Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-02-26
REMEDY THE CAUSES.
simple Remedy for the Hostility Rail-
road Managers Lament.
New YORK Tribune.

New York Tribune
Almost daily the newspapers quote Gonna
railroad president as deplorlng the public
hostility to railways. on Tuesday Presi-
dent Truesdale of the Delaware Tacka-
wanna & Western and President stickney
Of the Great Western railroad pointed out
the peril ahead for railroads in what Mr..
suckney called railroad batting" Mr..
stckney said It was bound to bring ON
disaster to the country at large, and Mr..
Truesdale predicted that It would work
great wrong and injustice to the railroad
interests of the country, and in so doing
injure its general business interests" Mr.
Truesdale confessed that mo doubt there
is some Justification for this feeling" u
hostility. AS IL to give force TO this
acknowledgment the same days papers
print the news of the indictment OF an
other railroad for Relating
There is unquestionably some truth in
what these various railroad managers saw
regarding the existence OF a hostile senti-
ment toward railroads. 1t is more fully
developed in the western states than Il IS
here in she east, for in the western states
agitation against certain of the evils Of
railroad management, now generally adj
mitted even by railroad men. has been car
red on longer than in the east 4 NUM-
bti VI bllil1lltS III HlAlta III the middle
west last fall were carried on the anti
railroad issue, and again the same issue
arose and proved a winning one in the
elections of those state But IT does not
seem TO us that the feeling is by any
means so great some railroad presidents
would have us believe nor Is It so crys-
tallized as to be full Of danger either to
the railroads or to the industrial prosper
ity of the country. Most of the so-called
anti-railroad legislation in various states
proceeds not from a spirit of hostility to-
ward the railroads but from an honest eff
fort, IL not always a wise one, to do Justice
between the conflicting interests of the
railroads and the public. It is the same
effort at justice that inspired the interstate
commerce legislation of a year ago.
The real danger is in the growth of hos
tility toward railroads II is easily con-
ceivable that the sentiment existing now
might be inhamed to a perilous degree by
demagogues on the one hand and by i'll
considered action Of the railroads on the
other. We have examples in Chicago and
Cleveland within the last two years of the
destructive effects on public service cor
poratons of a thoroughly aroused hostile
public opinion. If the railroads recognize,
as their presidents say they do, any justi-
fication for public antipathy they should
make all haste to end the justifying cause.
Merely to deplore in annual reports, in
speeches and in public, interviews the an
tagonlstic sentiment and to point out its
dangers can do no good. 1t is attempting
to sweep back the sea. To say, as Mr..
Truesdale does, that much of it is unjust.
exaggerated. unreasonable. will not cure
the trouble; for though that statement Is
perfectly true it is perfectly commonplace.
Whenever just hostility exists, prejudice
and unreason inevitably multiply It, The
railroads should do their utmost TO remove
this justification for the hostility whose
existence Mr.. Truesdale confesses