The copper era., 1908-04-02

attitude of any other manager of IN
dustry toward labor. 1t depends up
on whether we are going to have the
money to pay labor to do the work
that we ought to do.
ST believe that things will right
themselves when people have had
chance to understand the situation,
provided that we eliminate the self
seeker. What we have got to have
in political and in business life is the
man who is willing to work for others
and doesn't undertake to move the
pieces on the chessboard solely with
a view to what he thinks to be his
own interest. If you ask me when l
believe in equilibrium will be reached
and confidence restored, 1 say frankly
that l don't known. The patient is
now undoubtedly under treatment
that will prove efficacious in the end,
but the question still remains wheth-
er the disease may not prove very
serious before the corrective treat
ment gets the upper hand.
"Mind, do not lay all the blame
on the public, or even on the poll
ticians. The railroad men them
selves are to blame for great deal
of what has happened, and they
ought to recognize it at this time,
when they have their own worries
with them. If the railroad men of
the United States had learned to
trust each other years ago great
deal of what has been suffered would
have been avoided. There was a
time when they had the right to
make agreements covering traffic
and rates, but what was the result?
An agreement was hardly made be-
fore somebody whom it hound issued
an order violating its provisions.
That sort of thing was the root of
destructive competition, and SUBJ
jected the railroads to much of the
trouble that they have suffered since
in being made the victims of any one
who wanted to build an unnecessary
competitive line for the purpose of
selling it out.
81 am not opposed to railroad regu-
lation, provided it is coupled with
railroad protection. Long ago ex-
pressed the view that regulation
even to the point of allowing the In
terstate Commerce Commission to fix
the rates, was not to be Combated,
provided the government would al
low the roads to make agreements
of the Sherman law. The protection
of the public in the making of such
agreements is the degree of publicity
now insisted upon in respect of other
railroad affairs, and of that 1 am
heartily in favor. Sensible regula-
tion, protection of the railroads
against the unnecessary competition,
and publicity are in my mind the
three things that will set the rail-
roads right with the people in the
end. But, meanwhile, the men who
have the responsibilities of the rail-
roads on their shoulders must keep
to their task and not give them over
into incompetent hands. There'll be
no trouble about training up the men
to run the railroads in the next gen.
Grafton if the proper conditions and
discipline are established.
"And will there be the work to do,
if confidence is restored and the
proper relationships established? OF
course there will. There is as great
possibility of growth ahead of the
railroads in the next ten years if
only we go at it rightly. Within the
lifetime of some of our children the
population of this country no doubt
will have reached 2O0, 100, 900, and the
system of American railroading that
has developed to meet the needs Of
so, 900, 900 of people is in its infancy.
But, as have said, the self-seeker
has got to be eliminated and the peo-
pie at large have got to come to an
appreciation of the underlying re-
lationships of the factors in the
problem. When those two things are
in process of Accomplishment it. viii
be time enough to talk about re
tirinU IN V Times