The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-02-19
Answers Gardiner LathrOp in a
Thrilling Address.
Talks of Railway Problems" to
Kansas City Lawyers.
AN ILL TIMED ADDRESS
Charges That Purpose Was to
Influence Legislation.
Railroads Should Plead for
Mercy Not Moderation.

Capt. J. G. Waters address at the
banquet of the Kansas City Bar asso-
citation last night was of the SEN
Sational order. It was on the subject
Railway Problems and was a re-
ply to the speech of Gardiner Lath-
rop, general counsel of the Santa Fe
before the Kansas Bar association.
Captain Waters said:
"a distinguished lawyer and citi-
zen OF this city, now the chief coun-
sci of great railway, in an address
delivered before the Kansas State Bar
association at Topeka, quite recently,
on Conservatism, has given me the
cue for my remarks this evening. I
found on hunt for a subject that the
chautauqua lecturers the president,
or some vigilant attorneys general,
have copyrighted or appropriated
nearly every available subject Of pub
lie interest.
81 have committed that which I
desire to say to paper, as the one sure
control of myself and the greater
protection to you, against vehemence,
emphasis or outspoken language, in
what Is attempted to be, something
of a reply to that speech. I shall
wrestle with diplomatic utterances in
what L have to say, and observe all
with amenities and conventionaHties
Tor these keep a man out of trouble,
anger nobody, and can De susceptible
of an alternative Interpretation, or a
modified meaning but always with a
divided court. Such a talk NAV be
sorrow without tears, a honeymoon
without kisses or d magnificent repast
swallowed without taste, but 1t Is the
only clear track I see for me to take.
The gentleman had an audience
that knew him and appreciated him;
1t gave him hearty applause. They
Watered the stock of that association
by voting him in an honorary mem
Der without payment of charter
fees. dues, or requiring him to sign
the bylaws or take the oath of Of
flee.
His speech, as it seemed from the
prima facies of the case was in
tended to be delivered at a time when
the Kansas legislature had before 1t
railroad measure or two, but like
belated train on his railway, he ar
rived behind time, after the 1egisla-
ture had quit business without max
ing any serious attempt at railway
legislation at any period of It's session
All he could do under such circum-
stances was to lock the barn door,
with the horse maunching his grain
tethered safely in his starr. Some few
hypercritical and dyspeptio persons
limited that his visit was not alto
gether casual, that such an address
and the Kansas legislature in session
q
chance coincidence, and they foolish
ly imagined that they could discover
without microscope, and even with
an averted eye, somebody's fine
Italian hand in his presence with SUCH
an address at that particular time and
place. Whether this was SO or not.
I do not care, but 1t leads me to re-
mark, that such is the intelligence of
the ordinary people, they can call the
turn on any venture OF enterprisa as
q q fes n %@I
and giving the answer 10 the con-
undrum, however wisely, secretly
and plausibly 1t may be exploited and
exploded.
Slap at Ripley.
"His plea on that occasion is like
q missing chapter of the continued
heart-to-heart talks engaged in many
months past Through the advertising
reading column of the daily press
made by the chief executive of the
gentleman's railway. While the gem
tleman was sparing in the use of
condiments in peppering his meat it
was essentially the same rib roast of
his chief Like master, like man.
long ago took its place in proverbial
philosophy. The very newness of his
position on that road, gave him
JUNCTION and zeal in his treatm ent of
conservatism as applied to the treat
ment of railways; he had not vet
chewed victuals do, and as he will
hereafter taste it when his audiences
shall be the repeated sittings of an
Interstate Commerce commission
Listening to that address. it required
but the most nonchalant and cllrsoI-v
thought to understand where the
maxim came from that a new
broom sweeps the cleanest
Every meal at my home In Topeka
I have the advantage of the cheap
long haul, in the use of New York
salt to the exclusion of a better sal
sas salt has been run into its hole bv
means of the completely of the rafl-
ways and the salt trust, much to the
humiliation of every citizen who
takes pride in his state, and her re-
sources. At honest rates there woulo
be a neutral line for all salts. Mtchi-
gan, New York and Kansas, which
none could cross. I venture the as
sertion that the unlawful discrimfna-
tfons of the railways just about parai-
lei their train disasters and the un~
lawful rebates keep time and stem to
the music of their holocaustrns :
wrecks.
Railways build short line ternnf-
nails to obtain increased exaetions for
a minimum of service, and this device
has been used to the queens taste hc
the salt trust, the United States steer
corporation and the Harvester trust
through a willing and eager compli-
city on the part of the RAILWAYS So
says Mr.. Ripley, professor of econo-
mics in Harvard University, whose
brother is president of great system.
in his work designated as Railway
Problems.'
''The big millers of Minneapolis in
collusion with the railways obtained
a midnight tariff for one day only. of
q reduced rate which they prepared
for in expectancy of its publication:
but of which, the innocent, ignorant.
3c.e,., +ar,,,E.d OF, Eaaa .r,,,ra.aA