Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-28

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has been higher than its gross
revenues ever since the Christ
mas holidays and despite that
fact the Leader has not only re-
fused to curtail. its service to
Fitzgerald and the surrounding
section but has doubled that SER
vice by starting three weeks ago
the publication of a daily news
paper. That has made the net
operating losses even greater
FOR THE TIME BEING.
BUT, The Leader knows that
it will not continue to lose
money. There has not been a
year since the Leader was first
published that during som e
months the operating expenses
did not exceed gross receipts.
Such a temporary shortage has
sometimes existed for entire sea-
sons. Always in the past, before
the accumulated "fat" of pre-
ceeding brisk seasons had come
anywhere near being exhausted,
business has again picked up and
profits have been made suffi-
cient to cover the losses of the
dull season and to leave a sur
plus to care for the next dull
season. That is the way of bust
ness.
The Leader doubts very seri-.
ously whether any business now
in existence has made profits
month in and month out, season
in and season out, continuously
and without interruption since it
was launched. Business is
series of gains and losses. Wage
is something different. T h e
Leader pays what the manage
ment and the employees both
consider just and reasonable
wages. In brisk periods our en-
ployees do not demand a share
in the profits mad in dull sea-
sons The Leader does not de
mand that they should share in
the losses.
That, however, is merely in
cidental to the main question
suggested by the Enterprise, the
OF who made the road
possible. Railroading is bus
mess, not philanthropy. Seven
great trunklines that were built
through the West were built by
private capital WITH gifts of
land from the federal govern
ment, your land and my land,
whose present valuation and the
income from which since they
were given, runs into the bill
lions, into sum that almost
staggers the imagination. The
present owners of those great
trunklines of the West certainly
did not give" anybody any
thing, and the owners of the At
lanta Birmingham and Atlantic
hove not intentionally developer
any new freedom of heart and
purse which the railroad pioneers
di dnot have.
Fitzgerald paid well in gift of
land and privilege to get the A.
B. & A. routed through Fitzger-
aid and paid well to get the rail-
road shops here. Every point
which the road passed
made concessions or gifts of land
to the road in order to get it
started. The purpose of Fitzger-
AIDS gift was not philanthropy
any more than the purpose of the
road in running through Fitz-
gerald and building its railroad
shops here was philanthropy.
Fitzgerald wanted the service
the road could give and Fitzger-
aid wanted the pay roll the shops
would bring.
Since the road began opera
tons, it has given millions of
dollars worth Of service to this
section and has been paid an
equal number of million dollars
for the service it has given. 1t
has paid millions of dollars to
its employees in exchange for an
equal number of million dollars
worth of service. These employ
ees have spent these millions of
dollars in, Fitzgerald and the
other towns and cities along the
line in exchange for an equal
number of million dollars worth
of food and clothes. and school
supplies for their children and
rents for homes and payment
for homes they bought.
There has been no philanthro-
Ply. Every thing has been paid
as it went. The road has at times
made profit for its owners
from the income derived from
freight and passenger tolls in and
out of the points it serves, The
people got their moneys worth
in service. The section Of coun-
try has developed as it could not
possibly have developed without
the road The permanence Of