There are ten combinations of capital in this country that control over six thousand miles of railroad each.  These companies have taken in a large number of small lines; and many connecting lines of tracks have been built.  Competition over vast sections of country has been practically obliterated, and this has been done so quietly that few people are aware of the change.  Only one general result of this consolidation of management has been felt, and that it is better service at less expense.  No captain of any great industrial enterprise dares now to say, “The public be damned,” even if he ever said it—­which I much doubt.  The pathway to success lies in serving the public, not in affronting it.  In no other way is success possible, and this truth is so plain and patent that even very simple folk are able to recognize it.  You can only help yourself by helping others.

Thirty years ago, when P. T. Barnum said, “The public delights in being humbugged,” he knew that it was not true, for he never attempted to put the axiom in practice.  He amused the public by telling it a lie, but P. T. Barnum never tried anything so risky as deception.  Even when he lied we were not deceived; truth can be stated by indirection.  “When my love tells me she is made of truth, I do believe her, though I know she lies.”  Barnum always gave more than he advertised; and going over and over the same territory he continued to amuse and instruct the public for nearly forty years.

This tendency to cooeperate is seen in such splendid features as the Saint Louis Union Station, for instance, where just twenty great railroad companies lay aside envy, prejudice, rivalry and whim, and use one terminal.  If competition were really the life of trade, each railroad that enters Saint Louis would have a station of its own, and the public would be put to the worry, trouble, expense and endless delay of finding where it wanted to go and how to get there.  As it is now, the entire aim and end of the scheme is to reduce friction, worry and expense, and give the public the greatest accommodation—­the best possible service—­to make travel easy and life secure.  Servants in uniform meet you as you alight, and answer your every question—­speeding you courteously and kindly on your way.  There are women to take care of women, and nurses to take care of children, and wheel chairs for such as may be infirm or lame.  The intent is to serve—­not to pull you this way and that, and sell you a ticket over a certain road.  You are free to choose your route and you are free to utilize as your own this great institution that cost a million dollars, and that requires the presence of two hundred people to maintain.  All is for you.  It is for the public and was only made possible by a oneness of aim and desire—­that is to say cooeperation.  Before cooeperation comes in any line, there is always competition pushed to a point that threatens destruction and promises chaos; then to divert ruin, men devise a better way, a plan that conserves and economizes, and behold, it is found in cooeperation.