This is the situation today. There is not a railroad in the South, North, East or West that could not secure all of the funds necessary for any development it might desire to make provided it could show the capitalists to whom application for the loan was made that it could furnish security which would insure the repayment of the loan and the interest thereon as due.
I doubt if there is a single southern railway system, the officers of which would not gladly today take up, consider and block out a scheme for the improvement and betterment of their property, and commence preparations to enable their system to fully perform the increased functions of a common carrier, which the abundant years of the immediate future promise to require, if they could be sure, and in turn could assure their financial backers, that the earnings of their road would be amply and safely sufficient to provide for, and take care of, the investment necessary.
Therefore, remember that the needs of the railroads are the needs of the South.
I presume there is no planter, miner, manufacturer, producer of any sort, banker, merchant or professional man in the wide South who would not say in a moment that every thousand dollars of capital invested in his vicinity, or in his town, or in his state, would be gladly welcomed and eagerly sought for, by the planter paying eight per cent and the merchant and miscellaneous producer from six to eight per cent, and that approximately one billion of dollars injected into the commercial channels of the southern states during the next ten years would bring a relative measure of prosperity to every man, woman and child within its borders.
When it is considered that this amount of money could be invested in additional railroad improvements and facilities; that under proper conditions it could be secured at a rate not in excess of five per cent; that approximately eighty per cent or more would be spent for southern labor and southern material, and would find its way through every artery and vein of southern trade and commerce, it would seem that the solid South would be thoroughly alive to the burning fact that—The needs of the railroads are the needs of the South.
I might talk to you for hours about the evil and unfairness of legislative enactments to retard and make unproductive railway investments; of the injustice of any body of men attempting by legislation, without giving the railroad corporations proper hearing, to arbitrarily adjust their rates of toll for either passenger or freight simply because politicians consider it a popular thing to do.
I might suggest a multitude of things which could be done to increase the credit of railroads throughout your section.
I might mention a multitude of things which have been done to injure and impair and prevent railroads securing the necessary capital to provide for their needs.
I might also attempt to enumerate the ill-advised actions of railroad managers and employees toward the public.