American railroads are without a rudder. They know not whither they are going, and they are unable to determine their course. They only know they are in a storm and that their bearings are lost.

Is it not possible that a better recognition by all sides of the human aspects of the situation might remove many of the doubts and fears which beset railroad pilots, as well as quell something of the storm which rages about their heads?

The railroad problem is a very human problem; it is a problem that concerns us above all else as human beings. What is a railroad for? It is to take people or things from one place to another. Why? Simply to advance the material interests of human beings. Railroads are built by human beings; they are run by human beings; they are regulated by beings who are very human; and they serve human beings. Make a mistake in your treatment of the railroad question and you injure human beings. Handle it properly and you help human beings.

The great problem is to establish the point of contact, to make the railroad manager, the employe, and the public in their mutual relations understand one another's point of view.

The public is reasonable; it knows the impossible cannot be performed.

The man who works for wages is fair; he wants to earn an honest day's pay, and he knows he can't be paid more than his work earns.

But the public doesn't understand the railroad manager. It has come into contact with some railroad men it doesn't approve of, and it doesn't discriminate.

If the public can see the railroad man of to-day as he is, burdened, weighted down, it would feel very differently toward him.

These pages grew out of an effort to establish some point of contact between the public and the human beings who really constitute the railroad.

These were talks to audiences, usually of business men. They make no pretense at literary finish or as representing a well-rounded and comprehensive treatment of the railroad problem as a whole.

These addresses, for the most part, were delivered as Executive Assistant of the Pennsylvania Railroad. They have not been edited by the management of that company, however, and I am alone responsible for the opinions expressed. The general considerations presented apply to all railroads.

IVY L. LEE.

Ardmore, Pennsylvania, May 1, 1915.