The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-11-27


work. OF course. and in il Mr.. Hill is as
great a martinez as Mr.. Hartman or
Mr. Cassatt, but the Great Northern
spirit is not spirit of routine. 1t is
a spirit of almost daring initiative.
No Hin man can fall below the Hill
standard. If he does he ceases imme-
diately 10 be a Hill man. There is no
pull on the Great Northern. There
are no high positions filled by Hill re-
tainers, except on the basis of merit.
Il know" says one Mr.. Hilrs operat-
ing men. that if ] am better vice
president of the Great Northern in five
years than Mr.. Louis Hill, the old man
will give me the JOB. There isn't an
officer on the system that doesn't feel
the same way. The man who is ioafing
expects to see hts head in the basket;
the man who is delivering the goods
knows he is going TO get his pay"
That is the spirit that has made the
railroad. The net result is that in no
other 5000 miles of railroad in the
country is there such concentrated ef-
fort. such daring initiative. such virile
aggression. Every track man on the
system talks. day and night of Jim
Hill Every man on the system is
Hill man"
His men have learned that there is
no trihing With the old man." In 1903
Mr.. Hill was called from New York to
St. Paul 10 meet some Of his men, who
threatened 20 so on strike unless their
wages were, raised. Just at that time
the western railroads We're running be
hind i'm revenues. Mr.. Hin was angry
with the world in general. He had had
bad six months with strikes. lawsuits
and other troubles He went TO ST.
Paul with fire in his eye. He listened
for half an hour to the complaints, He
then explained that revenues were
shrinking and payrolls were growing
too fast The men We're insistent. The
spokesman said fatty that the raise
must be granted or the men would
strike.
Mr.. Hills eyes flashed. "Tll give YOU
the raise" he blurted out. I'm give
you your 10 per cent raise. Tomorrow
morning we cut Down the force in your
department. We shall let go twenty
five out of every 100 of you. This rail-
road is being run by me, not by you.
That is all l have TO say.
The wage scale on the Great North
ern was severely let alone by the
unions for the rest of that year. That
| is the Hill method. as applied in disci-
pline.
George J. Gould has yet another way.
| There is some parallel between the
| Gould method and the Hartman meth
| cd. IT consists chiefly i'm the fact that
Mr.. Gould would like TO dominate his
railroads as Mr.. Hartman does his.
| He has the Hartman spirit without
the Hartman ability. lSe inherited his
railways. Mr. Hartman bought his
Mr.. Hill built his There is a differ
ence.
Mr., Gould is an amateur railroad
man. Primarily, he is a financier. He
| inherited that from Jay Gould. He
| has never been an operating officer on
| his merits. About twice a year he
! looks at the Missouri Pacific from the
! back of an observation train. If the
/ track IS white, the rails cleaned, the
! fences IN good order, and the mileage
| per hour what he asked for, he asks no
| further questions. The semi-annuai
/ Jolly" whereby the superintendent
| on the Missouri Pacific persuade Mr..
| Gould that the road is in good shape.
/ is more regular than the semi-annual
/ dividends After Mr.. Gould has ''in-
/ spected" the Missouri Pacific's 6.23I
! miles of track, ar the rate Of 450 miles
/ a day or about forty miles an hour OF
| daylight, he is prepared to overruie
| Messrs. Warner, Clarke, Cochrane and
| others, who spend their lives on the
Missouri Pacific as executive operating
officers. Mr. Russell Harding ran the
! Missouri Pacific. Mr.. Gould thought
| that he himself did. SO Mr.. Harding
! went to the Cincinnati, Hamilton &
Dayton, which thought his services
| worth $3.50 a working day, and the Mis-
| souri, Pacific lost more than $780, in
| one year through lack OF head TO run
| it.
Mr. Joseph Ramsey. jr, made the
| Wabash railroad. He took it from the
| hands of the receiver a broken, miser-
able, puny imitation of a railroad. He
| gave it a policy. a name and a reputa-
ton. He took out crooked rails and put
| in straight He made treaties with
| former enemies, reached into Buffalo
| hammered his way through the gates
! Of Pittsburg. Not a man on the Wa
bash or the Wheeling & Lake Erie but
knew him, liked him. respected hin
and followed him. Then came day
when, on a question of railroad judg-
ment. Mr.. Gould and Mr.. Ramsey split
fairly, openly and for good. The resig-
nation of Mr.. Ramsey is in Mr.. Gould:
| hands. MIR. F. A. Delano has taken Mr.
! Ramsey's labor. On the Wabash, from
Buffalo TO Kansas City, there is bitter
ness and d spirit of hostile criticism.
A month after the resignation of Mr.
Harding from the Missouri Pacific one
of the brightest operating officials il
Chicago said in the La Sale street de-
pot
Il see they've put in bunch of Fish:
men (from the Illinois CentTaD dowT
on the Missouri Pacific. That's George
Gould. He thinks because those fellow:
can carry 600-ton train down the val
ley on a water grade that he need!
them on the Mop (AIissOuri Pacific. It:
like getting a piano tuner To tune VI
a locomotive. He is putting those men
accustomed TO run a level. STANDARD
built. eighty-pound railway, with six
teen freight cars 10 the mile, on farm
railroad. with no ballast except the
earth, light rails, hills by the million
way stations that don't produce any
thing but pumpkins, and few of those
and traffic needs only seven cars to the
mile That's George jay Gould al
over. It's an easy way 10 put the Mis-
souri, Pacific into the same kind o.
trouble LOree brought to the Rock Isl
and
The trouble came in due time. I
there has ever been a disjointed rail
road management it may be found to-
day in the big square where the Mis-
souri, Pacific railroad is doing business
IS
On the new Rock Island they have {
way of their own. The four men WhC
own it are not railroad men. They ar
! financiers. Very early in their railway
! careers they learned that one canno
run a big railroad from Wall street
They did not try to do it.
| When the Frisco was bought b. L
Winchell went to the Rock Island a:
general manager. A few months late
L. F. LOree was brought from the pres
idency of the Baltimore & Ohio 10 bt
the Rock Islands president. HI
brought the Pennsylvania method. H
attempted to make the Rock IslanC
systematic. as they use the word il
| Philadelphia He labored for nin'
months. At the end of that time h
had not a friend on the system. Th'