The Irish standard., 1905-05-20
he wreckage of roads.

was needed. Jay Gould was, so the
report ran on the Street" engaged
In bowling over railroad properties as
slilful thrower of the big balls
makes tenstrike in an alley. Rapa-
sious cruelty was the order of the day;
the investing public was ignored; the
"big fellows" wanted everything. Ry-
ans creed of success ran counter to
the dominant business philosophy. He
quietly set to work to heal differences,
to make men see that in the long run
It pays to consult the interests of the
small investor and to safeguard his
interests. He sprang into the lime
light. Whatever he touched prospered.
Railroads in Ohio, the reorganization
of about six systems in the South, the
extension and consolidation of street
railways and lighting systems in New
York, Chicago and many other cities
all felt the touch of his mastery
hand If the railroad systems of to.
day are conducted with the interests
of the investor what the cartoonist,
Opper, calls THE Common People,
n view, and the service of the public
heir goal of achievement, it is due
IN large measure to the influence of
Thomas Ryan.
Today Mr.. Ryan is vice president
of the Morton Trust company and it's
virtual head. He is director of the
Pere Marquette railroad, Hooking Val
ley railroad, Consolidated Gas COM
,pany, Consolidated Tobacco company,
National Bank of the United States,
and many other corporations. "Fren-
zied finance" is a meaningless phrase
when applied to the management of
the giant properties which are built up
by the keen talents of Mr.. Ryan, and
safeguarded by his poised ethical
sense, enriched by Catholic training
and humanized by the blood of the
Celt.
If you stand at the edge of any of
the Great Lakes, the native will tell
you that the finest craft that toss up
the waters are a part of the James j.
Hill system And his statement will
not be outside the truth! James ].
Hill is the dominating force in the
Northwest In the giant graphing of
the Harriman-Gould contest the arbit-
er of victory at every step has been
Hill. His organizing genius, his kind.
ly personality, tingling with the keen
eagerness of the open spaces of his
beloved Northwest, has stamped it.
self on every wheel that moves train
in that section, and on every propeller
that turns the waters OF the great in
land seas.
He is of Irish ancestry, though not
a member of the Catholic church. Yet,
strange to say, it was his munificence
that called into being the great theo-
logical seminary which Archbishop
Ireland established in st. Paul. He
is a close personal friend of the great
archbishop, and each in his way has
given to the Northwest the many-sided
life that makes it so important an
element in these United States.
Mrs. Hill is devout Catholic, has
reared her family in the letter and
spirit of Catholic teaching, and is
prominently identified with the re,
ugious activity of St. Paul.
A philosopher has pointed out that
1t is the Man who is the thing, the
only thing. Charming long ago de-
claimed and no one denied, against
the cant of Measures, not Men," and
the foolish assumption that it is the
harness and not the horse which takes
the coach along. So much for the
Dvershadowing Importance of the
Man. And that Man Who Does Things.
who adds new territories, industrial
and commercial, to the Northwest, who
is not afraid of obstacles, who adds a
new chapter to the stirring tale of
American development is James J..
Hill.
The foundation of his philosophy of
business action is that consolidation
Is the keynote of the business of to-
day and tomorrow. He has worked
to effect saving-a middleman's COM
mission, an owners profit-wherever
practicable. He first owned railroads,
and then bought steamboats,, so that
the passengers on his lines need never
leave them as long as they are within
the vast territory which they girdle.
In the East we are turning the mill
with the water that has already passed
through. In the Northwest, under the
leadership of Hill, they are constantly
turning to new things, new ways OF
doing business, novel methods and
plans that are stamped with the spirit
of progress.
Look at the achievements of Hill
smd see what roll of honor they form.
when opportunity knocked at his door
Ind thrust smiling face at the win.
'low he had learned the lessons that
.nome to the farmers lad, that shadows
Ahe footsteps of the young man In bust.
ness, that will always, sooner or later,
sbear fruit in every honest and earnest
business life.
At the close of the Civil War he
e.