Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1908-04-04
HARTMAN NOT TO RETIRE
Continued from First Page

makes one bag of -four go where
two were used before; the old
clothes are made over instead of
having new ones bought.
Multiply this by SO,00O,O0O
and you can see what it means to
have the nation economic. Add |
the distrust naturally produced |
among those who have the money |
to invest, and there is comb ina-
ton of forces at work with cumu-
lative effect, the result of which it
is hard to forecast. Earnings de-
crease because of the slackening
volume of business; capital becomes
timid and rates for money high,
and there is correspondingly less to
be paid for the labor necessary to
carry out the work that we have
before us. The question whether
wages will decrease does not de-
dend on my attitude or the atti-
tude of any other manager of in
dustry toward labor. 1t depends
upon whether we are going to have
the money to pay labor to do the
work that we ought to do,
81 believe thai things will right
themselves when people have had
a chance to understand the stu
alton, provided that we eliminate
the selfseeker 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 under
take to move the pieces on the
chess board solely with a view to
what he thinks to be his own inter-
ests. If you ask me when | be-
lieve an equilibrium will be reach
ed and confidence restored, | say
frankly that don't know. The>
patient is now undoubtedly under
treatment that will prove efficacius
in the end, but the question still
remains whether the desease may
not prove serious before the cor
receive treatment gets the upper
hand.
"Mind, l do not lay all the blame
on the public, or even on the poll
ticians. The railroad men them
selves are to blame for a 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
to trust each other years ago a
great deal of what has been suffer
ed would have been avoided.
There was a time when they had
the right to make agreements
covering traffic and rates, bnt what
was the result? An agreement was
hardly made before somebody
whom it bound issued an order
violating its provisions. That sort
of thing was the root of destructive
competitor, and subjected the rail
roads to much of the trouble that
they have suffered since in being
made the victims OF any who want
ed to build an unnecessary COM
petitive line for the purpose of SELL
ing it out.
81 am not opposed to railroad
regulation, provided it is coupled
with railroad protection. Long ago
| expressed the view that regula-
ton even to the point of allowing
the interstate commerce commission
to fix the rates, was not to be COM
batted, provided the government
would allow the roads to make a.
greements with each other through
the repeal 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 | am heartily
in favor. Sensible regulation, pro
lection of the railroads against I'M
necessary competition, and public
ity are in my mind the three things
that will set the railroads right
with the people in the end. But
meanwhile, the men who have the
responsibilities of the railroads 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 generation if the proper con.
ditions and discipline are establish.
ed.
"And will there be the work tc
do, if confidence is restored ano
the proper relationships establish.
ed? OF course there will. There is
as great a possibility of growth
ahead of the railroads in the next
10 yearsif only we go at it rightly
Within the lifetime of some of oui
children the population of this
oO,,ofrxv 40 Ionht mill hova raaob