Show 1 nip SIDE thinks there should be closer relations Beti between veen the railroads and the people in ili an interview publisher published in the new york times of oc malch maich mr IS 11 harriman the biggest railroad raili oad ii mark an in the count countley coun liy lY gies ills his views freely reg regarding regan aiding lins the agitation concerning corporation anil and tile the railroads in particular among other things he says I 1 tell aou unless we can call educate e people up to this proposition we ve might just as well stop slop trying to do our share in ili the he development 0 of the country I 1 said in fit washington and ami I 1 say now that there has got to bo be 0 cooperation o on the part of the railroads on the one hand arid and the public and the government on oil the other it is the only way in which the matter mailer can be worked out we have tried the ower method lie went on we have left it to our lawyers to take cal care e of legislation by whatever means might be the most effective and to our subordinates to explain things to the general public it wont do we have produced a f flood of legislation throughout tile the country some of it of doubtful purpose and sorce some tile the result of misdirected ed zeal inspired by the national administration and if we ale aie ever going to extricate the railroads we have got to come out in the open and tell the people the railroads side of the matter A ERA IN railroading mr harriman Harrl raan went on to discuss whether the railroads are arc now facing a new era in ili their development as distinct front from that which has gone beffi ere 1 e aiwas the lie 1 gifol of bomgar oi r afe which preceded precede dit it wa 0 that tha bt f ire irea traffic development which has followed in the last seven or eight years unquestionably that iz is the case he said eaid and that is the very reason why I 1 believe it essential that the and the public should reach a common basis of understanding it if the railroads are unable knabl e to mee meet t the further development of tl the e country I 1 they become tellers fetters for the count rys business interests we can see the causes ot of this situation if we go back fifteen or twenty years in railroad de dack back ol of 1893 for or a decade there had been a period of lapid construction of railroads the great ot of railroad expansion as the country bee legan began e an to lecover from the effects of the civil war the railroads in ill that era unquestionably built beyond the ability of the country to them when a reversion of business came caine in the birly il aly nineties as such things do 10 come from time to time here was 11 II this railroad rall road construction to which was as 1220 corresponding demand the period was the logical result then we haj had the period of hecei herships ver 1 ships and which was practically contemporaneous coil tem with the recovery 0 of tile the country front from tile the of 1893 1891 but lit in that practically nothing was las done by the railroads raili oads to anticipate tile the furuie development of the country they had all they could do holding their own and all making two ends meet after aftic r what had bad gone be bc loie fole now suddenly tile the country emerges front from tile the bicais of business depression into six or eight ysais of the greatest development it has eier known the railroads lail roads have been ob lisca to crowd into tills this period all tile he new work ot of providing new far facilities that should I 1 have been distributed through as many years rears more preceding and al it the lie same time lime they have had to anticipate EO far as is possible future development of tl the c country 11 it II matters little for this broader view of the case whether we are on top 0 of or have passed by the clest of this present wale wae of prosperity every such tide has hail had its rise ind ami ebb and one would he be living in fit a fools par paradise adlEe v ho take that into consideration in figuring figurine out his bis future the important fact lor for the railroads is that tile the country is going to keep right oh developing ve through tile lie next twenty years and the next fifty years ind and the next hundred years anil and as far ahead as we may want avant to look tair sir Ilari linan goes on oil to state stale that the he aniline to handle height bously is riot not ill all due to the rallin ads but in ili many instances to file I 1 lie shippers they detain the cars tot loo long mr ill harriman liar riman goes over the lie situation pretty thoroughly his opinion that baiger lai er en engines ines ind and cars would help in ill moving freight quicker lie ile also aho speaks of 0 coin petition saving that competition cannot le be clemed by laws but thelo should some agreement lie be made le between tween railroads raili oads regarding the distribution of traffic arid and these agi cements should be so made that they could be enforced by the national when electricity was mentioned as a mothe power mr harriman sal said ELECTRIC POWER AND ITS advantages dut but perhaps it is to think now 0 of rebuilding the railroads of tile the entire country and of ing the entire railroad equipment if so what is the next best thing obviously electricity and I 1 believe that the railroads will have to come to that riot not only for the purpose of getting a larger unite of motive power and of distributing it over tile the trainload but on account of the fuel proposition that brings up tip another phase of the existing conditions we have to use up fuel to carry our fuel and there aie certain limitations along this line just as nuch much as there are in the matter of our capacity or of motive power particularly when you consider the distribution of the oal coal producing regions with respect to the major avenues of the great saving resulting front from the use of electricity is apparent quite aside from the matter ot of increasing the power and tile the trainload but there is this additional consideration onside de that when you are operating by electricity you are not losing money ironey when you stop slop your train that be lost sight of A train anal when jt is going going some cherp her e c W en ir is jil thing that so somebody wan wants ti when W it stops it ceases to make money and becomes a losing proposition because be it goes right on en burning up coal without doing any work your electric train when it stops using up any power ind and the only fuel waste is that incidental to the maintenance of the system the people should make themselves acquainted with railroad business so that they could understand moves that are made la ia conclusion he sald said STUDY PROBLEMS EVERYBODY this is the sort of thing that I 1 want mohave tile people understand so th that it they may deal intelligently with the railroad raili ralli oad problems as they arise it has always been ray iny idea to have the largest possible number of if interested Intel ested in ill the railroads raili ralli oads which I 1 manage the financing of theiu thein lias has leen been doe do e with tile idea of increasing the stock holding boly body the stock holding boly body rather than diminishing it I 1 ant am opposed to the idea of ralli oad consolidation li which seeks to eliminate the stockholder by making him a creditor of tile the load the road needs his interest just as Is it needs the lit in celest of its patrons and in fit return tile lie stockholder is entitled to a fair remuneration tor for the investment or lisk of his money but a general timidity scicli as has buen been by the agitation against the railroad raili oad that has been sweeping the he country operates to hurt both the stockholder and the public it makes the railroad raili oad in ill tile the first place pay for the money needed for its than it would ajic have to 10 pay under un der oid culinary inary ajic un oid culinary inary conditions ons putting that sit ional charge upon the earning capacity of tile the property ind iu in the second ill place c e it cripples the railroad in to equip itself to render service se ivice that is the reason wily why I 1 have pointed recently to tho the fact that tile the union pacific system SY Stelli has spent in improvements and extensions since 1900 has laid miles since has laid miles of new track and replaced altogether or miles of track those things ale indications of the rendered in building up tile the country and I 1 want to do what I 1 can call to develop delv elop such stich a feeling of cooperation between the alio people and the railroads that thai tile the union pact pacific IC i a and it the other systems may not lie be shut oft off from contributing to the to tile the count rys development ar h |