The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-22
Railroad Presidents Say Nation Has Now Passed
 Period of Depression
ELLIOTT ABLE TO
 MAKE LARGE LOAN
Gives Collateral of Three of First Railroads Built In the United States As
 Security
Nv HOLLAND

New York, April Especial )-Eben Briggs Thomas. president of the Lehigh Valley Railroad company. and Howard Elliott, president of the New York New Haven and Hartford railroad have re. gently and within the same week spoken words of encouragement which business men throughout the United States will not fail to heed. Yet they spoke from differ ent points of view so far as their own companies are concerned. President Thomas had been able to contemplat., with serenity the figures which show tha | his was one of the few railroad companies of the United States which has been able to withstand, so far as market quotations for stock were concerned general depres- sion. There have been only two or three other railroad companies in the United States and one in Canada the quotations for whose stock have been in excess of those recorded for the stock of the Lehigh valley.
 President Elliott, on the other hand. was during the first year of his control of the New Haven compelled to see recorded quo- tations which showed daily impairment of the credit of his corporation. few years ago it's stock was spoken of as gilt edged and with little of it in the market I. has been within year below 4O Both of these railway presidents are men of wide experience. President Thomas gained some portion of his rich experience through his association with the Rich mond and Danvile and the Georgia Pa eific, so that in that way he obtained ae- ourate knowledge of commercial and agri cultural conditions in the south. He was also fortified through his experience as manager of one of the great railway sys- tems of the midwest
 President Elliott knew the west. and particularly that part of it which is be- yond the Mississippi river, as we'll as any railroad manager ever did. and through his service as president of the Northern Pacific he became familiar with and wax personally identified with the remarkable growth or the northwest. These two rail- way presidents resemble each other in certain personal and intellectual qualities Both are courageously conservatives both are men of modest life; both have q faculty for going to the roots of things and of seeming not to work hard since they make no fuss about their work, eyer, though intensely occupied: both are men who speak with caution, always endeavor- ing to justify opinions which they give by hard facts President Thomas has re- gently caused to be published a communi- cation written to President Wilson, in which he intimates his belief that the business life of the nation has passed th. period of depression. That is a view which was taken early in .aarch by one of the ablest constructive banKers of the United States-a banker who has been in personal touch with leading men of finance in Europe particularly London. He stated that the bottom of our depression was reached in late October of last year. While President Thomas gives no dates he does feel justified in saying that busi- ness men of the United States have now every reason for looking into the future with confidence. and he speaks especially of the service which the new federal re- serve system has been able to give in the way of inspiring confidnce Going from generalties to details, he reports that his railway company is about to expend large amount of money for equipment anc for other purposes and contemplates a still larger expenditure iustifying this action by the Improvement in business condi tions.