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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1900)
\ " > \ , ' \X\fl ; 4 Conservative. YOUNG MEN. . on declares the yoHDg men of today have "no chance ; " that the large corporations make it impossible for them to rise , he either shows a hopeless ignorance of modern , economic and industrial con ditions or else he wilfully and inten tionally tries to deceive. The following is from the Railway Official Guide and tells how the men who occupy positions of prominence in railway circles have risen by regular promotion from the ranks : "It appears to be a favorite argument in these days with a certain class of people ple that the large combinations of capi tal have cut off from young men all op portunity for advancement. The only way to prove the truth of a proposi tion of this character is to apply it to known facts ; that is , to facts that are known to each individual from his own experience. If the theory is not borne out in the facts which a man knows for himself he may well doubt whether it holds true elsewhere. "The consolidation of railroad lines into large systems offers a good oppor tunity for testing the proposition under conditions with which railroad men are all familiar , and the position of general manager or general superintendent of such a road is one in which the honors and emoluments are such as to gratify any reasonable ambition. "With a view to ascertaining whether "a young man has no chance" to win one of these pos itions a compilation has been made of the careers of the general managers and general superintendents of those roads which aggregate about one thousand miles or over. These are about sixty in number , and the records of the in dividuals who hold the chief adminis trative positions show that in every case the men have risen from the ranks. Of the sixty , eighteen began as telegraph operators , twelve as rodmen or chainmen on the engineer corps , twelve as clerks in general offices , five as brakemen , three as station agents , four as apprentices in shops , two as lo comotive firemen , two as laborers , one as switchman and one as water-boy. These men have all attained their pres ent positions by promotion through the grades of the service , and the interme diate ranks are now filled by men who have likewise once held the subordinate places and stand next in order for pro motion to the chief positions. As a matter of fact at no time in the history of the country have there ever been of fered such positions of honor and re sponsibility in railroad service as are now to be found under the present mode of organization. A man's oppor tunity for advancement is limited only by his abilities. This fact is not con fined to the operating department alone , but in the departments of traffic and finance the same law of promotion holds good. The position of president from its nature is sometimes financial , as the representative of investors , but the tendency more and more , as exempli fied by many recent elections , is to take the executive head , not from outside financial interests , but by the promotion of a well trained railroad man who has made his way up from the ranks. Of the presidents of the roads , whose general managers were quoted above , sixteen began as clerks in general offices , six were originally telegraph operators , and ten were rod-men or civil engineers , others were apprentices in the shops , and one at least was a messenger boy in a telegraph office. "In the face of these well-known facts these prophets of discouragement are confronted with a pretty serious proposi tion to prove their point among rail road men. " The young men will find more profi table and inspiring reading by perusing , , , > , . . Elbert Hubbard's Sclf-Reliunco. "Message to Gar cia" than by poring over Mr. Bryan's outbursts of demagogy. Opportunities for young men were never better and brighter than they are today. The de mand for pluck , energy and brains in creases as industrial life develops and progresses. There never was so great a demand for capable , intelligent and industrious young men for positions of responsibility and trust as there is right now. Too frequently young men are jobless because they have yielded to the corrupting influence of Mr. Bryan's diatribes against "trusts" and no one will "trust" them. The statement quoted above proves that it is possible , under present industrial organization , for young men , who attend strictly and faithfully to business , mastering it in every detail , to rise from the most ob scure position to the highest. Young men to succeed must be self-reliant and imbued -with a strong sense of personal responsibility. Mr. Bryan takes from young men this feeling of personal re sponsibility and self-reliance and teaches them to hold the government responsible for individual success or failure ; to try to accomplish by legisla tion that which individual effort alone can attain. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ In his speech at . . COERCION. , . Trenton , N. J. , last week , Mr. Bryan thus charged those who employ labor with attempting to coerce their employees : "I am willing to risk the issues of this campaign in the hands of the pee ple. If tomorrow morning the voters were permitted to go to the polls and write on their ballots their opinions on I the questions before the country with no one to intimidate them I have no doubt that we would carry this country by a popular majority such as no ticket has ever received in the United States. The only question to my mind is what effect will be produced by the coercion now being attempted by those who now stand at the head of great corporations. I went to Auburn , N. Y. , the other day and learned that the head of a large manufacturing establishment has threatened to close his works in case I am elected. " It is not a now thing for Mr. Bryan to find the "heads of large corporations" opposing his eleo- . . _ _ . . . . tion. Neither is it a new thing for him to allege coer cion. About this time four years ago Mr. Bryan was making the same kind of a talk. Then his "prominent member of a corporation" was located down in West Virginia. In his "pre liminary skirmish" or "First Batfcle , " he thus refers to him : "I have heard since I came into the state that a prominent member of a cor poration has boasted that the republi cans have $800,000 to spend in this state to prevent the electoral vote being cast for the Chicago ticket. " When Mr. Bryan said that if the elec tion were held last week he would have been elected but money may change the result by November 6 , he grossly slandered and maligned his own followers. He charged them with cor ruption. He accused them of being mere purchasable commodities , articles of merchandise which could be bought and sold. By implication one might conclude that Mr. Bryan was confident of having a majority of the votes then because Oroker had bought and paid for them and they might not be his on election day because he was afraid some body else might outbid Oroker. Mr. Bryan's following should rebel and re sent his outrageous slander. The number of prominent manufac turers and business men who oppose Mr. Bryan is so large and they are so active and vigorous in their opposition that it is not strange that he should oc casionally "hear" of them. When a candidate for the presidency makes the destruction of the industrial . , . . activities of the Self Preservation. , country an issue in his campaign , is there any other 41 course left for those who would protect ' and preserve these activities but to op pose him ? When a presidential can didate attacks legitimate business en terprises , as Mr. Bryan has attacked and threatened to destroy the starch works at Nebraska Oity , it is not only the right but the duty of those interest ed , both as capitalists and as workingmen - men , to do all in their power to accom plish his defeat , the capitalist because he seeks to take from him and confis- cate his property the workingmen be cause he would destroy the industry that pays him wages and gives him em ployment. It is to be noted that Mr. Bryan's charges of coercion and intimi dation are never specific but are always indefinite. He has never alleged per sonal knowledge of a case of coercion. He has never mentioned by name a sin gle manufacturer who sought to coerce or intimidate an employee. But in each and every instance he makes the charge upon the basis of something he has "heard" somebody else say. Mr. Bryan's bump of self-esteem is so
