The San Francisco call., 1908-07-26
TELEPHONE COMPANY
HAS BIG SHAKfUP
Complete Reorganization in All
Departments Announced by
General Manager Bradley

shakeup in the highest executive
offices of the Pacific telephone and tel
egraph company, coming with the sud
denness Of a thunderbolt on the heads
Of at least two officials whose resigna-
tions have resulted, and another who
will be transferred, became known yes
terday with the announcement by Cen
eral Manager z. c. Bradley Of a COM
plete reorganization in all departments.
General Superintendent @. P. Robin
son and Auditor 7. E. Sherwin are the
officials whose designations have been
accepted to take effect on August /.
W. j. Phillips, superintendent of the
present San Francisco division, has
been transferred to a new northern
division with headquarters in Portland
At the offices of the company, despite
their suddenness, it was declared yes
terday that the designations of Robin
son and Sherwin to go into force on
the same day that the reorganization is
effected were merely condolences.
Robinson's office Of general superin-
tendent, however, has been abolished,
and although nominally his resignation
was dated August 1, he is already on
his way to Milwaukee Wis. Sherwin
will remain until the arrival of his sue
cessor, J. c. Phelps of Boston, formerly
travelling auditor for the American tel
ephone company, when he, too, Will
leave the coast it is said, to enter
the service of the latter company
Though it has been known for some
time that a reorganization was due,
and that General Manager B&adley had
taken a trip to the east last month to
confer with the officials of the Ameri-
can Bell telephone company, the con-
trolling organization, the nature of the
shakeup came as huge surprise
separate divisions, with division su-
perintendent in charge of each, the
service Will be compressed into three
divisions. These will comprise the
southern division Of southern Califor-
MIA as far as San Francisco, the CEN
trail division, including San Francisco.
and the northern division of Oregon
and Washington. Important changes
will also occur in connection with the
executive mana cement of each division.
In place of the nine division super-
intendents receiving reports from local
managers and reporting in turn to the
general superintendent In San Fran
cisco, each of the three new divisions
will hereafter have three superintend-
ents with distinctly definite duties,
while three new general offices have
been created at the headquarters here
for the better management of the serv-
ice.
In every division there will be in
stalled a commercial superintendent
in full charge of contracts and general
business matters, a traffic superintend-
ent in charge of all matters pertinent
to the operating department, and a
/ plant superintendent to handle con-
struction and maintenance. The three
new officers will receive all reports
from the division superintendents
They will be those of commercial man.
ager, which will be filled by G. B.
Bush, former general contract agent;
traffic manager in the person of John
p. Downs, former traffic engineer, and
plant manager, by J. B. Murray, for
merly general manager of the Rocky
Mountain Bell telephone company OF
Salt Lake.
Several promotions will result from
the shakeup, among them being that OF
John Kearns from division superin-
tendent in Oakland to division super
intendent in San Francisco, in recog-
milton Of efficient services. Another
promotion is that of c. NJ Seeley to
commercial superintendent of tho
southern division.
The claim is made for the new sys-
tenn that it will result In bringing all
departments of the service in closer
touch. with consequently increased ef-
nciency.