are often assailed by political demagogues as if they were the consequences of violence and fraud. In the exceptional cases in which substantial profits have been made, a careful examination of the method of their accumu- lation will show us that they represent but a small part Of the labor that they save men from doing, and not work that men are yet compelled to do. The work of the promoters of your transportation facilities has been to so reduce the cost of transportation that a years subsistence of western bread and meat can now be transported a thousand miles to the east for less than the measure of one days labor by an ordinary day laborer. Your railways have abolished distance; a service so great that the prof Is of their builders, in the insulated eases in which they exist are but trivial compared to its benefits.
 Factory system and labor saving devices are cheapening the necessaries in life. The modern mill or factory in which hundreds of | operatives are given employment, is often likened by chronic agitators and demagogues to some great mechanical monster, grinding wealth out of the blood and bones of it's op- eratlves. Hard as the lot of the modern workingman may seem. it's hardships sink into insignifeanee when compared to those of our forefathersa hundred years ago Then l the homespun fabrics in which our ancestors were clothed, required the arduous labor of at least one person in every family of five or six to spend and weave the scanty clothing for the others Now one person in each l two hundred and fifty only need work in the factory to produce the cotton and woolen fabrics that constitute the garments of the most enlightened nation of the world
 Concentrated capital has removed much of the drudgery of life. The great mass of capital earned and saved no matter into whose hands it has fallen, and whether the motive of it's accumulation may have been pure selfshness or enlightened self-interest. represents not the work that menIare still compelled to do, but rather part of that which they have been saved from doing. AS combined invention and competition have more and more reduced the amounts of human labor required to produce the crude products of the soil and the mine. or the staple and necessary products of the factory and the furnace, the drudgerY formerly re- quired to meet the bare necessities of life has been removed and it has become possible that more and more time can be given to the fNpOf1 not fffs, sef fl,s, e...