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"Laugh and the World Laughs with You"

BY ADELBERT CLARK

The world has no use for sorrow,
No fount for a flood of tears,

For life is too short and precious

Too fleet are the passing years.

So bury it deep-your trouble,

Weep not for the bird that's flown,
"If you laugh, the world laughs with you,
If you weep, why, you weep alone.”

There is sunshine and hope and gladness
To pay us for pain and wrong;
There is beauty and love and flowers
And birds of the sweetest song.
There is nothing gained by grieving
Over a cold, carved stone,

"If you laugh, the world laughs with you,
If you weep, you must weep alone."

Learn well, the lessons from nature,
Of what the great past has been,

And profit by all its teachings

The rise and the fall of men.

Wear a smile when the clouds are darkest
And the sweet voiced bird has flown;

"If you laugh, the world laughs with you,
If you weep, you will weep alone."

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ROCK RIVER NEAR STERLING, ILL.-CHICAGO & NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY.

CABUNIDGE, MASS.

The Railway Conductor

PUBLISHED MONTHLY AND ENTERED AS SECOND CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE, CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA. SUBSCRIPTION, $1.00 PER YEAR.

F. H. PEASE, EDITOR.

A. B. GARRETSON AND W. J. MAXWELL, Managers, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
W. N. GATES, Advertising Agent, Garfield Building, Cleveland, Ohio.

VOLUME XXVI

APRIL, 1909

STRADES

NUMBER FOUR

Address of Mr. L. E. Johnson

President Norfolk & Western Railway Company, Before the Farmville Board of Trade, Farmville, Virginia,

It is with a great deal of pleasure that we, as the representatives of the Norfolk & Western Railway Company, are present with you this evening for friendly and neighborly conference concerning matters which are of mutual interest. One of the great pleasures that come to me, as part of the result of holding the office that I do, is the opportunity that it affords me, from time to time, to join in and be a part of assemblies of the business men of the various communities through which the road that I have the honor to represent traverses; and I have felt that no opportunity should be neglected on my part to become personally acquainted with the people whom our road serves, and I know no better way to become acquainted with the progress and the resulting needs of transportation than by meetings and discussions of this kind.

These conferences can now take place with particular advantage, owing to the fact that, under the laws of the country, such conferences can no longer be deemed objects of suspicion. We all well know that there can be, now-a-days, no swapping of favors between railroads and their shippers, nor between railroads and communities; but that each community is entitled to receive a just, fair and equal consideration from the transportation company, according to the character and amount of business which it is ready and able to furnish. It is upon this basis that I have been mingling today with the people of Farmville, in order that I may receive a

December 17, 1908

broader and more comprehensive view of your need, and also that I might say some brief word in respect to the viewpoint of the railroad, to the general end, that each of us may have a more enlarged and sympathetic view of the general situation as it affects our mutual interests, and that each may give to the other a just and fair consideration of their requirements.

In discussing railroads and the enormous development thereof in this country, and making predictions with reference to future developments, it is interesting to reflect for a moment as to the things that have been accomplished in the past. In this connection, you are reminded that, in the year 1830-a date that is within the lifetime of your older citizens-there were only about twenty miles of railroad operated by steam power within the United States, and that twenty miles located only about two hundred miles from the town of Farmville. In the year 1907, however, there were over two hundred and thirty thousand miles of operated steam railroad in the United States; embracing single, double, three, and four tracks, and, in some cases, even as many as six tracks. This enormous increase of transportation plant involved the giving of active and honorable employment to more than a million and a half people; and the construction of this work has been the means of developing untold wealth in various sections of the country, whose resources, without such means of transportation, would necessarily have remained idle and undeveloped, or only sub

ject to the slow development incident to the growth of the local community which could, at best, only consume a small part of what the tributary country was capable of producing.

The educational and christianizing influences that result from building railroads ought to be well appreciated by all of our people; yet, this is not frequently commented upon, though it is only necessary to mention the fact, and the least reflection will give assurance of its truth. Not until the railroads of this country had joined together the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and the same mode of communication had been provided from the Gulf of Mexico to the extreme boundary lines of our northern sections, did it come about that an equal and comparatively uniform state of society and reasonable protection of person and property become the rule throughout the entire United States. Prior to the existence of this condition, life and property was unsafe on any of the outskirts of civil zation, and bear in mind that these outs. s of civilization were the sections of country in which the locomotive of the steam railway had not penetrated; hence I think we must conclude that the railroads of this country have doubtless played the largest part in the civilizing and, in fact, the christianizing of the country, and bringing all of its parts up to the same reasonable level of moral and intellectual attainment.

In doing this work, the railroads of the country have been pioneers, and it is a well-recognized fact that they have reached out in their progress of development far and away in advance of the requirements of many sections. This pioneer development has been doubtless necessary, and, although in most cases it has not been remunerative to those who have risked their money in the enterprise, yet the good that has been accomplished must be a reasonable reward to those who have borne the burden of pressing forward such work. Our predecessors of less than a generation ago have been busy in carrying on this great pioneer work, but a burden equally important rests upon those of us who have today responsibilities in connection with railroad operation and construction. We, today, are serving a larger and more con

gested population, and the incessant demands of modern business which call upon the railroads for lateral lines, industrial sidings, more and more double track, stronger bridges, with reductions of curves and grades, and larger terminal facilities, are pressing upon us each day in response to a never-ending demand which comes from a progressive people, who are determined to move forward to the highest possible development.

Hence you perceive that the management of a railroad company today, in its operation and constructive improvements, has just as many problems and difficulties to face as the railroad manager of a generation ago, whose principal duty was the construction of a single line of track between two great centers of business. The demand now is for economic administration of every business, and hence the facilities must be furnished whereby such economics in manufacture and delivery may be practiced. This is a duty which this generation owes to those who are coming on, and those who engage in furnishing us statistics give reasonable assurance that the generation succeeding this will be numerous enough to use successfully all of the facilities that we can possibly provide.

Some intelligent estimates have been recently made that one billion dollars should be spent during the next ten years upon the railroads of the South. (The South being designated as the section south of Potomac and Ohio rivers, and east of the Mississippi.) This means the expenditure of one hundred millions of dollars per annum for the period just mentioned, in order to fully provide for the increased demands for transportation facilities for the industrial development and the increased population which is seeking to take advantage of the great development which is in progress.

My own judgment leads me to believe that these great sums of money may be spent with advantage to the transportation companies, and the expenditure, if wisely made, would undoubtedly itself aid greatly in accomplishing the development which is thereby to be provided for.

Again, statisticians who have studied the growth of population in this country in the past, and the ratio which will probably

measure its continued growth during the next twenty years, give reasonable assurance that this country in the year 1928 will have a population in excess of one hundred and thirteen millions of people. These are startling figures, and if they are reasonably correct, they demonstrate the fact that this generation owes a duty, not only to itself, but to those who are coming after in the near future, to provide for the comfort, well-being and happiness of a succeeding generation in the same measure that we have enjoyed the forethought and provision made by those who have preceded us. No single element can contribute more to the comfort and prosperity of a people than improved transportation facilities.

How can these facilities be provided? It is a recognized fact, that just at the present time and for the past few years, there has been a halt in the progress of development on these lines, and the reason of it must be ascertained and the cause removed, else the transportation companies will find it impossible to do the allotted work which properly belongs to the present generation.

For my own part, I believe that the railroad development of today is suffering from a lack of co-operation and confidence on the part of the general business interests of the country. It is always easy to exploit political theories with reference to the restrictions that should be placed upon railway companies, and those theories usually result in loss tending to reduce their earnings and earning power. This is not unnatural, but yet, in the consideration of such economic questions, when they are brought before the state or nation, this great transportation business upon which so much other business is dependent, ought to have the intelligent and co-operative judgment of the other business interests of the country, in order that no great harm should come to it as the result of the ill-considered legislation. During these past years, the railway companies of the country have not felt that they have had the intelligent and discriminating support from other business interests which they should be entitled to receive. It is true that evils have crept into the management of railway properties, yet, on the whole, the managements of the railway companies have been as honest in

their dealings as the other business interests of the country; and if it has been discovered that a railway company has granted a secret rate or rebate it has also appeared that such favor was granted at the solicitation and threat of the individual that was most to be benefited by the wrong. I do not make any apology for, nor do I attempt to condone any unlawful acts of the railway companies in years gone by, but I do say, that when there has been a change for the better, with regard to certain practices and conditions, the railway companies should only bear their proper portion of criticism for what has gone before, and should not be compelled to be the target for adverse legislation for crimes which they committed, it may be, but only as a part of the system of business which had grown up in the country and which now has happily been abandoned.

It has been ascertained by good authority that the wealth of this country is approximately divided into three great shares, and that one-third of this wealth is represented by agricultural industries, embracing the value of lands used for such purposes, the products of such lands, and all kinds of live stock; that another third is represented by the value to be placed upon the property held in the cities and towns of the country, which includes the value of such city real estate, the mercantile and manufacturing industries so located; and the remaining third is represented by the property held under various corporate interests, in which are included the railroads of the United States.

When one considers the intimate and close relationship which exists between all classes of property as affected by the ability to secure for it transportation facilities at convenient and successive intervals and at reasonable rates, the fact must be brought home of the necessity of maintaining the companies in good standing by sympathetic co-operation; and that any policy of a nation which leads to a lack of confidence in the ownership and management of such properties must reflect itself, not only in the character of service and earning power of the properties themselves, but, will also be reflected in the business prosperity of the industries dependent upon transportation facilities. Every influence of fair deal

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