Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-01-08
ROSE FROM THE PLOw SHARE
How a Great street Car President
Was Made--.C. Ii. Holmes, OF the Chi
cng0 Syndicate.


majority of the street car lines of the
three cities. was in Rock Island looking
after his interests last Saturday, the re-
porters of the Chicago Herald were get
ting ready a column and half sketch of
/ his life which greeted him on the pages
of that journal upon his return to Chica-
go Sunday morning. The lengthy and
very complimentary article is headed,
street Cardom's King" and the fol-
lowing extract is MADE of the Herald s
write>up of the street car magnate:
| Thirty three years ago Charles B i.
| Holmes was working on farm near Bel.
videre, Ill, for S12 per month and board.
| Since then he has inherited no fortune
and acquired none which could not be
gained by hard work Judiciously applied
and capacity for conducting large oper-
atiOns which few men have ever pos
sessed. But he is today without question
the great street railway king of America
He controls more lines of street railway
| than any other man in the world, and
| there are many who hold that he controls
them better than anybody else could or
would. He is president of the Chicago
Railway company. with its 1875 miles of
lines, its 1000 horses and 1000 borse
power of cables and its 1000 cars. He
is at the head of syndicate which owps
all of the street car lines of Indianapolis.
OF anot Ter which owns forty-two miles of
street car in st. Louis, thirteen miles of
which are cable, the whole valued at $3,-
SOC, 900, at the head of onother syndicate
which has invested $500, 600 in Los An
geles, Cal, cable lines, and is also the
head man in another syndicate which
owns the street car lines of Rock Island,
Davenport and Moline.
And yet Mr.. Holmes neither looks nor
acts like great railway magnate is sup
posed to in the popular mind. He is
plain, hard working man. polite and
courteous to everybody, and seemingly
devoted wholly to giving the patrons of
his lines the greatest accommodation for
the least possible money. To be able
to advance from $12 month at sixteen
to the head man in the most extern
sive street car system in the world
at forty>nine years of age would seem to
indicate man of unbounded energy.
hhut hi 10 poooCooCu VI SiCdt
energy cannot be doubted, but that this
is shown in the ordinary way is not the
case. To see him working at his desk
one would be led to believe that he was
clerking for very modest salary, and,
| while willing to put in his time honestly,
he Vas in no hurry about it. He is a
wonderfully systematic man, but system
is not his one great quality His exccu
tive ability is above all, and it is to this
| that his success must be attributed
largely. He seems To be at the root of
success in his dealings with the public
He gives them the best service possible
and at the lowest price. A ride of
| twelve miles can be had on his South
Side lines for five cents, which is cOnsid
erably the cheapest transportation in the
world. AT this rate the trip to San
Francisco from Chicago, which now costs
sos, could be had for only $40. 1t Is a
rare thing, too, when all the passengers
are not able to find seats. In appearance
Mr. Holmes would not strike a casual OBJ
server as a man of great deal of force.
He looks more like minister of the gos~
pei than a master OF men and capital
There is quiet directness about his man.
ner that quickly impresses those having
dealings with him. and gives them to I'm :
derstand that he knows just what he is
| about 1t is the custom generally nowa>
days TO look upon a man who has grown
| to be millionaire as man who was very
successful In wrecking the fortunes of
| others and building up his own out of the
ruins. But Mr.. Holmes success has been
the result of advancing the interests of
which he was given control From the
| time that he assumed the management of
the Chicago City Railway it has advanced
from a company with twenty-five miles
of track, seventy cars and 900 horses to
its present magnificent proportions with
out any of the stockholders being frozen
out and without the employees of the
| roads being driven to a strike. 1t is the
confidence which capitalists have in Mr.
Holmes honesty and ability that gives
him his seemingly endless control of cap.
ital. He seems to need only to decide
| what new enterprise can be engaged in
| to command all the capital wanted.
In the early part of 1878 he went into
the street car business, having been called
to the management of the Chicago city
railway company. In the fifteen years
since then his work has been under the
eyes of the Chicago public, and all have
been witnesses of his remarkable success
| as manager. For the past seven years
he has been president as we'll as superin-
| tendent. Probably the most brilliant
| feature of his management of this great
| system. which he has built up to such
| mammoth proportions, was the construc-
ton of the cable lines at a cost of several
million dollars. The confidence of the
stockholders of the company could not be
| better evidenced than by the readiness
with which they put up millions of dol
| lars to put in operation what was then an
almost untried system. The success of
Mr.. Holmes in the happy consummation
of this undertaking has given him world
wide fame.
In the other cities into which Mr..
Holmes has extended his street car opera
tions no fear has been expressed that the
public would suffer as the result of street
car transportation being controlled by a
trust. His advent has been hailed with
unalloyed pleasure. Marked improve
ment has always followed. Rock Island
and Davenport have been Joined by a
street car line over the Mississippi. In
Los Angeles the horse cars have given
place to cable lines and in Indianspoli:
many miles and large increase in the
number of cars have been added to the
system.
Mr.. Holmes great recreation, and it is
peculiar to the man and shows his love
for as well as his ability to manage grea
un dertakings, is the largest Sunday
school in the world. This consists of 3.
600 children gathered from the foreign
born population in the northern division
of the city, where for the past ten year.
Mr.. Holmes has acted as teacher to class
\ of 1000 boys and girls. The Sunda.
II school he calls his nlay ground. Mr.