The Life of Henry Bradley Plant / Founder and President of the Plant System of Railroads and Steamships and Also of the Southern Express Company

by G. Hutchinson Smyth

CHAPTER VIII.

Florida Mr. Plant’s Hobby—Banquet at Ocala—Mr. Plant’s Speech—Sail on Lakes Harrison and Griffin—Banquet at Leesburg—Visit to Eustis—Cheering Words to a Young Editor—Make the best of the Frost—It may be a Blessing in Disguise—Must Cultivate other Fruits, (and Cereals) besides Oranges—Importance of Honesty—Sense of Justice—Consideration for the Workmen—Unconscious Moulding-Power over Associates and Employees—Letter of Honorable Rufus B. Bullock.

MR. PLANT’S associates say of him: “Oh, Florida is one of the President’s pets.” Anything touching the prosperity of Florida is sure to get a sympathetic hearing from him at all times. He loves the Land of Flowers and has spent many pleasant days in it at all seasons of the year. Nor does it fall to the lot of every man to receive such high appreciation for the good he has done and such esteem and affection as Mr. Plant receives from these warm-hearted, whole-souled Southern people. Mr. Plant having recently included Ocala in his railroad and hotel system, a fact which promises much for the future progress of this enterprising town and section of Western Florida, the people wished to express their grateful appreciation of the man whom all the South delights to honor. So, in the winter of 1896, they tendered to him a grand banquet to which he and his friends and associates in office were welcomed. Nothing was left undone by these good people to make the occasion pleasant.

The feast was held in the Ocala Hotel which came into the possession of Mr. Plant during 1896, and was opened that season as one of the Plant System Hotels. The house was elaborately decorated with Southern ferns and flowers. A reception was first held in the parlor, then about seventy ladies and gentlemen sat down to a sumptuous dinner, enlivened by sweet music, and good cheer. Many beautiful tributes of esteem and friendship were eloquently presented to the guest of the evening, who had been requested by the committee of arrangements to speak to the toast, “The Plant System.” The following account taken from the Atlanta Constitution, is a fairly good report of his speech, which held the audience spellbound from beginning to end. He said: “I am gratified and pleased beyond measure to be with you to-night on an occasion of social enjoyment to exchange compliments and greetings with the undaunted citizens of Ocala and revel in the bounteous hospitality of this proud and prosperous little city. Words count for but little in the effort to express my sincere appreciation of such evidences of cordiality as have been shown this night to me and to my friends and associates in business. Surely the very presence of so many of your community’s worthy citizens, your city’s leading business and professional men, who have rendered the further compliment of bringing with them their charming wives and daughters, would of itself inspire any man, who is not insensible to the impulse of gratitude, with a feeling of gratification and deep appreciation for the compliment it conveys. It pleases me to see so many of the ladies of Ocala here to-night, for their charming presence lends beauty to the brilliant scene and makes all the more enchanting this hour of pleasure and promise.

“I feel that it is good to be here. I am always glad to mingle in social intercourse with my good friends of Florida, for I warrant you that nothing is more comforting than to know that in all my endeavors to aid them in the upbuilding of their favored section I have their hearty good-will and unstinted co-operation. In congratulation upon the continued prosperity of Ocala, despite the recent chilling frosts, which seemed well-nigh to sweep away your beautiful orange groves and blight the interests of your agricultural community, I wish to say that it is pleasing to me to observe the undaunted pluck and courage of your irrepressible and invincible people, who, never swerving from the duties of citizenship, have set about the arduous task of building up again the agricultural and industrial interests of this region of Florida, with a newness of life and a heartier zest. Such determined effort will surely be crowned with unbounded success and prosperity in the end. There is no reason why Ocala should not be a prosperous city. Your climate is excellent; your water is pure and wholesome; your lands are fertile and prolific, and your people are joined with a unity of ambition and a unity of aim for the upbuilding of every interest alike.

“I have been asked to speak to you of what is known as the ‘Plant System.’ Not this mere physical system of the man—for that speaks for itself. But the system of railways and steamships and other interests which have been built up as all other industries are built up in the great march of American progress and industrial development. In touching upon the plans and scope of the Plant System, I believe I will be credited with perfect sincerity when I say in the very outset, that if some of the conditions of which we now have knowledge had been known in the beginning, much of this system would not exist to-day. I have reference to such conditions as have in late years arisen and confronted corporations in the nature of an obstacle and an obstruction. As you all perhaps know, there has been a great change in the plans and methods of railroad construction during the last decade or two. In the old days railroads were built for the most part by the people of means along the proposed route, and they were for the most part short lines. People did not set out in the earlier days to build long lines of railways. As years rolled by, however, there sprang up among the people of some sections an unexplained feeling of hostility to corporations—a sort of antagonism to capital—which has worked its way like a devouring worm into the politics of the nation, and which, in recent years, has well nigh sapped the lifeblood from many of the leading railway systems of the country, by plunging them into such a complicated pool of injurious legislation as to land them on the dangerous shores of bankruptcy. Just at the time when such a spirit of antagonism was at its zenith there came a change in the methods of operating railway lines. Instead of the short lines, several of the roads began to be joined together for a longer line, thus reducing the expenses of operation and at the same time giving better facilities of travel and of shipment. It was found that the railroads could not live if operated on the short-line basis, for competition grew so great it became necessary to link this road and that to form a through line binding the commerce of one section to that of another in rapid transit at reduced expenditure. This came as a necessity born of the situation, for the railroads were being bankrupted on the old plan and were sold out by receivers for their original owners to the men of capital, and they saw the absolute necessity of a more economical basis of operation. Taxes were high, competition was great and everything served evidence that the old plan would no longer prove feasible.

“Just why there should be any hostility to such a plan of railway management among the people who are, after all, the ones benefited most by the increased facilities that are given them, is not made clear to me, but such a spirit did prevail, and does prevail to-day in some sections to such an extent that men, blinded to the interests of the people of their sections, are continually stabbing at the very heart of the railway corporations and crying out that they need to be watched by legislative censors, and of this notion the railway commission was born. My friends, I know but little of the motives that prompt such legislation against railroads, but I do know that some very serious mistakes have been made. It has been said that the king can do no wrong, but it has with equal truth been said that the king can make mistakes. In the State of Georgia, this persistent spirit of hostility to railroads, this organized effort of legislative restriction, has within the past few years thrown nearly every railroad in the State into the hands of a receiver. The result has been a gradual reorganization of these properties by the men of capital in the East, and a new plan of operation at reduced expenditure through consolidation. What else could have resulted?

“The interests of the people and the railroads are certainly not conflicting interests. They are common interests and should go hand in hand and heart to heart in the great work of building up this country. The one should not be made an obstacle for the other. I cannot see how the Plant System of railways and steamships could be other than a pillar in the structure of the industrial world of this Republic, interested in all that tends to the promotion of the general interests of the people. Of what avail would railroad construction be to the owner if it were intended to be run in hostility to the business interests of the people of the country it traversed? What would a railroad be worth if not supported by a healthful business community in perfect harmony? On the contrary, what would any country be without the railroads?

“It is true that the people of this section have suffered heavy loss lately through some unexplained stroke of Providence, by which the orange groves of Florida were laid low by the withering touch of the hand of dread winter, and it is furthermore true that the phosphate interests have been injured by an over-production, but that is a matter that rests with the fates, to be worked out in their own good season. Misfortunes sometimes prove to be but blessings in disguise, and it rests not with mortals to gainsay the wisdom of that edict which comes from an Omniscient Providence. In all your losses on the farms and in the phosphate mines, bear in mind that the railroads are suffering a kindred loss, for the blow was as keenly felt by them as by you.

“Let us move together while the hand of adversity weighs heavily upon us, just as we have always tried to do when we were more prosperous. Let us take no part in the systematic effort that some are making, to persecute the railway enterprises of Florida at such a time as this, for such persecutors are blinded to their country’s interests. If there was ever a time when the people and the railroads ought to work in perfect harmony that time is at hand. I believe labor ought to be protected in a reasonable and rightful degree, but I also believe that capital ought to be protected against the unrighteous onslaughts of those who know not what they do.