Page:Hine (1912) Letters from an old railway official.djvu/24

 and administration of most corporations, including government itself, are still too feudal in conception. The problem of to-day is so to eradicate this feudalism that the corporation can have the benefit of a free play of its constituent forces. Where feudalism exists the effective working strength is limited to the personal equation of the man at the head. The United States government is stronger than Washington, or Lincoln, or Taft. The Great Northern Railway measures its present acknowledged effectiveness by the man the Swedes call Yim Hill. The United States government grows stronger with every administration. The Great Northern Railway, too strong to be destroyed, faces a period of relative distress with the next dynasty. The Pennsylvania Railroad is stronger than such strong men as Scott, Cassatt and McCrea. Both the United States government and the Pennsylvania Railroad, although among the least feudal of large corporations, can still eradicate feudalism from their interior organization and administration. That, in good time, both will do so cannot be doubted. Inconsistencies between comprehensive conceptions at the top and narrow applications at the bottom are