Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 174, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 July 1914 — WILL SHOW BRITISH [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WILL SHOW BRITISH

American to Tell England How to Run Railroad. - 1 ■: Henry Worth Thornton, Picked by English Directors to Take Charge of Great Eastern Road, Will Demonstrate U. 8. Methods. New York. —“Your best chance of success,” said Henry W. Thornton, “comes when you are in your shirt sleeves.” Thornton is the young American railroad man who was recently picked out to take charge of the Great Eastern railroad in England. The member of the board of directors who did the picking tactfully added to his declaration that Thornton is toe best young railroad man In America for such a position, toe cause being that English railroad men have run to seed. “They do not grow,’’ said the director, wagging his head like a mechanical bear. “They do not expand. Their field of is limited.” However that may be —and English railroads resolved themselves into a lodge of sorrow when they read It and then began to gather bricks for Thornton —the American youngster has been -growings and -expanding ever since he-got into railroading. After he had graduated in football and engineering at the University of Pennsylvania he applied for a job to

John C. Sims, then secretary of the Pennsylvania Railroad company. He had a letter of introduction from * man of Influence. - "Hum,” said Sims, when he read the letter- "This gets you a job, but it don’t hold toe Job for you, young man. I’ll carry you on toe salary list for two years. But If by that time you haven’t been promoted, salt won’t save you. I wouldn’t have that sort of a man on the right of way." Thornton bras on his third promotion at toe end of two years. He has been moving upward ever since, but be has never gained a step by flattery, back-bending or lying, if the optnrtn “or the men whonearest to him Is to be taken at par. On toe other hand, he hasn’t hesitated to fuss with his superior officers, •nd fussing with toe official family of the Pennsylvania railroad is commonly reputed to be as dangerous an 00-, cupatlon aa biting the tip of a stroke of lightning. On one occasion a baggageman xra

his division had climbed on to the tender, where h ) had no business to be, just before the engine rolled into -the ditch. The baggageman was killed, leaving a destitute family; “Give me 31,000 for the widow and kids,” Thornton asked of headquarters. “Not a nickel,” said headquarters coldly. "It was the baggageman’s fault that he was killed.” “Maybe,” said Thornton, with toe big jaw setting. “But meanwhile a young widow and three boys are in danger of starvation. I’m going to put her on my payroll at 545 a month, and when her nhme comes off mine comes with It” *■ She’s still there, so far as any one knows. Perhaps that incident helps explain why Thornton was selected to take charge of the Great Eastern, for toe position of general manager on an English railroad is equivalent to that of president of the United States. The Great Eastern handles % greater commuting traffic than any other road in England, and its short haul business, during the summer resort season, Is perhaps the greatest In toe world. But, according to the commuting public of England, Its directing heads assay heavily in pure bone. Ticket sales are never stopped, no matter how badly toe line may be blocked. Trains fife held Itt SlnOke-fllled tunnels, rather than permit a step aside from routine procedure. “Any one can handle engines and cars and tunnels," said a railroad man, “but Thornton is a wonder at handling men. That’s why England took him.” V He must not only teach the railroad using public dt England to love the Great Eastern, which entails a complete reversal of all the laws of human nature, but must also win the loyal support of the' Great Eastern's employes. it In a way, American railroaders and their methods will go on trial with Thornton In England. This may not seem fair, but it is the fact.

Henry Worth Thornton.