Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-04-08
ESTABLISHED 1855
MANAGER OF THE RAILROADS
Director General Hines Does Not fdV.
or Government Ownership
A GREAT SERIOUS MAN OF BUSINESS


sion.
An old prank of Fate" which some
how or other seems to be always up
to something prankish, now appears In
the fact that Walker Downer Hines,
attorney for railroads and their de-
fender against government control,
should now be serving against the gov
ernment as director general of rail-
ways. And it is the Nations Business
that points out this surprising Official
says a writer in this periodical.
He OPPOSED rates named by the In
terstate Commerce commission. He
opposed any more railroad legislation al
all. He declared himself against gov
ernment ownership. saying that II
would cause delay in getting action
from political or government railway
managers" Now he is government
manager Of nearly all our roads and
runs the job beneath the roof Of the
Interstate commerce building!
The somersaulting here obviously
son, Topeka ID Santa Fe railway COM
was done by the situation and not by
Mr.. Hines. It all goes to show what q
war can do to a country when 1t tries
1t has set Mr.. Hines to solve a prob
lem more vast and battling than any
railroad man has ever faced before.
And now he is at 1t at least ten hours
oh
1t was while acting as counsel for
the Louisville &c Nashville railroad that
Mr.. Hines found and developed the op-
portunity that brought him forward.
The railroad came into conflict with
the Interstate commerce law; and In
consequence Mr.. Hines mastered the
intricacies Of that statute with a
thoroughness that led to his call to
New York as counsel for the Atchin-
son, Topeka & Santa Fe railway COM
pany and to his subsequent prominence
in railroad affairs. Thus we read:
In the last fifteen years, Walker
Hines has been appearing in the high
est courts of this country, arguing in
tricate railroad issues, several times
summing up before the supreme court in
masterful fashion the labors Of batter
les Of other legal celebrities. His BRIEF
in the Minnesota and North Carolina
rate case of 1908 in one of the finest
ever written. Before the Interstate
Commerce commission he represented
the anthracite carriers m the coal-rate
Investigations, the Santa Fe in the
famous five per cent case, the New
Haven stockholders in the commits
sion's Investigations Of that road
He has pleaded for all our express
companies united against reducing
their rates. In all these historic con-
fiicts Mr.. Hines displayed that modern
legal eloquence which is overwhelming
ly effective by reason of its very sim
plicity and directness.
From the seventh year, when he
made his first dollar selling tomatoes
for his mother, to his sixteenth year,
when he became shorthand reporter,
in the circuit Of his state, to his twen-
ty-third year, when he finished a uni
versity law course in one year, to his
thirty-first year, when he was appoint
ed first vice-president of the Louis
vile & Nashville, he has always eXhlb-
tied the same conscientious devotion to
his duty. the same exhaustive thor
10 pndOW-
ment Of genius in a precocious mind;
but the real secret Of his wizardry in
bringing order out of the chaos OF
thought is his method Of studiously
exploring any problem to its depths
before attempting an answer. His
zeal for getting facts first hand has
often appalled, men of lesser resolution
AS one of his closest friends declares:
when Walker Hines quits a subject,
it's finished"
Mr.. Hines was born in Russellville
Kentucky, February 2, 1870, and his
chief regret is, we learn, that he was
not born on a farm. Says the article
further:
Nobody here remembers having
seen Walker Hines play games" am
told in a letter received from an old
friend Of the director general, still liv'
ing in the Kentucky town where his
boyhood was spent. "He was youth
without humorous episodes. He was
always very studious. He was devoted
to his little sister and worshiped his
widowed mother who was a model
southern woman and one of the very
finest women God ever made"
And yet Walker Hines, take him the
year around, is one Of the most nor
NAL of American men of business. He
has an ideal home life with a wife and
a daughter Of sixteen. He takes long
walks when he can. On his vacation
he rides a horse, sails boat, or starts
out in pursuit Of one of those pesti-
ferrous golf balls. He was born with
good health-and has conserved 1t
And he reads for amusement: one even
ing it is "Bab Ballads" the next Bos-
WellS JOnuSOH. I1c uoSSi oiiiohN
He sleeps soundly.
No, if you wish to know Walker
Hines as he is, you must know him
at work If the aspiring youths OF
the coming generation are to have in
spiration from his life. they will fint
there no log cabin birth place, no chap
ter of picturesque cow punching on the
western plains, no dramatic moment:
OF high wit or sudden daring. Hi:
achievement is something more mod
ern, more difficult.
AS to the ideas about government
entertained by the new head of th'
railroads, we learn,
He believes with our forefather
that that country is governed bes
which is governed least" Yes he say
government is a serious task; it is ;
big mans job" THE greatest defec
is our system of government" he ha
argued, "is it's failure to fix responsi
bility. We have outlined the necessit,
of longer needing Montesquieu's guar