New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1921-06-03

the way the boss went at the train
mems committee. "We are out Il
make the L. S. l.. the best line fol
service, and the best company to work
for, this side Of the Missouri river
| want your loyalty; the loyalty OF
every man in the service. I'll &c
further and say that the new manage
lnent Will stand if you and the Other
payroll men stand by 1t in good faith
or ii will fall if you don't"
You'll meet the grievance commit
lees and talk things over with then
when there's a kick cOming?" said ole
Tom Mcclure, the passenger con
ductor who was acting as spokesman
Sure | will-every time. More thar
than, I'll take a leaf out of ColoneI
Cocktails book and keep open house
here in this office every Sunday morn
ing. Any man in the service who
thinks he has a grievance may come
here and state it, and if he has a case
he'll get justice"
Naturally, a few little talks like
this, face to face with the men them
selves, soon began to put new life into
the rank and file. Mr.. Norcross' old
pet name of "IIell-and-repeat" had
followed him down from Oregon, as
it was bound to, but now it began to
be used in the sense that most rail.
- men use he phrase, The Old
Man." in speaking of Il big boss that
they like.
There was so much crowded into
these first few weeks that I've for
gotten half of il. The work we did,
pulling and hauling things into shape,
was a fright, and my end of the job
got so big that the boss had to give
me help. Following out his own policy,
he let me pick my man, and after I'd
had "A little talk with Mr.. Van Britt,
| picked Fred May, n young fellow
who had been under Van Burgh. lie
was all right a little too tonguey,
perhaps, but a worker from away
back, and that was what we were
looking for.
'hN VI ~ III HINllt W XVI
things started and moving right, any
body could have pulled n couple of
conclusions that stuck up higher than
any of the rest. The boss and Mr..
Van Britt We're steadily winning the
rank and file over to something like
loyalty on the one hand, and on the
other, wherever we went, we found
the people who were paying the freight
a solid unit against us, hating us like
blazes and entirely unwilling TO be-
lieye that any good thing could come
out of the Nazareth of the Pioneer
Short Line.
As Dol as we returned from our
first inspection trip, the boss pulled off
his coat-figuratlvely speaking-and
rolled up his sleeves. II wasn't his
way to talk much about what he was
going TO do: he'd jump In and do 1t
first, and then talk about 1t after
ward-lf anybody insisted on knowing
the reason why.
There were long private conferences
with Mr.. Ripley, the bright young law
yer Mr.. Chadwick had sent us from
Chicago, and with a young fellow
named Juneman. an ey-new sraper man
who was on the pay-rolls as "Adver-
Using Manager" but whose real bust
ness seemed TO be TO keep the Short
Line public fully and accurately in
formed of everything that most rail.
road companies try to keep to them
The next innovation that came along
was another young Chicago man named
Billouehby. and MS title on the pay
roll was special Agent" I, who was
as close to the boss as anybody in our
outfit, never once suspected the true
nature of ~BIlloughby's job until the
day he came In to make his final re-
portland Mr.. Norcross let him make
il without sending me out on an errand.
well, | think I'm ready to talk
Johnson, now" wns the way Billough-
by began. Red Tower Is the one
outfit Wen have to kill off and put out
Of business. Under one name or an
it is engineering every graft In
this country; 1t is even backing the
fake mining boom at Saw Horse-to
by the way. this railroad com
pany is now building a branch line"
Mr.. Norcross turned TO me-:
Jimmie. make a note 10 tell Mr..
Van Britt to have the work stopped
IT once on the Saw Horse branch.
md all the equipment brought in"
And then to Billoughby Go on"
The main graft, of course, is in
he grain elevators. the fruit pack
'ries, the coal and lumber yards and
he stock yards and handling cOrrals.
IN these public. or quasi-public, util-
ties the railroad has given them-in
zee simple, it seems-all the yard
Dom, switches. track facilities. and
he like. Wherever local competition
Ias tried to break in. the railroad
'Ompany has given 1t the cold should
r and it has been either forced Out
,r frozen out"
"Exactly," said the boss. Now tell
how far you have gone In the
,ther field"
I'VE are pretty well shaped up and
re about ready to begin business.
Iuneman has done splendid work. and
o has Ripley. We have succeeded.
n a measure. though the opposition
las been keeping up a steady lombard
nent. Hatch and his people haven't
,een idle. They own or control a
Iozen or more prominent newspapers
n the state. and. as you know. they
re making an open fight on you and
our management through these pa
,ers. The net result so far has been
merely TO keep the people stirred up
nd doubtful. They say that the rail-
DAD has never played fair-and
- . arr In fha .autu /