The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1910-03-17
new NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Greatest Sin Of Omission Com
mitted by Railroads.
Their Neglect to Seize upon the Re
f%rigerator Car Idea Forced Them
Later to Give Rebates
to Trusts.
BY e. j. EDWARDS.

.NtHEg EG EESge 5ZI
BY e. j. EDWARDS.
AS general manager Of the Pennsyl-
vania lines west Of Pittsburg, general
superintendent Of the Chicago &
Northwestern. vice-president and gen.
eral manager Of the West Shore and
~vtce-president of the Big Four sys-
TEN. the late James d. Laying, who
died on Lincoln's birthday in 1908,
was for years one Of the country's
leading railroad men and his so years
as an active railroad man was almost
coincident with the great railway de-
velopment of the country.
"As I look back over my career of
half a century," Mr.. Laying said to
me a short time after he had retired
active railroad management,
many interesting things come to me.
But he n thing from the past that
stands out above all others is that
act of the railroads which should be
known In history as their greatest sin
OF omission. For had they not COM
m1tted 1t l am firmly convinced that
many OF the trusts nov in existence
would not have been created and the
roads would not have been b%ludgeoned
by the trusts for years into giving re-
bates. Let me illustrate my point by
telling you a story.
There came into my office one day.
when I was general manager Of the
Pennsylvania lines west of Pittsburg,
a man whom I had known as a dealer
in poultry and dairy products. 1t was
his custom to go all through the agri-
cultural districts of Ohio and buy
poultry, butter and eggs from the
farmers and ship them to market. He
was OF an inventive turn of mind, but
not much Of a business man. He
made just a fair living in this voca-
ton.
"He said to me that he wished I
would lend him one of our freight
cars-any old car would do-because
he had an idea which he thought
might be worth while. He explained
that he believed he could fix that a
up so that it would be possible to
transport poultry, fruit and other per-
ishable objects and be sure they would
be in good condition when delivered
to the city merchant.
II told him that l would lend him q
car and two or three weeks later he
asked me to come and see what he
had done with it. He had fitted it up
with a couple of refrigerators and
with pipes for ventilation and to carry,
on the Ice water as it melted. He
told me that a car thus fixed up would
keep poultry and butter and eggs in
good condition for weeks.
THAT was the beginning of the re-
fr1gerator car. All tina. this man pre-
dicted OF it came true. But what did
the railroads do about it-what did
they e in this crude invention?
Nothing-not ever the great forces of
the railroad world. They left it to
the beef trust and the fruit trust to
seize upon the idea. Those trusts
built and own the refrigerator cars.
But if all the railroads had built re-
f%rigerator cars of their own-had had
plenty of them-then the beef trust,
for example, would have been unable
to bludgeon the roads into giving
them rebates for furnishing their own
cars, under threat of sending their
business elsewhere. And without re-
bates given to them many Of the
trusts of to-day would not have come
into existence, I am sure.
Mr.. Laying paused for a moment.
"And," he continued, II have always
thought that if the railway manager
had had as good foresight as they now
have hindsight they would also have
built the oil pipe lines along their
rights of way, and the tank cars, too,
and then it would have been impos-
sible for the Standard Oil Company
to have forced the roads into giving
1t exclusive rebates-with the result,
perhaps, that there would have been
no Standard Oil Company as we now
know it.
1T is indeed a great sin of omis-
sion that the railroads of the coun-
try have charged up against them.
For years they have been paying the
penalty-and they probably will con-
tinue to do SO even unto the third and
fourth generation of the railroad man
ayers who originally committed this
great sim"
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