Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1909-04-09
Friday. April 9, 1909.
Mr.. RODGERS AND HIS RAIL
ROAD.

OPSA1A8 VI IAc fIISlulou NAL W y ny
its owner and president, Mr.. Henry II.
Rodgers, which took place in Norfolk
on the lat. Mr.. Rodgers, SO says the
versatile Tom Lawson Of Boston, is
really the brains Of the Standard Oil
Go. He, more than any other man,
has directed its policy for years, and
breadened its grasp upon the necessi-
ties of life. His business habitat is
the "Home of the System, 26 Broad
way. MI. Rodgers is monopolist of
monopolists, indeed he is the incarna
tion Of monopoly, if reports of him be
true.
But once upon time Mr.. Rodgers
purchased some coal land in West Vir-
GINA. This was wise thing to do
and had he no other means, under de-
cent railroad treatment he would have
in it the basis Of monster fortune. But
Mr.. Rodgers in his innocence began to
mine and ship some coal from his lands.
His coal necessarily had to pass out to
II dewater a. well an to other inferior
markets, over the rails Of two monopo-
lies. These monopolies had coal of
their own, they knew as well as Mr..
Rodgers what it meant to have the
only source OF supply when times grew
h ard, they had practiced like Mr..
Rodgers the "Black Art" the "Mailed
Hand" they, too, applied the thumb
screws, and were in the habit of so do
ing whenever victim came along
worth squeezing. For once in the life
Of Mr.. Rodgers he found what if meant
to be ''up against it," He found himself
in such company as a certain man who
once went down from Jerusalem to
Jerico. They did not leave for poor
Mr.. Rodgers decent living, when
they took his coal, they simply stripped
him and left him half dead. They treat
ed him just as they were doing any and
all other poor miners. he called into
his counsel his aids and confidential
employees, he studied the situation, he
W ent over maps, he made q speciality
for = while Of geography, topography,
the trend of mountains, and the course
Of streams. Hes9w where the ocean
washed the shores of Virginia along
the Chesapeake, where safe harbors
invited the navIes of the world, where
they came, and from whence they went;
where they were supplied v.th the
pent up forces carried down from the
N ountains, which moved their machi-
merry and sent them to the Furthermore
parts Of the earth. He studied, too,
the figures which these ships paid to
two certain monopolists for those ''pent
up forces" hidden in some Of the very
coal which Mr.. Rodgers no doubt had
furnished, and for which at his mines
he had gotten mere pittance, but for
which those ships laid down to those
two monopolists their dollars-many.
Then Mr.. Rogers resolved. When his
mind is made up, says Lawson, moth
ing daunts him nor stays him after
ward. Mr.. Rodgers made up his mind
and there was no turning back. 81
will build my own road" he said, and
no began the stupendous work.
1t is needless to recall here, because
it is fresh in the minds of the reading
public, how the two great monopolies
which carried coal from the Virginia
and West Virginia mountains to the
sea at Hampton Roads, watched the
progress of their rival, how they sought
the real source OF their troubles, the
identity Of the man behind the gun,
how they fought its progress at every
point, and interposed all known OBJ
stacles. 1t is also interesting, but pro-
badly useless to state, how they were
butled out Of the way wherever met.
No battering ram ever moved obstacles
faster or more effectively, and one ad-
versary is said to have built tunnel
for Mr.. Rodgers which he now enjoys,
and which came to him at the end of
= smart legal battle. On went the
road, breaking down artificial barriers
erected by adversaries, and blasting
away the natural ones of mountain and
hill. He pushed on with his usual en-
ergy even through the Roosevelt panic,
and words are powerless to tell what
that meant.
1t is not, however, out of place here
to recall how his rivals got down on
their Bonded knees to him when too
late. 1t is told that two great railway
corporations in these parts knelt hum
bly, On their marrow bones when they
saw the handwriting, and beseught him
to desist-all the while promising, and
ready to nominate it in the bond, and
verify it by oath, that they would carry
his coal oh 80 cheap. But no. Mr..
Rodgers knew thing or two, he knew
the value of promises by monopolies,
he may have made and broken a few
in by gone days himself, 30 he needed
not their lamentations, nor was he
moved by their tears. His heart was
not melted. He kept on making the
dirt fly. He now sees many Of the
fruits or his labors. He has accom-
plished what no other individual to
this day has dared attempt, he has
built his own railroad from the noun
tains to the sea. Many men would
have given it their name "The Rod
gers Railway" would have sounded
well. Many would have impressed on
ii their personality, because it is a great
and lasting monument. A certain
willy Scotohman has found NO trouble
in doing 80, rs tC his libraries, and his
Palace of Peace Al The Hague. Why
need Mr.. Rodgers have been modest :?