East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1905-07-31

schools, but it is real, says r. w. in
the Seattle Star.
This Hin scnool is in the general Of
fices the Great Northern railway, the
creation of James J. Hill the wizard
of the northwest. His genius and
courage enabled him to put through
the road from Lake Superior to Puget
Sound when the supposedly wise men
of the day could see nothing but fail
ure in the project. The Canadian Pa
cific on the north, subsidized, did not
pay; neither did the Northern Pacific
to the south. Judged by that stand
ard, Hills line was foredoomed to
failure.
In fact. it proved to be a dazzling
success. Hill never defaulted interest
on his bonds nor passed a dividend on
his stock.
The outcome has been a steady de-
mand for Mr.. Hills young men. SO
many have been called to higher
quarters has often been referred to
as a training school.
Here is a partial list of the gradu
ates, with the titles they held on the
Great Northern and their present po-
sitions:
Vice President w. II. Newman. now
president of the New York Central
and all the other Vanderbilt lines;
Division Superintendent l.. f. John
son. now president of the Norfolk &
Western: General superintendent
Russell Harding now president of the
Pere Marquette and the Cincinnati
Hamilton & Dayton; General Superin-
tendent j. NJ. Barr, now president of
the Seaboard Air Line; Chief Engi-
neer and General Manager John A.
Stevens, now chief engineer of the
Panama canal; Second Vice President
D.. Miller, now first vice president of
the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy;
Assistant General Superintendent j..
NJ. Gruber, now general manager of
the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy;
General Superintendent f. w. Nc
Kenna, now assistant president of the
Chicago. Milwaukee & st. Paul; AS
sistant General Superintendent w. H.
Britton, now vice president and gem
eral manager of the Cotton Belt; Cen
eral Traffic Manager w. w. Finley,
now second vice president of the
Southern railway. General Manager
A. L. Mohler of the Union Pacific,
and General Manager C. H. Warren,
of the Rock Island, We're formerly
with the Great Northern.
President Hill is pestered half to
| death by his rich eastern associates
in business who want their sons train
ed in the Great Northern offices. He
refuses the greater number of these
requests, but there are always in the
small hotels here "A number of these
young men from the east. They live
| on the fat of the land and have auto
mobiles, but they work.
The pampered son of millionaire
who figures that, when he gets here,
| some high official is going to take
| him by the hand and teach him rail-
roading, finds that it is not the game
at ALL He is assigned to a desk i'm one
of the departments and given back
| breaking, brain-racking work to per-
form. He is kept at it from the first
minute of office hours in the morning
to the last tick in the afternoon. His
|
don't go.
Most of them stand it for a little
while and squirm some, complain
some and then HE them back to their
golf sticks and graceful yachts.
There's a story here that even one
of Hills sons fell by the way. He
was employed in the auditors division
and found it convenient to arrive 10
or Is minutes late every morning
He was called before the head of the
department and notified that he was
expected to report for duty at the
time fixed for beginning work.
Young Hill paid no attention to the
warning, and was promptly discharg-
ed.
They say that the employe who
comes under the direct notice of Hill
can look with certainty for an i'm
portant happening soon thereafter
One day Hill met likely appear
ing young man in the hallway of the
general office building.
who are you?" he asked.
The young man gave his name, ex
planned that he had been appointed
assistant general freight agent, ant
was about to report to his chief. Hill
took the man into his office, talked tC
him about his experience, and "sizeC
him up" When the interview ended
he said:
"You go down and tell Blank" men
tioning the name of the genera
freight agent, that you are the gener
al freight agent" And that was th
only notice of his discharge received
by the official who was displaced.
A business man, an old friend o
Hills, delivered a long eulogy on th
great ability of the old man and tn
phenomenal success he has achiev
ed. He was asked as to the othe
side.
YES" he said, "Mr Hill has faults
too. He is not only a hard discipli
marian, but he is arbitrary and oftel
unjust"
An official of the company wa
asked what great quality marked 1t
management that made its official
so much in demand and the office g
highly rated as training school 70
B young men.
2 Economy" he said, coupled witt
efficiency. The combination, I guess
8 is a reasonably rare one. For in
stance, the operating expenses of tn
Great Northern are only so per cent
8 That watchfulness of the dollars ha
e made possible dividends on the Grea