The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-04-27

to Washington to Claim Presidents
 PrOtectiOn-Wall Street Must Learn
 From the Bitter Experience of the
 Last Few Months That Railroads Are
 Not Playthings-Systems Must He
 Managed to PIacate the Public.
 Pittsburg, April 2e.-Three hundred or more railroad presidents, vice-presi- dents, freight agents, traffic managers and other officials besides manufac- turers and all classes of shippers of freight were guests of the Traffic club of Pittsburg tonight at its fifth an- nual banquet at the Hotel Schenley.
 The feature of the banquet was the speeches of the clubs president, w. A. Terry, general freight agent of the Pittsburg and Lake Erie road, Melville k. Ingalls,, chairman of the board of directors of the Big Four system, and Charles s. Hamlin, corporation coun- sel of Boston.
 President Terry in his address of well come to the guests presented many suggestions to both shippers and car Tier as to their duties toward each other to further a spirit of co-opera- tion, and also advised that each inter- est be represented on the Interstate Commerce Commission.
 J. M. Belleville, general freight agent o fthe Pittsburg Plate Glass company was then presented as toastmaster and he introduced MT. Ingalls,. MT. Ingalls in part said:
 Now, what of the future? And 1t is one of the most important questions that the American republic has ever had. You may abuse the railway men you may by chance force into bank ruptcy railway lines, but you cannot wipe out the great transportation in dustry, the great business represented by the railways, without destroying the business of your country. There Is nothing else that I know of that so perm ~ates the life the health and the happiness of the nation as its transpor- tation interests. Over million of men are employed directly by the railways, at least five millions are employed by the railways and the companies which are subsidiary and producers for the railways Twenty millions of people, ore one-fourth of all the inhabitants of this land are dependent for their daily bread, their health ani their happiness upon the prosperity of the railways
 Therefore, he is very careless man and no lover of his country who turns in and joins the crowd of demagogues who to-day are bowling and abusing the railways Your congress. your leg islatures, your courts, must consider that this Is an enormous question and one of those which goes to the very vitals of the life of the country. If the present condition of affairs is pro- longed, 1t means panic; it means suf- fering; 1t means dull times, long hours and poor wages for the working peo- pie. Never Is the country so prosper ous as when the railways are prosper ous The talk that their tariffs must be reduced; that the railways are charging too much, is the most foolish of all. Your railway rates are less than those of any country known to civilized man. A trifiing reduction which you would be able to get would not secure happiness or comfort to the the great mass of people, but might might cause great suffering to those. very same ones. It might mean a trifl- ing sum of money to some shippers, but it would be productive of less to the great mass of workingmen.
 If you can get public rates and the same rates to all that is what you need. What you desire for the good of the country at large Is more good tracks, good equipment and good ser vice; and you can only get them by allowing the railways to charge fair prices for their services.
 You have to trust your lives daily to the employees of the railways-to the men who manage down to the lowest who flags at the crosisng. Are you willing to trust your lives to this large class Of men whom you abuse continually? Do you suppose you can abuse the managers and still have the ordinary trainmen or em- ployes loyal? Do you suppose you can have the railways run without acci- dents if the great mass of employees are to read daily in the newspapers and the magazines, and to listen to the speeches of public men saying that the men over the mare unworthy of con- fidence are wicked and crimin- als? No, all this must stop.
 Neither can you settle the condition of the railways by different people and different managers running to Wash ington and claiming the protection of the president. In fact, we have got so hysterical and frantic that we seem to appeal to the president for almost everything, like the peasant of Russia. When we find train late we say we will write the great white father" in Washington and he will regulate aid correct it.
 I admire the stand taken by the president of the Pennsylvania railroad when he said he had no cause to go to to confer with the presi- dent-that his company desired to obey the law.
 That is what all the railways must do-submit to the law. This is the first sine qua non. You must decire and in- dicate that your railways shall be man. aged accirding to the law. Wall street must learn from the bitter experience of the last few months that the rail- ways are not playthings-that their se- curities, as have said before, are not counters in the game of sneculation.