History of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad

18 Götterdämmerung: The Close of an Era, 1902-21

18 Gotter d'dmmeriing: The Clone of an Era, 1902-21 On February 22, 1921, Milton Smith died at his home in Louisville. He was eighty-five years old, had served as president for about thirty-two years, and had devoted nearly half a century of his life to the L & N. To be sure, the last several years of his reign witnessed the gradual transfer of authority from his hands to younger, ambitious officers. Nevertheless, the old curmudgeon's death literally ended the most dynamic period of the company's history. On a broader level his passing symbolized the closing of an era which might be called the golden age of American railroads. Never again would the railroad play such a dominant role in the nation's economy or even in its transportation sector as it had during the period 1870 to 1920. There are several reasons for this, of which the L & N serves as a fairly typical case in point. Physically the L & N's basic system was completed during the years before World War I. The company would occasionally add some new mileage in the years to come, but it would not make any substantial additions except through the purchase of or consolidation with existing roads. And it would actually decrease its mileage by abandoning lines that serviced moribund areas. Economically the railroad had ceased to be the vital core of American industrial development. Once the railroads had dominated economic activity in a variety of ways. They provided access to national markets for a host of products and thereby helped foster the rise of mass production . They helped create new markets by stimulating the rapid settlement of new regions. They helped generate numerous industries by consuming 3 9 6 HISTORY OF THE LOUISVILLE & NASHVILLE RAILROAD vast quantities of iron and steel, coal, and many finished products. By lowering the cost of transportation they reduced the cost of manufactured products and kept a steady stream of raw materials flowing into burgeoning industries. This entire cycle could be observed in the history of any branch of the L & N, but it was especially apparent in the company's impact upon central and northern Alabama. The railroads still performed most of these functions, but their role had been dwarfed by the scale on which a full-blown industrial economy operated. The phenomenal growth of American industrialism had reduced the contribution of the railroads to an ever smaller proportion. The very progress which the roads sought to promulgate had come like a whirlwind —fast, frenzied, and erratic—and had passed them by. Like many economic innovations the railroads were fast becoming the victims of their own success, the casualties of their own creations. Politically the role of the railroads shrank no less rapidly. Though individual companies like the L & N still wielded considerable power, they no longer ruled imperiously even in their home domains. As noted in the previous chapter, the steady growth of federal and state regulation circumscribed the roads to a degree unmatched by any other industry in the United States with the possible exception of some public utilities. Moreover, other corporations were fast surpassing the railroad companies in both resources and scale of operations. Possessed of enormous assets and unity of purpose and unhampered by a long legacy of conflict with public authorities, these newer businesses muscled ahead of the railroads and reduced the carriers to simply one of many vested interests seeking favors or protection in the public arena. In that quest the railroads found their collective histories to be an enormous liability. They had incurred enough public wrath in their time to insure decades of suspicion and distrust. No amount of public-relations work could erase the historical images that too many people would continue to associate with roads: of the Jay Goulds and Daniel Drews and their larcenous escapades; of the Credit Mobilier and all the other construction company frauds; of poor facilities and inefficient service; of amoral manipulation of rates, rebating, juggling of classifications, and other shady practices; of callous exploitation of workers; of ruthless and corrupt interference in politics at all levels; and of a frank, cynical use of power forever embalmed in the overquoted and misinterpreted remark of Cornelius Vanderbilt, "What do I care about the law? Haint I got the power?" This historical legacy would seriously handicap the railroads in their struggle against newer, less tradition-burdened forms of transportation . THE CLOSE OF AN ERA...