CHAPTER V
"GO WEST YOUNG MAN AND GROW UP WITH THE COUNTRY"
In justice to the many thousands of P----n porters, as well as manyconductors, who were in the habit of retaining the company's money, letit be said that they are not the hungry thieves and dishonest rogues thegeneral public might think them to be, dishonest as their conduct mayseem to be. They were victims of a vicious system built up and winked atby the company itself.
Before the day of the Inter-State Commerce Commission and anti-pass andtwo-cent-per-mile legislation, and when passengers paid cash fares, itwas a matter of tradition with the conductors to knockdown, and nothingwas said, although the conductors, as now, were fairly well paid and thecompany fully expected to lose some of the cash fares.
In the case of the porters, however, the circumstances are far moremitigating. At the time I was with the company there were, in roundnumbers, eight thousand porters in the service on tourist and standardsleepers who were receiving from a minimum of twenty-five dollars to notto exceed forty dollars per month, depending on length and desirabilityof service. Out of this he must furnish, for the first ten years, hisown uniforms and cap, consisting of summer and winter suits at twentyand twenty-two dollars respectively. After ten years of continuousservice these things are furnished by the company. Then there is theboard, lodging and laundry expense. Trainmen are allowed from fifty tosixty per cent off of the regular bill of fare, and at this price mostany kind of a meal in an a-la-carte diner comes to forty and fiftycents. Besides, the waiters expect tips from the crew as well as fromthe passengers and make it more uncomfortable for them if they do notreceive it than they usually do for the passenger.
I kept an accurate itemized account of my living expenses, including sixdollars per month for a room in Chicago, and economize as I would,making one uniform and cap last a whole year, I could not get themonthly expense below forty dollars--fifteen dollars more than mysalary, and surely the company must have known it and condoned anyreasonable amount of "knock down" on the side to make up the deficiencyin salary. The porter's "knock down" usually coming through thesympathy, good will and unwritten law of "knocking down"--that theconductor divide equally with the porter. All of which, however, is nowfast becoming a thing of the past, owing to recent legislation,investigations and strict regulation of common carriers by Congress andthe various laws of the states of the Union, with the added result thatconductors' wages have increased accordingly. Few conductors today arefoolish enough to jeopardize their positions by indulging in the oldpractice, and it leaves the porters in a sorry plight indeed.
All in all, the system, while deceptive and dishonest on its face, wasfor a time a tolerated evil, apparently sanctioned by the company andbecame a veritable disease among the colored employees who, withoutexception, received and kept the company's money without a single qualmof conscience. It was a part of their duty to make the job pay somethingmore than a part of their living expenses.
Ignorant as many of the porters were, most of them knew that from theenormous profits made that the company could and should have paid thembetter wages, and I am sure that if they received living wages for theirservices it would have a great moralizing effect on that feature of theservice, and greatly add to the comfort of the traveling public.
However, the greedy and inhuman attitude of this monoply toward itscolored employees has just the opposite effect, and is demoralizingindeed. Thousands of black porters continue to give their services inreturn for starvation wages and are compelled to graft the company andthe people for a living.
Shortly before my cessation of activities in connection with the P----ncompany it had a capitalization of ninety-five million dollars, payingeight per cent dividend annually, and about two years after I wascompelled to quit, it paid its stockholders a thirty-five million dollarsurplus which had accumulated in five years. Just recently a "melon wascut" of about a like amount and over eight thousand colored portershelped to accumulate it, at from twenty-five to forty dollars per month.A wonder it is that their condition does not breed such actualdishonesty and deception that society would be forced to take notice ofit, and the traveling public should be thankful for the attentiveservices given under these near-slave conditions. As for myself, thereader has seen how I made it "pay" and I have no apologies or regretsto offer. When that final reckoning comes, I am sure the angel clerkwill pass all porters against whom nothing more serious appears thanwhat I have heretofore related.
While I was considered very fortunate by my fellow employees, the wholething filled me with disgust. I suffered from a nervous worry and fearof losing my position all the time, and really felt relieved when theend came and I was free to pursue a more commendable occupation.
In going out of the Superintendent's office on my farewell leave, theseveral opportunities I had seen during my experience with the P----ncompany loomed up and marched in dress parade before me; the conditionsof the Snake River valley and the constructiveness of the people who hadturned the alkali desert into valuable farms worth from fifty to fivehundred dollars an acre, thrilled me so that I had no misgivings for thefuture. But Destiny had other fields in view for me and did not send meto that land of Eden of which I had become so fond, in quest of fortune.Such a variety of scenes was surely an incentive to serious thought.
What was termed inquisitiveness at home brought me a world ofinformation abroad. This inquisitiveness, combined with the observationafforded by such runs as those to Portland and around the circle and,perhaps, coming back by Washington D.C., gave practical knowledge. Oftenwestern sheepmen, who were ready talkers, returning on my car fromtaking a shipment to Chicago, gave me some idea of farming andsheepraising. I remember thinking that Iowa would be a fine place to owna farm, but quickly gave up any further thought of owning one theremyself. A farmer from Tama, that state, gave me the information. He wasa beautiful decoration for a P----n berth and a neatly made bed withthree sheets, and I do not know what possessed him to ever take asleeper, for he slept little that night--I am sure. The next morningabout five o'clock, while gathering and shining shoes, I could not findhis, and being curious, I peeped into his berth. What I saw made melaugh, indeed. There he lay, all bundled into his bed in his big furovercoat and shoes on, just as he came into the car the evening before.He was awake and looked so uncomfortable that I suggested that he get upif he wasn't sleepy. "What say?" he answered, leaning over and stickinghis head out of the berth as though afraid someone would grab him.
As this class of farmers like to talk, and usually in loud tones, I ledhim into the smoking room as soon as he jumped out of his berth, to keephim from annoying other passengers. Here he washed his face, stillkeeping his coat on.
"Remove your coat," I suggested, "and you will be more comfortable."
"You bet," he said taking his coat off and sitting on it. Lighting hispipe, he began talking and I immediately inquired of him how much landhe owned.
He answered that he owned a section. "Gee! but that is a lot of land," Iexclaimed, getting interested, "and what is it worth an acre?"
"The last quarter I bought I paid eighty dollars an acre" he returned.That is over thirteen thousand and I could plainly see that my littletwo thousand dollar bank account wouldn't go very far in Iowa when itcame to buying land. That was nine years ago and the same land todaywill sell around one hundred and fifty dollars an acre, and the "end isnot yet."
I concluded on one thing, and that was, if one whose capital was undereight or ten thousand dollars, desired to own a good farm in the greatcentral west he must go where the land was new or raw and undeveloped.He must begin with the beginning and develop with the development of thecountry. By the proper and accepted methods of conservation of thenatural resources and close application to his work, his chances forsuccess are good.
When I finally reached this conclusion I began searching for a suitablelocation in which to try my fortune in the harrowing of the soil.
The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer Page 6
