The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-04-04
JOHNSON'S BRIEF
Continued from page ~


~itiative, individual ability, and the ne
cessity for each in the management of
railroads, and how this private ability
and individual initiative alone could
efficiently manage the railroads of
the Nation. ] have heard whispered
with horror the %enornity of Govern
ment management, of the calamity
and the catastrophe that would befall
us if the Government eve sought in
any fashion to manage these great
transportation systems. | have been
told of the marvellous and the Won
drous ability Of men who drew large
salaries as presidents Of the various
roads, of how they, with an omnjs-
cience passing human understanding,
with all the dignity and the power and
the ability Of the greatest of potcn-
tates, successfully presided over the
destinies of the railroads and, out of
the million tentacles of a ~transporta-
ton system, wrought efficiency that
staggered the imagination.
| heard the other day upon this
floor in eloquent words depicted how
within the grasp Of the humblest was
the vast power, prestige, wealth, and
glory of a railroad president. l heard
with bated breath and %throbbing heart
the evils of Government management,
and how Government management eff
ficiency would be lost, ambition would
be chilled, and the very essence of
democratic social economy would be
destroyed. And as l listened to the
word pictured which thus e]ntranced
men l closed my eyes and wondered
in what year and in what month were
we hearing of private railroad "a
agement and of it's necessity for our
well-being and our success and our
prosperity. And then | recalled, as
| recovered from the hypnotic inlu-
ence of the orator, that we were in
war; that the Nation faced the great
est crisis in its history; that it called
upon its men and it's industries for
the best and the most efficient that
was in them. | remembered that the
Nation thought of the marvellous eff
AiSiS1hSt VI SiLISliO VI iIo
railroads, and turned with pride and
with confidence to its railroad man.
ayers and magnates, and left them
the great transportation problems
that confront US. And then | remem
bered, when wholly free from the
spell, of the eloquence in this Cham
Der, the muddling few months of last
year, when private management de-
monsrated its inability to cope with
the Nations crisis, and the boosted
efficiency of private management was
found to be a mere iridescent dream.
Volumes have been written in the
past of the superiority of private
management. The railroad propa-
gandist has plastered the whole Ma
ton with demonstrations of the SUI
periority of private efficiency. The
question, though, has been decided. 1t
is no longer academic. The pitiless
logic of events has determined it.
Private management and the boasted
efficiency of private management
could not do the job. They acknow-
lodged defeat, and Government man.
agement succeeded. Two months ago
I would have been prepared to meet,
and to meet fully, every argument
presented in favor Of the efficiency of
private management as contrasting
with the efficiency of governmental
management. But the question now
is no longer debatable.
Mr.. Gallinger. Mr.. President, will
the Senator permit me to interrupt
him..
Mr.. Johnson of California. Certain
ly.
Mr.. Gallinger. l will ask the Sena-
tor if, in justice to the railroads, the
Senator ought not to say that the
railroads have been greatly handicap
ped by statutes that we have enacted
from time to time, and which, when
the roads were taken over by the Gov
eminent, the Director General, with
a stroke of the pen or in some other
way, practically wiped off the statute
books, thus giving himself a free hand
to do what the railroads could not do
because Of legislation?
Mr.. Johnson of California. Mr.
President, I thank the Senator for the
suggestion. I will write with just as
little gentleness and with just as ten.
der a hand the obituary Of private
management in the United States:
and I am perfectly willing to concede
in this obituary that the railroad com
panies have had many, many diff
culties-those suggested by the Sen