Mexico weekly ledger., 1914-10-01
GRAVEST CRISIS
Continued from Page one)

been entrusted with railroad manage
ment in the past are somewhat re
sponsible for the apparent gulf be-
tween the public and the transporta-
ton companies is perhaps true. Busy
and harrassed by the herculean tasks
entrusted 10 their care, there has been
too little contact between them \
The people. Again, it is undoubtedly
true that the world Of railroad II
nance as well as other lines OF indus
trial activity has had its share Of in
excusable abuses-but just as the pub
lie does not hold the banking world or
the ministry responsible as a whole
FOR the shortcomings Of on occasional
black sheep. so the hundreds of hon
est railroad officials throughout the
country should not be- condemned be-
cause Of the misdeeds Of the few.
Who Owns the Railroads
In this connection, II may be said
that the railroad world Is encountered
with a lot Of phantoms which exist on
" in the popular fancy. For instance.
because there have been some half
dozen so-ealled railroad magnates
whose names have figured prominent
ly in Wall Street, many people have
come to believe that the railroads OF
the country are largely owned by a
few rich men. As a matter Of fact,
nothing could be farther from the
truth. Out Of the collosal sum OF
twenty billion dollars invested in
American railroad securities less than
five per cent is now or ever has been
in the hands of these men who have
figured prominently in the newspaper
headlines-while the other 95 per
cent is in the hands of four million in
vestors, large and small, who in many
instances have put the modest saw
ings of a life time into these securi-
ties in order that they might lay away
a competency for old age.
When, therefore, the value of these
securities is depressed or %perchance
destroyed, the hardship is ten fold
greater upon thousands of every day
citizens-upon the frugal mechanic in
a New England factory, the widow
with her life insurance funds and the
countless other citizens in every ayo-
cation and walk of life than upon the
handful of millionaires, good or bad,
who have figured prominently ii rail
road circles. Thus, for instance, the
great Santa Fe system has over 40
900 stockholders and the same ratio
holds good in nearly all the other
lines. But that isn't all. The hun
dreds of millions of assets Of our
great life insurance companies and
many of our banking institutions
large and small, are invested in rail-
road bonds-and the moment, there
fore, the ~soundness Of these bonds is
affected the financial solidity of these
myriad institutions is menaced at the
same time. Carrying it a step farth-
er, it means that every holder of an
old line life insurance policy and mil
lions of depositors in savings and 9TH
er banks are directly concerned in
the integrity of these securities. This
only goes to show how vast and over
s~hadowing our railroad industry has
become-how they are not merely the
giant arteries Of Agriculture and
Commerce, but how closely their well
fare is woven into the wool and fabric
of the entire Nation. Among other
things, It should remind us how inter-
/, dependent we have come TO be in
this mighty Republic Of ours-that
each is in truth becoming more and
more his brothers keeper and that
we need TO think and act carefully
lest in our mistaken zeal we destroy
, those who, like ourselves, need what
ever Of this worlds goods the toll and
sweat Of years has brought to them.
The Public and the Stakeholder
On the one hand stands the public
) demanding the highest efficiency OF
service and lower rates in one and the
same breath. On the other hand stand
the thousands Of men and women who
have put their money into railroad Sc.
curities, pleading that the value OF
their investments may not be confis-
cated-and between them, as arbiters,
stand the managers of the roadside
hired men," struggling with might
and main to render the good service
which the public demands and at the
same time, in the face of reduced
rates and an ever-increasing cost OF
operation, to have something left over
at the end of each fiscal year fol-
those whose money had gone into the
= property, and who, in common with
other normal human beings, believe
they have a right to protection and a
fair return upon their investment.
This, in a nut shell, is the triple rela-
ton and attitude Of the public, the
owner of railroad securities and those
entrusted with railroad management
at the present time-and that the pub
lie and the investor may soon come to
realize that each has rights which the
other should respect and that they
may regard each other without suspi-
clon or prejudice from this time for
ward is the ardent hope of the aver
| age railroad manager, who, for some
/ years, has been in the mental atti-
tude of the fiddler in the Western
mining camp when he yelled out.
Please don't shoot, boys, I'm doing
the best | can" Adv. ITO be %contin-
ued next week..