The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-12-27
ESTABLISHED 1850.

native state has come to be quite true.
Mr.. Baer and that some day" be-
came acquainted, many years ago, in
Reading.
1t was with an equipment, there
fore, of editorial, military and legal
training that George F. Baer faced
his future, at twenty-six years of age,
thirty-four years ago, in Reading.
He attained a notable fame in Penn
sylvania long before the outside world
ever heard of him. At the outset of
! his legal career, he engaged in gen
| eral law practise.
Later on, he won a victory in a
great damage suit against the Read
ing Railway. Those then in control
are said to have seen in the young
attorney a dangerous opponent, and
he was enlisted in the service of
the corporation. He became a close
stndent of the law as it relates to
railroads, and today there is no better
authority on the subject in the United
States.
His alliance with large railroad in
terests has been the means of keep
ing Mr.. Baer out of politics, the arena
in which so many able legal minds
find congenial employment, although
he has always assigned lack of time
as his reason for declining political
honors when they were about to be
thrust upon him by the leaders of his
home district. For years he was a
straight" Democrat.
Mr.. Baer is understood to have
been one of Mr.. Morgan's legal ad-
visers for ten years before the gener-
al public was aware of his existence.
He is an organizer. He has for
years successfully operated several
papermills, employing many work
men. He has been attorney for, and
one of the directors of, the Reading
Railroad Company for many years.
He is director of the Temple Iron
Company. He is now president of the
reorganized Reading Railroad Com
pany, its branches, its allied coal and
coke interests, and of the Central
Railroad of New Jersey.
Study the biographies of most rail-
road men who occupy high positions,
and it will be found that they have
been educated in railroad-manage-
ment, step by step. through all the
lower grades of the business. They
have worked themselves up from pro-
motion to promotion, and men who
were once brakemen, machinists, tele-
graph-operators and even section
hands are now superintendent, gen
eral managers and even presidents of
great railroad-systems. Practical
knowledge, gained by such advance
ment, is invaluable in the railroad
business as in any other line of work.
The ability to assimilate details and
to acquire such knowledge is the sort
of talent most sought by owners of
railroad-properties, for both high and
low positions. Railroad managers
are usually drawn from the ranks of
subordinates. 1t is seldom that such
selections are made from among law
yers or professions other than that of
railroading.
A story is told of a railroad
ager who was drawn from the ranks
of another profession. A subordi-
nate official sent him a report which
gave "bad rail'' as an excuse for a
delay to a passenger-train. Had the
newgeneral manager grown up in rail-
road-service, he would not have re-
piled: Have the bad rail removed
at once"
But there are exceptions in the
railroad-business, as in all others.
1t is sometimes one thing to have
ability and quite another to make
subordinates believe it, so that their
confidence may be won and their best
work inspired. A good business
man, educated in any particular class
of work, if he is possessed of execu-
tive ability, of the gift of leadership,
and Of judgment in the selection of
his 1ieutenants, can manage rail-
road-property as well as he has per-
haps managed department-store.
To this class of men Mr.. Baer be-
longs. 1t is universally acknowledge
ed that he is practical and success
full railroad-manager, even though he
did skip the minor grades when he
strobe from the chair of corporate
counselor to that of his present posi-
ton. Personally, Mr.. Baer is erect, al
though slight of figure; he is aver
age height, wiry of build, with head
well-poised, and a quick, nervous
walk which at each step brings his
heels to the pavement with ring.
At first sight, he gives no indication
of the physical and mental forces he
possesses. He is quiet and unosten-
tatious. In conversation, he is affable
to his friends, most genial. A year
ago, he was an ordinary, not very
well-known American man of busi-
ness. Now his name has encircled
the globe. Few men have inspired
more pens in single year than he.
His residence, known as Claw
thorne," is one of the most attractive
homes in Reading. He is member,
and was formerly the president, of the
Pennsylvania German Society.
Mr.. Baer's predominant character
istic is determination, as students of
physiognomy may find from his face.
He is positive in everything he under
takes. His position is never doubt
full on any question. Those who
know him best were quite prepared
for the attitude he assumed in the re-
cent coal-strike. He is a man of
principle. If he thinks he is in the
right, he fights to uphold his opinion.
He is disciplinarian. If he issues
an order, he requires that it be obey
ed, and if he is told by one whose au-
thority he recognizes to carry out an
order, he does SO.
The kev-note to Mr.. Baer's char