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Show "RAILROAD II , SAYS NATION I IS FAD-RIDDEN William Sproule, President of Pacific System, Asserts Unemployment and Dis- tress Break Record. m t cniCACJO, Feb. Co. The. country is in the midst of a period of unemploy- jnmt and distress, 'Mho like of which the nation never saw before," William JSproule, president of the Pacific system a of the Southern Pacific company, de- i Ia:ed here tonight in an address at tho annual dintier of the traffic club. He at- 2 tributed this condition to what he said was a long-continued clamor against all sorts of public businesses, and predicted i its end only when returning prosperity J for employers should spell prosperity for j (be employed. Beginning by outlining difticulties faced by the transportation ii business, which, he said, has "lost its I, momentum," he broadened to the state j of business generally and took vigorous exception to nny suggestion that business busi-ness conditions would be better if busi-ncss busi-ncss men believed they would be better. He said: The booster lifts nothing higher i1' than the level of hia own teeth. i The trumpeter of prosperity beguiles i oniv his own cars. Prosperity is real, or it does not exist. We do not have to look for it; it comes to us. Jt grows within our sight like a 7 plant coming in flower. It comes to us wIicd the employer resumos em-ploymont, em-ploymont, and it will not como to us until the people generally, whether " their capacity be large or small, : whether they work with, their nuts. .7 cles or thoir minds (and all work re-: re-: quires mind), discover that their -;- condition improves only as their " employer is prosperous. - Facts Are Quoted. It is the babit of the time to v speak of unemployment as if it related re-lated only to tnose who work for -a specific hourly or daily, weekly or monthly wage. It is thought of chiefly as relating to those engaged 7 in minor places or in the hummer ; duf iea of lite. The facts run quite to the con-iraiy. con-iraiy. It is the employer who is Z first out of employment" As a natural nat-ural sequence toe is followed by the employee. Unemployment begins only when the employer himself begins to be ; unemployed. When the employer is t prosperous and his energies arc properly employed, employees have - abundant employment, and they also prosper. But why is this period of nnem-ploymentf nnem-ploymentf It is because all business busi-ness is bewildered and uncertain. A : long period of misrepresentation, :-' misunderstandings and pettifogging has so misled the public mind that throughout the country every pros--"- perous business, indeed every' organ-jza organ-jza tion whether prosjierous or not, - which is big enough to attract the public platform per former, finds that it exists in an atmosphere of attack. z. The nation is filled with political - economists. Business is filled to satiety with, economic theories. When men ask for work they are banded an epigram. But the sad : fact is, the more political theories are proposed, tho poorer become the people. Wants Attacks Stopped. i( I urge the prosperity of the average man. To secure that prosperity,! pros-perity,! urge the imperative neces-c-h sit.y of taking business out of an atmosphere at-mosphere of attack into the old--,- fashioned, go-ahead atmosphere of business initiative and American enterprise. en-terprise. I urge relief from the fads, fancies and isms which have ' filled the streets with unemplov-ment unemplov-ment and put away the dinner pail of tho working man emptv upon j the shelf of the impoverished home. J I urge the restoration pf eonfidenco a in the fact that American business f men are the peers of anv in rhc world. Finally, I urge that the public pub-lic interest in transportation is that U shall be prosperous in order that it may be a successful anrl energetic aid to ail the business it is designed to serve. That the president and many governors govern-ors are "anxious students of the needs of our time,'' Mr. Sproule said, was "happy augury and patriotic assurance that the present is a passing phase." J. J. Hill's Letter. - A letter from James J. Hill said that legislation of the last two years, which he termed the most important in commercial com-mercial and financial affairs since the civil war. has s0 distracted business that not the best informed legislator nor the ablest lawyer can give any more than a hint what the effects of these regulations regula-tions will be upon business. Mr. Hill did not offer an opinion as to the ultimate effect of this legislation, but said that, whether it be good or bad. the adaptation adapta-tion of the country's business to the new conditions would produce a trial period extremely critical for every kind of activity. ac-tivity. "What productive activity needs most, what it has (needed and what must be given to it soon if it is not to suffer under accumulating troubles, is simply a period of freedom from uncertainty resulting re-sulting from constant political attacks," the message said. "Business needs a rest. "Any revision of the tariff requires two years before commerce can adjust Itself to the new schedule. This country is makUig such an adjustment now, but so much less important and uncertain in effect ef-fect is it than other changes in progress that business men almost rorget the tariff in trying to forecast and prepare for the future. New Banking System. "The new element is the federal banking bank-ing nnd currency system, the first at-i at-i tempt In the nation's history to deal with i tliis subject in the light of economic principles. prin-ciples. The public as a whole, though not overlooking the faults of the system, believes be-lieves it will work out well as a preventive pre-ventive of pa aics. Yet only experience can bring out 'in practice its merits and Its faults. "Pome uncertainty remains, and uncertainty, uncer-tainty, almost as much as actual disaster, dis-aster, slows down business operations everywhere." These two measures alone would compel com-pel business to proceed cautiously, Mr, Hill wrote. The new corporation commission commis-sion and the Clayton bill he listed as newer legislation of "doubtful propriety and questionable results." The commission, while only supervisory, embodies a fundamental principle, according ac-cording to Mr. Hill, in asserting the right of the federal government to control and I regulate business as a whole, the peaceful peace-ful legitimate conduct of ordinary affairs. af-fairs. "No session of congress will pass without actual or attempted legislation to extend its powers and mnke its control con-trol more absolute and arbitrary," he wrote. "Before the possibility of a future fu-ture where it may be necessary for them to ficht for their lives, the business Interests In-terests naturally hesitate and are afraid to extend their operations.'" . Crude and Ridiculous. Mr. Hill predicted it would be generations genera-tions before all the provisions of the Clayton Clay-ton bill had been Interpreted, "onie of its provisions are crude and almost ridiculous," ridicu-lous," he iald. "like the HmtUition on -interloekinir directorates. That can pro- duce nothlTitr but a crop of dummy dl- j re-'to's. The man with property In- terests In two corporations will not i abandon one of them because Tie can no loneer be n director in both. TTe will sfnd 1 j instead-a clerk who will obey his orders. The public will train nothing. The busl-I busl-I noss only substitutes a second-class man 1 for a first-cl;iss man. Other provisions I of tho 'aw fire plainly iniquitous. Such is tlie first formal piece of lass legisl.i-1 legisl.i-1 tion in this country by which the same i act. dune in the same w;iy and for tlie1 isame purpose, is Illegal by a niamii'.-iC- j ! turing '"i" trading concern and leal by a ' labor' or agricultural concern. Fvou ' I thom-.li this perversion of etpial rights , eventually will be set aside bv tho courts. I the biisln'ess imiu will retnembe;' that tlie J Imw rrhc:tl- authorizes formidable oon-I oon-I spirneivs auainst him ,md forbids him a remedy under heavy penalties.'' |
