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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
