The Washington herald., 1914-09-13
Head of Southern Says Peo-
pies Prejudice Is Prime
Factor Against Lines.
HATRED OF COMPANY
Can Be DisPelled Largely by
Closer Contact Between Ex-
ecutive and Patrons.
PRAISES RAILWAY MANAGERS
Predicts that Continuation of "Op-
pressive Legislation Will Cause Dis
aster in Commercial World.

s"One who has been engaged in thu
railway industry practically all of hi
Hfe: who. relying on the, candor Of hi
Intentions. has striven earnestly anC
laboriously to achieve progressive i'm
ptovements in the efficiency OF person.
mel and material Of the service, whC
has always been actuated by a deter
mination to adjust his business prac.
tiee to what he understands to be tho
public expectation, but who has not
lost sigh of the fact that a railway
is not an eleemosynary institution
that its purpose is the reward of those
who have adventured their capital as
well as to serve the public; such a one
/ say, must sometimes pause to take
account of the undoubted fact that for
some years there has been a steady
growth Of public disapprobation of his
profession"
The speaker was Fairfax Harrison
president of che Southern Railway, and
one Of the seven great railway heads
who were received at the White House
Wednesday in one of the most impor-
tant conferences OF President Wilson
administration. The object OF the confer
enee was to enlist Mr.. Wilson's CO.
operation in the effort 10 stave of dis
aster facing the. American railways as
q result Of unfair agitation. To a repre-
sentative of The Washington Herald,
who interview him. President Fairfax
Harrison gave a remarkable statements
OF the other side" OF the present-day
attitude toward the railways, or what
he himself termed the prejudice against
the railways"
The PubIic's Prejudice.
81 venture to claim" continued Mr..
Harrison, that no American boy begins
life criticising and condemninE the rail-
n III,
boys have their imagination and ambi-
ton first stirred by the physical aspect
Of hfe on the rail. They see the train
crews at work. they admire the demon
stnatioh Of mighty power and the shining
beauty OF the locomotives; they hear
tales Of manly hardship and daring-do
such as quicken the heartbeats of every
one with red blood in his veins, and so
they make heroes Of those men of the
throttle and the lantern who come peri
odically out of the great unknown into
the marrow confines OF their young lives
TO go again like migrating birds TO mys-
terious points South which are only
names to the untrayeled lad. The rail-
road is to the inland boy what the ship
Is to the boy born at a seaport-the out
ward and visible sign Of a world of ad-
venture
so it is that many boys cherish an
ambition some day to work on the rail-
way and they believe it to be an hon
orable plan for an honorable and useful
life. 1t is only later when the germs
Of an endemic social malady invade the
system that blind and, at times. appar-
emily unrelentinE hatred OF the railway
corporation, of which for years we have
had frequent demonstration. feeds it.
self in the average man upon all the
temptations of personal selhshness, upon
the cant phrases OF the ambitious dema-
gogue, upon the poisoned political econ
omy OF the undertaking magazine, TO |
blaze, with orgiastic fury in laws and
regulations such as no virile man would !
ever accept for the conduct of his own /
private business. When he thinks of
such things and his conscience works, |
as Il sometimes does. the average man
justihes himself with belief that great |
can submit to oppression and
injustice, or can adjust its business prac-
tees TO methods which an individual |
could not brook. He finds his justifca-I
ton then somewhat in mere size of the
sacrihcial victim
Mr.. Harrison" the Southern's head !
was asked, what, in your opinion. are
the most potent causes OF this spirit
OF discomfort"
THE two most potent causes of current |