We do not ask for favors. We wish to be treated fairly; that is all. No one can possibly be more interested in the prosperity of the railroads than the railroad employes. From every dollar earned by the railroad forty-two cents go directly to pay wages of railway employes, while only twenty-one cents, or one-half that amount, go to pay interest and dividends. In no other country in the world does the railroad employe get so large a share and the security holder so little. Why should not the man who invests his money in railroad stock receive as much return in shape of dividends as the man who invests his in a farm or factory? The last census report of the government, that for 1900, showed that money invested in farm lands in the United States earned an average return of over 10 per cent, and money invested in manufactures earned over 19 per cent. The governor of Iowa, in a printed article over his own signature, appearing in the February, 1907, number of "Farming," gave a number of specific instances where money invested in farm lands in Iowa earned from 18 to 23 per cent, and he referred to such cases as typical. The last report of the Interstate Commerce Commission shows total earnings of all railroads in the United States for year ending June 30, 1907, to have been $2,589,105,578. It also shows total capitalization as $13,053,974,156, and money paid as interest and dividends $551,128,713, equal to 4.2 per cent on capitalization. Certainly this does not seem excessive when compared with profits in farming and manufacturing as given above.

We are glad to know that our farmers and manufacturers are prosperous, because we have long since learned that when they are not prosperous the railroads cannot prosper. I fear they have not yet fully realized that it is better for them, also, that the railroads should prosper. We hear no complaints in Congress or elsewhere because our farmers and manufacturers are prosperous; in fact, we are all inclined to boast about it.

The last annual report of the Interstate Commerce Commission gives the aggregate capitalization of the railroads in the United States as over $13,000,000,000, showing that the railroad investment in our country is second in amount only to that in agriculture. It is estimated that the number of railroad stockholders today is over 400,000. We know that in 1907 over 1,600,000 men were employed on American railroads. Do you know of any good reason why this army of railroad men, together with the 400,000 stockholders, should not receive as fair consideration from government and people at large as the farmer and manufacturer receive? And yet the government in effect lets the one have money without interest to buy his land, and by means of a tariff makes you pay more for much that you buy, so that the other can pay his employes good wages. Personally I make no complaint because of either of these things; but so far as I can learn no one in Congress has suggested that railroads should raise their rates so that you might receive higher wages, and yet the two things, rates and wages, are very closely related.

If anything I have said has helped you to a better understanding of the railroad problem, I am glad. If it has caused you to take a renewed or deeper interest in the subject, I am glad. I could go on and multiply cases in confirmation of what I have said had I the time, but what I have said already is perhaps sufficient. Do you intend to make railroading your life business? Are you interested in the prosperity of railroads, and particularly of the Burlington? Do you clearly see the relation between rates and wages? Do you think wages are too high? If not, perhaps you do not agree with one of your congressmen in Washington, who has just recently, on the floor of the house, urged that the Interstate Commerce Commission be given more power over rates, which means power to reduce them still more, because they have never, so far as I have heard, exercised their power over rates in any other way. Personally, I am glad I can claim to be a railroad man, and not only glad, but proud of it as well. I think the American railway is the one great institution above all others that Americans should be proud of.

Mr. W. R. Lawson, an Englishman, who investigated our railroads in 1903, wrote upon his return, in his book on American Industrial Problems: "The science of transportation is going to be the special contribution of the American people to political economy."

Mr. Neville Priestley, an English gentleman and Under Secretary to the Government of India, Railway Department, came to this country in 1904 for the purpose of investigating our American railroads. His report was submitted to the English government and printed.[C] Among other things he said: "American railway men are quick to see a new idea. They are quicker still to try it. They take a great pride in their profession and are striving to get at the science of it. That their methods are not always perfect is what might have been expected, but they have managed to do what no other country in the world has done, and that is, carry their goods traffic profitably at extraordinarily low rates, notwithstanding the fact that they pay more for their labor than any other country. It is in the study of how they do this that much benefit can be derived by other countries."

Mr. Leroy Beaulieu, a distinguished French economist, who visited this country in 1905 and made a careful examination of American economic conditions, wrote as follows upon his return to his native country: "All in all, the prosperity of the American railway system as well as the excellence of service it renders, is undeniable. If, therefore, one were in search of model railway methods, it would be wise to turn to those practiced under the free American system, not to those illustrated by a system operated under the debilitating control of the state."

It has been well said that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country and in his own house."

FOOTNOTE:

[C] A condensation of Mr. Priestley's able report was made for the Bureau of Railway News and can be had on application.