Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 241, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1915 — SMITH MAKES HIS OWN WAY [ARTICLE]

SMITH MAKES HIS OWN WAY

President of New York Centrsl Lines Started Career as Messenger Boy at Fourteen Years. Alfred H. Smith, a year ago elected president of the New York Central railroad lines, began his railroad career as a messenger boy at the age of fourteen. Seeing little hope for advancement as a clerk he, a few years later, applied for work on the outside, and started all over again, this time as a section hand. He gradually worked his way. upward, learning railroading in a practical manner, until at twentyfive he was made superintendent of the Kalamazoo division. Thirteen years ago he was transferred to the New York Central & Hudson River railway, the main Vanderbilt property, acting successively as general superintendent, general manager, vice-pres-ident and senior vice-president, in charge of operation, maintenance and construction.