Los Angeles herald., 1907-10-28

face and gives rise 10 one of the first
statements made in public by him which
contains the element of human sympathy
or of sentimentalism.
My ambition is as naught," he de-
clares Il would be glad If 1 had never
held a single share of stock in the Illinois
Central road. and certainly would I be
glad if could leave it all, and all of this
endless striving. But o man cannot quit.
] believe that he is responsible to God
for the talent that is given him and that
ne must use the endeavor that is in him
&C the best good for his fellow men, un-
sel1shly and not for himself"
St-ange sentiment is this coming from
man whom Wall street and the railroad
world declare to be insensible to all infiu-
ence except that of overpowering am
bition, man who brooks no control,
either of personal sentiment or of public
opinion, man who brushes all things
aside in the accomplishment of his pur-
poses and a man who counts individuals
and even corporations as nothing except
the means whereby he can accomplish
the tasks which he has set for himself.
Fish for the People
on the other hand, this is not discount
ing the sentiment that dominates the soul
of Stuyvesant Fish. He comes from the
stuff from which martyrs have been
made in the dark ages, and he is today,
rhe railroad world believes, martyr to
principle. How much easier would it
have been for Fish to have subjected
himself to the domination of the moneyed
power of Wall street, if you please, but
certainly of the power that makes and
breaks men of means and creates the
great railway combinations. BY so do
ing and most men would have felt that
III could bend without losing an iota of
II cir manhood, he could have had addi-
tional riches pouring into his Golfers, he
could have had power and all that goes
with playing the game as Wall street
plays it. And Wall street rewards it's
friends and never forgives it's enemies.
BIT Fish counted not the cost of clash
with the most powerful railway magnates
of the age.
He felt that he had managed the
Illinois Central railroad for twenty years
for the people, for the men and women of
the soil of more than twenty states in the
Union that they had laid a trust upon
his shoulders which he could not shift
and remain true man. These men and
women of the soil had trusted him for
years. Their utmost confidence in his in
tegrity Is illustrated by the fact that
hundreds of them journeyed to Chicago
each year just to shake him by the hand.
To .Stuyvesant Fish the respect of these
plain people of the farm and of the fac
tory was sweeter incense than the adula-
ton of Wall street, and their words of
cor .fidence were better music to his ear
than the rustic of paper-made dollars on
the stock exchange.
Mere sentiment. you exclaim.
Well, why not?
Is not sentiment the greatest power on
the earth today?
Has Courage of Convictions
Stuyvesant Fish is man who believes
that the railroads of this country should
be run by the people and in the interests
OF the people as he has run the Illinois
Central. All the power that the Stand
ard OIL company and the billions of money
it controls could not make him betray
the trust which he thinks the people have
pl7ced in him
1t has been limited in 6 ome quarters that
1t is the loss of position and the desire
to regain it that is moving Fish to seek
revenge, not justice. A grosser libel upon
o mans motives could not we'll be ut
tered. He has the courage OF his con-
victions and hearty contempt for men
Of the Hartman stripe, whether his
contempt be well founded or not. Il have
never run this railroad from Wall street"
he once declared, ''and l shall never do
so, no matter what happens. With all
re strength and power that lies within