Page:Hine (1912) Letters from an old railway official.djvu/16

. Nothing is so expensive ultimately as a violation of principle. A platitude, you say. So it is. The aforesaid T. R. has gained a great hold on the American people, at one time a strangle hold, by repeating platitudes over and over again. Great is the man who can measure the limitations of his fellows. Let us take a leaf from his book and repeat, reiterate, and reverberate the Ten Commandments, and the greatest of all commandments, the Golden Rule, alias the Square Deal.

It takes an abnormally intelligent people to grasp at first blush the truism that railways should charge “what the traffic will bear” for the same good reason that the corner grocer makes all the profit the business will survive. Therefore, put the soft pedal on cost of service and a fair return on capital invested.

Get on the band wagon and follow the able lead of the good old Railway Age Gazette in playing the logical tune of value of service rendered, of charging all the admission fee the show will stand. The people will not go to church to hear our preaching. We must reach them in the highways and the byways, in the moving picture shows, and through improvised Salvation Armies of self-interest. Do