The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-04-04
everything financially, that they may

everything financially, that they may
come here for $500? They come
here for the very reason that you
will find the best and the bravest and
the ablest in all the engineering
world, the best and the ablest and the
ablest there are in every walk of life,
go into the Government service to
perform something not alone for the
individual, but to do the higher thing
the thing, thank God, that all Of
US are here to do-to do something
as we'll As u people for u people
and for our country
Chill ambition, Mr.. President? Des-
troy initiative? Not so; not so at all.
Politics is a nationally run railroad?
Why, the first manager Of a nation
ally run railroad that dared discharge
a single man for politics would be
swept from official life by an over
whelming flood of public opinion that
would brook no opposition. Politics
in a nationally run railroad wherein
the employees were directed under
civil service, as of necessity these
would be? Politics? Politics?
All, l fear that they do not distin-
guish between different kinds Of po-
%litics, these who inveigh against the
politics that may exist under public
Management and the awful politics
that we have seen undA' private "ef-
ticiency" and private management.
I come from a city of more than
half a million inhabitants. Side by
side with the privately owned street
railway is that Of which we are most
proud, our municipality owned rail-
way. l was delighted to go from the
capital of the State to do what little I
could in the great struggle that we
had for municipal ownership in that
city. We then had every argument
advanced against municipal ownership
that has been announced in this
Chamber in the last week against
Government ownership of the trans
p%ortation systems of the country;
every single argument, running the
| gamut from the horror of the loss of
private initiative and from the terror
of politics in the management of the
roads to the expense and the trouble
and the difficulty and the inefficiency
of public management. We won, fl
nally, in our fight before the people.
Today, side by side with the private
ly owned road is the municipal owned
road of the city of San Francisco.
Where is the efficiency? All, the
efficiency is conceded to be with the
municipality owned road; and, as they
run side by side, the municipal road
is run better, is run more clearly, is
operated infinitely better in every res
pect, is admittedly the superior of
the privately owned road, and it pays
its men higher wages, it gives them
less hours of labor, it makes a great
err profit than the privately owned
road.
/ recognize, Mr.. President, that the
comparison is but slight between a
municipality owned street railroad sy-
stem and the preat transportation sy-
stem of the Nation. Nevertheless, the
analogy is there. Politics in that mu-
nicipal road? Why, in the city Of San
Francisco, of varied politics and of ex-
periences, indeed, the most bizarre of
any city in America, during the time
we maintained a municipality owned
road a man has not dared to go to
that road and try to inject it into the
politics Of the city or to try to make
of it's employees mere political pup
pets. Say this, if you can, of the pri-
vately owned road.
My State is not alone in the exper-
fences that I relate. l gathered to-
gether to present to you today the
story of various railroads in this Ma
ton. I found that the material at
hand was so great that within the linn
it's of no ordinary effort could I hope
to present eve IN outline of the facts
I would like to read you the fascin.
ating story of Charles Francis Adams
of the Erie road. I would like to put
into the Record the original agree.
ments which he for the first time pre-
sented to a startled Nation. I WOULD
like to tell you the story of the New
Haven road, of it's wild finance, of rail
road wrecked, and of railroad reor.
ganizers, If time permitted I woulc
like to dwell upon the Southern Pa.
cifc, and the New York Central, and
I would like to point the moral from
the story Of all these privately owned
roads, the moral that every man to.
day ought fully to understand. The
} tale of private management is a sor.
did and a wretched and a wicked and
a cruel tale. It is the story Of greed
and avarice, of plumber, and wrong
and corruption.
Gentlemen upon this floor have said
all this is of the past. Perhaps it is
perhaps it is not. You had your ex-
perience. You know what it means
The results you understand. In the
Kaleidoscope events that are now