The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-03-22

agement pyrOtechn1cS have been wholly
| lacking. What, then, are the methods
| by which this road has been placed in
SO short a time in the very first rank
| Of American railroads?
The Santa Fe has in its president a
| man who is by nature of a judicial tenn
permanent He has the characteristics
of Judge well poised, and had his for
| tunes inclined to the law Mr.. Ripley
| would have been eminent as a jurist
He is a man apparently unconscious of
his strength. He is wholly unpreten-
| tious, yet in the struggles that western
roads have of late years made for bet
ter railroad practice he has always been
| foremost, and that Notwithstanding the
fact that the taking of advanced ground
| has at times been to the disadvantage
/ temporarily of the Santa Fe. Indeed,
| what the railroads of the whole country
| owe to the fight this man and his like
have made for proper methods and good
! practice among western railroads it is
| difficult to estimate. Without the effort
to this end in which the best western
men have stood firmly together, the
| transportation business of the country
today would be in condition more de-
plorable than that of the securities
market.
The head of the Santa Fe in this way
mas commanded both the respect of rail-
road men and the confidence of his as
socrates. He has stood among Compel
Itors as prudent and dependable, and
1 his straightforwardness has won the
L
curing at times the displeasure of
! autocratic shippers who, DESTROYS of
J buying transportation in large blocks
nave found that Ripley was opposed to
preferential rates and rebates, he has in
the end forced even them TO recognize
the justice Of his position.
/ Put- such a man at the head of an
army OF 10000 men and he becomes a
ngure in the railroad world; and with
| this glimpse at his character an I'M
| Outstanding may be had of how it
comes about that an American rail-
road today, merely by the application
to its management of sound business
principles, may attain the most envi-
able success.
| Railroad combinations 1T is true,
within five years have done more to
centralize control than had been done
| previously in two generations, yet the
| TACT must not be lost sight of that,
with practically all done in this direc-
ton that can be done until a new gen
Grafton of railroad men and wholly
new powers in finance arise, competi
ton still exists everywhere. At the
beginning of 1904 every railroad point
in the United States is a competitive
point.
The Santa Fe makes its headquarters
| in Chicago. In railroad control, in
deed, Chicago may be called the con-
| tinental divide. Many roads run into
! Chicago but practically none run
through it: it is a case of change cars
/
| railroad activity is to be looked for,
and there it is found. The position of
| the city, unique in several ways in the
! railroad world, makes it a point at
which in railway matters steam is al
| ways up. In Chicago may be found
| the operating and the traffic officers nf
the most powerful railroads in the
| country. There are in Chicago half
! dozen private offices where one may
| find maps that pieced together would
! q of IL
roads for the United States if all 9TH
| er roads were done wholly away with;
| and these maps, drawn on unusual
scale and precise as the field plans of
| an army corps, represent only the lines
| controlled by the half dozen officials
for whose use they have been made.
/ AS to the west, all of it's railroad
j destinies are shaped in these Chicago
offices. In Chicago one man sitting al
his desk makes a rate with his pencil
from his Chicago terminals over his
own rails to his terminals in San
| Francisco-but by no other man in the
| United States can this be done. The
five men who in authority that is alb
/ solute are traffic directors of two
| thirds of the United States may be
found almost every day within a few
moments walk of each other in Chi
! cago.
Showing as it does in this way the
rather startling possibilities of the day
in railroad control, Chicago is likewise
| the place to look for some of the i'm
/ possibilities, for above all other rail
road terminal points it exemplifies
them. 1t is the very head center of the
| Independent road of 1904. In Chicago
| one is brought to realize that the fofS-
| ing of new links in railroad chains is a
! good thing for the country just as long
as it is good business for the men that
| attempt it-and no longer. Chicago,
too, forces in the end the conviction
that the situation is so much bigger
~, tho 10
! develops so much faster than any one
mar in it, even a tabled Rockefeller,
| that a monopoly of railroad control. so
far as immediate generations are con-
cerned, is the spectre of dream.
Different Theories of Management.
The widest possible difference in
| theories of railroad management exist
side by side in Chicago. One great OPP
orator looks first and always to par
/ ticular feature of his reports: the ex-
pense account. Another operator,
equally powerful and equally able,
not necessarily make for the quickest
development of his territory and not.
therefore. for the best interests of his
road. The first, acting on his theories
| of mana cement, holds the car of wheat
of his farmer on the siding until he can
include it in a freight train heavy
/ enough for the full capacity of the loco
motive assigned to pull it. The other
| operator holds that the farmers gram
must be marketed at once. He main
/ tains that he cannot afford to leave
wheat on the sidings or in the yards
till he gets the maximum tonnage for
! an engine. Move the grain time is
money. The farmers capital is tied up
/ the argument runs: release it prompt
| " and begin over again. 1t will cost
more for the train mile but not enough
to warrant holding back the movement;
| the American way is to look for quick
returns and more business. Apply these
| ideas to the whole field of railway
management. and the germs of quite
/ different PHILOSOPHERS are seen. y larger
| expense account may not necessarily
mean a loss: it may stand for a slim
ulation of traffic that will develop more
and stronger shippers and bigger divi-