April 16, 1915 
Tur LEGISLATION now being presented to the legis- 
latures of Connecticut and Massachusetts to remedy the 
railroad situation should become law as speedily as is in 
keeping with good judgment. There is a popular idea 
in vogue that any form of legislation that a corporation, 
asks for, especially a railroad, is doubtful and ought 
without consideration to be turned down. Such an at- 
titude has been the cause of much of the misunderstand- 
ing that has existed in the minds of careless or shallow 
thinkers. Such an attitude of mind on the part of the 
public has caused much of the present trouble. — How 
long will it be before the business interests of Massa- 
chusetts and the public, which must eventually pay the 
bills for every business enterprise, realize that the pros- 
perity and progress of their interests are one with those 
of the railroads that serve the district wherein they live 
or do business? The railroads have been subjected to 
too much legislative persecution and now the railroads 
and the public are paying the consequences. What the 
public demands in service they must repay in money. 
Money makes a railroad go. A railroad is regulated by 
ithe simple laws of the poor man’s arithmetic. To pur- 
chase, the day workman must earn, and the purchases 
musi not equal the earnings if personal bankruptcy is to 
be avoided. The public has been carried away with an 
idea that there is some mysyterious law operating cur- 
porations that makes it possible for them to give the 
most for the least. The railroads must pay their bills 
and these payments must all come from the commodity 
sold. Transportation is what a railroad has to sell. The 
more comforts and conveniences transportation com- 
panies afford increases the costs of maintenance. _ If 
these are demanded by the public and granted by rail- 
roads someone must pay the bills, either in increased costs 
of the commodity sold or in assessments on the owners. 
Already the public has been receiving transportation be- 
low cost and the cessation of dividends means that those 
who have invested their money in transportation com- 
pany stocks have not only had the painful experience 
of seeing their small investments used without interest 
payments, but seen the values of their shares deterior- 
ate. Is such a deterioration due to natural or unnatural 
laws? As far as the railroads of New England are 
concerned it is the operation of unnatural laws. The 
wild antagonism toward corporations that has been 
swaying public opinion for two decades has been one of 
the great causes. Unjust and oppressive laws have been 
enacted and fair and honorable business policies have 
been thotughtlessly and unjustly attacked; and the day of 
reckoning came. It was inevitable. But who is paying 
for the losses but the holders of stocks? ‘The public is 
paying the penalty for its own foibles. The railroads 
are not owned by a close corporation or a limited num- 
ber of individuals. One New England system has over 
twenty-seven thousand stockholders. What does this 
mean but that apart from bond-holders there are twenty- 
seven thousand people who are the owners of the system. 
These twenty-seven thousand owners have been negli- 
gent in their responsibilities of ownership. It is not fair 
for them to sit back and permit their property to drift 
by the board. Every stock and railroad bond-holder, 
every purchaser of transportation, every resident of 
Massachusetts has a direct or indirect monetary interest 
in the prosperity of the railroads that serve him. The 
public has been blind, the press has been unwise at least, 
and legislatures have been over suspicious and timid. 
Fair play to the railroads by the public and by the legis- 
lature means fair play by public to public. Every citizen 
in Connecticut and Massachusetts is interested person- 
ally in the efforts to pass remedial legislation, ~ The 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE and Reminder 11 
representatives from the North Shore districts may be 
depended upon to give this subject their careful thought 
and their support. The time has come for the public 
to lend a hand, to stem the tide of unjust legislation by 
a broader, sane and consequently more profitable policy 
for the railroads, and that means for the public. <A 
prosperous railroad means a prosperous territory that it 
serves. Neither can prosper without a direct reflection 
in the prosperity of the other. ‘The suicidal policies of 
Connecticut and Massachusetts should cease and_ the 
remedial measures that the railroad experts believe 
should pass should be given a trial. 
Senator Mines PornpExteR has announced his de- 
termination to re-enter the republican party when he re- 
turns to his native state. The progressives he says, “have 
not surrendered their convictions, nor ceased their ac- 
tivities, but in reuniting with the republican party, they 
are confident that the organization will be just as pro- 
gressive as the progressives.” Senator Poindexter is the 
last of the progressives in the Senate. His purpose is 
well defined and sensible. The republican party has 
been severely censured. ‘The progressives may have 
been justified in making their protest at the time they 
made the protest, but the protest should have been made 
within the party. The reforms which the progressives 
sought have not been attained as an independent organ- 
ization. ‘These progressive measures could only have 
been attained in a united party. It is late, but not too 
late to mend. The schism ought never to have occurred, 
but since it has occurred it is evident that it has not 
been the worst thing that ever happened to the republi- 
can party. The old party has been strengthened and 
what is better purified. All of this, however, could have 
been attained if the progressives had fought out their 
fight within and not outside the fold. 
Tur Sunpay AFTERNOON Medical School lectures 
at Harvard have been continued during the winter and 
their place among the institutions of the city of Boston 
has been secured. It is impossible to determine the 
amount of good that has been accomplished, not alone 
by the lectures themselves, but by the printed reports in 
the daily journals. A surprising fund of information 
has thus been stored away in the minds of readers. 
There is no subject of more importance to the well 
being of society than that of medical science and in 
interpreting the fundamental principles of it to the pub- 
lic, which would otherwise be kept in ignorance. The 
medical school is rendering a service to the common- 
wealth that is incalculable. 
Tur Rumors that come from abroad concerning 
the poverty of Germany and the paucity of her reserves 
in food and ammunition are fabrications. Germany is 
ably equipped and her food supply will hold out. The 
optimists who expect peace on that score in October, the 
time fixed for the spending of Germany’s reserve food 
supply, are deceiving themselves. The world is in for 
a long seige and it will be well for the nations to realize 
it and adjust themselves to the changed conditions as 
rapidly as possible. 
Capratn GARDNER, Congressman from this district, 
was inspired when he invited the reserved forces of the 
United States to dine; only nine broke bread with him. 
What more striking way could have been devised by the 
ingenuity of man to give publicity to the appalling neg- 
lect of our nation in this respect. Something will be 
done to create a creditable reserve. 
