The Savannah morning news., 1904-12-25
BUSY RAILROAD
PRESIDENTS
HARDLY PRIVATE CITIZENS
HEADS OF THE GREAT CORPORA
TIONS ARE HARD WORKING MEN.


New York. Dec. 24.-In his recent
/ message to Congress the Presi-
! dent established a precedent by
/ quoting at length from speech
/ made by President Charles S.
! Mellen of the New York, New Haven
and Hartford Railroad before the Hart
] ford Board of Trade in January last.
For the first time the fact has been
officially stated, though it is apparent
/ to everyone that the heads of great
! corporations, and especially of the rail-
roads which play so large a part in the
! daily life of the American people, are
hardly to be considered as private citi-
zens.
Any real conception of the duties of
| railroad president and of the ex-
tent of the interests committed TO his
care, is obviously difficult for the lay
/ man to get. In the speech quoted by
President Roosevelt as showing good
sense" Mr.. Mellen was speaking of
the attitude of corporations to the pub
lie, of the necessity of satisfying the
people, of meeting their demands or.
where that could not be done. of ex-
planning to them precisely why it was
impossible. That a railroad official
presents such point of view is sig
| nificant of the breadth, the ability to
see all the sides of various questions,
which are nowadays essential char
acteristic of the head of a railway sys-
tenn.
The Head of a Great Army.
A railroad president is in fact the
chief of a fair sized state every in
terest of which he must be prepared
to serve. The New York, New Haven
and Hartford Railroad, for example,
employees more than 10000 men and
owns an amount of real estate that
is quite proportionate to the size of
IT'S territory, the welfare of it's men,
the good Will of its patrons, are vital
conditions of it's success. Ultimate
decisions involving these and other
important matters must rest with the
president.
The head of an organization of this
magnitude must be bound by no rules
as to the disposal of his time, must
nave as little routine business to occu-
Ply him as can be brought about I'M
der a thorough system of administra-
toni must be at liberty to attend at
leisure to alters which he alone can
decide, lea details to subordinates.
Inc manast .nent of a railroad is in
fact much like the government of a
nation. Its president is it's supreme
executive head. who acts in concert
with the board of directors, his legisla-
tive body.
The Presidents "Cabinet,"
In the work of administration, the
president has his cabinet, composed
his attorney general; a vice president
or general traffic manager, who is in
charge of the traffic department con-
Meeting the railroad with the outside
World-its foreign relat ions, so to
speak-and who occupies a position not
unlike that of the Secretary of State;
another vice president, a chief engin-
eer, TO whose province falls the task
of supervising all improvements;
controller in charge of the revenues
and expenditures, much as the Secre-
tary OF the Treasury is in charge of
the revenues of the United States:
the treasurer in whose hands is the
actual care of the railroads funds.
just as the treasurer of the United
States is responsible for those of the
nation. On Western roads. FREQUENT
ly built through undeveloped territory
and with governmental assistance,
there is another official, the land COM
missioner whose position is not unlike
that of the Secretary of Agriculture
an official of great Importance, as one
realizes when one remembers that the
original land grant to the Northern
Pacific has been estimated at 65,OOO,-
600 acres. The parallel, which is far
from being fanciful may be still fur
Their extended by the addition of the
Secretary of the Navy in the person
of the superintendent of the marine
district, who is in charge of the rail-
roads steamers.
More Than a Railroad Man.
Properly to govern such an empire,
a modern railway president must have
far more than the qualities of an ex-
cellent railroad man. He must, it is
true, have a thorough knowledge of
railroad operation--and for this reason
most of the more prominent ones are
selected from the class of what are
known as practical men"-but he
must also have the qualities of
financier of the highest order. He
should. in short be a man familiar
with the industrial interests of the
country. and able to do his part in
furthering them. He must know the
needs of his territory without wait
ing until some one else calls his at
tention to them. In addition he must
face the labor problem, for in nearly
all roads the president is the court
of last resort not only for every griev-
ance committee of his men, but also
for every individual who has a real
or an imagined cause of complaint.
President Mellen, whose views on
economic questions have been so re-
Gently quoted by the President of the
United States, began his railroad ca
reer as a clerk In the Office of the
now defunct Northern New Hamp-
shire Railroad. He rose rapidly
through various grades Of service on
New England lines. until in 1897 he
was elected president of the Northern
Pacific Railway He found Western
railroading "a strenuous occupation.
"No Sunday I'm the west"
AS the old maxim says. "West OF the
Mississippi there is no Sunday" An
other railroad injunction declares. six
days shalt thou labor and do all that
thou hast TO do and on the seventh day
shalt thou go 10 thy office and catch
up." Tours OF inspection lasting sew
eral weeks are frequent on these long
trans-contincntal lines and on these oc-
caslons the sDecinl cur II hotel, office
and everything combined. place
where Sunday'a sometimes pass unno-
ticed. Compressed into small space
are kitchen. dining room. observation
room. state rooms. Pullman sections.
wash rooms. desks typewriters and
sleeping accommodations for servants
ON one occasion "a special car was the
Scene at 3 O'Clock boz ihe morning OF
meeting 81 directors ~ "a subsidiary
s.f.N IA. HitfI4 ff.Ir. ana 80 az.