The Baltimore County union., 1875-02-06

SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND CAREER OF THE PREsI-
DENT OF THE BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD.
From the N. Y. Daily Graphic.
John W. Garrett, President of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad Company and head of the
long established firm of Ro Garrett & Son,
was born in Baltimore, July 81, 1920. His
father, Robert Garrett, was one of the most
prominent citizens of Baltimore in his time, and
accumulated large fortune by developing the
foreign and domestic commerce OF the port
He had two sons, Henry S. and John W. Gar
rett, and he associated both of them with him
In business when tney were YET very tJouny
men. John w. Garrett was the younger of the
two, and when he left Lafayette College in
Pennsylvania, at the age OF nineteen, 1t was to
enter his fathers counting room, whittier his
brother had preceded him, as a partner. No
better or more thorough business education
was ever afforded young man than that to
be had of Robert Garrett. A man OF kindly,
generous disposition, warm impulses, and broad
intelligence, he was a severe, unyleldlng man
of business, who transacted his affairs In this
world upon fixed rule and principle as i'm
mutable for him and his partners as the laws
of the Medes and Persians. 1t was under
training like this that John W. Garrett learned
"busness" and acquired the knowledge OF men
and the world that he has since turned to such
account His father came of well-to- do and
respectable North of Ireland family, and his
mother of Pennsylvania German stock. Like
his father, Mr.. Garrett has all that native
sagacity and shrewdness that characterize the
So called Scotch -Irish-a quality of mind which
rejects instinctively the levities and smaller
considerations of life, and occupies itself with
hard facts and maturer problems. Sound com
mon sense has been the distinctive characters
tic of Mr.. Garrett's business career; he is en-
tirely practical, and in no sense a theorist.
Mr. Garrett and his brother, gradually as
inU he na MT of q firm Robert
Garrett & Sons, greatly increased its Importance
and utility. 1t became the American branch
of the great house of Peabody Co., of London,
and represented in this country some OF the
most important commercial houses of London
and Liverpool. 1t is safe to say that there was
at this time no great public enterprise under
taken in the State in which the house was not
actively engaged. John W. Garrett is now, of
course known to the entire country in his ca
pacity as the head of the great corporation that
controls the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and
| its vast connections. He has indeed long been
prominent as such, but recent developments in
| railroad matters, recent episodes in the rail-
| road history of the country, have brought his
name before the public at large in such way
| that an unusual and remarkable interest at
taches to him. Mr.. Garrett to-day, considered
| as railroad man simply per SC, stands at the
| head of the profession in the United States.-
Others there may be more brilliant, more ver-
| but Mr.. Garrett is a railroad man, railroad IL
| nancier, and nothing else He is nothing if
not thorough.
During his earlier business career Mr.. Gar
rett was a close and attentive student of the
railroad problem of the country as instanced
by the road that was even then having such
powerful influence upon his native town. He
expressed himself freely upon the subject OF
management, and it is not unreasonable to sup
pose that his influence was more or less felt by
the road long before he ever consented to take
part in its management. Those who are IA
miliar with the history of the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad must recollect that up to 1886 1T
had been an Improbable and much embarrass-
ed enterprise. Discussions were rife among its
stockholders, and its management was marked
by in consistencies and vacillations. In 1857
Mr. Garrett attended, for the first time, a meet
ing of the ckholders, and at it gave express
sion to his views upon the condition and pros
poets of the road in manner that created
most profound impression. His opinions took
the form of series of resolutions, which were
adopted, and in which was foreshadowed, in
deed we may say clearly outlined, that policy
which the great corporation has so answering
| ly adhered to ever since. The change was not
made without struggle. The Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad was for Tany years the prey OF
politicians, because up to the original basis up
| on which the directors was organized the State
and city representatives outnumbered those
who represented private capital and enterprise
| in the proportion of'eghteen to twelve. 1t can
readily be understood what might be the fate
| of such an enterprise as railroad when 1T is
devoted to purely political uses by its manage
ment. Fortunately the Baltimore and Ohio
road never fell wholly into the hands Of the
politicians, for the reason that there were al
| ways few among its State or city directors
who were honest enough and possessed of suf-
| fcient principle to side with the others. Mr..
Garrett, who became director in October, 1857,
| was keenly alive to this danger, and he devo-
ted himself to the task of establishing new
system of representation which should insure
adequate protection to both S tate and individ-
ual ownership. In 1853 Mr.. Garrett inaugura-
| ted the new policy, and on the nomination of
the late millionaire, Johns Hopkins, was elect
ed President of the company.
The new order of things dated from October,
| 1858, and at the next annual meeting OF the
| company its fruits were apparent. The gross
receipts of the road for 1859-the first year of
| Mr.. Garretts administration-were over half
million dollars less than in 1858, owing to the
| general business depression Of the country,
| 1859 bearing relation to 1857 similar to that
borne by 1875 to 1873. But there was an in
crease of $725,325.16 in the comparative net
| gains. This was when the Garrett policy of
economy and personal supervision made its
| workings manifest, and the first practical re-
| suit of it was the payment to the stockholders
in the spring Of 1859 of the first semi-annual
dividend of the regular series that has never
been interrupted since.
In 1866 the gross earnings of the road large
ly exceeded those of both preceding years, but
not to the extent of promising increased net
earnings upon the former basis of management
| But economy and reform produced an increase
of net profit of $3.50, 800; nearly million dol
lars. This was equal in point of fact to net
gain on the capital stock of over eighteen per
| cent In 1858, when Mr.. Garrett first took part
| in the management of the company, the stock
of the road was quoted at $57; but considering
| the contingency of an extra dividend then in
| litigation, its average market value was $40
A recent quotation in the Baltimore Stock
Board makes the stock stand at 5000, and none
| to be had at the figure. 1t is stock that rare
| y finds its way into the market, except when
some of it is sold in the settlement of an estate.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company is
conducted upon principles of systematic econ.
omy. 1t pays no large salaries; its internal
expenses are increased in the ratio of its growth,
| but preserve carefully maintained relation
not to the gains of the company, but to the
amount of work to be done. This system is
| found in all its departments, and there is no
road in the country which so ably and readily
adjusts its expenses upon short notice to the
| exigencies of trade. Mr.. CARROTS own salary
| has often been pointed at as ridiculously small
| and incom mensurate with the dignity and i'm
portance of the Office he holds. But that, too,
! Is matter of principle. He prefers to regulate