I I iilfjlll | fcllirint I ill.ill . nil I I in mild nil 'It ' (
8 The Conservative.
rose through service in various subor
dinate positious to the presidency.
"Mr. Potter , vice president of the
Union Pacific when he died , was sta
tion agent on this road at Albia in 1807
appointed soon after the road was
opened here , then chief clerk in the
roadmaster's department , claim agent ,
stock agent , assistant superintendent ,
superintendent , assistant general mana
ger , general manager , and first vice
president. He rose from station agent
at Albia to bo vice president in fourteen
years , and , as everybody knows , by his
merits alone.
"Mr. Holdrodgogeneral manager now ,
and for many years , of all the lines
west of the Missouri river , began with
the company in 1869 , as a clerk in the
general office , then became clerk in the
train service , and was successively
trainmaster , assistant superintendent ,
superintendent and general manager.
"Mr. Delano , who recently succeeded
Mr. Brown as general manager east of
the Missouri river , began in 1885 as an
apprentice in the machine shop at Au
rora , at 5 cents an hour , and has been
constantly in the service for sixteen
years , rising in the shop service and
motive power department to be super
intendent of motive power and general
manager.
"Mr. Elliott , the general manager of
the Missouri lines , entered the com
pany's service when nineteen years old
as a rodmau to the engineer , then was
a clerk in the treasurer's office , assist
ant auditor , freight and passenger
agent.
"Mr. Besler , who has been superin
tendent of the O. , B. & Q. , since 1885 ,
entered the Burlington service in 1855
as a track laborer ; was section foreman
for five years ; conductor of construc
tion train in 1803 , then roadmaster ,
superintendent of track , assistant super
intendent , and general superintendent.
He is still a young man , to all appear
ance , although he has had sixty-eight
birthdays.
"Mr. Crane , superintendent of the
Missouri lines for the past ten years ,
entered the railway service in 1861 , and
served many years as freight brakemau
and conductor ; was for thirteen years
a passenger conductor on the O. , B. &
Q. , then trainmaster and assistant
superintendent.
"Mr. Levey , the superintendent of
the Iowa lines , entered the Burlington
service when he was fourteen years old ,
as a night operator at Red Oak ; was for
seven years clerk in various offices , then
superintendent of telegraph , and assist
ant superintendent.
Some Burlington Men.
"Mr. Eustis , the general passenger
agent , has been in the service for twen
ty-four years , starting as a clerk in the
freight and ticket department at Omaha.
"These illustrations could be ooutin-
ued indefinitely into all branches of the
service.
"This policy of promotion from the
ranks and for merit only , has made the
Burlington service a sort of school from
which have graduated many who have
become prominent elsewhere in the
railway world. Time will allow me to
refer only to a few of these.
"Upon the Santa Fo system of 8,000
miles the president , Mr. Ripley , en-
; ered the Burlington service in 1870 ,
as a freight agent's clerk , and remained
in the Burlington service continuously
for twenty years , being promoted
through various positions in the traffic
department , up to general manager in
1890.
"Mr. Morton , now vice president of
that road , entered the Burlington serv
ice when he was fifteen years old as a
clerk in the laud office at Burlington ;
ho attended the Burlington school for
eighteen years , always an apt scholar ,
and with steady promotions until ho
attained , in 1890 , the position of general
freight agent.
"The president of the Michigan Cen
tral road , Mr. Ledyard , began as a clerk
in the office of the division superintend
ent of thoO.B. & Q. in 1870 , and
reached by successive promotions the
place of division superintendent before
he went to the Michigan Central.
"The vice president of the Lake
Shore , Mr. W. O. Brown , was for twen
ty-five years a member of the Burling
ton family starting at the telegraph
key as a train dispatcher at Burlington ,
and rising through the positions of
trainmaster , assistant superintendent
and manager of the Missouri lines , to
become general manager of the 0. , B.
& Q.
"Mr. Merrill , now vice president and
general manager of the New York , New
Haven and Hartford , one of the most
important railroad systems in the
country , entered the Burlington service
in 1806 in the engineer cor.ps , then en
gaged in building the line through
Iowa , and saw twenty years of good
service on the road , rising by successive
promotions to the position of general
manager.
"Many other instances might bo
given , such as W. B. Strong , who rose
from a subordinate place to bo vice
president of the O. , B. & Q. , and later
became president of the Atchisou , and
Mr. A. E. Touzaliu , who came up from
the ranks to be vice president.
Stimulus to Ambition and Duty.
"What a stimulus to ambition ami
duty these practical examples of success
give to every live young railroader ,
whether ho bo brakeman or clerk , tele
graph operator or machinist , whethei
he holds the throttle of a locomotive or
carries an engineer's rod and chain
"Honor and shame from no condition rise ,
Act well your part , there all the honor llea. "
"If
"That sentiment was never more true
than it is at the present time , and it is
'ar truer now and hero in America and
Iowa , than it was in England , when it
was uttered by Alexander Pope , nearly
; wo hundred years ago ! Never in the
past have there been as many doors to
success as are now swinging open to the
capable young man of this generation ,
and , so far as I am able to judge , there
ms never been a time in all the honor
able career of the Burlington when the
young man who knows how to win ,
and deserves to win , had a better chance _
*
; o win on the road than he has today. '
"The Burlington is an important en
terprise any railroad 8,000 miles long ,
; raversing this region , remarkable for
its productiveness and its growing pop
ulation and wealth , is important. I
mvo alluded to some features in which
its career seems to mo exceptional. If
asked to set down the broader consider
ations which have contributed to its
undoubted success , I would include its
progressive , yet always conservative
management , and at the same time give
duo weight to the rare good fortune
which led them into this field. Here
was a vast area of cheap and productive
land , a wilderness waiting for the hand
of man. Into this field has for fifty
years been flowing a tide of , probably ,
the finest type of agriculturists and
mechanics and world makers that ever
streamed over a virgin country. What
has made the Burlington ? The people !
What single factor has done the most to
make the industry aud skill of the people
ple efficient and highly productive ?
The railroad. Each may bo wise in the
degree in which it recognizes its obliga
tions to the other.
"But you say that all this relates to
the Burlington as it has been and is ,
and you ask. What about its future
what of the now Burlington ?
"The Des Moiues Register has aptly
forecasted the ultimate effect of this recently -
cently formed community of interest
between three great systems of railroad ,
the Burlington , the Great Northern and
the Northern Pacific , when it said the
other day :
" 'We will find increased demand
created through this combination for
the products of the Mississippi valley ,
the great corn and meat producing
country , in the best new markets of the
world in oriental countries. This com-
biuation with its Pacific steamship lines
will bring new competition for Iowa
products and the only way the people of
this state will ever realize a change in
the ownership of the Burlington will be
iu. this now demand for what we raise
and manufacture , with better prices
and lower rates of transportation. '
The Two Great Forces.
XVJ
"The two men who had the most to
do with making this alliance and who
are perhaps best qualified to give the