Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1905-05-25
Railroads and Progress.

In his testimony before the Senate
Committee on Interstate Commerce al
Washington on May 4tn. Prof. Hugo K
Meyer. Of Chicago University, an ex-
BERT on railroad management, made
his st4tement.-
Lee Us look at what might have
happened il we had needed the pro
ests OF the formers OF New York and
1hio aad Pennsylvania Gin the seven
les when grain from the west began
pouring to the Atlantic seaboardl anC
acted upon the doctrine which the
Interstate Commerce Commission has
enuncizted time and agzin. that nc
man may be deprived OF the advan-
tages seeruing to him BY virtue of his
geographical position We could not
have vest of the Mississippi a popula-
ton OF millions OF people who are
prosperous and are great consumers.
We never should have seen the years
when we built 1n.e00 and I2.0a9 miles
Of railway. for there would have been
no farmers west OF the Mississippi
River who could have used the land
that would have been opened up BY the
building of those railways And If we
hal not seen the years when Ee could
build 10000 and 1900 miles Of rail-
way year. we should not have to-
day east Of the Mississippi u steel and
iron producing center which Is AZ
once the marvel and the despair Of En-
rope, because we could not have built
up steel and iron industry If there
had been no market for its product
We could not have in New Englsnd
great boot and shoe industry; we
could not have in New England a
great cotton milling industry: We
could not have spread throughout New
York and Pennsylvania and Ohio man
ufacturing industries OF the mos; di-
TeFsifed kinds. because those indus
tries would have no market among the
farmers west Of the Mississippi River
And while the progress Of this eoGn-
try. while the Development OF the az
ricultural West of this country. did
mean the impairment of the asrt-
cultural value east Of the Mississippi
River that ran up into hundreds OF
millions Of dollars. it meant incident
ally the building up Of great manufac-
turing industries that added to the
value Of this land by thousands of mil
lions OF dollars And. gentlemen.
those things were not foEesesn in the
seventies The statesmen and the
public men OF tiIls country did not see
wha. part the agricultural develop
meat OF the West was going to play
in the Industrial development Of the
East And you may read the decisions
Of the Interstate Commerce Comrais-
sion from the first to the last. and
what is one of the greatest character
istics of those decisionsf The con-
unued inability to see the question In
this large way.
The Interstate Commerce Comris-
sion never can see anything more than
that the farm land of some farmer is
decreasing in value. or that some man
who has -four mill with a produc-
ton OF 80 barrels a day is being crowd
ed out IL never can see that the
destruction or impairment Of farm
values In this place means the build
ing Up Of farm values in that place
and that that shifting of values is a
necessary incident to the Industrial
and manufacturing development of this
country And II we-shall give to the
Interstate Commerce Commission pow
er to regulate rates, We shall no long
ed have our rates regulated on the
statesmanlike basis on which thew
have teen regulated in the past by the
railway men. who really have been
great statesmen. who really have been
great builders Of empires, who have
had an imagination that rivals the
imagination of the greatest poet and of
the greatest inventor, and who have
operated with a 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 besetting sin the world over il
that they never can grasp a situation
in large way. and with the grasp OF
the statesman; that they never car
see the fact that they are confronted
with small evil: that that evil is
relatively small. and that it cannot b.
corrected except by the creation OF
evils and abuses which are infinitely
greater than the ono that IS to b
eorrsctsd.r