, 1906-05-03
Corporations Have Souls.

the whole stricken coast have done
without the powerful arm of the
Southern Pacific to help in its time
of need7 Under the control of Gen
eral Manager f. f. Calvin, that great
corporation sprang to the relief OF
the suffering people with immediate
help of the most substantial character.
Trains were run in with food and
clothing for the sufferers, free of
charge, and free transportation furn-
ished every poor mortal TO any part
of the United States he might wish to
go. This was not for one day, but
for as long a time as the great and
urgent need might be.
Witness the Union Pacific, a part
of the great system, slipping into II
town at the dead of night and com
hitting robbery hooking an engine
onto ten cars of potatoes and spiriting
them off, as fast as steam could turn
the wheels of the engine, and after
they were beyond the reach of protest,
sending a check, paying in full for
the potatoes what the owners would
have realized had they gone to their
destination.
Wouldn't that jar yon? just re-
member wha We have been saying Of
these corporation. What have we
called them-or rather what haven't
we called them-when we felt Just
right and the wind was in the right
direction? Guess we have abused
them a plenty, and then some, but
we are all anxious to take it all back.
The thing to do now is to stand up
for them, and when you hear a man
raving at the greedy and grasping
Hartman system, just turn him
round until he faces west, and then
ask him if he ave heard of San Fran
cisco and her hundreds of thousands
of frightened, destitute, perishing
people and what the Chairman sys-
tenn did for them?" That ought to
shut his mouth forever-unless he is
a fool, and if he is Il fool it won't
matter what he says, for nobody Will
heed him.
Why, man, who aver saw such a
thing as occurred on that road when
the need come! Think of side track
ing the "Overland Limited" with its
long line of elegant Pullmans; the
pride of every nan who works for the
U. p, and the admiration and envy
of every other railroad! Think Of
showing Uncle Sans fast mail trains
onto any old siding, just SO they were
out of the way, and telling them to
stay there until they were told to go
on! Think of holding up every
freight and passenger train on the
road, that those food trains might
have a clear track in their a to the
coast to feed those poor, hungry
souls huddled in Golden Gate Park!
Think Ct saying to the engineers:
Nov, there you are. You have a
perfectly clear track to the coast.
Pull that throttle open and let us see
how fast you can run. All we want
you to do is to stay on the track, and
GET THERE"
There ought to be some way of i'm
pressing this so deeply on the peo-
pies minds that they would never
forget it. A man ought to remember
such wholesale generosity as long as
he would cherish the hand that
pulled him out of sure and sudden
death. Corporrtions are sometimes
powers for evil, no doubt, but we have
just seen what such a mighty, organ.
lied, combination of brains, men and
machinery can do when calamity falls
on a great city and her people are
dying of burger and thirst, The re-
membrance of that magnificent work
ought to make us mighty tender of
the Hartman system from now on.