Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1884-10-02
General News


Sun says -
"If there was one trait above all 9TH
ers that marked the character Of the
late John W. Garrett, it was his passion
for earnest, thorough, exhaustive work.
1t was this trait, combined with his
marvellous capacity for mental and
physical strain, that made him the
ablest railroad president in the coun-
try, and ralned for him at home and
abroad a reputation for the most emf
nent fitness for the service to which he
had devoted so large a portion of his
life. He wore himself out by his in
cessant labors, by the energy with
which, in the earlier years of his presi-
dency, he set himself to work to relieve
the struggling and almost ban krupted
company from the complications by
which it was then bcset and to set it
solidly on its feet. He had studied
zealously, and with remarkable success,
the problem of railroad management
while he was member of the board of
directors and before he was thought Of
for the presidency. Yet the board did
not themselves, at first, recognize in
their associate, then in the prime Of life,
the capable officer who was destined
not only to rebuild the shattered for
tunes of the company, but also to be-
come the highest authority in railroad
matters and to inspire the confidence
of capitalists to degree which no 9TH
er president of a railroad in the United
States has ever attained. 1t was the
good fortune of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad Company that Of its capital
stock, which is under fifteen millions
of dollars, majority Of its shares
should be held in Baltimore as a per-
manent investment, and that it has
never been made foot ball for specu-
lation. 1t has been in rare instances,
and under exceptional circumstances,
that any Of its shares have been put on
the market at low rates, and the eager
ness with which they were bought up,
and the price Of them raised to their
intrinsic value, was the best possible
proof Of the confidence of the investors
in the solid character of the company
and in its recuperative power, even in
times Of great railroad depression. 1t
was, moreover, an honorable testimony
to the close and careful management of
Mr.. Garrett as the inspiration Of that |
For the greater part of the
past quarter OF century the RESPONSE
billty for that management rested ex-
on his shoulders. He took it
upon himself alone. He would divide
40 part Of it with any one. He had .
sble lieutenants during some two thirds |
IF the years of his presidency. men
rained under him to the work they
1ad to do, but he allowed them no lib
.rty of action. lie must know all and
De ALL lie must be made acquainted
with every detail, every incident that
,ouched in any way directly or indi-
'ectly the operations of the road. No
,hange of any kind could be made, no
contract made, no combination formed,
first obtaining his consent. All
papers, all correspondence of the least
Importance were turned over to him
or examination, and he worked at
hem not only by day but often deep
nto the night. He carried into the
management of the road the most exact
and into its expenses the
closest economy. He would admit no
deviation from his orders, no change in
lis plans. He consulted very few per-
sons. He trusted only himself He
vas not only president of the company,
1ut held and exercised for years the
powers of a dictator. If the constitu-
ion of his mind and his passion for
work led him to investigate and to
Keep himself constantly acquainted
With every thing connected with the
operations of the road down to tho mi
lutest details, there was nevertheless
largeness and forethought about his
olans for the execution Of the road, and
or increasing its traffic, which illus
rated the grander phase Of his charac-
er When in 1858 he entered upon
,he presidency, as he said in his last
address at the annual meeting Of the
BOARD Of directors in Dec. 1883, the
Baltimore and Ohio Road had but five
hundred and fourteen miles, costing
hirtytwo millions of dollars. under
he control of the COMPANY, while at