Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1905-05-24
Railroads and Progress.

Railroads nuN FroEre6Ss
In his testimony before the Senate
Committee ON Interstate Commerce at
Washington Oh May 4, Professor Hugo
r. Meyer, OF Chicago University, an
expert on railroad management, made
this statement:
"Let us look ut what might have hap
pened IL we had needed the protests
OF the farmers of New York and Ohio
and Pennsylvania lin the seventies
when grain from the West began pour
ing to the Atlantic seaboard) and acted
upon the doctrine which the Interstate
Commerce Commission has enunclated
time and again, that no man may be
deprived Of the advantages accrulng to
him by virtue Of bis geographical po-
sition. We could not lave west Of the
Mississippi population OF millions OF
people who are prosperous and are
great consumers. We never should
have seen the. years when we built
10000 and 10000 miles Of railway, for
there would have been no farmers
west of tile Mississippi River who
could have used the land that would
have been opened up by the building
OF those railways. And, II We had not
seen the years when We could build
10000 and $4,000 miles Of railway q
year, we should not Fave to-day, east
of The Mississippi, steel and iron
producing centre which is at once tue
marvel and the despair OF Europe, be-
cause we could not have built up a
steel and iron industry II there had
been no market for its product.
"IVe could not have in New Eng
land great boot and shoe Industry;
we could not have in New England q
great cotton milling industry; We could
not have spread throughout New York
and Pennsylvania and Ohio manufac-
turing industries of the most diyersi-
fed kinds, because those industries
would have no market among the farm
ers west of tho Mississippi River
"And, while the progress of this
country, While the development of the
agricultural West Of this country, did
mean the Impairment Of the agrlcul-
tural value east Of the Mississippi
River that ran up into hundreds OF
millions OF dollars, it meant, incl
dentally, the building Up of great man.
ufacturing industries that added to
the value Of this land by thousands Of
millions Of dollars. And,s gsntlemen,
these things were not foreseA in the
seventies. Tie statesmen and the pub
lie men Of this country did mot see
what part the agricultural develop
ment Of the West WAS going to play in
The industrial development Of the East.
And, you may read the decisions of
the Interstate Commerce Commission,
from the first to the last, and what is
one of the greatest characteristics Of
those decisions? The continued i'll.
ability to see the question III this large
way.
"The Interstate Commerce Commis.
sion never can see anything more than
that the farm land of some farmer
is decreasing in value, OF, that some
man, who has Il flour mill with pro
duction of fifty barrels day, is being
crowded out. 1t never can see that
the destruction Or impairment Of farm
values in this place means The building
m of farm values in that place, aud
that that shifting of values is a neces,
sary incident to the industrial and man.
ufacturing Development Of this conn.
try. And, il we shall give to the Inter.
state Commerce Commission power to
regulate rates, NC shall 10 longer have
our rates regulated oD the statesman
like basis OH which they kayc been
regulat ted In the past ~ the railway
men, who really have oeen great states
men; who really have Eccn great build
crs Of empires; who have had an i'm,
agination that rivals the Imagination
OF the greatest poet and of the great.
est inventor, aud WHO have operated
with courage and daring that rivals
The courage and daring of,the greatest
military general. But We shall have
our rates regulated by a body OF civil
servants, bureaucrats, whose bcsct
ting sin the world over, is that they
| can never grasp a situation III large
way and with the grasp Of The states
man; that they neyer can see the fact
| that they are confronted With q sma.
evil; that that evil is relatively small
and that it cannot be corrected except
by tue creation Of evils and abuses
which are infinitely greater than ths
one that is to be corrected"