The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-02-20

From the Times-Herald.
Philadelphia, Feb. 17.-There is q COM
forting congruity in the election of
Frank Thomson, who is a model rail-
road man, to the presidency of the
Pennsylvania, which is the model rail-
road of the United States. Mr. Thorn
son came up from a bench in the shops
OF the road at Altoona, where in four
years he had mastered mechanical en-
gineering and had learned how to build
a locomotive. When he was graduated
from the shops he understood his trade
so we'll that he might have taken crude
ore and transformed it through all its
multiplicity of processes into the pol
ished engine. He began at the bottom
round of the ladder and climbed to the
very top That is why he is properly
called model railroad man-for rail-
road men pride themselves on having
risen from the ranks.
Mr.. Thomson's family was more or
less prominent in the old days. His
father was a judge and congressman,
we'll known in the early years of this
century. The new president of the
Pennsylvania was born in Chambers
burg, Pa, on July 5, 1S4l. He did not
pass through a university, but was Civ
en- a thorough academic education in
an excellent institution in his own town.
After he was graduated with honOrs
his father conceived the idea of giving
him q railroad education instead of
course in the classics, and young Thorn
son readily fell in with the plan Don
ming his overalls he entered the shops of
the Pennsylvania, and during his four
years Of service there his energies never
tagged. The result of his constant APP
pliCation was a masterful understand
ing of the mechanical part of railroad
ing. But he could not only build an en-
gine; he could operate one, too Just
as he emerged from the grease and the
Crime of the shops the country was
stricken with the civil war. Thomas A.
Scott had been selected by Secretary of
War Cameron to be his assistant, haV-
ing charge OF all army transportation.
Mr.. Scott knew something of Thomson
and sent for him. Soon afterward the
young engineer was busy organizing the
transportation of the army of the Poto-
mac. Here was a youth who had barely
reached 20 experimenting the difficult
work of moving an army, work IN
VClying the construction and recon-
struction of railway lines, solving prob
lens presented to him by generals, bid
ding a bridge rise here and cutting away
a hill there, and materially assisting
the progress of war.
When his military career was at ar
end in 1864 young Thomson had learned
all that was to be learned of the details
of railway management and the severe
discipline which came as part of the
lesson served him we'll ever afterWard
The reason for this is simple. No en-
terprise of industry is so militant a!
a railway. In the conduct of the bust
ness of a railroad things must be done
on schedule. The management of {
railroad consists of oligarchies within
oligarchies, tapering to an individual
head from which all orders must comt
directly or indirectly. Were it other
wise, confusion would result, and tn,
enterprise would fail If the success
of an army depends upon the genius
and consistency of its supreme head
the success of railroad depends upol
precisely the same couse. The success
full general must be a severe discp
linarian, tolerating no excuse for fail
ure and ever ready to encourage talen
and advance ability. In a railroad, a
in an army, the fittest units segre
gate to the top. A railroad of whicl
the head can see the force and neces
sity of this natural process, and aim
to assist rather than estop 1t, canno
fail. Such a policy, if pursued wit
the supreme end in view, service to it
patrons, will ever tend to rapidly brin
the entire road to the front. Unde
such a policy young Thomson grew VI
and such is the policy he will follow GU
as president of the Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania thrives under tha
system which has been miscalled "clv
service" Properly called, this syster
is a system involving reward for meri
When it has been found out by thos
employed that duty well done is Gel
tain to bring it's reward, and that dut
neglected Is as certain of being fo
lowed by retrogression in or perhaI
dismissal from the service, the servic
must constantly improve until perfeC
equilibrium is reached. The Pennsy
Vania, rigidly adhering to these priT
ciples, has already reached that moN
ing equilibrium, which makes it II
most splendid example of private eI
terprise in its kind in America, tt
results are seen from the militaI
cleapliness and order of the president
writing table down to the flower be(
along the track. In the tremendol
mass between the two the same ord'
prevails. No one has anything bl
praise for what he gets from the Penn
sylvania. out of this policy has sprur
the thousands of miles of track al