Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1915-09-16
md construction precedes develop

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and construction precedes develop
ment.
The money can be had if the peo-
pie who own the money believe the
investment safe and the returns de-
sirable. If assured of this, railroads
will be built.
The people with savings to invest
Judge by the treatment accorded the
savings already invested. An ade-
quate return to the shareholder who
puts his money in the railroad bust
ness should be assured him.
He should have the greater assur-
ance because, being private money
devoted to public service, that serv-
ice is regulated by government itself
and government thereby can fairly
be held sponsor for adequate returns
We must come to a point or basis
at which railroad rates shall be
deemed fair and not subject to the
attack of any one who chooses. The
no-bottom basis of the present is
false in principle and dangerous in
practice.
Sooner or later the agencies of
government will have to stand be-
hind the stability of railroad reve-
nues, not for the benefit OF the rail-
roads merely but in the public inter-
est.
In this nation the people are the
source of all power. The popular
will is, and will be, reflected in the
treatment of the railroads at the
hands of government. At times that
popular will has amounted to will
fulness as in the treatment of a way
ward child, but the railroads were
young then and parental regulation
was inexperienced.
We have all grown older together.
Experience is the only teacher.
We are learning that the greatest
industry in this nation, affecting di
rectly millions of employees and
shareholders, and affecting indirect
ly many millions more of security
holders and those dependent upon
the credit and income those securi-
ties afford, can not be affected injur-
iously and yet the rest of the busi-
ness of the country go unscathed.
When to the conditions of the
present in the railroad business, in
volving so many millions of men and
money, are added the uncertainties
of the future; when to the cumula-
tive force and effect of successive re-
ductions, extending throughout sew
eral decades, there are added the un-
certainties Of reductions (none know
how many or how great which may
come this year, next year or the year
succeeding, is it any marvel that the
business of the nation is repressed
and that all business men stand in
suspense and deep concern as to what
the future holds for them?
1t is time for the railroads and the
people to take counsel together, for
the uncertainty which touched the
railroads first has reached to all the
people.
This nation needs prosperity more
than it needs anything else.
No business prospers by repression.
The effects and influences of gov
ernment should be stimulating or
they are a failure.
The American people prosper to-
gether. When we prosper we are all
"The pursuit of life, lib
erty and happiness" has prosperity
for its reward, the railroads and the
people in conjunction and alike.
The common sense Of the people
can be relied on to bring about the
that make prosperity.
They are merely looking for light.
When they find it we shall have en-
Iightened prosperity, all the brighter
for the dark uncertainties through |
which we have been passing. There
IS no room for pessimism; the coun-
Try is all right and the people are all |
right. We are in their hands.
Standard legal blank forms Of
wary kind NAV he nrocured at the |