I think that I have shown you enough already to convince you that brains is not lacking in the conduct of the railroad, despite the extreme difficulty which it is having today in gaining recruits from the best type of young men who come trooping out from the preparatory schools, the technical schools, and the colleges of the land. True it is that we have not yet raised master railroaders to take the places of James J. Hill or E. H. Harriman. Yet it is by no means certain that such master railroaders may not be in the making today on our great overland carriers. Take such men as Daniel Willard, the hard-headed, far-seeing president of the Baltimore and Ohio, Hale Holden, the diplomatic and statesmanlike head of the historic Burlington, Charles H. Markham of the Illinois Central, James H. Hustis of the Boston and Maine, Howard Elliott of the New Haven, William T. Noonan of the Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburgh, or Carl R. Gray of the Western Maryland--these are men to whom the future development of our railroads may safely be trusted. Bricks cannot be made without straw. And these men cannot bring the great sick man of American business back to health without our help--without the help and cooperation of every thinking man and woman in the United States. That cooperation must come without delay, not only to relieve the plight of the railroad with which we already are familiar, but also to make it possible for him to take advantage of the great opportunities which await him. The average railroader--feeling that the cards were all against him, that his credit at the bank was nearly nil, and that he must spend the greater part of his time on the defensive, fighting legislation that he believed to be grossly unfair--has not given much attention to these great new ideas, vastly radical in their conception and requiring in their execution much overturning of well-established methods and precedents. Yet this is not to be interpreted as showing that he lacks vision. For remember that the sick man of American business is not too ill to realize his opportunity. But he knows that first he must regain his feet once more before he can begin important creative work. He knows that the lines along which he has been working for a long time have been cramped and restricted--conservative, to put it mildly. But he also knows that before he can begin on extensive creative work he must have several things--money and, more than money, public aid and sympathy. And of these things--the present necessity of our railroads--we shall soon treat. But before we come to them we shall come to a consideration of a railroad problem of recent compelling attention--a problem that is both opportunity and necessity, and so deserves to be considered between them. CHAPTER XI THE RAILROAD AND NATIONAL DEFENSE The Secretary of the Navy met a high officer of the telephone company in Washington some months ago.