The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-09-21

{ 10 lIGSlQSi4I Is the only the
united states without a mortgage on
it, Also the recent reorganization of
! the roads finances by which it is now
upon purely stock basis was COM
pleted without the foreclosure of a
mortgage. without proceedings in
court, without a receiver, and practi-
cally without expense, the chief outlay
being for postage stamps and printing
Various checks are placed upon the
management Of the road, or, rather,
various safeguards are provided
Among these is a finance committee
i which has the power of absolute veto
on any action of the directors invOlv-
ing the borrowing of money, the issue
OF new securities, and all expenditures
of money except for operating ex-
penses.
Besides being a railroad man in the
fullest sense-for he has had much to
do with railroad construction in his
earlier life-and, in addition TO his skill
as a lawyer, Mr.. Stickney is a facile
WRITER, and in his writings he has taken
occasion TO develop many of the ideas
which may be considered as Oretical-
practical A number of years ago he
wrote book called, THE Railway
Problem" which has not only been
widely read among railroad men of all
grades and among the general public,
but which has come into great favor in
colleges and universities either as a
regular text book or as a book of ref
erence. In this volume, which, de-
spite the authors protest that he is not
literary man is written in delight
fully lucid style, Mr.. Stickney has at
tackled the entire railway problem
methods of railway management, eff
fects of discrimination, competition
watered stock, railways as common
carriers, the struggles of the managers
and the miSfortuneS of the people, etc.
He has not only shown his absolute
fairness, but his fearlessness as we'll.
He has not hesitated 10 arraign the
railroads and to defend the people:
neither has he failed TO rap the people
on the knuckles when he saw fit, nor
has he failed to be just and generous
to his fellow railroaders. do not know
that his relation TO the people may in
any way more clearly be set forth than
by an extract from this book. While
Mr.. Stickney has been an enigma to
some railroad presidents, a menace to
I others, and a thorn to others, he has
always been a SteadfaSt friend of the
people. Without being foolishly Ouix-
otto, he has been a friend of the peo-
pie. Other railway presidents have
been and are friends of the people, but
Mr.. Stickney is even more than this
he is one of the people himself, whether
it be in the securing of a better mar
ket or in holding down the rates.
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In paper which Mr.. Stickney read
before the convention OF railroad COM
missioners held some time since in the
city of Washington, he discussed in
trenchant terms the authority of the
government to control railroad rates.
In this paper Mr.. Stickney enuncia ted
principle which set people thinking.
1t is well worth repetition here as in
dicative of the judicial cast of his mind
1.-The fact that the power and duty of
providing highways is exclusively and
inalienably vested in the sovereign or
government is the foundation fact the
fundamental principle on which turns
the right of the government to control
railway rates; hence. all legislative en-
actmentS intended to exercise control
Of rates should be based upon this fun
damental fact, and be built up con-
SiStently with the rights and duties
of the government in exercising an ex-
elusive power and prerogative. And
correlated with this: While a govern
ment can delegate the use of a sover-
elgn power to an agent, it cannot ir-
revOcably ALLEVIATE or part with a single
sovereign power-all such powers exer-
cised by an agent are subject at all
times to the supervision and control of
the sovereign government
1t has long been the belief of Mr.
Stickney that the farm life of America
has been needlessly somber. He is a
very earnest advocate of a complete
change in the methods of farm life
He is in favor of creating a little COM
munity wherever there are even a half
dozen farmers scattered on the wide
western prairieS. He would have these
farmers come into a common commu-
nifty, not in any sense theoretically
communal, but a community for cul-
tivatiOn, for mental advancement, for
social progress, for the fostering of the
finer and the iOllier features of life.
He advocates the union of these farm
ers into such a town or community
each one going cut from his home in
the morning to his field as a city la
bOrer goes out to his work The houses
he would have built at some inter-
Secting point, which would at all times
leave the families of the farmers in
immediate contact. Not only would
there be a great increase in the salts
faction of living, but protection would
be insured in the emergencies of sick
ness, fire and tramps. He would oblit-
crate the isolation which separates the
farmer from the world, and which, if
we are to believe those who have made
a study of the subject, does much to
increase insanity in rural regions.
Yet on no point is he more strenuous
in his writings than on the foolishness
shown by intelligent men in ffocking
to the cities for employment in already
overcrOwded quarters, when the oppor-
tunities in the country are so large ana
tempting to the man of clear vision
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When you come into individual con-
tact with this man, who is in more
than one sense an unusual man YOU
are more than ever struck with his
strength This is true, whether you
meet him in a public address or
whether you meet him in his Office in
the city of st. Paul. A large frame
token of fine reserve of physical
power; q strong head. well set on a
deep trunk; a face rugged, big of fea-
ture. kindly, forceful, a face you would
notice among a thousand ordinary
faces; hair and pointed blonde beard.
showing threads of silver, unconven-
tional bearing. Mr.. Stickney is a man
once met not to be forgotten The
personality of men who have achieved
prominence is not always important
not infrequently it is in sense incon-
sequential, but the personality of this
western railway president is as mark
ed and individual as his life and life