The Elk Mountain pilot., 1921-04-07

further and say that the new manage
ment will stand If you and the other
payroll men stand by it In good faith.
or 1t will fall If you don't"
You'll meet the grievance commit
tees and talk things over with them
when there's kick coming?' said old
Tom Mcclure. the passenger con-
ductor who was acting as spokesman.
Sure will--every time. More than
than, I'll take "a leaf out of Colonel
Goethaps book and keep open house
here in this office every Sunday morn
ing. Any man in the service who
thinks he has grievance may come
here and state it, and If he has case,
he'll get justice"
Naturally, 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 "Hell-and-repeat" had
followed him down from Oregon. as
1t was bound to, but now 1t began to
be used In the sense that most rail-
road men use the phrase. 1.-THE Old
Man." in speaking Of a big boss that
they like.
There was so much crowded into
these hrst few weeks that I've for
gotten half of It. The work we did,
pulling and hauling things into shape,
was fright, and my end of the Job
got 20 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 little talk with Mr.. Van Britt,
picked Fred May, a young fellow
who had been under Van Burgh. He
was all right; little too tonguey.
perhaps. but a worker from away
back. and that was what we were
looking for.
Out Of this frantic hustle to get
things started and moving right. any
body could have pulled a couple of
conclusions that stuck up higher than
any of the rest The boss and Mr..
Van Britt were 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
solid unit against MS. hating us like
blazes and entirely unwilling to be-
lieve that any good thing could come
out of the Nazareth Of the Pioneer
Short Line.
As soon as we returned from our
first inspection trip. the boss pulled off
his coat-figuratively speaking-and
rolled up his sleeves. 1t 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-if 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 young fellow
named Juneman, an ex-newsraper man
who was on the pay-rolls as "Adver-
tising Manager" but whose real busi-
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
selves.
The next innovation that came along
was another young Chicago man named
Billouehby, and his title on the pay
roll was Special Agent" l, 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
It without sending me out on an errand.
"Well. think I'm ready to talk
Johnson. now" was the way Billough-
by began. RED Tower is the one
outfit wen have to kill of and put out
Of business Under one name or an
other, 1t is engineering every graft In