The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-11-27
Railroad Methods of Railroad Kings.
The Cassatt Way the Hartman Way the Hill Way and the Ways
of Other Magnates.

mis- empire. For three years his office
has been in New York. He now runs
no trains. Once or twice a year he
runs down into Texas to look at a new
railroad but his heart is In the east.
Instead. the Yoakum spirit and the
Yoakum method rule the great Rock
Island. IN the person of II. L. Winchell
his best pupil; and the Frisco, in the
person of \. J. Davidson, another of
his boys.
In Mexico they have another way.
The railroads run themselves. Passen-
ser agents at the depots cannot make
change. You buy yo6r ticket on the
train. The conductor knocks down.
half the fare and gives the other half
70 the station agent who could not
make the change. Freight moves when
ever the inspector comes around and
finds too much Of it stored in the
freight houses. The president of the
Mexican Central. the Mexican National
and the Mexican International are in
New York worrying about the price OF
foreign exchanges. So are the eXecu-
tive committees. directors and officers.
New York is a long way from Mexico.
No one in Mexico worries about New
York or anything else. \ conductor
who got into the habit Of running his
the other conductors. The inspectors
are complaisant and obliging. Man
ana" tomorrow is the watchword, IN
railroads as in everything else.
Not by any means can all the diverse
methods of railroad operation be
sketched in this brief outline. The Illi-
nois Central. the Burlington, the Santa
Fe, have methods of their own. Each
railroad has an individuality. Each
system has details of its own, general
orders, detailed instructions" syst
tenn routine" entirely different from
every other system. The loading of
cars. for instance, on the Union Pacific
Is entirely different from the loading on
the Rock Island. Every mechanical
department strikes out wrinkles" of
it's own. Every operating officer has
his own way of doing certain things.
The most striking general difference Is
that in the west the new thing" is
adopted and the inventor promoted; in
the east the inventor is fired" and the
new thing" adopted a year or two
later.
The New York Central should be the
greatest railroad III the country. 1t has
the only water-grade line from New
York to Chicago. 1t should command
the freight traffic out of and into New
York. The Pennsylvania has to carry
freight over the Alleghanies. The New
York Central takes il by level stages
along the water courses. The Pennsyl-
vania hardly touches a city worth while
between Philadelphia and Pittsburg.
and none beyond on the main line un-
til Chicago is reached. The New York
Central takes the business of Albany,
Rochester, Buffalo. Detroit and CleVe-
ffa Vat .xvtx- a nj =
has in the last five years made tremen-
dous strides in every department. in
every detail of its business. The New
York Central is earning its per cent
on the stock with more and more diff
Guilty.
The fault is in the administration.
No one else denies the ability Of MesSrS.
w. II. Newman, w. G. Brown, w. q.
Wilgus. George II. Daniels and the
hundreds Of others who run the rail-
road, but the fact remains that with
the most glorious Of railways, touch
ing the richest traffic points in the
United States. they fail to get the re-
suits. There is only one reason. The
man who is In actual control is not on
the lines. His men do not know him.
A Pennsylvania man is a Cassatt man.
A Lackawanna man is q Truesdaie
man. An Erie man has come to be an
/ Underwood man. Presidents Truesdale
OF the Lackawanna and Underwood of
the Erie lead their railways. But a
Vanderbilt man Is for himself 1t will
be so until there arises a Vanderbilt
strong enough to impress his personal
ity upon the system, able enough to adj
minister il, active enough TO participate
in Il.
The Hartman method Is far different
Mr.. Hartman is a man with a DOM
inant personality. The system Of the
Union Pacific and all its allied lines Is
the system of Mr.. Hartman. The Har-
/ riman railways are handled by a group
/ of officers second to none ia the rail-
way world, for Messrs. j, c. Stubbs
/ julius Kruttschnitt A L. Mohler, Will
I liam Mail. Z. E. Calvin and W. Hood
are wonderfully able in their depart
ments-second TO none, that is, but Mr.
Hartman.
The system is run from 120 Broadway
by Mr.. Hartman. Orders are issued
from his desk III the inside office. There
are no other orders. Mr.. julius Krutt-
schnitt is officially named director OF
maintenance and operation. He is ar
executive official; that is to say. he
/ spends on maintenance of way. for in,
! stance, whatever Mr.. Hartman tells
! him to spend.
! Practically Mr.. Hartman says: 1--WE
{ shall relay with eighty-p0und rails this
| year 500 miles of track on the main
| line west of New Orleans. We shall
/ spend 81. 600 900 in a tunnel IN the Sier-
! Tas. We shall build a bridge across
/ Salt lake. From Mr.. Hood I want en-
/ gineers' specifications on the tunnel and
/ the bridge From Mr.. Kruttschnitt
| and Mr.. Calvin and Mr.. Stubs l want
/ assistance. I shall supply the plans
myself"
Mr.. Hartman decided that il would
/ be well to standardize equipment on the
/ whole system. Messrs. Kruttschnitt
/ Scott, Small and Thorne. who are the
/ executive officers. adopted the standard
/ and are seeing that it is lived up 10
/ Mr.. Hartman decided 10 cut across
/ Salt lake. Mr.. Hood and all his staf
/ Of engineers performed the seemingly
| impossible task of building the Lucir
( cutoff. Mr.. Hartman undertook t.
, break "A boilermakers' strike at Omaha
/ by bringing up the Southern Pacific
/ boilermakers from Texas Thereafter
/ for six months Mr.. Horace Burt and al
I the Union Pacific officers fought the
I Boilermakers' union until Mr.. Harri-
! man recognized his mistake.
He handles more detail than any 9th.
| er man in the United States. He ex-
! HCCL6 rum HIS b4ltEAS luAi QSAdliS VI al
| departments at all times. If they dc
| not come he asks for them by tele-
| graph, and experience shows that he
| needs to ask only once. He is chair
man. president. general manager, su-
| perintendent of construction. chief EN-.
| gineer and traffic director Of every road
| in his system. The regular officers il
| those positions are his understudies
| The results. measured in dollars ant
cents. are good. "One-man operation.
| however, has its faults, the chief one
| of which is that il kills initiative. The
| Hartman spirit is not admired il
| other western railways. There is not
/ a railroad officer in the west who die
not hail with delight the clash between
/ Mr.. Hartman and c. NJ. Hays on the
| snnt horn Pacific OF the other clash be.