The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-10-18
DAY OF R. R. PRESIDENT
DESCRIBED BY A MAN WHO KoNWs
HOW IT IS SPENT.

A President Gets Down 20 wort 9TH
out Any FUSS or Ceremony - Why ae
Private Car is business Neoesaity-
interviewing tho General Manager.
A practical railroad man, Charles De
Lano Hine, is the author Of an account
In the Century of the way railroad
president passes a representative day
After being for a few hours with a
railroad president one has q better
conception OF the magnitude Of the
Chinese treatise on all things. The
president, perhaps has just returned
from a trip to New York, where he has
attended a conference of presidents OF
allied lines. He has been on the road all
night, but, thanks to that buslness-like
institution, the private car, often err
roneously considered a luxury, he APP
pears in his Office fresher for work
than the suburbanite who has just
come in on the commuters train.
While the president is looking over
his personal mail, word spreads about
the big building that "the old man is
back" Gradually the private seore-
taries of the different chiefs drop into
the outer Office to learn from the presi-
dents private secretary what business
is most likely to come up first, and
what chance there is for action on
some pet measure. The bell rings, and
for a few minutes the private secre-
tary is closeted with the president.
daily telegraphic reports have kept
the president informed Of events on
the line, but in a surprisingly brief
time he learns of smaller happenings,
of messages left by prominent callers,
and of the general behavior Of his
child, the railroad
Then the president sends for his
chief assistant, the general manager,
and learns officially some of the things
the private secretary has told him as
gossip, and many others of greater
moment, but perhaps of less real inter-
est. The half-hour work with the gen.
eral manager may mean decisions in
volving the expenditure of hundreds
Of thousands of dollars. 1t may mean
happiness or anxiety to hundreds Of
homes. For example, it may be de-
cided to move the company's shops
from Dan to Beersheba. This means
move for employees, a breaking Of
home ties, and perhaps disappoint-
ment to engaged lovers. Again, it may
be decided to extend the Utopia branch
which means a fortune to investors
in land beyond Utopia, and ruin to
! some in the old terminus. The presi-
dent may tell the general manager
that the demand for a dividend on the
! preferred stock is becoming more
clamorous, and that they must get
along another year without the five
thousand new box-cars that are badly
needed, and the building of which
would affect many idle men. The pre-
sident very likely calls the attention
of the general manager to the auditor S
estimate of last weeks earnings, and
asks why expenses cannot be reduced
Just little more. The president re-
minds the general manager that the
contract for hauling Chicago dressed
beef is conditional upon a second
morning delivery at the sea-board two
hours earlier than that previously
given by a rival line. He also OBJ
serves that the reliability and regu'
larity of the passenger trains is help.
ing the western tourist business, thai
the delay to the hotel-men's special by
a freight wreck last week will hurt the
winter travel to California, and tha
the new dining car must be made tt
pay expenses. He asks why the ton
mile cost of moving freight has no
decreased in proportion to the recen
outlay for big engines. He ventures
the opinion that the superintendent o
the Slowburg division must have beer
asleep while the city council of Ring
Vile passed an ordinance requiring tn
company to erect ten more electro
lights at street crossings. He espresso
polite establishment at the failure o
the passenger department to book tn
headquarters train or the next Crane
Army encampment. He makes no at
tempt at concealing his disgust over
competitors securing ten train-load
of agricultural machinery for the west
ern prairies. He then takes up tn
question of larger terminal charg
for switching cars to connecting lines
and suggests to the general manage
that the revenue would be increased b
, more favorable terms in the next con
tract with other roads.
The patient and loyal general man