iiiS r f in A TD Warn EO.UNDEflL ; VOL. LXXXVIIl-NO. 22. WILmTwOTOK, JSf. C, SUNDAY MOENIKG, APJEUL, 10, 1911. WHOLE NUMBER 13,584; PAGES 9 18 14 ; I . l S RAILWAY PROSPECTS Address of President L. E. Johnson, 0f Norfolk & Western Railway Before Recent Session of Commercial Congress. Ir chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I, iS n,)t unnatural, when we speak 0t Railway Prospects in the South" h;1; (,;ir minds should hark back to tl,jl i,.fii;inings of railway development and .isn-rtain it me lessons 01 me v not give us something upon n:ist imi ttliich we may predicate the future, for i he purpose of studying railway .l(.niii1iKhments and railway pro-j uivss and prospects, I know of no en vironnient more suited to the purpose ilian within the borders of this great rmital of the" "Empire State" of the South reared as it has been by South ,rn nun who typify the very bst in American industry and culture. At lanta itself sets at naught all the tra ditions of the more remote past and inings to our minds the knowedge that the introduction and development of railroads has meant the establish ment of a new industrial force in the progress of this country and his dem onstrated that great industrial centers v rxist and thrive away from loca tions which were formerly considered necessary to substantial commercial progress. If any one, during the first half of tin last century, had been called upon to predict what would be the location of Georgia's greatest city during the years which should mark the opening of the present century, he would hard lv have selected the location which marks the gathering place at this mo ment of this great commercial con gress. Men who had studied the past and gathered together the experience of former ages would have sought at the water's edge the location of Georgia's future commercial and industrial cen ter. Probably at some ample harbor lipon the seacoast, or at least upon the banks of some navigable stream. No one in that day and generation would have had the temerity" to predict that, far removed from water (transporta tion, there should be builded up this great metropolis of industrial traffic, whose influence would pervade the en tire South, and rival its greatest sea ports. That Atlanta exists a a domi nating factor in the commerce of the L South, indicates that some new princi ple has become a part of our economic development. Before undertaking to say a word or two in regard to the present "Rail way Prospects," , which is the subject which ' has been assigned to me, it will doubtless be profitable to reflect a moment on themaaafiner in which railway construction ' was begun in the South and throughout our coun try generally. It was in the South that the operation of railroads 'with steam as the sole motive power was first undertaken, and this action adopted by the Charleston & Hamburg Railroad Company on January 14th, 1830, marks an epoch in the transpor tation development of this country. It was this year that the railroad com pany just mentioned, in pursuance of the conclusions' reached by its board of directors, issued an order for the construction f . alocpmotive which had been designed by a citizen of Charleston, and which was built at' the West Point Foundry in the State of New York. The name borne by this locomotive, the first used fn regu lar service, was "The Best Friend of Charleston," and it is needless to say that the name so adopted was a fit ting title for the instrument of com merce then put into use and which has become so large a factor in the civilization of our country. The construction oi railroads in the early history of the South possessed but few attractions to those who .had money to invest in business enterpris es. The experiment was considered doubtful and the undertaking highly speculative; and, although the neces sity and advantage of more adequate transportation facilities were recog nized,, and appreciated as being impor tant in the development of the coun try, yet so Indifferent was -private capital to venture upon an undertak ing both costly and uncertain, that very few of the roads of the South in its early history were constructed purely through individual contribu tion. As a matter of fact, the promo tion and construction of most of the earlier built roads was the result of the' co-operation of the State with in dividuals, to which was generally add ed the aid of communities and cities whose interest it was thought would he particularly advanced by such con struction. In other words, government ownership of railroads is, for practi cal purposes, not, a new thing in this country, but, as a matter of fact, it is an experiment which has already been tried and while, during its existence, much, was accomplished which under other auspices would have been dif ficult, yet the theory has long since IUI n mo- You Our line is the mod: complete in the State. room. All Are Guaranteed , t teen abandoned as unsuited to the conditions existing in our country, and not in harmony with our form of gov ernment. However valuable and necessary the aid of the State was in he beginning of railroad construction in this coun try, it soon became apparent that railroad operation under the influence and control of governmental authority was unsatisfactory and unremunera tive. The States soon ascertained that the properties they were undertaking to operate were generally conducted at an annual deficit, and even if prof itable the State was put in an embar rassing .position of operating proper ties for the peculiar benefit of one portion of its people and one of its sections at the expense of the other sections, and the conclusion was forc ed upon the people that it was no part of the function of the govern ment to make money out of its own citizens or to benefit one at the cost of another." Many; causes co-operated to bring about the final abandonment by the States of their control and in terest in their railroads, but chiefly was this policy of abandonment due- to the conviction on the "part of the people that the operation of railroads, involving the employment of vast numbers of men and the inauguration of competition between sections and cities equally entitled to .protection and consideration from the ( State, made it impossible for tine State wise ly and efficiently to carry on these complicated and hazardous undertak ings. f. While these policies were being an augurated and tried out in the var ious States and communities of the South, the Civil War came on, the re sult of which was the annihilation of much of the work which had been done in railroad construction and, for many years thereafter, every energy of the people of the South was de voted to the reconstruction, consoli dation and operation of these avenues of commerce. The States did not un dertake to rehabilitate the roads, but usually turned them ovor to compa nies financed by individuals and, for all practical purposes, we may say that the growth of railways, in the South since the year 1865 has been the result of individual enterprise and corporate ' energy. Before we can say what is the "Rail way Prospect" in the South, I take it that it is necessary to see what has been accomplished during these years in which the companies have been working out their part of the prob lems of development, for I take it that if the railroads of the South have been laggards in the race of progress, 17ft p There is nothing so soothing to the tired man as a STEAMING HOT BATH jujft before retiring. It - . There is nothing so exasperating as to have the hot water sup ply to give out on you; the water to run in "Streaks" of hpt and A A mAi.UA4 1 a.: j. Ml luiu. jtv piupci iiicuiuu ui iieaiiiig waiei win picvcui imo. will furnish an inexhaustible, ever-ready supply of steaming hot water; fur nish it jusl: where and when you want it. Makes a bath a genuine joy. -I or have so conducted their affairs that there is in the minds of the people a lack of confidence in their integrity, then they have failed to do their part in the upbuilding of the country, and have been lacking in patriotic sacri fice for the common benefit when sac rifice has been necessary. If these are facts, then in my judgment the prospect for the future cannot be en couraging. The roads have had a fair opportun ity to do the worK that has been com mitted to them, and if they have fail ed to .live up to the responsibilities imposed, and the duties assumed, then I take it they may reasonably ex pect the same reward that was ac corded in th Scripture to the unfaith ful servant: "And there shall be taken from him even that which he hath." As one who has devoted a lifetime to the construction and operation of: railroads in this country, and whose maturer years have been spent in earnest work in the development of railroad transportation in the South; and who, as theesult of these later years of work, (has become reasonably well acquainted with the problems that have heretofore been met and handled 'by those who have had to meet the transportation problems of the South, I wish to bear emphatic and earnest testimony that no just or intelligent criticsm can be properly made against the manner in which your people have handled a problem which has been surrounded with most appalling difficulties. Indeed, the progress thM has been made dur ing these years in railroad develop ment cannot fail to excite the wonder and admiration of those who are fa miliar enough with the situation to realize the difficulties which have been overcome. Those railroads which existed at the close of the war rep resented, as many of you well know, but little else than a franchise and a right of way, and the work of the years that had gone before had been to a large extent annihilated as the result of four years of enforced neg lect, and I defy any one to name an other kind of property that deterio rates as rapidly as a railroad, result ing from lack of repair. Eternal vig ilance, and no small amount of money, is the price that must be paid for the maintenance and continued existence of a railroad, yet these roads havej been reconstructed and new lines have been built to an extent that has been marvelous, considering the dif Acuities that had to be overcome. Al though a vast amount of mileage is yet to be constructed in order that the transportation facilities dt the South shall be ' equal to many other sections ' 1 M I I ty of Pot Water in Your Home? Circulating Tank Heaters for the Automatic Instantaneous Heaters i 77 of our country, still the work that has been accomplished makes the prob lems of this generation easier and the way is open, if other conditions shall be . favorable, for this great work to go forward to its complete develop ment. Statistics of railroad accomplish ment are not easily available, except during the past twenty years. If we had the statistics of, the work done during the quarter of a century suc ceeding the closing of the war, the percentages of comparison, year by year, would be extremely interesting and would in every instance, I be lieve, show an amount of progress, even under the depressing conditions that existed during much of that time," that would reflect tremendous credit upon those who were fighting the industrial battles of that day. I invite your attention, however, to a few simple statistics of the past twenty years, believing that they ought to be sufficient to satisfy the most cntical, that the railroads of ttfe South have not been negligent of the possibilities resting upon them, but, in trust and in fact, have been diligent in providing facilities for the develop ment of the common interests. The result of the activity and energy of your people who undertook to reha bilitate the railroads of the South, showed as the result of their achieve ment up to the year 1890, the exist ence of 24,535 miles of single track, miles of second track, and 3.265 miles of yard track and sidings, in the section south of the Potomac and Ohio rivers, and east of the Missis sippi. After that year, the develop ment was not so marked in the exten sion of new lines of road, although the construction of such new lines was very substantial, but was shown in the construction of, facilities for the handling of the business which the earlier railroad construction had made possible. In 1909, the amount of single track had increased to 41,273 miles, second track to 1,656 miles, and. yard track and sidings had increased to 11.247 miles. These figures would seem to indicate that the railroads of the South have been keeping pace with the industrial development and nrovidine' fa pill Hen. to mppt its noorle The- increase of rofling stock in both quality and quantity during this per iod was as marked as the improve ment and increase in roadbed and new track. In 1890, the report of the Interstate Commerce Commission show that there were in this section 3,310 locomotives , and ; 109,669 cars, while m 1909, the number of locomo tives had increased to ' 7,772, and the cars to 308.807. During this period, n kitchen-boiler. instantaneous Heaters for the bath for all the house. Sold 4 there was .a 'distinct tendency espe cially during the later years towards the enlargement of locomotives and cars, and hence the numerical figures given above only represent in part the growth of yoflr railroads in their rolling stock intended for the u?e of the public in these communities. This increase in the various elements which go to make up the efficiency of the railroads of the South has been largely in excess of the increase in population during the time mentioned, for while, from 1890 to 1909, the sin gle track mileage had increased 68.22 per cent., and second track 54.23 per cent., yard "track and sidings 244.47 per cent., locomotives 134.80 per cent., and cars 181.58 per cent, the popula tion of the territory served by the rail roads increased from "1890 to 1910, from 13,845,801 to 18,776,059, or 35.61 per ceet. m ' Again let us look for a moment at the capitalization and investment in railroad property in the South dur ing the same period, and the figures on this line show the same progres sive development. In 1890, the capi talization of . the railroads in . the ter ritory above mentioned, which capital ization includes the outstanding stock and funded debt of those roads, was $1,153,374,401. This capitalization in 1909 had increased to $2,265,101,150. I have no means at hand for ascer taining how much of this capitaliza tion has been contributed by the peo ple of the South, but I think that it is safe to say that a very small portion has been secured from that source and I take it that from that reason, much credit is due to the people mostly your own citizens who have had the character and ability so to impress themselves upon the invest ing public of the world whereby such large sums of money have been en trusted to their care and placed at the service of your communities, to be primarily benefitted by the construc tion and upbuilding of these railroads. This money has "been secured, and ex pended for the benefit of this territo ry, although the return thereon has, in most cases, been very meager, and the average return much less than reasonable. Interest on bomls and dividends on stock which have been received on account of railroad invest ments in the South from 1891 to 1909, both inclusive, represent a rate of in terest upon this capitalization ranging from 2.54 per cent, to 3.60 per cent. I am quite well aware that, when ever the singularly slight return upon railroad investments in the South is commented upon, the answer of thoBe who are critical of raUrda'dfr usuaWj (Continued on Page Ten.) i. . 1 on Easy Terms FOR TRAINING THE YOUTH Southeastern Division Public High Schools Contest, Goldsboro, -May 10, 1911 Big Educa tional Event Then. The committee appointed at the Wilmington meeting of the South eastern Division of Public High Schools to arrange high school con tests for the said Division, Jncludihg the following counties and public high schools: Bladen Abbot tsburg, Bladenboro, White Oak; Brunswick (no public high school); Carteret f Atlantic; Columbus Chadbourn, Whiteville; Craven Dover, Vanqe boro; Cumberland Godwin, Hope Mills, Stedmand; Duplin Tachey, Warsaw; Green; Hookerton; Har nett Angier, Lillington; Johnston Benson, Kenly, Wilson's .Mills; Le noir LaGrange; New Hanover (no public high school); Onslow Rich lands; Pender Atkinson, burgaw; Robeson , Lumber Bridge, Orrum, Philadelphus, Rowland; Sampson Clinton, Newton, Grove; . Scotland Gibson; Jones Pollocksville; Wayne lalling Creek, Pikeville, Seven Springs; Wilson Lucama, nock Ridge; met in Goldsboro, Saturday, January 28th, and adopted the fol lowing plan to be submitted to the principals of the various public high schools: First. That we hold an inter-county high school meet on or about the iuth of May, at some central point. Second. That only State high schools can enter the various con tests'. , ' Third. That pupils entering the contests shall be bona fide students, but that there shall be no age limit. Fourth. That we have both literary and athletic contests. Fifth. The literary contests shall consist of debating, oratory, essays, declammations, music vocal and in strumental. Sixth. The literary contests shall be controlled by the following regu lations, viz: In the debate each school may fur nish one representative. The speech must be the boy's own t product ion. He, shall receive no. help,, save that of t grammatical and rhetorieaf corric- ( Continued on Page Ten.) 11 J 1 w ii I" jr 1 I : - '1 mi

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