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community mined coal in Pennsylvania, and then sent it by railway to Michigan or Wisconsin to
be screened, and then hauled it back again to Pennsylvania for use, it would not be much sillier
than the hauling of Texas beef alive to Chicago, there to be killed, and then shipped back dead to
Texas; or the hauling of Kansas grain to Minnesota, there to be ground in the mills and hauled
back again as flour. It is good business for the railroads, but it is bad business for business. One
angle of the transportation problem to which too few men are paying attention is this useless
hauling of material. If the problem were tackled from the point of ridding the railroads of their
useless hauls, we might discover that we are in better shape than we think to take care of the
legitimate transportation business of the country. In commodities like coal it is necessary that
they be hauled from where they are to where they are needed. The same is true of the raw
materials of industry they must be hauled from the place where nature has stored them to the
place where there are people ready to work them. And as these raw materials are not often found
assembled in one section, a considerable amount of transportation to a central assembling place is
necessary. The coal comes from one section, the copper from another, the iron from another, the
wood from another they must all be brought together.
But wherever it is possible a policy of decentralization ought to be adopted. We need, instead of
mammoth flour mills, a multitude of smaller mills distributed through all the sections where grain
is grown. Wherever it is possible, the section that produces the raw material ought to produce also
the finished product. Grain should be ground to flour where it is grown. A hog-growing country
should not export hogs, but pork, hams, and bacon. The cotton mills ought to be near the cotton
fields. This is not a revolutionary idea. In a sense it is a reactionary one. It does not suggest
anything new; it suggests something that is very old. This is the way the country did things before
we fell into the habit of carting everything around a few thousand miles and adding the cartage to
the consumer's bill. Our communities ought to be more complete in themselves. They ought not
to be unnecessarily dependent on railway transportation. Out of what they produce they should
supply their own needs and ship the surplus. And how can they do this unless they have the
means of taking their raw materials, like grain and cattle, and changing them into finished
products? If private enterprise does not yield these means, the cooperation of farmers can. The
chief injustice sustained by the farmer to-day is that, being the greatest producer, he is prevented
from being also the greatest merchandiser, because he is compelled to sell to those who put his
products into merchantable form. If he could change his grain into flour, his cattle into beef, and
his hogs into hams and bacon, not only would he receive the fuller profit of his product, but he
would render his near-by communities more independent of railway exigencies, and thereby
improve the transportation system by relieving it of the burden of his unfinished product. The
thing is not only reasonable and practicable, but it is becoming absolutely necessary. More than
that, it is being done in many places. But it will not register its full effect on the transportation
situation and upon the cost of living until it is done more widely and in more kinds of materials.
It is one of nature's compensations to withdraw prosperity from the business which does not serve.
We have found that on the Detroit, Toledo &Ironton we could, following our universal policy,
reduce our rates and get more business. We made some cuts, but the Interstate Commerce
Commission refused to allow them! Under such conditions why discuss the railroads as a
business? Or as a service?
CHAPTER XVII. THINGS IN GENERAL
No man exceeds Thomas A. Edison in broad vision and understanding. I met him first many
years ago when I was with the Detroit Edison Company probably about 1887 or thereabouts.
The electrical men held a convention at Atlantic City, and Edison, as the leader in electrical
science, made an address. I was then working on my gasoline engine, and most people, including
all of my associates in the electrical company, had taken pains to tell me that time spent on a
gasoline engine was time wasted that the power of the future was to be electricity. These
criticisms had not made any impression on me. I was working ahead with all my might. But being
in the same room with Edison suggested to me that it would be a good idea to find out if the
master of electricity thought it was going to be the only power in the future. So, after Mr. Edison
had finished his address, I managed to catch him alone for a moment. I told him what I was
working on.
At once he was interested. He is interested in every search for new knowledge. And then I asked
him if he thought that there was a future for the internal combustion engine. He answered
something in this fashion:
Yes, there is a big future for any light-weight engine that can develop a high horsepower and be
self-contained. No one kind of motive power is ever going to do all the work of the country. We
do not know what electricity can do, but I take for granted that it cannot do everything.
Keep on with your engine. If you can get what you are after, I can see a great future.
That is characteristic of Edison. He was the central figure in the electrical industry, which was
then young and enthusiastic. The rank and file of the electrical men could see nothing ahead but
electricity, but their leader could see with crystal clearness that no one power could do all the
work of the country. I suppose that is why he was the leader.
Such was my first meeting with Edison. I did not see him again until many years after until our
motor had been developed and was in production. He remembered perfectly our first meeting.
Since then we have seen each other often. He is one of my closest friends, and we together have [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]