The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1918-02-27

on guard. The scheme Is to regain
private control OF the railroads after
the war ON the plea that the taking
over of the roads is only a war meas
urc the gang doesn't want to take any
chances with congress i'm the matter
but hopes to grease the way so that
they may slide back automatically in
to private control without any legisla-
ton.
This must not be permitted. The
government must not return the rail-
roads to private control. either at the
close of the war or at any other time.
ON the other hand. no one who has
studied the problem deeply wants
government ownership i'm the sense
that government ownership is under
stood today. Public ownership. YES;
but the railroads have always been
publicly owned. We have had public
ownership under the control of hnan-
cial pirates. Government ownership.
as Il is usually understood, would
amount to nobody-ownership under
the control of political buzzards."
Is this hard to understand? Well
Nathan l.. Amster is little hard 20
understand at first. But you will un.
derstand him-that's the kind of man
he is. His principal occupation for
several years back has consisted o.
making himself understood. He is q
railroad investor. Not a magnate. Not
one of the big Adventures of the
Gould and Hill class. but man with
few hundreds of thousands that ne
didn't want TO gamble with. He
wanted to invest 1t in something safe.
You know the type; just the kind of
come-on In the railroad field that the
big insiders go cunning for.
Only. Nathan l.. Amster didn't come
=, on quite according to schedule. When
tncS trained their guns on him. he
lodged He lodged into little courts,
where the hunters felt sure they could
smoke hsm out i'm week or two. They
had always been able To do it with
others Of ae speciss. but they had
never tackledadtfte such a nervy lit
tie scooter before. lie scooted from
court to court. lie scooted behind in
functions and mandamuses and inter-
pleadings and writs of this and that,
and finally he scooted into the inter-
state commerce commission. One
bright morning. i'm fact. he scooted
right into a directorship of the Chi
cago. Rock Island and Pacific rail-
road and announced that he was
there to fight.
Newspaper readers are quite well
acquainted now with the fight ne
made. lie fought the directors single
handed; and when that wouldn't do.
he went back and had two directors
elected Instead OF one. Last year he
came In with four directors, repre-
senting the Apster understanding.
and with a loud minority voice he
won almost all the points he was
lighting for. For one thing, he COM
PEELED the directors TO declare a di-
vidend after they had said they
couldn't; also he proved that the
Rock Island was profitable proper
ty after they had labelled it nothing
hut two streaks OF rust and all the
other things that so TO describe a rail-
road in the process of being scuttled.
But II isn't the history Of the Rock
Island fight which / set out to tell. |
Just now Nathan l.. Amster has set
himrclf TO the biggest task of his
life. II Is TO put a stop forever To the
sport Of Americas financial kings
usinS the great public service proper
ties OF the country not as a means OF
cnrDing legitimate profits but as traps
for tho investing public
"These Gnancicrs," ne SAYS. "are
not the men who own the railroads.
The railroads have always been own.
cd by the publicly the investing
public. The millions Of stockholders
have hccn vitality interested AT all
times In the success of the roads as
paying properties. But they have
never been organized. They have
entrusted the management of the
roads not TO people who represent
them but 20 supposed supcrmen i'm
the financial world whose interest il
hIs been To wreck the properties in
stead.
~ few years ago. for instance,
Rock Island was selling ut $500 q
share. a few months ago il was sell
Ine ~ A2m. HID the nrnnertv deter.