1908 - "Not so" Says Mr Johnson

[NW Mailing List]

Roanoke Times - March 17, 1908

"NOT SO" SAYS MR JOHNSON

President of N. & W. Says Road Will Furnish All Cars Needed

   Despite the fact that several operators have said that the Norfolk 
& Western has steadily proven very slow in furnishing cars for the 
delivery of coal from the Pocahontas fields, President L. E. Johnson 
is confident that such talk is "bosh" and, in effect, has said so in 
a letter to the president of the Chamber of Commerce at Bluefield, W. 
Va., where the rumor was as current as in Roanoke.
   Mr. Johnson, in his letter, says:
   "The rumor that you tell me is current in Bluefield, that this 
company does not want business and is trying to produce hard times in 
order to cut down wages is so absurd that I am at a loss to know in 
what language to contradict it. Anyone who would originate such a 
charge or who would give it currency by repeating it with his 
approval has probably already made up his mind not to be convinced to 
the contrary either by statements or resolutions, and hence I imagine 
it would be idle to make an attempt so to do.
   "I do not, however, believe that this suggestion comes from any of 
the patrons of our road or from any of its employes.
   "The policy of this company does not change, but its business 
affairs must conform to changing conditions, else the time will not 
be far distant when it would be unable to carry out any policy of any kind.
   "Those who have taken the trouble to study the situation with 
reference to this company must realize that its consistence has been 
to aid in every way within its power progressive development of the 
local communities dependent upon it for transportation facilities. 
This policy has been inaugurated and maintained because the company 
has felt well assured that in the long run such a policy is the 
safest and best for the prosperity of the railroad itself. Our entire 
investment has been made upon that belief and it is the confident 
assurance of the owners of the road as well as of its management, 
that this theory is founded upon good common sense and in the end 
will win out. At least we are not prepared to give it up yet and it 
will take harder times than have yet come for the Norfolk & Western 
Railway Company to undertake to discourage in any way the business 
along the lines of its rails, either from the wicked motive imputed 
to it by the rumor or from any other reason whatsoever. As a matter 
of fact, it believes, as the result of many years work on that line, 
that every motive of self interest induces it to encourage local 
traffic and the development of local industry."

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- Ron Davis, Roger Link