The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-11-09
FIR CLOSER RELATION Of
FARMERS AND RAILROADS
Hon. John Shelton Williams Hopes American Farmers
Will Come More and More to Own the Railroads

O4oNS1 NiIoN
ers, by a man who chose m fol
his life work. and who was glad and
joyful when he could resign as Pres1-
dent, statesman and COMMANDMENTS
chief and go back to the life he loved,
to plant seed and watch them grow
from Virginia soil and market his pro-
duct and count his honest gain, de-
veloped under his own eyes and hand,
1t is evidence Of the justice and &C
curacy of his estimation of farming
as a business that of the twenty-seven
presidents these United States have
had since the creation of our govern
ment all but two were born on farms
and were the sons of farmers and
farmers wives. Now farming is not
only the most respectable and Onor-
able of occupations, but seems likely
henceforth to be the most profitable.
Let US remember the words of another
President, Thomas Jefferson. who de-
clared hat the future Of this Re-
public depended upon agriculture, and
that the great aim Of the people should
be to cultivate the soil.
We move fast these days and in
months we bring about, through our
legislatures and Congress and State
and Federal governments, peacefully
and without serious disturbance,
changes which a century ago would
have been revolutions, accomplished
49, SILL " oAA0 LAAA
horrors. I think the days of vast
fortunes quickly acquired are nearly
gone. We are coming down to a
natural, honest basis Of moderate ac-
cumulations according to the intelli-
gence and industry Of individuals. We
are coming back to the land and it's
! yield and to the SagaclOus management
Of it and it's products.
When that time comes, and I think
If iS coming VpYV fast we railroad noO-
pie and you farming people can say
and feel hat we be brethren. You
produce. We carry. 1t is your bust
ness to make and get from the soil
the best and most it will bring, and it
is our business to carry your product
to market for you as faSt as possible,
SO as to secure for you the best pos
sible returns and to charge you such
rates as shall pay our stockholders a
reasonable, fair return on the none
they nave invested and the nance
they have taken. You want and ought
to have a fair return for your labor
and investment of muscle and money.
We want to get and ought to nave fair
return for the none our stockholders
have advanced to build the railroads,
for the interest they ave sometimes
lost while they waited for the country
to grow to the point of supplying
freight and passenger traffic sufficient
~ poA liz O"Ao OA 1 LIZ OOrSiS.
Stand on any railway track. You
will see the parcllel rails stretch far
and, by optical Illusion, in the distance
the rails will seem to blend into one.
So it is with the farmers and the rail
roads They must run On parallel
lines. If one rail is disjointed or twist
ed the train Of national prosperity Is
ditched and wrecked. In the distance
the two rails must run together and
be one.
Looking ack twenty, thirty, forty
years through railroad history, / feel
as if 1 was studying a barbaric age.
If there were giants in those days
there were wars also. Railroad lines
and systems strove to slaughter each
other. Rates were cut. Passengers
and freight were carried one year at
prices absurdly low and the next year
at rates so high as to forbid travel,
except in cases of urgent need, and
to shut the producer from his market.
History proves LAT it was the farm
ers who brought reform, not only in
the relations Of the railroads to the
public, but in the relations Of the rail-
roads to each other and in methods of
management. The orderly, %studious,
sure and scientific system of the bust
ness man replaced the tactics and
ways of the buccaneer and the pirate.
Arrangements were forced to look for
reasonable and fair profits on opera
ton instead of scheming for sudden
forays and seizures through Wall
Street. or in mutually destructive
struggles for territory. Some of you
gentleman can recollect the Grange.
1t has faded from general public
knowledge, but it did mighty work. 1t
has mad the impress of it's achieve
mentS on the American mind
and heart and on this his
tory of the rise and growth and ex-
ansiOn and urification of the Ameri-
can cole. Sometimes it has been
under the domination and leadership
Of wild demagogues and politicians,
perverting high purposes to base uses.
1t went crazy occasionally and became