The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-10-30
WORK COUNTS UP
E. p. Ripley Advises Young Men
to Stick to 1t.
"Make Your Employers Inter-
estS Yours and Dig"
HIS CAREER A MODEL To ALL
Dean of American Railroad
Men Is 20 Today.
Other Items of General Interest
in the Traffic World.

Make your employers interests your
own and work hardi
That is the advice to the countrys
young men from Edward Payson Rip
lev. president of the Santa Fe, who
celebrates his SEVENTEEN birthday to-
day. 1t is the motto which carried
him through IS years in the railroad
business taking him from the bottom
as young man of % to the dean of
American railroad presidents at 70.
Mr.. Ripley was in Topeka Thursday
to attend the annual meeting of Santa
Fe stockholders. He is man who
dislikes to talk about himself or his
career. But when approached by a
reporter he said he might say some
thing to the thousands of young men
who are where he was AS years ago
at the beginning of their careers.
Happened Into Work.
81 just happened into the railroad
business" he said, but once in it 1
made my employers business my own.
the same for the young fellow of to-
day, if he follows the same motto. The
railroad industry is far from full
grown. There is every possibility that
1t will grow much in the next As
years as it has in the time have been
in it. There is plenty of room for men
who will work"
And at 70, is he preparing to step
out?
mot until I find that it is burden
too heavy for me to carry" Mr.. RIPPLE,
said. Il don't feel it a burden now.
believe man needs something to oc-
cupy his mind
Mr.. Ripley exploded one idea almost
at the very outset of the interview. He
didn't begin life playing with toy en-
gineS, follow that up with boyhood
inspections of railroad yards, and then
go to work in a railroad office with
the fixed plan to become a railroad
president. AS he explained, he just
happened into the railroad business.
ElTrt IN / h. 40 Iii,
employers interest his own. His rise
was not made over night-it came
steadily, gradually but surely. And he
didn't stop until he was at the top.
Fascinates Him.
perhaps the railroad business does
have a peculiar fascination that holds
men to it," Mr.. Ripley admitted. 81
always find a glamour in it that held
stick in it if he wants to get up.
81 used to carry bundles larger than
myself around the streets of Boston,"
Mr.. Ripley said. He was smiling
That was my first job, just after 1
had finished high school. 1t was with
dry goods house. Later 1 was pro-
NOTED to shipping clerk
1t was this position that opened the
made the acquaintance of railroad
agents.
lone day one of the railroad men
offered me a job" Mr.. Ripley said.
I was getting. So I told my employ
ers. They said they could afford to
pay me just as much, so they gave me
raise. And held onto the job So,
you see, / almost missed the railroad
business even then. But a year later
I had another offer from a railroad
Again a better salary was offered, and
my employer didn't see fit to meet it.
So 1 started into railroad work. That
was in 1867"
Started With Pennsy.
1t was with the Pennsylvania rail-
road in the Boston office that Mr.
Ripley went to work. His position
was that of freight solicitor
The situation was somewhat diff
ferent Them Mr.. Ripley explained.
'All merchants from the west came
east in those days to buy their goods
Boston was great center of trade
and there was keen competition for
freight business. In this position I
was able to learn a great deal about
railroad routes and conditions. and
made a special study of geography"
Two years later the young man
went to work in the same capacity for
tho Burlington road Then he became
clerk to the eastern agent of the road.
Going through the position of New
England agent he himself became
general eastern agent in 1875. Three
years later he went to Chicago as gen.
eral freight agent of the Burlington.
He Advanced Rapidly.
MT RIPLEY advanced to traffic man
ager- Ten years after going to the
western city he was made general
manager. In 1890 he went to the
Chicago, Milwaukee & st. Paul and
for five years held the office of third
vice president. Late in 1925 the
Santa Fe found itself in troubled
waters. 1t went into the hands of a
receiver. There was a search for a
master hand that could take the wreck |
and raise it. E. p. Ripley became |
president of the road January l. 1896 |
And Ripley brought the road out of a |
mass of wreckage to model for the |
railways of the country to follow.
How did he do it?
Other railroad officials will say |
that it is because he is through and |
through a railroad man. Perhaps |
they will be more explicit by saying |
that they mean he is strictly a trans |
portation man-that as railroad |
president he is so busy building up |
transportation excellence and eff |
cheney that he doesn't find time to |
give attention to the Wall street end |