The Omaha Sunday Bee
PART FIVE
MAGAZINE
PAGES ONE TO POUR
MAGAZINE
TACE5 CaL 10 FOUR
VOL. XLI-NO. 20.
OMAHA, SUNDAY MOKNINO, NOVEMBER f), 1911.
NINULE COPY FIVE CENTS.
Union Pacific Headquarters Located in Fine New Home
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I SECRETARY rTia7""- .A"-"i
OMAHA BUSINESS MEN CALL ON PRESIDED DOHUR
telephom Exemms
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RESIDENT A. L. MOHLER of the
Union Paclfio railroad was In a very
happy humor Monday of last week.
He had been about the first man of
the general staff of the road to get
settled In his office In the new head
quarters building at Fourteenth and
Dodge. This office Is In the southwest corner of
the twelfth floor, where the cooling south and west
breezes can head In very readily In the sultry sum
mer time.
Mr. Mohler brought to the new office his old
desk, which he refused to have replaced by a new
one,' and he felt immediately at home, except for
the decorations of the said desk. These consisted
of several large and fragrant bouquets of roses and
chrysanthemums, sent in by Omaha friends. It
was plain to be seen the man behind the plain
working desk was a trifle distrait about the
flowers; but it was equally plain he was tickled to
get settled down in the magnificent new headquar
ters building. He wore a smile that caught the
visitor infectiously, and entered into details about
the equipment of the new building with happy en
thusiasm. While he probably did not give the
matter much attention, he had other cause for deep
satisfaction. It is something out of the ordinary,
even in these days, for the handy man in a country
Btation to work "up the line" to the position of boss
of one of the greatest railroad systems in the world
In an ordinary lifetime. And Mr. Mohlor did not
begin railroading at Gait, 111., until he was a stout
and well grown lad; nor is he anywhere near the
retiring age yet. Hard work and Incessant applica
tion to duty has agreed with him, phyelcally and
mentally, to that extent that he is today about as
typical and "fit" an example as can be found of
the railroad major general who "camps on the Job"
and enjoys the wrestle with new problems every
day in the year.
In the hour after lunch Monday a troop of the
leading men of the Omaha Commercial club in
vaded the new building for a social call on Presi
dent Mohler and hla staff. Headed by President
Cole, the Commercial club men paid their compli
ments as friends and admirers of the president and
bis assistants, and as patrons of the road congratu
lated its officials on the new epoch marked by re
cent promotions and the occupation of the head
quarters building in the business center.
Earlier in the ay President Mohler had laugh
ingly refused to have his picture taken at his desk
in the new office; but whon The Bee caught the
whole bunch together and demanded surrender he
very readily gave In to the inevitable. He had
started to escort the visitors through the building,
explaining its features a they went, but returned
to the office to make the photographer happy.
"Tom" Orr, assistant to the president, has his
office next to that of his chief. Naturally, the
eternal fitness of things about Union Paclfio head
quarters would not wear the proper look without
the presence of Mr. Orr. He was graclousnees per
sonified on moving day, and found little time to sit
at his desk in the pursuit of business. He assisted
everybody as well as the president to make the
occasion one of pleasant remembrance, which isn't
usually the cr.ea when anybody is moving. Mr. Orr
had called to his aid all the genii of joy and had
banished to the refrigerating plant in the baeement
all the goblins of gloom and bad the freezing fluid
turned on them. It may sound undignified to speak
of Mr. Orr as "Tom," but that Is the term familiarly
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NZ7CtlZATIC TUBS SZLRTZZtt&L
used by the men of the Union Pacific's big staff,
just as President Mohler is "the old man" now to
all those who count themselves parts of the sys
tem. In both cases the appellations mean a great
deal more than formal words could possibly mean.
The trio of men whose faces appear separately
above, Messrs. F. C. Bullock, C. S. Btebbins and
William G. Reed, can stand as examples of the
policy of the Union Pacific to hold in its employ as
long as they will stay men who are competent and
faithful.
Mr. Etebblns, now assistant to the auditor, be
gan with the company in October, 1870. He was
in the accounting department seventeen years, then
secretary to the general superintendent for two
years, and served in the passenger department for
fifteen years, the last seven as general ticket agent.
For the ten years prior to June 1, 1911, Mr. Bteb
bins was assistant to the general auditor of the
Union Pacific system and the Southern Railway
company. He recalls that when he began service
with the company the general passenger agent had
in his office three men, a boy and a girl. In the
Union Pacific headquarters at that time less than
100 people handled all the business. Today, in the
new headquarters, more than 800 people are em
ployed. When Mr. Stebblns went on the payroll
there was only one shorthand writer in the com
pany's employ. 8. Warren Chase, now of New
York, was the chicken track expert, "but he was
very seldom called on," said Mr. Stebblns. "The
department heads hadn't mastered the knack of
dictation in those days, and longhand letters were
the rule."
F. C. Bullock, now secretary of ths pension
board maintained by the road, began in the audi
tor's office September 1, 1872. At that time only
the first and second floors of the old Herndon
house were used by the railroad. "The upper floors
were ueed largely for storage purposes," said Mr.
Bullock, "and sometimes the employes used to
store their household goods on the third and fourth
floors. The building was remodeled about 1877,
when another story was added and an addition
built on the north, increasing the size of the build
ing probably one-third." Mr. Bullock, by the way,
Is a brother of a former governor of Georgia.
It was interesting to listen to Messrs. Stebblns
and Bullock reminiscing about the aspect of Omaha
when they first began their dally trips to Ninth
and Farnam. The present Bailey house was then
known as the Wyoming house, and the Cozzena
house of famous memory was located a block
farther south. The last named hostelry was built
in sixty days by the cyclonic George Francis Train.
"The story goes," said Mr. Stebblns, "that coming
down to breakfast in the Herndon house one morn
ing Train was irritated by a draft from a window.
He declared Omaha needed a new hotel anyway
end before noon ground was broken on a si to oppo
site the Catholio Cathedral of St. Pbllomena. He
finished the structure in sixty days and named it
after a famous hotel at West Point, N. Y. It was
about that time business houses began to be erected
above Ninth on Farnam, but for some time after
ward Ninth street still retained the distinction of
being the main business thoroughfare of Omaha."
Both of the veterans agreed that the old head
quarters could be put in the class of lucky build
ings. Tbey could not' recall that fire had ever
threatened the building, nor had any bad accident
ever occurred in it since the Union Paclfio took
possession in 1869.
Mr. Reed, now on the pension roll, spent almost
half a century on the active roll of the road, begin
ning In the operating department and winding up
as caretaker of the vaults wherein the records were
kept.
Many comparatively young men cow at the head
of various departments have beon with the Union
Taclflo from twenty to thirty yoars. Typical of
this clars are Messrs. Sheldon and Nichols of the
telegraphic department, both of whom have grown
from boyhood to early middle age In the company's
employ; and several of the operators, one a woman,
have served with them for twenty, yean or mors.
Mr. Sheldon is now superintendent of telegraph
and telephone and Mr. Nichols chief clerk.
Donald B. Allan, a storekeeper for the road, was
born in the old headquarters building, while his
fathor was proprietor of the Herndon house, and a
nephew of Mr. Allen, Robert E. Johnson, hns been
in the employ of the freight auditor for ten years
past. As a matter of fact, In every office almost,
throughout the building, are heads of departments
and clerks who have grown gray in the service. Dr.
Osier's theory of the limit of a man's usefulness
doesn't "go" with the Union Pacific. While they
can do their work acceptably, they are kept. After
a certain period of years in the sorvlce, if they have
reached a certain age, they can go on the pension
roll and receive a percentage of their former pay
for life.
Where every modern feature of the latest de
sign has been provided, it is difficult to pick out
any one for particular mention, but as trains are
the part of a railroad in which the publlo is pecu
liarly Interested, some details of the telegraph de
partment will be worth reading. It Is Installed on
the fourth 'floor, with twenty-three operators now
at work. Approximately 9,000 separate messages
are handled every day by the telegraphers in the
headquarters office. Necessarily, then, a very large
proportion of the wires making up the total of
nearly 35,000 miles of telegraph circuits and
approximately 8,000 miles of telephone circuits on
the Union Pacific center in this office. Wires enter
the building in twisted pair cables in underground
conduits and the exposed wiring in the office is
all laced openwork, in accordance with the latest
modern method. Approximately 40,000 feet of
wire were used in making connections throughout
the. office, of which about 25,000 feet are in con
duits under the floor.
The switchboard, a Union Pacific special design,
something on the order of a telephone switchboard,
is different in many ways and more modern than
anything of the kind heretofore placed in service.
It has a present capacity of forty wires and is fully
equipped with volt meter, mllameter, wheatetone
bridge, galvanometer, telephone set, etc., for the
tostlng and measuring of wires and circuits. The
cords and plugs are on the telephone order, Instead
of peg plugs, or wedges, as ordinarily used in tele
graph switchboards. There sre four sets of tele
graph Instruments with a telephone set conveniently
arranged in connection with the board for testing.
The circuit deelgns in the board, and in connection
with multiplex and other telegraph tables, are spe
cial and In advance of previous practice. A coll
rack of rpeclal design has been provided for equip
ment used In connection with simultaneous tele
graph and telephone service on the same wires,
which cares for this equipment in a most up-to-date
manner.
A wire distributing frame is also of special de
sign, to take care, in a comprehensive manner, of
all tho Incoming wires In cables and the distribu
tion to the switchboard, lamp panel and tables.
Thl3 frame has an ultimate capacity for 700 pairs
of wires.
A lamp panel of slate, a UnlonTaclflo design,
has a capaeity for seventy multiplex circuits. The
main dynamo currents for operation of the multi
plex circuits feed through the lamps connected with
this panel for the purpose of protection in case ot
overload.
Provision has also been made, through special
relay equipment installed on the lamp panel, for
distribution of time signals, with capacity for equip
ment of 114 wires for this service. Through this
equipment the naval observatory time signals from
Washington, D. C, are distributed upon every cir
cuit and to every office on the road at 11 a. m.,
central time, each day. By these signals the stand
ard clocks, from which trainmen and others In the
service regulate their watches, are regulated at all
the different division and district terminals on the
road.
The designing and Installation of this splendid
telegraph plant la an achievement reflecting much
credit on J. B. Sheldon, superintendent; A. O.
Nichols, chief clerk, and John Hllbert, who was
actively in charge of the work.
In a corner of the main operating room of the
telegraph department Is the pneumatlo tube term
inal. This system, comprising two and three-quarters
miles of three-inch brass pipe, was furnished
by a Chicago firm. Donald C. McLaughlin super
intended the work, but a genius in pneumatic engi
neering, Frank Novak, executed the plans. The
distribution of mail and telegrams throughout the
buildiDg will be accomplished by means of this
pneumatic tube eystem. Vacuum power will propel
articles through the tubes at the rate of ninety feet
per second, the vacuum force of each tube being
about five-horse power.
Thirty-five departments will be reacr Sy the
pneumatic tube system, and it is hop.- o this
means to got an almost Instantaneous distribution
of telegrams and Important mail Inter-office
messenger service will be practically eliminated by
this means.
Many a good sized town that feels a trifle proud
of its telephone system has a less pretentious plant
.(Continued on Page Four.).
