Of course, the writer of the above when he mentions $6,000,000 as the “actual investment for all purposes” means all the actual investment for all express service purposes. In that statement he is entirely correct.
But who is the writer? Well, the man who made the statements just quoted is Mr. O. C. Barber, the American “Match King.” Certainly no one—not even the most courageous and venturesome hired liar of the raiding combinations—will call Mr. Barber “yellow.”
“Why?” Well, Mr. Barber has a lot of real long-headed and hard-headed sense. He also has money. He has a whole lot of money. That makes Mr. Barber a “strong” man, as Mr. Benson puts it, in the calculating eyes and minds of public bubblers. Not only has Mr. Barber money, but, as Pearson’s editor points out, “he is a man of affairs.” He has been a man of affairs for fifty years. He is an officer or director in companies which have a capital of fifty million dollars. Their combined freight shipments are from 150,000 to 200,000 cars per year, and go to all parts of the world.
No, there is nothing of the yapped “yellow” about Mr. Barber. When the barkers bark of him, the trajectory of their language will carry it scarcely beyond the walls or to the banqueters. In most cases the barker’s voice, when adversely criticising Mr. Barber, will take that humble, pendant expression so universally characteristic of the tail of a scared dog.
Mr. Barber is “strong.” If you don’t know it get the February, 1912, Pearson’s and read his article on “The Railroad Game.” You will know it then.
The clackers who clack for those who profit by the outrageous parcels post service in this country now, will tell you, of course, that Germany, France and some other countries can “afford” to give their citizens lower postal carriage rates, “because the governments own the railroads and have their mails carried free.”
It is sufficient to say in answer to such clack that if we can have a cheap, efficient parcels post service only by owning the railroads, then let us own them.
Why not? A good, cheap parcels post service is worth it—worth it to you, to me, to every man, woman and child of the country, both to those living and to the generations yet unborn.
Yes, sirs, such a parcels post service is worth more to our people than our railroads cost to build, or would cost to rebuild or to buy. Why do I say that? I say it because it is a fact—a fact that needs but a line or two to evidence.
1. Such a parcels post service would save our people more than $300,000,000 every year.