Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1910-05-13
GAN BLAME ONLY THEMSELVES

GAN BLAME ONLY THEMs ELVES
There has come to this Office an ar
ticle by Willis ]. Abbott sent by Mr..
J. G. Pangborn of the B. and 0. Ry.-
with the request that we publish the
same if it meets our views. The ar
ticle appeared in the Baltimore Amer
lean of last Saturday. Whilst we
concede to none greater interest IN
railroad development than ourselves,
nor willingness to go further, we
cannot concede that railway agitation
by the people has stopped railroad
construction. Mr.. Abbott purports
TO quote a prominent manufacturer,
thus.
In 1907 the attacks of the Roose-
Welt administration on the railroads
stopped railroad construction all over
the country. Nothing was bought by
road except what was actually me-
cessary for it's immediate operation.
Steel rails that had been pure hased
were stacked and held and congress
ional quietude would not permit THEN
being laid. Near my plant on the
Pacific coast there were, in 1908,
nearly two miles Of locomotives OH
side tracks, exposed to the weather,
out of commission and idle.
ssNow the political agitation which
led to the entire cessation of railroa
activity in 1907, and produced the
panic, is again being pressed to tn
danger point. 1t means the cessation
once more of railroad building, better
ment of equipment, and, as railroads
are the greatest employing and pur-
chasing corporations in the United
States, their prosperity or adversely
is reflected in the labor market OF
the nation. -
1t is technically true that the sluml
of 1907 was the result of railway
agitation, that agitation was we be-
lieve seized by the railroads as a pre-
text to cause panic and to discredi,
Mr. Roosevelt's administration.
They were the first to quit work, to
cry "panic, and to play the baby
act. We cannot rid our minds of the,
opinion that this was premeditated,
wil1ul and malicious The railroads
rught to remember that they were the
first to cry confscation and they are
believed to have such influence over
the Judiciary as to have procured de
eisions in their favor wien no road
has has been confscated not even
hampered when the management was
decent.
The railroads ought further mem
Der that it was their unbridaled buc-
;anneering which caused any hostile
Legislation, and that they are still
keeping it up, and that there is now
going into effect an increased sched-
ule of freight and passenger rates, to-
tally unwarranted by conditions; they
ought to recall that the only enemy OF
railroad building and railroad devel-
opmentis the existing railroads. The
recent history of the new Virginiall
Railway establishes beyond question
the proposition for they fought every
inch of it's construction.
Alphabetically the following is
printed in the abbott communication.
-''There are places in the soutl
where they need and deserve railroad
stations There are places out in the
northwest and in the southwest where
they want better railroad facilities
new spurs into, the valleys being opel
ed as result of the government &C
tivities in the reclamation service.
| ''Of course, the need for railroad
regulation is notorious. In the house
the other day a member asked the per.
tinent question why pottery could be
shipped from Liverpool, England, to
Chicago at less charge for freight,
| than from the poteries at Liverpool,
o., to Chicago? The answer was
practically the old joke-because we
need the money. In Berlin, a veal
ago, met man from Gloucester,
Mass, who was doing thriving bus
mess selling fish glue, which he could
deliver in Germany at less cost than
the freight from Gloucester to Chic
ago. These curious features of Iail-
road rate making are difficult of ex-
PLANTATION to the general public, ano
are responsible for much Of the anti
railroad sentiment
However, they are not to be cor
rected by indiscriminate raids on
railroad credit-by such a bill, for ex
ample, as that prohibiting roads from
borrowing money for mere than one
year without leave from the Interstate
Commerce Commission. That measure
alone, if enacted would go far toward
putting business where it was in the
dark days of 1907.
If the roads will not correct abuses
some one will attempt it, and we have
no evidence that any railroad has
ever attempted to do So We believe
they are now behind the Taft bill
which is intended to kill the Sherman
law and we oppose that bill in all of
it's features. We deny even it's con-
IN HONOR OF THE KING