The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-05-24
That His Rate Views Are
Held For Senate;
OUT OF OLD RELIABLE?
An Interesting Interview With Force
ful Captain of Industry Which Was
a Failure as Such--.DOWn On N.
and O.---COne Brothers Sug-
gestiVe of Dickens.
gestive of Dickens.
(staff Correspondence }

| from the fact that, in company with
| Mr.. j. Elwood Cox. of High Point Mr..
! Caesar Cone, of Greensboro, entertains
such entertaining views on the ques-
| ton of governmental control of rail-
road rates and such roseate opinions
as to the justice of the rates them
selves as relating to North Carolina
shippers. both his career and his per-
I sonality lend him an absorbing inter-
est all his own.
Floundering in the midst of the pro-
blems suggested by these questions,
dazzled by the conflicting array of fig
ureS and technical terms fired and
used by the manufacturers and rail-
road men with whom l had talked, |
sought Mr.. Cone as one with a thirst
would primitively throw himself at the
feet of spring to drink.
MY business is so hampered by the
Determinations in freight rates in
favor of other points with which L
have to compete" had said one manu-
| facturer or shipper, that L am barely
existing in a limited territory when |
ought to be branching out and doing
q larger business
THE Southern Railroad" said an
other. perhaps in the same line. "cer-
tainly looks after the interests of this
town as far as freight rates are con-
cerned. 1t enables me to compete sue
ceSSfully with distant shippers. when
| if the Government should take a hand
| would be ruined on foreign trade"
''These apparent Determinations are
merely on the surface" spoke a rail-
road man. "The economy of freight
traffic so as to bear most eduitably
on the greatest number of people is rs
| intricate and as delicate in its various
| phases as a great piece of machinery
| is in its different parts. 1t is some
| thing to be handled by experts and,
you can see that the men whom we
| pay large salaries to work out these
questions. can hope to be of the great
est value to the roads only as they can
| better accommodate the people and
| build up the customers from which the
| roads draw their revenues. Now as
to the incidental fact than DanvilIe. or
! Lynchburg, get better rates in some
| instances than Greensboro or High
Point-why. you must understand.
that they merely happen to be what is
absolutely necessary to the science Of
| freight chedules-distributi points.
Having heard of distributing
points in twenty previous interviews,
l would naturally pass the matter UP
and seek for light in some new quar-
ter. What better quarter than Mr..
Caesar Cone. who is a distributing
point to the world at large himself
and who had at the least felt conf
dence enough in his knowledge of
| freight conditions to testify before the
Senate Committee that in his opinion
no change was needed and that the
| railroads were giving general SatiSfac-
| ton!
Mr.. Cone, as a many-sided man of
the world, would be able to put these
| enigmaS into the Vernacular of q mind
which has feebly believed that things
| flew more readily away from than o
a common centre.
Mr.. Cone. however, polite with the
frankness of a confident and a sue
| cessful man. was in little humour TO
be interviewed or to give the specific
reasons underlying his testimony. AL
though he diSclaimed caring in the
least for the pin pricks of this paper
last week, he showed Il general infor-
nation as to what had been said of
his testimony and of the connection of
his brother, Mr.. Moses Cone, with the
Southern Railroad.
Particularly did Mr.. Cone seem to
resent the statement of Mr.. M. H
Cones pass under the misapprehen-
sion that it had been stated that ne,
also, was a pass 'tOter." That. said
Mr. Cone. Indignantly. attacking the
thing as his mis-apprehension saw it.
was not true in any sense. He had
no COnncCLIOH Win TdI1TOduS. one way
or the other. He had never had a re-
bate or special accommodation of any
sort. One felt that a rebate would be
a queer-looking object to Mr. Cone
if he should see it. Mr.. Moses Cone
it was true, held a pass. He was
frank to say that he would like to
hold one himself, and that if the rail-
road should-as it might-see fit to
give him one. he should be very glad
to travel around for nothing But
emphatically-he had no pass. One
wondered as he spoke at the vehe-
mence Of his denial, seeing the almost
boyish character of his desire.
OF course if it should ever have
been stated in this paper that Mr.. |
Caesar Cone had a pass. that was an |
error of the type, The director has
been repeatedly named as Mr.. NJ. H !
Cone. What The News and Observer
did say and intimate was merely that |
Mr.. M. H. Cone was director on one |
of the branch roads of the Southern |
Railroad, that he carried a pass, and |
without attributing to so excellent a |
gentleman anything save the purest of |
personal motives that the Southern |
was not in the habit of donating anv-
thing-not even advice-without an
expected return. AS to the publica-
tion of the IN. L. letter and the sue
ceeding publications, this paper felt |
that it could afford to back the iudg-
ment of the North Carolina Congress
sional egation-including w. w.