The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-03-31
RAILWAY MEMS
REMARKABLE RISE OF SOME WHO
BEGAN IN HUMBLE POSITIONS.
With Sound Mind and Body, Any
Young Man May Find OppOrtun-
fty for Advancement.
New York Letter in Philadelphia Press.

New York Letter. in Philadelphia Press.
Again a man who began at the brakes
has become the president of a great rail-
way system. In a day or two, the an
nouncement will be formally made that Mr..
F. C. Underwood has been chosen president
of the Erie Railway and that his predeces-
sor in that office, President Thomas, has
been elected chairman of the board. So.
too, this week. one who began his railroad
career by shoveling coal into the furnace
of a switch engine. has advanced so far
from that apprenticeship that he has been
elected president of the Brooklyn Rapid
Transit system.
A day or two ago il was announced that
the New Haven Railroad had entered into
contracts with the Lehigh Valley and it's
Western allies by which a thousand car
loads of grain and provisions were to be
delivered to the New Haven corporation in
New York harbor and carried by means OF
railway floats around the city of New
York TO the freight terminal of that cor
poration at Mott Haven; next to be hauled
10 Boston and the European steamships
upon which these cargoes are to be carried
thence across the sea, and il was also said
that this was but a beginning of a sharp
competition on the part of the New Haven
corporation for some part of the internal
tional traffic between the West and North
west and Europe.
These negotiations have been entered
into and are to be maintained under the
direction of Percy Todd, who was recently
called TO a responsible post in the New
Haven system from the West Shore. He is
another of the young men who have Gre
ated opportunity without any incidental
favoritism, and political or family in
fuence, and he owes his career to his own
industry and ability.
Not long ago Mr.. Todd was a clerk, hav-
ing a desk in one of the offices of the West
Shore. He seemed to have no better, no
poorer opportunities than any one of the
several clerks who were his associates in
that group. He never grumbled about over
hours or overwork, seemed disposed TO
give to his employers not only all the
service that his salary justified, but every
possible service that was in his power. He
was not one of those who looked at the
clock that he might see whether the hands
pointed to L o'clock or 8 O'Clock.
RISE FROM OBSCURITY.
Mr.. Carnegie is reported to have said to
one of the correspondents who met him as
he landed at Southampton that there is
even a better opportunity for young men
in the United States to-day than was ever
the case. and that the who'll story of our
recent great development contains chapter
after chapter hat tell with romantic IN
terest of the rise of. this or that young
man from obscurity to wealth, reputation
and power. Two chapters were added while
Mr.. Carnegie was on the ocean.
Mr.. Underwood, who is to be the new
president Of the Erie Railroad, possesses
both physical and mental, as we'll as tenn
peramental, qualities that have caused
some of the ablest of the men engaged in
railway affairs to speak Of him as, per-
haps, pre-eminent among all of those who
are of very high capacity in the world Of
the active direction and operation of rail-
ways. He is a giant physically. He seems
to have perfect health and a constitution
of iron.
Great physique is not always an essential
to admirable railway management. Samuel
Sloan. who. for a half century, directed the
system as president, is a
slender mar of delicate appearance, but he
always kept a sound mind in a sound body.
Jay Gould was so small that he was almost
conspicuous by reason of his diminutive
stature and size.
But it is observed that the new group.
made w of comparatively young men who
have been promoted from the ranks to
positions of supreme responsibility, are
men of vigorous physique, like Vreeland,
who is six feet three, whose complexion
is as fair as a freshman's' whose EYES are
china blue and clear, and who seems to be
W that he has a stomach; or like
Galloway. who has the physique that has
made him an athlete. as he. indeed, was In
the days when he was working in sub
ordinate capacity upon a railway line, or
like GreatSilger or Mellen, who advanced
from the post of station agent in a little
town in Vermont to the presidency of the
Northern Pacific, via the vice presidency
n h Nauv Il a tvcfaT
Mr.. Underwood began as a brakeman,
but he advanced speedily, becoming a mas
ter of the smaller mechanics of railway
operations. His life and his enthusiasm
were in his work, and he first attracted
general attention when he was a division
superintendent of a division of the st. Paul
system. After he went to the 500 and
found himself under the inspiring influence
OF James j. Hill he was permitted to do
the very thing which those who dread the
growth of trusts and combinations say is
forbidden. They are mistaken. There is
probably quite as much within proper linn
its to those who are in various places of
authority in trusts and combinations as
would be the case if the same individuals
were at the head of enterprises which they
absolutely controlled.
1t is results that corporations seek and
their employees, from president down., have
opportunity TO secure results through the
exercise of individual Judgment. That was
what Mr.. Underwood did with the 500
system, and having done ii to the satisfac-
tion of Mr.. Hill he was brought into closer
dno tiCSCA ICldlAOlS VII I1lll until he at
last is to become the president Of the Erie
system, which seems to have been re-
tuvenated and to be upon the eve of a great
career.
GREATSINGER'S CAREER.
When David B.. Hill was just begin
ming to practice law and ward politics in
Elmira a young man was firing a switch
engine in the yards at or near Elmira.
And there is no more wearying work than
the keeping up Of steam in a locomotive
Of that kind. since it has none of the
compensations which the fremen of a
limited express locomotive daily expert
ences.
Young Greatsinger liked his work for the
the mechanics OF railway operation. He.
too, In a little while, acted in certain mat
ters upon his own Judgment, and his en-
pioyers having found that his Judgment
was good, that he was an original think
err, promoted him, until at last he was
called to important points in connection
with the rapid transit and other railway
systems in the West.
Now he is placed in charge of one of
the largest rapid-transit systems in the
world, and it Is one which Is perhaps ca