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THE TRUTH ABOUTH THE RAILROADS

sheriff. The balance, nine dollars, was available for improving the property and for dividends, and the margin is very small.

There are 1,525,000 railway employees, including the officers, representing at least 6,000,000 of the population of this country. They are equal, in honesty, intelligence, industry, and character to the average of American citizens engaged in other pursuits. They are trying to do their part in managing and operating this great piece of commercial machinery that the railway-owner has created. As they are human, they make mistakes, and sometimes forget that they assume an obligation when they enter the railway service, to be honest, fair, and loyal to the railway-owner, and to the railway-user. The great army of railway employees, in their efforts to obtain the highest wages possible, must remember that there are only one hundred cents in a dollar; that it is possible to force wages to a point beyond the ability of the railway-owner to pay and still maintain his plant for the benefit of the railway-user, and that the constant wage-

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