And in time of peace, what would this country have been without the railroads? The railroad has been the advance courier of progress, of settlement, of production, of commerce. It is absolutely, and has been, indispensable to the government, to the commerce and to the happiness and comfort of our people. Its mission is not performed or fulfilled. Considered solely with reference to construction, there are new fields to be penetrated by them. Today men of courage and men of means are building railways with characteristic American energy in far off Alaska, to bring the gold mines and the coal mines and the timber and the unknown resources of that distant territory into the markets of the United States. If there is one instrumentality which above another has been a factor, appreciable by all thoughtful men, in making this country what it is, it is the railroad. And the railroad has kept abreast with the demands of commerce. Every device which ingenuity or invention has presented has been promptly adopted by the railway companies of the country. They have kept abreast of invention and improvement, until today the railway system of the United States is the most luxurious, the safest, the best managed railway system under the bending sky. The first thing that would occur to one from this toast, the railroads being first mentioned, is what do the railroad companies owe to the public? That is easily defined. They owe it to the public to furnish safe roadbeds and equipment; they owe it to the public to furnish prompt service; they owe it to the public to treat all men, with obvious limitations, passengers and shippers under the same circumstances, equally and without unjust discrimination, and they owe to the public the duty of, as far as it is possible, so maintaining their roads and their equipment as to be able to meet in a fair way all the demands of commerce and traffic at reasonable rates. That excludes the rebate which never had any justification in logic or in fair play. I think those who hated it most were those who felt obliged to adopt it. When one railway company gave rebates it is quite manifest that the competitor was obliged to, or go out of business. And I believe that railway companies of the United States were glad, and their officers were glad, when it was made a penal offense for railway companies to give rebates. I think a railway company owes to the public to be careful in the selection of its employes; they should be capable, of course, and they should not only be capable, but they should be courteous and polite. To sum it up, you would say that what the railway in the enlarged sense--which includes details--owes to the public is just and fair treatment.