Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-01-26
ARMOUR RAYS HIS CRITICS.
Replies 10 Accusations About Private
Car Line Rates

Accusations that private car lines charge
evorbitant prices for icing and transporting
fruit from growing sections to consuming
centers is answered by j. Ogden Armour
in his second article on THE Private Car
Controversy in the Saturday Evening Post
of the Goth instant.
The writer calls attention to the fact that
there are other expenses than icing con-
nected with the transportation of fruit In
private cars. He then declares that the
efforts put forth by the Armour car lines
have created wealth in sections of the
country where people once found the earn
ing of bare livelihood a hard struggle.
He adds that other territories are to be
developed and made to roll in riches In like
manner, as he says the people of southern
California do. Reduction in the cost of car
rying the fruit is promised soon as con-
ditions will warrant.
II deny that the profits Of the private
car line business and the packing interests
are extortionate." Mr.. Armour writes. Then
he says:
Il have no desire to deny that both these
interests do pay profit l should consider
1t Door compliment to the manner in
which have discharged my responsibilities
IL this were not so. Let II be said, too, that
the aggregate of these Is respectable-to
many 1t looks immense-but it is not ex-
cessive or disproportionate when the inn
mense volume of capital invested is con-
sidered."
Taking UP the charge that the Armour
car lines are urged to constant effort only
by greed, Mr.. Armour says:
Perhaps am not called upon to say so,
but / will make the statement that had
put my holdings. at the time ! came into
them, into railroads. national banks and
other enterprises I should have made more
money. made 1t with less trouble and been
subjected to less attack than have been
subjected to in the lines which have fol-
lowed
More than that, / sincerely believe in the
making OF that money l should have been
OF far less service in the industrial develop
meut OF the country than have been In the
private car line and the packing business.
Mind you, am not posing as a phlanthro-
pist or asking for any credit on that or any
kindred score.
Just the comon-sense selfishness and the
regard for the well-being or humanity that
the ordinary decent citizen has are all the
motives that l lay claim TO in the conduct
OF my business; but do confess to a sense
OF personal satisfaction in the fact that the
prosperity of the Armour Car lines and the
Armour Car company has been inseparable
from that OF the fruit, produce and cattle
Industries of the country; that thousands
OF men in these lines have been enabled
to make Independent fortunes by the activi-
ties of the private car; that. as an incident
to business success, the whole people OF
this country. and OF other countries for
that matter, enjoy comforts and luxuries
otherwise impossible; that the standard OF
the worlds living, in a sanitary and econ
omic sense. has been immensely improved
by reason of the operation of a business
run for personal and selfish gain"
Mr. Armour repeats his former charge
that all the agitation against the private
refrigerator car is stirred up by commission
men.