Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1912-08-01
PRESIDENT CHAMBERLAIN
Grand Trunks New Hcad.-The "Bethel
hoy" Who II Helping to Shed LUIS
ter on vcrmonts Fair Name.


Any railroad president will tell YOU he
has the hardest job in the world-tel
you tearfully and with an amplitude of
detail that resembles a -per-ton-per
mile sheet on a shipment of prunes from
os Gatos to Pattagumpus-and most OF
then have. A railroad president is for
ever scared two ways he is scared of
the men who work for him and he is
scared of the men for whom he works.
His job is to get dividends for stock hold
ers and his dividend-getters are the men
who operate his road. Unless the div
ldend- getters help him get dividends he
gets where the society queen wears the
imitation pearl dog-colar
The lot of the railroad president is not
n happy one. Should YOU by any chance.
attend n meeting of these distinguished
gentlemen you will find them holding a
grand lodge of sorrow always. No rail-
road president ever is cheerful. Always.
no matter what his showing in the finan-
cial reports he walls because some other
road took some freight away from him:
and always he finds in whatever admin
istration is in power direct assault on
vested rights, which usually resolves it
self into "A bitter complaint that state
| or a Government body has refused to let
him hike his rates a few points above
what the traffic will bear. "Why," he
| sobs. cannot the Government let the
poor. struggling railroads alone?" And
the inquiry is generally melted by re-
cent experience before his board of d.
rectors, who have inquired. in some
what insistent and penetrating manner,
how it is his receipts have fallen off
while his expenses have increased-and
does he think they put their money into
| his stocks for the fun of putting 1t in?
1t If We're not for the men who work
| fer him and the men for whom he works
the railroad president would have heap
| of fun travelling round in n luxurious pri-
vate car and making speeches before
boards of trade and commercial con-
| crosses. AS 1t is. II is positively pathetic
| to hear a railroad president plead that
! his stockholders should be allowed to
make seven per cent on a capitaliza-
tor of few hundred millions more than
the property is worth. Still. one must
not blame the railroad president. be-
cause behind him is that fearful board
of directors-that bunch Of fearful ogres,
to be eXact-yellinc for dividends. He has
perfect right to be scared. However.
few of them voluntarily resign.
! THE BRIGHT BOY OF BETHEL.
| Having thus set forth some of the
pleasures of the life of railroad presi-
dent who operates a road in this coun-
try and some OF the difficulties and hard
ships, let me direct your attention for a
moment 10 a railroad president who may
be said TO have all United states rail-
road presidents looking like idle sons of
the very rich when it comes to difficult
ties | refer to the president of the Grand
Trunk railroads-al of them: all of the
trunks and the satchols and the suitcases
embraced in that system which has sew
erai divisional names. including that of
the Grand Trunk Pacific
| He has Il three -cornered job and each
corner is sharper than the others. First
off. the Grand Trunk is Canada's very
own Also. 1t Is owned in England. Fur
thermore, II serves six of these United
States and is seeking an entrance to Bos-
ton As Cy Warman says, it embraces
the experience Of being damned Cana
dian" in New England and a damned
Yankee" in Canada.
Canada isn't very keen on the extension
of her railroad systems into this country;
nevertheless nearly one-third of the mil
cage of the Canadian Pacific Is in the
United States; and the Grand Trunk oper-
ates five thousand miles in this country,
while the Canadian Northern has a line
TO Duluth.
They used to say OF C, NJ. Hays, the
| president of the Grand Trunk, who went
, down on the Titanic, that he was the
one railroad man on the continent who
could choose his job and the task of
selecting his successor had about as
MANY difficulties as the successor will
have. So, when they came to pick the
, man TO fill Hays chair. the men who
| had the choice considered the list of
, chose mentioned" which included emn-
, emf American managers, distinguish shed
Canadians and various extinguished
statesmen, and grabbed the one man who
, didn't want it. That man was Edison j.
Chamberlin. of the Grand Trunk Pacific
Z who had headquarters at Winnipeg.
Chamberin was born In the United
r States. as was Hays. So was Sir Thomas
4 shaughnessy. president of the Canadian
I Pacific. by the way. New Hampshire 1;
Chamberlin's state, but he lived Their,
onlv until he was twelve. when his father
r died and he went to live with his uncl,
I at Bethel, in Vermont. So he really Is