The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1923-05-17
PETERS AND REA-HUsKY AMERICANS

Some OF our young people VINO are a1Iaiu
they may ruin their health or impair their en-
joyment of life by hard work might with profit
read the account of the careers OF Samuel Rea
of the Pennsylvania Railroad System, and OF
Ralph Peters, Of the Long Island. Recent news
items convey the information that next No.
vember Mr.. Peters is to be retired from the
presidency of the Long Island System by rea-
son Of having reached, the age OF 70, and IN
about two years Mr.. Rea will be retired from
the Pennsylvania for the same reason. Many
people who are acquainted with the two presl-
dents and are familiar with their work are
protesting against the strict enforcement OF a
rule that provides an age limit, insisting that
these men are still good for a number OF years
of useful service
Now, young man, when you get to be seventy
years of age won't you be proud if your friends
are insisting that you stick to the job instead
of retiring?
How did they do it 2
Well taking Mr. Peters first, he began by be-
ing born in Atlanta about eleven years before
Sherman made his famous march from that
point to the Sea. At the age of 10 he was
graduated from the University of Georgia and
then got a job not position, just job -
working for the street car company, in the days
WICIl HORSES IuIulSuGU Tile II1OIlNG pOWOI'
he got a clerkship in the executive offices of a
steam railroad and did his work so well that he
was advanced from one position to another, in
supervisory responsibility in railroad manage
ment, until, in 1905, he became superintendent
and general manager Of the Long Island jSys-
tenn, which furnishes transportation for some
three million people who live on Long Island
and work in New York or who produce garden
+,.1cIr ON ono leland IN in New York Or who
conduct business enterprises on that island
which many of us have pictured as sandy
waste It is complicated system comprising
some two dozen roads or steamship lines -
system so intricate that only mind trained
to work of that character could keep it work
ing tremendously
According to who's Who, Mr. Rea was
born in little town in Pennsylvania, quit
school at fifteen and got job IN the construc-
tion department of railroad - helping a sur
veyng gang, probably. At any rate, by the
time he was 20 he was assistant engineer in
the construction of chain suspension bridge
at Pittsburgh and was active in construction
work for number of years. building the mag
nificent Pennsylvania Station in New York
City and the tunnel connecting herewith and
also the famous He'll Gate Bridge over East
River This latter task he completed at the
age of 62 when most men are ready to retire.
He has been president of the Pennsylvania Rail
road one of the greatest in the United States,
for the past 10 years.
Of course, both of these men had native abiI-
,ity and good physical constitutions to start
with, Probably each of them is possessed of an
intellectual shrewdness which would have made
him successful soap-box orator if he had
wished to turn street-corner agitatOr. Each of
them had the physical strength to stand forty
years of dissolute living. But they didn't
choose that course. Work, work, work, was
their choice, and they are still in the harness
at nearly 70.