The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-08-04

G4ttil<A tlOns 10 nave tHHuChSC0
profoundly the life Of our time and OF
the future7 asks Harper's Weekly.
This Is a business age, and II Is not
improbable that Discerning historians
will write down the foremost masters
Of business, the originators and con-
ductors of great business enterprises.
particularly the railroad kings. as the
ages best representatives, as the most
typical and the most important of its
great men. Not long ago the manager
OF one Of the chief railway systems of
the country was asked IL there were
any railroad men whom he~considered
really great. He replied that there
were but three-Harriman. ]. J. Hill
and Milton II. Smith of the Louisville
and Nashville--and that the greatest
of these was Hartman. Mr.. Smith is
not so well known as the other two.
but We should not be surprised IL the
mass Of the railroad men throughout
the country were found to endorse this
estimate. How the Northwest feels
about Hill is well known: the choice
OF him to be orator at the opening OF
the Seattle Exposition Is but one of
many evidences that that whole region
regards him as its foremost man. Peo-
pie out that way would probably laugh
ut the idea Of comparing him with anX
distinctly public man they have-con-'
gresham. senator, governor or what
not. Harriman's field has been wider
stiil--it is now. in fact as wide as the
continent-and his genius is recognized
as widely. Mr.. Smiths work has been
In the South; but there his fame Is
almost as great as Hill's in the far
Northwest. A year or two ago. when
Alabama enacted some drastic anti-rail
road laws, iaimed rather particularly at
him. one remonstrant remarked that
though the legislature might drive his
road into receivership and might
even undo much of what he had done
10 build up the state, 1t could not pre-
vent the people from eventually erec-
ing great monument to his memory
We would not rank too high the
kind of genius these men have dis
played. We attempt no judgement Of
the methods they have employed. But
we do not see, how their greatness can
well be questioned. Marlborough was
great man because he could teach
the doubtful battle where to rage.
Surely they are greater still who can
teach the doubtful streams of COM
merce where to fiow--and not for a
day merely, but for years, decades,
centuries. More than. that; these men
have taught cities where to grow; they
nave taught great provinces how to
And what They Are About.
When three such men set themselves
the same general task, 1t is gold bet
that that task Is going to be ACCOM-
plished. 1t appears that this is what
these three have done. They have all
three. It seems, taken hold of the idea
that streams of commerce ought to
flow In greater volume from northwest
to southeast, and vice versa. The de-
yelopment of lines trending in that d.
L.
cent railroad history. Probably no one
OF the three can be said to have start
ed the movement. It began. rather,
from natural causes. and from the
neglected fact that the far West is
closer to the ports of the gulf than 1t
is to New York and Boston and Phil
adelphia and Baltimore. Texas. which
Ia by itself a hinterland big enough to
support two or three Liverpools or
Hamburgs. built enough roads south
westward to bring Galveston's exports
up to a total greater than Philadel-
phia's or Boston's-next. in fact, to
New York's; and the products of states
west and northwest of Texas began to
take the same route to the sea. Men
who succeed do not fight against new
tendencies. but with them. Hartman
bought the Georgia Central, built a
branch of the Illinois Central to Bir-
EulnknaHl- 10 COnnoCL with III anu tA0c
practically extended his system, which
covered most of the West. to Savannah.
Now 1t is announced that the Burling-
ton. one of the Hill roads, IL to build
branch to Paducah, KY, there to conect
with the Louisville and Nashville. Over
that system and over the Southern as
we'll. Hill will thus obtain through
lines to nearly all the bigger Souther-
ern cities and seaports. President
a. L.. 10
heartily in the move. which promises to
bring the Northwest and the South In
to an association not unlike that which
the great East-andWest lines long
ago established between the East ana
the entire West. That earlier achieve.
ment in transportation Is the special
triumph of our idustrial history. The
rapid development of both the South
and the far Northwest makes 1t seem
probable that the new movement may
have results OF comparable Importance
The traffic will not all go one way
Both are great producing section. and
each has much and will have more and
more to sell to the other.
The Southern SeapOrts.
President Finley of the Southern, an
other railroad man who seems to have
a sense of the larger aspects OF his
calling, sees what the future may hoIo.
He has recently addressed to South
ern editors an able communication on
the possibilities OF the Southern sea-
ports, with particular reference to the
trade with Latin American countries.
why that trade has not developed fast
er, why In general the Southern ports
have not held their own with those OF
The East, is a matter that has OFTEN
exercised the Southern people, and the
economic historians as well. At the
beginning of the last century Cahrles-
ton and Mobile and New Orleans saw
no reason why they should not rival
Boston and New York and Philadel-
phia, then not very much bigger.
Slavery, no doubt, by holding the South
to agriculture and generally retarding
Its Industrial progress, operated to
keep the Southern ports behind; and
then came the devastation of war and
Reconstruction. With the new pros
perity. the business of these ports has
rapidly Increased but in a one-sided
way. Imports have not nearly kept
pace with exports. At Boston and
New York, imports and exports keep
fairly even. But in Galveston last
year, with exports to the value of one
hundred and sixty-one and third
millions. had only five and one-half
millions of imports. At New Orleans
the proportion of exports to imports
was four to one. at Mobile six to one,
at Norfork. twelve to one. at Savan-
nah, twenty six to one. at Whining
ton, thirty-seven to one.
For this there are many cause. some
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