The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1913-04-11
MELLEN OF
NEW ENGLAND
A Railroad President Who Com
blneS the Practical Operator
and the i';7anclcT.
The Story of the EVolyt'on OF a Clerk
In a Small Railroad Office
Into the President of
Great System.

There are two types OF railroad presi-
dents more or less familiar in this
country. One is that of the practical
operating president, man who has
come up from the ranks OF railroad
operatives to head a big system and
who leaves the delicate problems of
railroad finance to be worked out
largely by others while he runs the
road. The other type, evolved In the
last quarter century. Is that Of the
6nancier-president whose environment
has been almost wholly that of the
world of finance and whose mind as
president is almost entirely concen-
trated on the financial phase Of the
transportation problem. Such man
was the late T.. II. Hartman.
Today almost every railroad system
in this country is commanded by one
or the other OF these two types Of
men. II has remained, however, for a
New England boy who went TO work
chasing figures on waybills at the age
of eighteen to furnish the transporta-
ton world with still another type-a
type that is a combination of the 9th
er two. This boy, who fought his way
up from behind a clerks desk in lit
tie railroad office in New Hampshire
through the various grades Of railroad
workers until he today is conceded to
be not alone a practical operating rail
road man, but financier OF rare abili-
ty, is Charles S. Mellen. In him the
two types have been combined as they
have been in probably no other rail-
road executive since cars first ran on
rails.
Nobody who knew Mellen at the time
that he was clerk in the little rail- |
road office in Concord doubted that he
would eventually make OF himself
pretty good practical railroad man,
but there aren't many OF his friends
Of those early days who discerned in
him the financial genius which has
made him such a marked figure in the
transportation world. 1t was this !
genius which led TO his selection as the
head OF the New York, New Haven
and Hartford road when II was seen
that the transportation problem Of
New England. perhaps the toughest
the railroad business had to offer any
where, required a combination of the
two types of railroad executives. 1t
took that New England boy a little
over thirty years to pull himself up
over the heads o. others until he
reached this commanding position
where his combination Of talents
could have full swing. II you asked
him how he did II he would tell you
by hard work.
Hard work has been the keynote Of
his life. He works harder today than
he did when he was a railroad clerk.
He never stops working. But other
qualities In his New England character
also probably lie at the bottom OF his
success. g Back in his clerk days a
Concord friend, Charles Nichols. once
asked him to write in his autograph
album. In that album. which Is still
preserved. he wrote that his favorite
character in history was Napoleon |.
The trait OF character he most ad-
mired. wrote this young clerk, was
honesty In a man and constancy in a
woman. The trait he most detested in
each was "gossiping" In those an
swers this transportation master Of to
day was reflected. A Napoleon in the