Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1897-10-21

operation Of cars by this company
was l2l $50, The value OF the manu-
featured product of the ear works OF
the company for the year was St,soS,-
sSl.90, and of other industries includ-
ing rentals, s476,S66lS, making 4 to-
tai of Sl,6Sl,flS,0S, against S1,104,-
9SS,sS for the previous year
Some time ago MIR, Pullman, when
in y reminiscent mood, told the fol-
lowing interesting story 10 q news
paper reporter; u had thought about
sleeping ears before riding over in
one from Buffalo to WeStheld; had
talked With Ben Field At my home,
in Albion, \. V, about them, Mr..
Field was Il member OF the New York
assembly. When came aut to Chi
cage in 1859 to take a contract for
raising the level of the streets the
matter was still in my mind, | had
not yet fixed what should be my life
work. | was not and am not me-
chanic, but that night while riding
over IN the sleeping-car to Westtield
| was thinking about how the car
might be improved / believe We
come there to what might be called
the key to whatever success there has
been. The object always has been 10
make something better than has been
made before. | concentrated my eff
forts ON that and let money getting
follow in due course, rented
shop and employed n master mechanic
and number of workmen to put in
to form and fact some of tho inn
proyements had In mind-improve-
ments over the cars then in vogue, l
was never quite satisfied with any
thing, but always looked forward to
doing something better, Finally a,
sixteen wheel car was built. That
was great innovation, and was
really n radical step forward towards
the development which has since
come In the ideas and methods OF
building Pullman cars. This car was
put on the Alton road, 1t was known
then as Car A. Car A attracted n
good deal of attention. James +. Joy,
president of the Michigan Central
road, spoke about putting such cars
on his line, and four more were built,
making them better always than
those which had gone before and pro-
portionately more expensive. The
Pioneer, for instance, cost $4,000,
The new cars cost S24 900 each, a
very decided advance over the old
cars which preceded the Pioneer, and
which cost about $4,000 When IT
came to running these new cars Il
was evident it would be impossible to
sell berths In car hat cost SPA 600
at the old rate of 81 80. When Mr..
Joy was told this he lad not fall N
with the idea. He could not afford,
he said, to run cars for which n high
er price was asked per berth than
on competing lines. 1t would divert
travel from his road. lie was quite
firmly set in this opinion, asked
him II he had taken into considera-
ton that the very fact that an extra
price was charged on his roa and that
lie had cars which, in their superior
ity and comfort warranted 1t, might
he in itself an inducement to people
to~travel over that line where they
would get the best accommodation.
We finally compromised the matter
by putting the old $3.50 berth car on
the same train with the cars for
which 81 a berth was charged The
consequence was that the higher
priced cars were filed every night
and the overflow put into the cheaper
car. which caused so much grumblng
that the cheaper car was ultimately
withdrawn. | mention this clrcum-
stance because 1t illustrates another
principle upon which | have always
acted, and that is that the people
are always willing to pay for the
best provided they get the worth OF
their money. Having an abiding faith
In this fundamental fact have alway;
some on striving to do something bet
ter, endeavoring always to improve
upon the best. with perfect conf
dence that tho financial returns would
look out for themselves.
Pullman was worth very many
millions. His death depressed the
stock market somewhat.