The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1905-09-08
wNCHEI1 AND YoAKUsL.
Methods OF Management on the Rock
Island and the Frisco


Island and the Frisco
tC. II. Keys in Worlds Work.
On the new Rock Island they have
a way OF their own The four men
who own IL are not railroad men.
They are dnanciers- Very early in
their railway career they learned that
one cannot run a big railroad from
WaH street They did not try to do
When the Frisco was bought M
B. L WincheIl went 10 the Rock Is
land as general manager A few
months later Mr.. L F. LOree was
brought from the presidency OF the
Baltimore and Ohio to be the Rock
Islands president He attempted to
make the Rock Island systematic, as
i they use the word in Philadelphia
he labOred for nine months At the
end Of that time he had not a friend
on the system The system was at
war with itself. Mr.. WincheH and
his friends said fatty that either MI
LOree must get out or they would
The result was that Mr.. Loree re-
signed BIr. WincheU. known and un-
derstOOd from Chicago to FL Paso and
from Denver to Birmingham, the ty-
pical western good fellow, aggressive.
daring. stubborn, yet horn with the
western tact and Ikea bleness. is pres
ident OF the Rock Island today.
The Rock Island method is a typi-
cal western method Mr. WincheIf
and his officers work together like boys
Messrs- H L Nudge and and W. b
Biddle came from the Santa Fe to
Join Mr. b L Winchell, who came
from the Frisco, and the ''oId Rock
Island crowd" in the La Street depot
They ought to work together. because
they have fought one another Cor
years all over the southwest, and
know one another's strength
Mr. B. l. WincheU Is the heal and
center Of this peculiar Community
Of interests into whose willing hands
the owners Of the Rock Island have
intrusted the system. Nine years ago
he was drawing $4,000 a year as a
junior officer on the Frisco. He learn
ed the business on small railroads.
where a man learns to do everything
from running a lathe in the shops
or an engine on the rail to running
the presidents office in holiday sea
SON He is learning the Rock Island
the same way. He believes in senti-
ment as railroad asset He leads the
system; he does not attempt to drive
it. This is the Rock Island way.
It is an Outgrowth Of the Frisco
way. When the Frisco was a rniser-
able, starved little road, running from
st. Louis into No Mans Land in a
straight line, Mr.. Benjamin F. Yoa-
KUN bought it. Slowly he built it I'D |
into system Of 1000 miles He
made his men along with his rail-
road He lived on the road. went out
with the engineers, camped with the
construction gangs, ran a train every
now and again to keep his hand in
knew every officer and almost every
employee on the line, shook hands
with every shipper on the right Of |
way. He knew, personally, every /
mile Of that railroad. He could tell.
ohhand, the name Of the division su- /
perintendent on each division.
When Mr.. WinchelI was still vice 1
president and Mr.. YOakum still presi- 1
dent Of the Frisco, an old friend met /
Mr. Wtnchell one day on Broadway.
They had not met for years. They
lunched together. ''I hear" said the l
friend. that you are doing reat work /
with YOakUm for the Frisco"
Mr.. WincheH smiled I'VE don't /
put it just that way" he said. I'VE do |
our work, good or bad, for Yoakum /
with the Frisco"
This is where Mr.. WincheI learned !
his method Mr.. YOakum held his /
men, not with an iron hand but in
a bond OF fellowship. There are no /
strikes on the Frisco. Neither does /
the Frisco get into wars with the Tex
as railroad commission. The Frisco /
has cut into the heart Of every rail- /
road in the southwest, but there have /
been no traffic wars It was the Yoa- Il
KUN way
Gradually Wall street took the big /
gest railroad man in the southwest /
out Of his empire. For three years i
his Office has been in New York He Il
now runs no trains. Once or twice a Il
year he runs down into Texas to look i
at new railroad, but his heart is in 1
the east Instead, the YOakum spirit i
and the YOakum method rule the Il
great Rock Island, in the person Of 4
Mr. 3. l. Winchell, his best pupil; i
and the Frisco, in the person Of Mr..
A J. Davidson, another Of his boys"