Charlevoix county herald., 1921-04-08

you Men are Goin9 10 Get tnc
Squarest Deal You Ever Had"
along, If you will only stay on the
job and keep your clothes on" was
the way the boss went at the train
mems committee. 1--WE are out TO
make the z. s. l.. the best line for
service, and the hest company to work
for, this side of the Missouri river.
l want your loyalty; the loyalty of
every man In the service. I'll go
further and say that the new manage.
ment will stand if you and the other
payroll men stand by it in good faith,
or it Will fall if you don't"
you'll meet the grievance commit
tees and talk things over with them
when there's a 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 leaf out of Colonel
Cocktails 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 1t, 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 "Hell-and-repeat" had
followed him down from Oregon, as
1t was bound to, but now it began to
be used in the sense that most rail
road men use the phrase, "The Old
Man." in speaking of a big boss that
they like.
There was so much crowded into
these first 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 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 little talk with Mr.. Van Britt,
l 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
nh nj 10 - ~ Ito.
loyalty on the one hand, and on the
other, wherever we went, we found
the people who were paying the freight
solid unit against us, 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-fguratively 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 it
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-
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
selves.
The next innovation that came along
was another young Chicago man named
Billoughby, and his title on the pay
roll was Especial Agent" !, 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
II without sending me out on an erraDd.
"Well, l think I'm ready TO talk
Johnson. now" was the way Billough-
by began. RED Tower is the one
outfit well have to kill off and put out
Of business. Under one name or an
other. 1t Is engineering every graft In
this country; It is even backing the
fake mining boom at Saw Horse-to
which, by the way, this railroad com
pany is now building a branch line"
Mr.. Norcross turned to me:
Jimmie, make note to tell MIR.
Van Britt to have the work stopped