The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-05-24
FRIDAY, MAY "a. 1907
The nearer you come into relation
with II person, the more necessary
do tact and courtesy become
Holmes.
THE CRUELTY OF rnoGnEss.

THE CRUELTY OF PROGRESS.
The writer Of q modern stock arllet
story selects as his principal characters
q railroad magnate-"Sampson Rocll"-I
and his son. The magnate is represent
cd as the owner of q wcll-managed
railroad in Virginia. He has done a
great public service in developing the
country through which his line runs,
but in order to complete his plan he
needs another railroad In the State
which is in a rundown condition, and
whose management is lacking in enter
prise. But the owners of the last men
toned road win not sell q controlling
interest, and the magnate determines
to purchase on the open market. To
that end he depresses the price of the
stock by all the dark ways of manpu-
lation, and picks up the shares OF
frightened holders as often as they
offer them for sale.
The son protests against his
fathers methods, declaring that they
are savage and not in accordance with
his ideas of fair play and honesty,
whercupon the magnate reads him the
following lecture:
do you think it's only on the Stock
Exchange that my work shows; or in
my bank account alone? What do
care for that? But I tell you-you!-
that it is going to show In Virginia, in
the coal mines that 1 shall buy and
the manufacturing towns that I'll de-
velop and the seaports that I'll open.
I'm going TO make moncy-lots of it..
And I'll pay for t by giving to Vir-
ginia better and cheaper transportation
than she has now, or ever has had; and
that will mean growth. business, more
wages to more people-therc, in Vir-
ginia, and here and in Europe and all
over the world 1t won't mean that
i 1---your father-llaVe cheated people
put of some stocks. but that Sampson
Rock, with his brains, has done some
thing to make his country richer and
greater, to make his felowmen-thou-
Eands of them, hundreds of thousands
of them-earn better living. The
making of money is nothing. The do
ing of the thing-that's the thing! And
I'll do 1t because it's my duty, because
can do it, and they can't! Bet on
fluctuations? make them in order to
carry out my plans. And II stock
gamblers are crushed and incompetents
are killed, 1t is because the world
must go fsrWard. It's the survival of
the fittsst. 'hhd T am the flttest! I'll
get that road and I'll extend It. and
I'll merge 1t with mine, no matter who
stands in the way, because IL use it
better than he can, and / know it,
What's this mans eight thousand shares
alongside the bread and butter OF
eighty thousand people?"
Many sins have been committed in
the name OF this philosophy, and stock
jobbcrs and jugglers who enrich them
selves at the expense Of others can
not plead 1t in justification or extenu-
alton of their dishonest practices; and
yet in this lecture of Sampson Rocks
the law Of progress is clearly outlined
Progress is as mcrclless as the car
OF the Juggernaut. 1t rushes along
Its course and cruelty brushes every
thing that stands In its way. 1t has
no sentiment. 1t tears down old struc-
lures, no matter how sacred they may
be: it fels forests Of stately trees; it
removes mountains or borcs through
their vitals, 1t converts Niagara into
water-powcr for It's mills it even
brushes men and women out OF its
way, as though they were SO much
rubbish.
How cruel and brutal 1t seemed to
rob the Red Man of his hunting pre-
serves and destroy his Kingdom! But
progress was compelled to do 1t in
order TO build up the worlds greatest
repuhlic,
80 man can read the history OF
Israei's conquest Of the Promised Land
with its slaughter of the natives and
destruction Of their cities. without hay.
ing his tender nereies stirred to tho
point Of resentment.
But We have different view when
we remember that in doing this Divine
Providenre was preparing the way for
the chrlstien religion which has now
spread over all the earth
All the laws Of nature are sometime.
cruel in their operation but they ar,
" bcnefIcent in design and beneficial i,
their general results.