Los Angeles herald., 1906-08-16
SPROULE Goes TO
SMELTER TRUST
FOREMOST TRAFFIC DIRECTOR
LEAVES THE ESPEE
In cuauenheims' Service He Is Still. a
Harrlman-sehff Employe-con-
trolls Vast Frelghts-Rail-
road News
Nv Associated Press.


SAN FRANCISCO. Aug. 15.-Freight
Traffic Manager William Sproule of
the Southern Pacific company has been
offered and has accepted what is prob
ably the highest indsutrial traffic po-
sition in the country
October next he assumes the traffic
MANAGEMENT Of the American Smelling
Refinery, the American Smelling Sc
curities company. the Shelters Steam
ship company and score of smaller
corporations, including railways in Ne
vada and Alaska and smelters and
mines in both hemsphereS of the
western continent.
on the Pacific coast alone these COM
panies own smelters at Tacoma, Ever
ett, San Francisco and Selby. Their
properties in Utah, Colorado, Nevada,
Mexico and South America are i'm
mense.
Their holdings in South America are
valued at a hundred million dollars
or more.
Foremost In West
Sproule has been regarded as the
foremost freight traffic man west of
Chicago since j. C. Stubbs was taken
east and made traffic director of the
Hartman lines, with their 10000 miles
of rail and steamer lines. Sproule en-
tered the service as a clerk in the
freight department in 1882, and leaves
1t in the highest traffic position in the
west after "a years continuous service,
having occupied every round of the
ladder from the bottom to the top.
1t is known that President Harri-
man and Traffic Director Stubbs were
oil
ignation, though it is said that Mr..
Hartman is, with Jacob Schiff, his
associate in the Hartman lines a
large stockholder in the smelter prop
critics of which Daniel Guggenheim is
president, and therefore has not alto
gether lost Sproule's services.
Master Of Traffic
The position offered Sproule gives
him. jurisdiction over the relations with
carriers of probably the largest volume
of traffic controlled by one organization
and makes him traffic master of sew
eral railroads and steamship lines
owned by the smelter companies.
1t is said that the offer made Sproule
is most fiattering, though little in
formation on that subject can be Sc
cured directly, it is believed carries
with it a salary of $4,000 per year. His
New York.
Sproule will be greatly missed in the
commercial circles of the coast and
particularly in San Francisco COM
merce. He was leading member of
many important commercial organiza-
tions and known as an excellent after
dinner speaker. He said tonight:
Leaves With Regret
"The nature of the offer from the
companies under the direction of Presi-
dent Daniel Guggenheim is such that
one can hardly refuse and is the only
reason for my leaving.
Service with the Southern Pacific
for "a years with two such master
minds as G. p. Huntington and E. H.
Hartman controlling it's destinies has
been most interesting and agreeable,
and l break my present business and
personal associations with the keenest
regret.
Under Mr.. Huntington l saw the
development of California follow upon
the construction of the railroads
wherever traffic promised; under Mr..
Hartman has come a second and
greater era of development coincident
with the pending of many, many mil
lions in the construction of these roads
at the vital period when commerce ex-
isting and soon to exist demanded
greater facilities.
Harriman's Achievement
california has been very fortunate
in having a man like Mr. Hartman
at the head of its greatest transporta-
tion lines in the present crisis. This
will be realized more and more as time
goes on, but 1 doubt if the producers
and business men of California will
fully understand how important fac
tor in the development of the state has
been Mr.. Harrimans bold expenditures
to improve the transportation service
"The rail lines of ten years ago coulo
not at all give the necessary service
to the California of today. 1 would
like to stay in San Francisco anC