The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-09-30

owes years of faithful, even passion
ate zeal and service?
The Disease of Sclfishncss.
! The why may not appear to the
| people, who, according to the theory
| of the large corporations which they
have called into being have neither the
| right to criticise nor to wonder at their
acts. Behind the why" there is, it
may be depended upon, that narrow
| selfishness which, paradoxically in the
case of broad-reaching aggregattons of
capital sees only the more obvious and
| immediate end. Who can doubt that
in the long run, in the chilled ambi-
tons of hundreds of worthy employees
these great roads do not lose more
| than they gain by their indifference to
| obligation and their contempt of the
| claims of faithful service? Yet some
roads do not see this, Out of the
| fishy eye of their SoulleSS beings they
| see the dollars in the concrete. They
are blind to the value of a heart, to
| the wealth that lies in the love and re-
spect of employee for the employer.
They forget that. with the repeated
object lesson of the hopelessness of re-
ward for extraordinary work. there
will come the fatal disease of either
physical or mental labor which fixes
| the goal of attainment at how little
need be done for the pay, instead of
at how much can be done for the en1-
| pIoyer. When that idea becomes gen
orally fixed, it is like the plague that
starts at the finger nail and involves
the body in death. So afflicted, the
ills that fall upon the corporation are
vital where those of its employees go
not beyond the canker of irritation.
This policy towards its employees
has long been evident with the South
ern railroad among its operating and
roa building forces. Up to the pres
| ent instance it was thought that the
| one exception had proved the rule
| that the legal department, on ac-
| count of its Importance and the init
mate relationhip between the lawyer
| and the higher official would be eX-
| empt from the rule. 1t seems not but
that the history of the exception has
been and will be repeated.
In The Matter OF Judge Schcnck.
The exception referred to was the
case of Judge Schenck, of Lincoln
county, at the time one of the abieSt
Superior Court judges the state had
ever known, a man of great power
| among the people, in line for the
Supreme bench. The Southern rail
| way wanted him then, was willing to
| pay for him the salary of $4,000
year. He resigned from the bench, be-
came counsel in chief, served his en-
ployer with all his strength and abii-
! ity Presently he grew old; out Of
| touch with the people. his influence.
not his legal ability, waned; younger
| men were coming on: with the cold
disregard of mechanical urchin or
the sea that has sucked the sub
stance from it's prey, the road dropped
| him, set him ardift in age in IL COM
| munity with which he was not IN leSal
touch. leaving Il great lawyer which
| II had used a man who had served
his State by resurrecting the truths
! of it's history and loving its people
| with devotion, without support in the
hour of his greatest need.
The System at Work.
Can anyone doubt but that the sick
ness of Captain Price which result
ed in his death, alone relieved him
of a similar humiliation? Six months
ago, the way had been prepared, the
! fell design was in course of consum-
nation.
Even when Colonel Rodman went to
Charlotte. the system began to work.
In that city, as Southern Railway at
torney lived Capt. G.. F. Bason, who
had served the Southern road for
years. Suddenly, he determined to
move to CASTOR county. Without the
sound of friction in the operation,
IColonel Rodman slipped into the place
of chief of the Charlotte division. Had
Captain Price lived longer, how many
years or months would have elapsed
before the groove in which he would
have been placed would have been
that of Attorney in Chief?
II rnI-St he horne in mind i'll this
discussion that no one can say that
There is any purely legal advantage to
the road in the new encumbent OF
Captain Prices position. Both Mr.
II Rusbee and Mr. Manly are as able
counsel and both have more eXper-
fence. What is the advantage which
has lead the Southern Corporation tc
1.-The Injustice is a secret of the system
at which everybody is invited t.
| guess.
Both of these gentlemen Busbe'
/ and Manly) have made sacrifice &c
| the Southern Railway of much tina
/ their lives might have held had it no
been for their employment Both arr
extraordinary men, who were cdpdplt
and certain of success as lawyers II
private practice and assured OF poltlca
advancement which has been denied
them by reason of their special EN-
plovment. Now, that it has beer
demonstrated that the employment
itself holds not even its own reward
it is hard to miss either resentment o
regret at the outcome.
1 Colonel Rodman is now youn;
man in the flush of power and lnilu
ence To him, perhaps, the road I
| the point at which the man who's
! place he has taken found himself d