RAILROAD CENTENARY

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 253, 24 October 1936, Page 13

RAILROAD CENTENARY

PARIS CELEBRATES IN 1937. LINE FOUNDED. BY RELIGIOUS CULT. - PARIS, Plans are being made for celebration next year of the centenary of the ParisSaint Germain railroad,;. on which Samuel F. B; Morse worked some of his first experiments in telegraphy. Parliament did not authorise Louis Philippe, the "citizen King," to ride on the first French railroad train for fear of accident. But Queen Marie -Amelie was permitted to take the short trip, and the King, who had gone there by coach, greeted her when she reached Saint Germain. The following day the line was opened to the public and met with great success, transporting some 20,000 persons daily. The first French railroad was achieved by the work -of "Saint Simonians," a religious cult based on constructions of railroads. As far as is known, Saint Simonism is the only gospel that ever proclaimed railroad construction as a religious act and sacrament. The first French railroad company was organised in the church of this religious group in Paris and soon a sort of "railroad university" was established from which emerged the engineers, administrators and financiers who were to organise the large French railroad system which exists to-day. The man who inspired all this-activity —Claude Henri de Rouvray, Count of Saint Simon —never saw a railroad. He fought with Lafayette in America and on his return to France founded the religious group which followed his social philosophy. ' 1