Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1914-10-16

addressed to reason who accept the energy of eff
frontery, passion and interest as evidence of truth
and righteousness; who, listen with credulity t.
preachers of discomfort that disseminate error anC
evil and employ imagination, in lieu of memory
in detailing the wrongs of which they complain can
have no clear perception of the duties of a steam
railroad manager, and of the difficulties, at all
times confronting him, in the obligation he owes
to those by whom he is employed and in the re-
sponsibility resting upon him, and the communities,
served by the railway of which he is the manager.
He is beset on every side by friends and foes,
the latter often being more in the nature of I'M
charitable thinkers and carping critics than openly
avowed enemies.
He has to deal with ~rivalries of the most ag-
gravating character and there are occasions, no
doubt, when he well may wish he could be Argus
eyed and Bryarean-handed, so as to be the better
equipped to take care of the competition he has to
meet, which sometimes appears to be both Hydra
headed and Proteus-like, in it's multifarious evils
and rapid transmutations
He has to contend with competition between
business rivals residing in the samecommunity; the
competition of rival communities on his line; the com.
petition between rival communities, some of which
may be on the line of his road and the others on lines
of competing roads; the competition between wat
err and rail; the competition between markets, be
tween products; between competing industries; be
tween conditions; and between his line and it's ri
walls, both in rates. and in rapid transit which in
wolves safety as well as expense.
He must watch supply and demand. and kee
posted on production and markets-must know tn
regions where the supply of objects of desire
superintendent and demand is a la2gard: and the,
he must seek to put on rates that will move tn
excess by creating a demand for it in other com
munities.
He must know just what the traffic will bear;''
and that he cannot ascertain. without becoming
familiar with conditions conditions of supply, de
mand, markets and prices, and the overhead
charges" or, perhaps it would be more apt to say.
the out-of-hand and out-of-pocket expenses which
make up the cost of carriage to be borne by his
road before it can derive any pecuniary profit from
the transportation of products from one market to
another and for varying distances over his line.
To do all that intelligently, he must have COM
merclal agents, or 'subaltern representatives. in
various regions whose duty it is to post themselves
as to correlated conditions of supply, demand, mar
kets, prices. etc, and keep in close touch with
shippers, whose interests he must watch; whose
confidence and goodwill he must seek frs. to de-
serve, and then to win. by guarding, protecting
and promoting their wishes, as far as he NAV
within reasonable bounds or justice to bis road.
To that end, such agents must be alert to do
business with the shipper on the basis of "what
the traffic will bear"-meaning thereby. not how
much they can skin the shipper" but how low a
rate they can afford to make to meet satisfactorily
the demand required to make the product meet
the requirements, in the matter of rates, essential
to induce the shipments.
Try as we may, we cannot get away from the
TACT that the steam railway manager, to control
trafflc Tor his line, is forced to adjust his rates to
the harshest and most unrelenting competition
the competition that comes to him, as substantially
herein before stated, in the form of the sharpest
most strenuous and most intelligent rivalry, to-wit.
the competition of rival regions in the products Of
forest, field, mine and stream or sea; of rival routes
by rail and water; of rival markets; rival prices
and communities other words, rival prouns of
regions, producers and consumers.
AGAIN, the railroad manager who knows his
business realizes the power of commercial competi-
ton and recognizes the fact that the prosperitv Of
the region served by his road is of paramount i'm.
portance to his own success and that of his line of
railway, as well as to the common veal of the
communities to whose wishes, wants, needs and
necessities it ministers.
The history of the transportation industry ad.
vises, if his W personal observation and exper-
lence does not teach him, that no steam railroad
has ever permanently prospered independently of
the prosperity of the region through which it runs
and that of the communities it serves.
Dead or dying communities hold out small hone
OF industrial reward or p%ecuniary profit to progress
siye railroad companies managed by live officials.
A graveyard and those mho no,,.. :. -