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Show , j I A Napoleon Among j I Captains of Industry I Ut J BY KENNETH C. KERR. jtS i V$ CURRENT MAGAZINES and j ) I Sunday supplements one frequently E j xts a half-lone portrait with the jj popular title "Captain of Industry." fBut like tli? hundreds of privates who 1 fftilln the Civil war, eventually to rcat i I In a. grave marked "Unknown Dead", fthfreareln the every day walks of life jjmany men who are entitled to be class- fti among the great minds of the busl-' busl-' i ntre and financial world and yet have tn unnoticed to an extant. One among fj l ihm is. VVIlllam Brown Doddridge, cx- ' railroader, who might fittingly be term-'.'fri term-'.'fri a Napoleon among captains of ln-ij ln-ij I ;; dustry. i(f :-i He Is .now living in comfort and seml-f seml-f retirement in St Louis, being in the .ear j. tipertlng business, that Is to say he Is , j ;i ft an expert on railroads, and Is often ,1 cal&d into consultation or sent to ex-vfttralno ex-vfttralno some property which his clients A !Tv5n to purchase or invest in its stock. f w' He has a line ranch property and is a f KCll-lo-do man. but Ilia railroads of the S1 j country have made a mistake in not nl-,1 nl-,1 luring him from his rather quiet life s and placing him at the head of one of 5- ; tbtlr great properties. He is a past 1 ESsterin railroading and for thirty-four " years was active in constructing- and 5- ,' opwallng great systems, at all times j, 'with the greatest success. Ir ddrldge will be remembered by 5 I fill' th old tlmero hereabouts and many I ,Kt so old, Tor up.. to 1S84 he was Jntl- l lately aesociatod with the progress of ' Ogon Short Lin and Union Pa- Unc, and It can be said of him that lie j j S5Vhc m09t POI"lar oflleiaI the Union 1 i Pacific had, on its system -during his ' j i "-m of ofllce. ;1 iH!nWas 1)0111 0c,ob,r 19. 1848. at Clr-i Clr-i iciv Ie' 0n,0 ancl entered railroad ser- j -net In 1S55. as telegraph operator on the (f j -i i?i p"bure. Columbus & Cincinnati, jf i ; Aiier the war, when the Union Pacific A ',: bu''ding In 1S67, he became ldentl-fT ldentl-fT t with that great road and owing to r , i Icullar tltneEra for the position was if' 1' ?, . ontlcr agent. By this wan r " rnTRl ltc n,an wno wns aEent at the ; fJ(.Jof.Lthe track and not only manlpu-& manlpu-& I ,? , afrlr of the traffic and op-f op-f f rating department but looked after the - 1 io nii the construction department -. i J iL I ' a moKt try,n Position even in 2 f ' JbLP?0 day whe railroading In mewhat different from the days of i ' tViwJ w.fl9 ahvnya to be found in J hnlBC i the c,,d of the track, at Co- Ui 6rCiGl?Tn2 l8lam North Platte a,ld ;W y 'n Nebraska; at Cheyenne, Lar- y vln fu ?awHns In Wyoming, and ,n ih iihe j1.0" llnc or 8tecl connected !t ' wlm, a5U nnd tnc Paoiiic. it was f Bt- Doddrldge who was the gen-i gen-i : SfiS1," ?8den How we,l lc did J S irs iK iH tltlcst51 y the factvthnt ' J 1 ErarihD wn? inadc ouperlntcndeut at ' ' tSS 2vand ln 1882 Kcnernl superin- . S ':&Vfi1?6 l,hcn mountain division, ' ? r Kh,,'0,ok ,n thft 0,,eSn Short Line ;j under congtructlon. And it may 1 i be of interest to note right here that two of his "boys"' were J, A. Edson and E. E, Calvin, now managers, but then operators and schooled under his master mas-ter hand. And Gus Mortzheimcr and Billy Crlsmon. still at the throttle, will speak lovingly of the former "old man" should oho ask after him any day they are at the Short Llnc station. When S. H. H. Clark left the Union Pacific and went to the Missouri Pacific, Pa-cific, Doddridge became superintendent at Atchison, and hla two dispatchers wore Calvin and Edson on the Central and West divisions respectively. later superintendents of the same. In 1S8S Doddridge was made general manager of the- Cotton Belt, which position he hold until Clark became president of the Union Pacific and he was transferred trans-ferred to the Missouri Pacific as general manager. Here It was that his great executive ex-ecutive ability came into play, and the way he managed the property will make hlo name famous in railroad history. his-tory. Early in 1S93 the' first indications of the panic were noted and he saw that ho had a Herculean task before him, but he went to work and did the best he could under the circumstances. The Missouri Pacific had run down terribly ter-ribly and was practically bankrupt with Its lines in poor physical condition and the equipment of a low standard. To meet the current operating expenses it was found necessary to Issue Cbmporory securities in the form of collateral trust notes, on money advanced by rtusyell Sage and Jay Gould. Then "came the panic and all Its direful financial results. re-sults. It found the Gould estate tied up, largely in Misiouri Pacific stock worth about ten cents on the dollar and Missouri Miss-ouri Pacific collateral trust notes with practically no negotiable value All these conditions combined required the akill of a diplomat, a thoroughly good railroader, a; Napoleon among managers, man-agers, and Doddridge was on the spot. He kept the road from going into the hands of a receiver and .saved the estate es-tate at that time, a result accomplished by cutting down expensey where practicable prac-ticable and without Intcreferlng with the earning powr of the system, above all holding operating expenses within the Income and at the same time making mak-ing vast improvement? to Its physical condition and additions to Its e'qulp-ment. e'qulp-ment. leaving the road in a far better .condition than when he had taken It. 'So marked was this Improvement that one day. It is said, when George Gould had inspected the property ln bin company, com-pany, he walked with him arm in arm through the depot yard at St. Louis nud said: "Doddridge, the Missouri Pacific Pa-cific has Improved -more during the last year than ever before In Ila history, or plnce r have known anything of it and I want you to add another thousand to your salary." That tells the story. It has never been published before, but those who know him betu. will vouch for the truth of this brief sketch of his railroad life. He retired March 1, 1000. |