The spectator., 1921-06-14

| Wait" Hatch Snarled. Its gO- ing to be both yours and the railroad | cOmpany'S business. before you are through with it. Marrow. here. rep resents Marshall. and I represent Henckel and myself. What are you going to do about those ground leases"
 Nothing at all. except to insist upon the condition under which they were granted by the railroad company"
 Meaning that you are going to try to hold us to the fixed percentage charge for handling. packing. loading. and transferring?"
 Meaning just that. If you raise the proportional market-price charge on the producers and merchants. the leases will terminate"
 "l thought that was about where you'd land. Now listen: we're It. | Marshall and Henckel and land what we say. goes as 1t lies We are | going to use the present C. s. X w. i plants and equipment charging our own storage and handling percentages. based on anything we see fit If you | pun tiut DuSiIiCSS Vti Us and try to drive us out we'll fight you l all the way up to the Supreme court. | If you beat us there. we'll merely move over to the other side of your tracks to our old Red Tower houses and yards and go on doing business at the old stand
 The boss sat back in his chair. and I could tell by the set of his jaw that he was refusing to be panicstricken.
 You are taking altogether too much for granted aren't you?" he put in mildly. You are assuming that the courts will eventually nullify the terms of the ground-leases. or. if they do not. that the railroad company will do nothing to save it's patrons from falling into this new graft trap"
 Hatch snapped his fingers. Now you are coming to the milk in the coconut." he rapped out. That ia exactly what we're assuming. You are going to let go, once for all. Nor cross. You are not going 10 fight us in the courts. and neither are you cO- ing to harass Us out of existence with short cars. over-charges. and the thou sand and one petty prosecutions that you railroad buccaneers make use of to line your own pockets '"
 But If we refuse to lie down and let you walk over LIS and our patrons what then?" the boss inquired.
 That brought the explosion. Hatch's eyes blazed and he snacked fist into palm.
 "Then we'll knife you and we'll do it 1o velvet finish, After so long q time. we've got you where you cant side-step. NorcroSs
 The boss refused to he panic stricken: or. anyhow. he looked that way
 "We have hc:-d that kind of talk many times in the past" he said. "The way to make it effective is to produce the goods"
 That's just what we're here to dol" snapped the Red Tower president win l diCtively. You. and the Big Fellows in New York want q iot of the state railroad laws repealed or amended. If you cant set that string united. you can't gamble any more with your stock. Well and good You came here six months ago and set out 10 manufacture public sentiment in favor of the railroad You ran up your 'public-be-plea>ed dag and beat the tom-tom and blew the hewgag until you got lot of dolts and chuckle heads and easy marks to believe that you really meant it."
 Well, go on"
 With all this humbug and hula. balloo you still couldn't he quite cer- tain that you had made your poi.t 1: that your measures would carry through the incoming legislature After the primaries you counted noses among the candidates and found it was going to he tight squeak-a d-d tight squeak Then you did what you railroad people always do: you slipped our quietly and bought few men-just to be on the safe side"
 So iT was sprung at last. Hatch was accusing uS of the one thing that we hadn't done; that the boss knew We hadn't done.
 I'm afraid you'll have to try again. Mir. Hatch" he said. with Il sour little smile Then he added Anybody can make charges, you know
 Hatch jumped to his feet and he was almost foaming at the mouth
 Right there Is where we've got you"' he shouted. You were too eau tious to put one of your own men in the field. s0 you sent outside for your briber. He was n stranger, and he had to have help in finding the right men to buy. pedmon. here. was out of job-thnnks to you and your meddling the steering stunt of fered good pay. Do you want any more?"
 The boss shook his head.
 "It Is a matter of complete indlfrer- ence to me. don't know In the least 1 wbot vou TO milking nbouf and youll