Show OUR K PUBLIC FORUM vill VIII C E on railway investments president wilson recently referring to our railroad problems said in part they aro are indispensable to our whole economic life and railway securities are at the very heart of most investments large and small public and private by individuals and by institutions there Is no other interest so central to the business welfare of tho the country as this no doubt in the light of the now new day with its new understandings the problem ot of the railroads will also be met and dealt with in a spirit of candor and justice when the first citizen of the land stresses the importance of understanding and dealing justly with the railroads certainly the american plowman can venture upon a careful study of the problem CD CB president of the at ac K T railway company when naked asked to outline the relation of tho the public to railroads investments said euld in part it may be said that the railroad world Is encumbered with a lot of phantoms which exist only in tho the popular fancy for instance because there have been a few so called railroad magnates whose names have figured p prominently in finance many people have come to believe that the railroads of the country are ara largely owned by a few rich men As a matter of fact nothing could be farther from the truth out of the tha colossal sum of twenty billion dollars ot of american railroad securities less than five per cent la Is now or over ever has been in tho the hands of these men who have figured prominently in th ill newspaper headlines while tho the other 95 per cent Is in the hands of over tw twi investors large and h mail who in many instances have put the mod 1 t savings of a lifetime into these securities in order that they might lay away a competency farold for old age when therefore the value ot of these securities to Is depressed or perchance destroyed the hardship la Is a hundredfold greater upon thousands of everyday every day citizens than upon the handful of millionaires good or bad who have figured prominently in railroad circles hundreds of millions of dollars of the tha assets ot at our great alfo and fire insurance companies savings banks trust companies educational and fiduciary institutions institution aro are invested in railroad bonds and the moment therefore that the soundness of these bonds la Is called into question the financial solidity of these myriad institutions institution s directly affecting the welfare of millions of policy holders and bank depositors Is gravely menaced during the last several yeota many millions ot of dollars representing depreciated values have been charged off the books of concerns like ike those enumerated above american railroads have become a vital part of the very verr woof and fabric of the nation their continued efficiency eOl clency Is absolutely essential to the smallest amal lest community in the land in blindly striking kinF at the railroads our blows fall not merely upon thousands U who have committed no wrong but in the last analysis upon ourselves we should remember how bow interdependent wo we have come to bo be in this mighty republic of ours that each la Is in truth become moro more and more hla his brothers keeper and that we wa need to act and think circumspectly lest in our mistaken zeal we destroy those who like ourselves need whatever ot of this worlds goods the toll and sweat or of years has bequeathed to them |