The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1905-10-26

the nation unless you people of the
South show a strong interest therein.
Such reserves would be a paying
investment, not only in protection to
many interests, but in dollars and
cents to the government. The i'm
portance to the Southern people of
protecting the Southern mountain
forests is obvious. These forests are
the best defence against the floods
which, in the recent past, have, dur
ing single twelve month, destroyed
property officially valued at nearly
twice what it would cost topay for the
Southern Appalachian reserve. The
maintenance of your Southern water
powers is not less important than the
prevention Of floods, because if they
are injured your manufacturing in
terests will suffer with them. The
perpetuation of your forests, which
have done so much for the South,
should be one of the first objects of
your public men. The two Senators
from North Carolina have taken an
| honorable part in this movement.
But do not think that the people of
North Carolina, or of any other
| Southern State, have quite grasped
the Importance of this movement to
the commercial development and
prosperity of the South.
| The position Of honor in your pa
rade today is held by the Confederate
veterans. They by their deeds reflect
credit upon their descendants and
upon all Americans, both because
they did their duty in war and be-
cause they did their duty in peace.
Now, if the young men. their sons,
will not only prove that they possess
| the same power of fealty to an ideal,
| but will also show the efficiency in
the ranks of industrial life that their
fathers, the Confederate veterans,
showed that they possessed in the
ranks Of war, the industrial future of
this great and typically American
Commonwealth is assured.
The extraordinary development of
industrialism during the last half
century has been due to several caus-
es, but above all to the revolution in
the methods of transportation aud |
communication-that is, to steam
and to electricity, to the railroad and
the telegraph.
Wnen this government was found
ed commerce was carried on by es-
sentially the same instruments that |
had been in use not only among civil
lized, but among barbarian nations,
ever since history dawned-that is,
| by wheeled vehicles drawn by ami
mails, by pack trains, and by sailing
ships and rowbOats. On land this
| meant that commerce went in slow,
cumberous and expensive fashion
over highways open to all. Normal
ly these highways could not compete
| with water transportation, il such
| was feasible between the connecting
points.
All this has been changed by the
development of the railroads. Save
on the ocean or on lakes so large as
to be practically inland seas, trans
| port by water has wholly lost its old
position of superiority over trans
port by land, while instead OF the old
| highways open to every one on the
| same terms, but of very limited
usefulness, we have new highways
railroads-which are owned by pri-
vate corporations, and which are
practically of unlimited, instead of
| limited usefulness. The old laws
and old customs which were adequate
and proper to meet the old cOndi-
tions need radical readjustment in
| order to meet these new conditions.
The ecardinalfeat in these changed
conditions are, first, the fact that
the new highway, the railway, is,
from the commercial standpoint, of
infinitely greater Importance in our
industrial life than was the old high
way, the wagon road; and, second,
that this new highway, the railway,
is in the hands of private owners,
whereas the old highway, the wagon
road, was in the hands Of the State.
The management of the new high
way, the railroad, or rather of the
intricate web of railroad lines which
cover the country, is task infinitely
more difficult, more delicate and
more important than the primitively
easy task of acquiring or keeping in
order the old highway; SO there is
properly no analogy whatever be-
the two cases. l do not believe in
government ownership of anything
which can with prOpriety be left in
private hands, and in particular |
should most strenuously object to
government ownership OF railroads.
But believe with equal tirmness that
it is out OF the question for the gov
ernment not toexercise supervisory
and regulatory right over the rail
roads; for it is vital to the well-being
OF the public that they should be
managed in spirit of fairness and
Justice toward all the public. Actual
experience has shown that it is not
possible to leave the railroads uncon-
trolled. Such system, Or rather
such a lack of system, is fertile in
abuses of every kind, and puts a
premium upon INSCRIPTIONS and
ruthless cunning in railroad manage
ment; for there are some big shippers
and some railroad managers who are
always willing to take unfair advant-
age of their weaker competitors, and
they thereby force other big shippers
and big railroad men who would like
to do decently into similar acts OF
wrong and injustice, under penalty of
being left behind in the race of success.
Government supervision is needed
quite as much in the interest of the
big shipper and OF the railroad man
who wants to do right as in the inter-
est of the small shipper and the con-
sumer.
Experience has shown that the
present laws are defective and need
amendment The effort to prohibit
all restraint of competition, whether
reasonable or unreasonable, is un-
wise. What we need is to have some
administrative body with ample
power to forbid combination that is
| hnrtfuI to the nuhlic. and to prevent