Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1914-06-04

plant the seeds Of understanding and
mutual forbearance by studying at
i first hand the point Of view OF the
shipper and by revealing themselves
/ as human men seeking to do their
duty under difficulties.
/ So far as railway managers are
concerned, it is not necessary to look
into the past. If they were once ar
rogant and arbitrary and aloof, as .
class, all the world knows that they
we're chastened by an outraged pub
lie opinion and the heavy hand or the
law. Those who typified the sins of
the past have mostly passed away.
Few of them reaped the crop of tares
which grew on the fields they culti-
waited. They have been succeeded
/ by another generation men who have
been from boyhood in the railway ser
vice. as distinguished from the con-
troll of the railways, who have been
all their lives in contact with the peo-1
pie, who are actuated by principles OF
service rather than oppressive exploit
tation of opportunity: but they find
themselves in an environment of pre-
JUDGE which was engendered not by
themselves but by their predecessors.
They are under the awful curse OF
Yahweh, "The sins of the fathers shall
be visited upon the children" 1t is
conceivable that the American people,
ingrained though it may be with He
brew traditions, will not apply this
lash of serpents forever and without
relenting. / believe that it is only,
necessary for them to become con-
WINGED that the present generation OF
railway managers is seeking simply
to do their duty and to serve eff1cf-
emily, to reinstate them in the high
place in public esteem to which the
nature and the Importance of their
service entities them as do we'll.
have had the opportunity to know the
fellowship of the railway managers
In the United States today, and, con-
sidering them as a class, challenge
any other class of the community to
match them for courage, for unremit-
ting labor, for high ambition and for
good intention: and believe that, as
tie public knows them, it will grant
them the reward of good opinion and |
respect which l myself have for my |
colleagues in the service. They are |
men in the way literally to realize |
Ruskins definition of an artist as "a |
person who has submitted to a law |
which it was painful to obey. that he
may bestow delight which it is gra-
cious to bestow."
If, then, the American people and
those who are charged with the active
responsibility of management of our
railways are in fair way to do whas
the knights in the Farey Queen did
after a soul searching combat-the
poet says they usually ''affriended"-
I recognize a greater difficulty in SOW
ing that other factor in the problem
of the railways, to which I have re
ferred, namely: class hatred.
In speaking to body of men en-
gagged in those manifestations of in
dustry known as manufacturing and
distribution l am speaking to men who It
in their own business experience are
trained to understand the problem of
of railroad. They have
seen the railroads regulated: they
have contributed for their own adj
vantage to the creation of the public
opinion which accomplished that reg
ulation, and they have largely harvest
ed the fruits of that regulation: but S
they are now beginning to realize that {
they have unloosened a beast which s
Is likely to raven at their own doors 1
before it is chained, if ever again it is t
to be chained. The principle of the {
interference of government in private +
is not likely to be applied 1
forever merely to railways, or even to
hose aggregations of other forms Of
known as trusts. G
Time was when it was generally be- y
ieved that the railroads we're making
vast profits because they handled mil
ions of revenues. Many there were /
who purported to disbeiieve the state {
nents of the published accounts: Y
few there were who l
ever read them. 1t was enough to e
know that the figures dealt in millions II
% believe they we're unholy. Then @
came the regulation of the system of %
accounts, and with it an APP 8
preciation by most intelligent men t
hat accounts kept under the supervi- I
sion of government commission /
we're probably reasonably correct. a
and If they showed, as they did show, /