The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-08-20
THE RAILROAD BOSS.
A SAMPLE DAY IN. THE LIFE OF The
PRESIDENT or A ROAD.

A SAMPLE DAY IN TIE LIFE Of t6h
i PRESIDENT or A ROAD.
The Thousand and One Details That
Claim His Attention and Try HIS
Executive AbiIity-The Half Hour
With the General Manager.
After being for few hours with a
railroad president one has better con-
ception of the magnitude of the Chinese
treatise on all things. The president
perhaps has just returned from trip to
New York, where he has attended con-
ference of presidents of allied lines. He
has been on the road all night; but,
thanks to that businesslike institution,
the private car, often enormously consid-
cred luxury, he appears 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 secre-
taries of the different chiefs drop into
the outer Office to learn from the prest
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 few
minutes the private secretary is closeted
with the president Daily Geographic re-
ports have kept the president informed
of events on the line, but In surpris-
ingly brief time he learns of smaller hap
penings, of messages left by prominent
callers and Of the general behavior or
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 per
| haps of less real interest. The half hour
with the general manager may mean de-
cisions involving the expenditure OF hum
dreds of thousands of dollars. 1t may
mean happiness or anxiety to hundreds OF
homes. For example, 1t may be decided
to move the company's shops from Dan
to Beersheba. This means a move for
employees, breaking Of home ties and
perhaps disappointment to engaged low
ers. Again, it may be decided to extend
the Utopia branch, which means for
tune to Investors in land beyond Utopia
and ruin to some in the old terminus.
The president may tell the general man
ager that the demand for dividend on
the preferred stock is becoming more
clamorous and that they must get along
another year without the 5000 new box
cars that are badly needed and the build
Ing of which would affect many idle men.
The president very likely calls the atten-
| ton of the general manager to the au-
ditor's estimate of last weeks earnings
and asks why expenses cannot be reduced
| Just little more
| The president reminds the general man
ager that the contract for hauling Chicago
/ dressed beef Is conditional upon second
morning delivery at the seaboard two
hours earlier than that previously given
| by a rival line. He also observes that the
! reliability and regularity of the passenger
trains is helping the western tourist BUSH
ness, that the delay to the hotel mems
special by freight wreck last week Will
hurt the winter travel to California and
that the new dining car must be made to
pay expenses. He asks why the ton mile
cost of moving freight has not decreased
/ In proportion to the recent outlay for big
engines.
He ventures the opinion that the su-
perintendent of the Slowburg division
must have been asleep while the city
council Of Ringville passed an ordinance
requiring the company to erect ten more
electric lights at street crossings. He ex-
presses polite establishment at tie failure
Of the passenger department to book the
headquarters train for the next Grand
Army encampment. He makes no at
tempt at concealing his disgust over
competitor securing ten trainloads OF
agricultural machinery for the western
prairies. He then takes up the question
H., ot,n qr>., fehi Inn
| cars to connecting lines and suggests to
the general manager that the revenue
would be increased by more favorable
terms IN the next contract with other
roads.
The patient and loyal general manager,
who has taken all this In the Pickwickian
sense In which it was intended, now has
his turn. From the bundle Of papers un-
der his arm he draws a condensed esti-
mate of an elaborate plan for reducing
the cost Of transportation on certain
division by running around a bluff and
locating freight yards near busy river
instead of climbing into the town. The
trained eye of the president catches the
salient points, and he tells the general
manager whether OF not funds are likely
to be available, whether or not 1t Is poll
tic to antagonize municipal or other In
| terests.
The general manager automatically
shows the president that the New Or
leans cotton traffic is suffering because
of the presidents order to consider all
| Minneota -four as rush freight He asks
authority to increase the pay of super
| intendent who has a better offer from
another road. From the bundle of con-
densed reports he shows saving Of 100
tons Of coal the previous week by rea-
son of better fuel furnished from the new
mines. He tells Of a new gasolene en-
| CINE at Pumptown which will cut In two
the monthly bills for water supply for
locomotives He reports conference
with the mayor of a big city about the
smoke nuisance near the freight yards.
/ He suggests that It would be well for
the passenger department to stop Dromls-
! ing dollar excursionists two hour sched-
nile for a hard three hour run. He urges
conciliatory measures toward the city
council Of Bucktcwn, which will repeal
| the speed ordinance as soon as the olo
morning accommodation train Is restored,
and $40. g" (the st. Louis express) can
| then get through the town on time. In
the most nonchalant manner he asks to
| be excused, that he may catch q train
leaving in Eve minutes, as he has an APP
pointment for the next morning some 600
miles away.
Before the general manager has finished
the private secretary is entertaining two
or three reporters of afternoon papers.
The president sees them.> comes out,
shakes hands and tells them rates are to
be sitter than ever, that the stockholders
Are tired of hunting snipe for the fun OF
holding empty bags. He then loosely
asks them for news about his road, as he
has been in New York helping his wife to
do her shopping.-Cha De Laro Hine
In Century.
Fled to the Wolves.
For sheer melodrama the English