The Pulaskian., 1919-02-21
STANDPOINT OF THE SELFISH
INTEREST OF PRIVATE
OWNERS.


be, If he has a sense Of fairness he
will admit that Secretary of the
Treasurer McAdoo, during his long
service, did not "stub his toe" as the
old saying goes and which means SO
much. But the ex-secretary, in his
plea for the fve-year Government
control of railroads, this week. uses
an unfortunate expression when he
says that we must look at the "rail-
road problem from the standpoint
of the American people, instead Of
from the selfish interests of private
railroad owners, private shippers, pri-
vate investors, or any other single
class
Unfortunately we must grant at
once, that our great vice is selfish
ness, and q. large percentage of our
business troubles and the present
problem of readjustment grow out Of
that unfortunate trait of human ma
ture. Selfishness prevents clear
ture. Selfishness prevents clear vision
end stimulates all sorts of unfair leg
isIation, regulation and discrimina-
ton. When everybody tries to get
an advantage over everybody else,
and by that is meant unfair advan-
tage, there is bound to be trouble.
Ex-Secretary McAdoo should have
used other words in description of the
viewpoint to be taken. Private ship
pers had their day of selfishness,
when secured rebates and other favors
frsm railroads, certain railroad mag
mates, in the days before railroad
regulation, ran everything from their
own selfish point. But when it comes
to private investment of private rail
road owners, the situation and condi-
tons are very different.
It is a popular fallacy that railroad
stocks are owned in Wall Street,
where they are used as speculative
footballs The facts are, that the
railroad securities are widely dis
tributed and were bought in good
faith by investors, satisfied that their
property rights would not be inter-
fered with by legislation. Securities
held by insurance companies, havings
banks and other great investment
concerns are not private property of
those corporations. but of the policy
holders and depositors. Those invest
ments come directly home and peo-
pie who never owned anything but
Liberty Bond in the shape of a Sc
curity, but who did have a life or fire
insurance policy. or a savings bank
deposit, are the real owners of those
stocks and bonds. There is no selfish
ness involved in The efforts of the of
ficers Of these concerns to protect the
people whose savings are on deposit
with them.
Stock transfer books of the older
established railroads and industrials,
not only show that the stocks of them
are distributed in small lots, that is,
less than 100 shares per capita, for
the bulk Of the issues, but that women
in many cases own very much more
than majority of the total outstand-
ing capital.
Private investors, private railroad
owners, have put their savings or in
heritances into American securities in
good faith. Nobody has a right to
accuse them of selfishness when they
simply ask that the corporations
whose securities they hold shall be
permitted to earn a fair return for
services performed.
Mr. McAdoo knows the situation
and he knows that selfishness is not
involved, so far as security holdings
are concerned. The selfishness comes
in by the people who assume to repre-
sent stock and bond holders, and as
sumo is the word for they seldom
have more than selfish interest in the
whole matter. Take reorganization
committees, for cxample-almost al
ways self-appointed for what there is
in it for them. Most of the railroad
scandals of recent years came about,
not through ANYTHING done by the
owners of the properties, but by inter
ests which assumed to represent the
widely distributed body of security
holders-their motives were purely
selfish
When the railroad situation is up
for discussion, legislators and the pub
lie press forget all about the real
owners of the properties and consider
only the men who have been chosen,
by proxy votes and not ownership of
securities, as managers or directors
they are almost invariably selfish.
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