The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-08-31

New York, August So.-(Special.) )-How-
 ard Elliott, chairman of the board of the
 Northern Pacific Railway company. and
 also in the service of the government as
 a member of the railroad council is taking a brief vacation at his country
 place at Dublin, N. H., near Mount l Monadnock.
 | MT. Elliott has been greatly occupied
 with the government service since he re-
 tired fro mthe presidency of the New Haven railroad and after he returned l from a prolonged and much needed rest which began late in the winter and end-
 ed in midspring His resignation of the
 presidency of the New Haven Railroad company has been attributed to various causes, but there was in fact only one.
 Realizing as he did the inherent and un- deriving value which Is in the New
 Haven railroad property he hoped, when
 he accepted the presidency after resign l ing the presidency of the Northern Pa cifc railroad, to develop that value,
 make it visible and of material import
 ance But his experience was bafflfng. | There were many snags, some occasion
 ed by political, some by legislative and governmental interference and some by
 the general demonstration of business
 which was in progress when he accepted
 the presidency of the corporation
 1 The strain was too great. There came mentions that if he were to preserve his
 health he must in some way relieve that
 strain. A railroad president who can | delegate to subordinates various details,
 no matter how important, in the confi- | dence that they will be well cared for.
 can do much hard thinking without at
 the same time causing mental and physl-
 cal strain. But Mr. Elliott had thou sand and one perplexing details. some l of them financial, some of them oper- ating, some of them legislative to which
 he was compelled to give his personal at l tention. At last 1t became question
 whether he was Justified in bearing this
 burden. The directors of the railroad company had good understanding of the 1 burden and were in complete sympathy
 with him. Reluctantly they accepted his resignation. He went in the late win- l ter to Jekyl Island to recuperate and his sojourn there of three months dur | ing which he was occupied with no busi-
 ness matters, restored his health so that
 he was able and glad upon his return to assist the government in bringing about such coordination and cooperation of
 the railway systems of the United States
 as would cause these roads to be oper- ated practically as a single unit.
 Occasionally it must have occurred to
 MT. Elliott while he. in association with
 the members of the railway control board, was perfecting the substantial
 unification of the railroads of the United
 States-thereby securing a very high de- gree of efficiency and a system Of CO., operation which contains an instructive obievt lesson-that 1t was something like | this which he had in mind when he be- came president of te New Haven Rail- read company He believed in that CO.,
 ordination and cooperation, supplement- 1 ed by wise state and federal regulation i would bring great prosperity to New Englands would be welcomed by shippers and would, of course. reasonably in crease the earnings of the New Haven system But he found that for various reasons the system was torn to pieces, even the government at Washington be- neving that dissolution into independ-