ter leaders in the business of railway administration now see
clearly that it is the duty of the railroads to work with and for the
public and not against it. The railroads are gradually passing out of
the hands of the stockjobbers and speculators, into the control of
trained administrators. It is to be remembered that in a country like
ours, the largest single branch of organized administration is that of
the railroads. We have reached a point where their relations to all the
elaborate interests of the community are such that their public
character becomes more and more pronounced and evident. It was only the
other day that a brilliant railway administrator, Mr. Charles S.
Mellen, recently president of the Northern Pacific, and now president
of the New York, New Haven & Hartford system, made some statements in
an address to the business men of Hartford at a Board of Trade meeting.
With much else of the same import, he made the following significant
remarks:

"If corporations are to continue to do their work as they are best
fitted to, those qualities in their representatives that have resulted
in the present prejudice against them must be relegated to the
background.

"They must come out into the open and see and be seen. They must take
the public into their confidence and ask for what they want and no
more, and then be prepared to explain satisfactorily what advantage
will accrue to the public if they are given their desires, for they are
permitted to exist not that they may make money solely, but that they
may effectively serve those from whom they derive their power.
Publicity should rule now. Publicity, and not secrecy, will win
hereafter, and laws will be construed by their intent and not killed by
their letter; otherwise public utilities will be owned and operated by
the public which created them, even though the service be less
efficient and the result less satisfactory from a financial
standpoint."

Mr. Mellen's state of mind is that which ought to prevail among all the
managers of corporations which enjoy public franchises and perform
functions fundamental to the welfare of the community. There will at
times be prejudice and passion on the part of the public, and unfair
demands will be made. We shall not see the attainment of ideal
conditions in the management or the public relations of any great
business corporations in our day. But the time has come when any
intelligent and capable young man who chooses