Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1914-09-11

aeement and railroad managers, and while hold no
brief tor the misdoinGs, either large or small, which
have crept into the MANAGEMENT of some of the railroads
OF this country, am certain that there never was a
more courageous. honest, intelligent and industrious set
OF men, as a whole, engaged in any business than those
who are devotinG their lives to the transportation sery-
ice OF this country, and whether for the purpose of
peace or war, do not believe there ever has been a
more effective organization of men than that under
which these great affairs are managed and controlled.
The above is an extract from an address recent
ly made in New York City on an important occa
sion, by Captain r. V. Taylor, vice-president anC
general manager of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad Co
which we reproduce to endorse.
That an infelicitous public sentiment with ref
erence to railroad and other corporate interests has
for some years existed, and is still alive in Missis
sippi. the BEACON is fully persuaded.
The fact, that such is the case, creates a erie.
vous condition for which there somewhere lies q
~flagitious fault.
Those are, we are aware, strong words to EN-
ploy. But, in view of the great moral wrong thai
the condition to which we refer has in too many
instances worked against corporate interest, anc
the hurt it so far has brought to tine commonwealth
of Mississippi, as the BEACON sees it, the ~Ianguag
is neither too ~forcefuI nor too harsh.
Having defined the situation, and stated tn
evils of 1t as they appear to the BEACON, let US
now seek to locate the blame seek to discover at
what door the fault is to be found.
If we can detect that, and lay bare the fact,
the exposure possibly may be of help in an effort
to find, and apply remedy.
In the effort, let us retrospect to an earlier per
lod in the history Of railway construction and oper-
alton.
Let us go back, if you please, to the age il
which the power of the trusts was at it's flood; in
which frenzied finance attained its zenith; in which
fortunes, mounting up into the millions, were made
over night, as it were, through the devices and
combinations of men of good repute and fine rating
Tor familiarity with the details of finance, but who.
at the same time, were well-nigh constituencies in
deylslng plans for the promotion of schemes for
self ACKNOWLEDGEMENT; for the conduct of bio busi-
ness; and particularly so for the management of
heavily capitalized industrial enterprises, and for
eXploltlng the transportation facilities of the coun.
Try on new, absolutely selfish, get-rich-ouick lines.
when we get there, W e will find ourselves in
an era in which, for the first time in America
the dollar was put above the man; the Gold
standard TOOK precedence of the Golden Rule; and
all because a so-called honest dollar was, by capi-
tallsts, and inanciers and manipulators enprossed
by the master-passion, gain, and Big Business.
more esteemed than the honest man without the
dollar.
Ihen was the period when it became fashiona-
Die IN Wall Street and other great money centers
10 roo the people under the guise of law and in the
name OF industrial development; the time when
genius Tor great emprise exploited the money. of
which the people practically were plundered in
atroclously audacious ventures in which the RIGHTS
OF others were not only daringly encroached upon
pue were sometimes recklessly over turned and
shamelessly trampled under foot.
1t was a period of evolution-a period of abnor-
mai evolution, when the e~vocative power of tbo
almighty dollar developed an immoral legal riobt
from that which was dishonest. and morally wrono
and established in our boasted land of liberty and
nome OF opportunity-land of equality under the law
tine illogical proposition, that a moral wronq NAV
py statute be permitted to exist as a legal right.
In other words, it was when the Morgans
the Rockefellers, the Rogerses, the big bankers
and those who controlled the finances of the bio
insurance companies, the Equitable. the Mutual
the New York Life, ct id omne genus, formed SYM
1lcates' and combined capital with shrewdness and
guile, and so swayed Wall Street, New York Civ
and the nation. that there was scarcely anv limit
70 the power they welded in finance: in stocks
md bonds; in railroad consultations and manage
nent; in industrial enterprises; in politics; in GOV
lin everything, everywhere.
In the a~udacity, the magnifcence, the magni-
the power and scope of their undertakings
seemed they sought to rival Cea.