The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-07-07
has apartments in the Hamilton,
Twenty-fourth and Farnam streets.

senger agent of the Union Pacific
there comes the deduction that his
service must have been especially
satisfactory, for it is obvious without
further insight that railroad corpora
tons do not retain officials for rea-
sons sentimental. Stating it In brus-
que, everyday parlance, Mr.. Lomax
must have delivered the goods or
he would not have been able to round
out twenty-one year period without
change of position. 1t therefore be-
comes pertinent to look further into
the technical side of this mans work
in order that the winning features of
his capability may be brought for
ward for review.
He succeeded in more than ordi-
nary measure-but what particular
merit score dominated that success?
There must have been some posi-
lively strong point.
The general public has but slight
conception of what constitutes the
work Of a general passenger agent.
There was time when it was popu-
larly supposed that one of his chief
duties was the distribution of free
passes, but along came the Interstate
Commerce Commission with a ruling
which makes the passenger mans
no. not only easy of articulation,
but legally imperative as we'll But
even though he no longer contracts
writer's cramp affixing official sigma
ture to free transportation, there is
still plenty of work for the general
passenger agent Omitting mention Of
routine traffic features, such as enter
into the daily grist of any railroad Of
fee, there comes the unwilling of the
chief strong point that made E. L..
Lemax exceptionally valuable to the
Union Pacific railroad. Here it is:
Ask any well informed railroad Off
cial who has studied the Lomax adj
ministration and he will tell you that
the one thing in which e. l.. Lomax
excelled was his remarkable strength
as colonization agent.
1t is something more than mere
patriotic love of country that prompts
a railroad company to compile and
publish ton after ton of descriptive
brochure setting forth the alluring
advantages of this or that section of
country as mecca for homeseekers.
The railroad wants the country it ira
verses to be settled-and 1t wants it
settled as quickly as possible. OF
course there is revenue in the tickets
that transport the settlers to their
new homes, but that isn't the para
mount issue. Far above the sale OF
tickets is the new business and the
permanent business that comes to the
road coincident with settlement and
development 1t is a compound inter-
est proposition.
Settlers in a new country as well
as in the old, must consume imported
merchandise. Likewise following the
production of their farms or their fac
tories, they must export. So there is a
mixture of imports and exports that
sends freight trains in both directions
and brings joy to the stockholder.
| While it is no part of the general
passenger agents duty to go out into
the open and directly solicit freight
shipments, it is a part of his duty to
induce an indirect factor in the
freight earnings of his road-and it is
the freight revenue that piles up the
dividends.
| A veritable encyclopedia of infor-
! nf
the country from the Missouri river
west to Puget Sound and San Diego,
Mr.. Lomax proved especially efficient
in executing colonization work.
That one faculty, SO well developed
and so thoroughly exercised, so rail-
road men declare, tells the why OF
Mr.. Lomax's success as passenger
agent.
| The Western Pacific, Of which Mr..
| Lomax is to become traffic manager,
is a Gould property, running between
San Francisco and Salt Lake City.
/ The Lomax headquarters are to be in
| San Francisco. Note the significance
/ of traffic manager and dwell upon
1 the fact that it means general super
vision over freight as we'll as passen-
ger business. Take further considera-
| ton that the country traversed by the
Western Pacific has room for thous-
ands upon thousands of settlers. 1t is
for most of the way country unde-
veloped. True, there is a city at eth
err end of the line, but the middle
needs filling out. Now you see why
the Western Pacific came to Omaha
and carried away the man who has
played a prominent part in shipping
farmers and farm implements to new
fly painted station houses all along
the line from Omaha west.