The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1901-09-11
DAY OF r. r. PRESIDENT
DESCRIBED BY A MAN WHO kONWS
HOW 1T is SPENT.

A practical railroad man, Charles DE
Lano Hine, is the author of an account
in the Century of the way a railroad
president passes representative day:
After being for few hours with q
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 business-llke
institution, the private car, often err
roneously considered a luxury. he ap-
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 secre-
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 few minutes the private secre-
tary is closetod with the president.
Daily telegraphic reports have kept
the president informed of events on
the line. but in n surprisingly brief
timo 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
volying the expenditure of hundreds
of thousands Of dollars. 1t may mean
happiness or anxiety to hundreds of
homes. For example. Il may be de-
cided to move the companys shops
from Dan to Deersheba. This means
a move for employees. breaking of
home ties, and perhaps dlsappoint.
ment to engaged lovers. Again. It may
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 dividend on the
preferred stock Is becoming more
clamorous, and that they must get
along another year without the FIVE
at ha1
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 auditors
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 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, that
the delay to the hotel-men's 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 superintendent of
the Slowburg division must have been
asleep while the city council of Ring
vile passed an ordinance requiring the
company to erect ten more electric
lights at street crossings. He expresses
polite astonishment at the failure of
the passenger department to book the
headquarters train or the next Grand
Army encampment. He makes no at
tempt at concealing his disgust over a
competitors securing ten train-loads
OF agricultural machinery for the west
ern prairies. He then takes Zip the
question of a larger terminal charge
for switching cars to connecting lines,
and suggests to the general manager
that the revenue would be increased bv
more favorable terms in the next con-
tract with other roads.
The patient and loyal general man
aged, who has taken all this in the
PickwiclSian sense in which it was in
tended, now has his turn. From the
bundle Of papers under his arm he
draws a condensed estimate Of an
elaborate plan for reducing the cost Of
transportation on a certain division
by running around bluff and locating
freight-yards near busy river instead
of climbing into the town. The trained
eye of the president catches the sali-
ent points, and he tells the general
manager whether or not funds are
likely to be available. whether or not
1t is polite to antagonize municipal or
other interests. The general manager
automatically shows the president
that the New Orleans cotton traffic is
suffering because of the presidents or
der to consider all Minnesota -four as
rush freight. He asks authority to in