Book 3 — TRANSPORTATION LEADERS.

George F. Baer.

George F. Baer, when a boy, worked on his father’s farm in Somerset county, Pennsylvania. He was recently chosen president of the Philadelphia & Reading and New Jersey Central railroad systems, two of the most important transportation corporations in the country. He is also identified with many enterprises of a diversified and extensive nature. He is still in the prime of life, and the secret of his so attaining is an open one—he did not waste time. Young Baer attended school for but a few years, and then entered the office of the Somerset Democrat to learn the printing trade. But he did not permit himself to retrograde in his studies, but instead pored over books and practiced writing at night. When sixteen years of age he managed to get a year’s tuition in the Somerset academy and afterward secured a position as clerk in the Ashtola Mills, near Johnstown, Pennsylvania. At the end of twelve months he was made chief clerk. Resigning, he entered the sophomore class at Franklin and Marshall colleges. Next, and in conjunction with his older brother, he bought the Democrat. Then the war broke out and the brother enlisted. Mr. Baer, then hardly nineteen years of age, ran the paper alone. In 1862 he, too, got the war spirit and went to the front. He was mustered out in 1863 and forthwith began to read law with his two brothers. After practicing in Somerset for four years, he went to Reading, where he was retained by the attorney of certain railroads that were trying to compete with the Philadelphia & Reading railroad. The opposing company finally decided that he was worth more for them than against them and so made him its legal adviser. From that time up to his election as president of the corporation he had been its solicitor. He is also interested in coal mines, paper manufacture, banks and insurance corporations, is married and has five daughters.

August Belmont.

August Belmont, builder of the New York City subway, began his career with the handicap of great wealth. His father, August Belmont, senior, was one of the richest and best known American bankers. His son August was graduated from Harvard University in 1875, and for a time gave himself up in large measure to the usual occupations of the youth of fortune. But as he grew older he interested himself more and more in the great banking business established by his father. In the course of a few years he became, on his own account, a power in the financial world. He is now an officer or director in many banking, railway, manufacturing and other corporations. In addition to these he has been a strong supporter of the best art, literary, patriotic and other American activities, being a member of numerous associations devoted to such movements. He has taken an active part in politics, and is much interested in the breeding of thoroughbred race-horses. His most conspicuous activity, however, has been the building of the subway, which has added so greatly to the transportation facilities of the metropolis.

Alexander Johnston Cassatt.

Another railroad man who has risen from a place of obscurity to a position of prominence is Alexander Johnston Cassatt, who has been president of the Pennsylvania railroad company since June, 1899. Like George H. Daniels, of the New York Central railroad, he started life as a rodman, in 1861, in the employ of the corporation of which he is now the head. Mr. Cassatt preferred to begin at the foot of the ladder for the sake of the knowledge of the primary details of the business which his so doing gave him, instead of making use of the influence as he probably could have obtained in order to assure him a less humble position. He was born in Pittsburg, December 8, 1839, and was educated at the University of Heidelberg and the Rensselaer Polytechnique institute. After his experiences as rodman, by force of sheer industry and integrity, he rose from place to place until, in 1871, he was made general superintendent of the Pennsylvania system and general manager of the lines east of Pittsburg. Between 1874 and 1882 he held the offices of third vice-president and second vice-president, was elected director in 1883 and was made president of the road in 1899. “Thoroughly ground yourself in the elementaries of your chosen business, and then stick to it,” is Mr. Cassatt’s advice to young men. He is a thorough believer in the old axiom that “a rolling stone gathers no moss.”

George Henry Daniels.

George Henry Daniels, who in his capacity of general passenger agent of the New York Central and Hudson River railroad, is probably better known personally or by repute to the traveling public, than any other man in this country, was born in Hampshire, Kane county, Illinois, December 1, 1842. He began his railroad career as a rodman in the engineering corps of the Northern Missouri railroads, and from that humble position has risen, not rapidly perhaps, but slowly and certainly, until he has the passenger transportation responsibilities on his hands of what is probably the greatest railroad in the United States. After some years of strenuous work, he became, in 1872, the general freight and passenger agent of the Chicago and Pacific railroad, and in 1880 was made ticket agent of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific road. After a number of varied experiences, all of which were in the west, and were connected with positions of great responsibility, he acted as assistant commissioner or commissioner for several roads, and in April, 1889, was rewarded for his years of faithful service by being appointed to the position which he now holds. No small portion of Mr. Daniels’s success is due to his personal tactfulness and unfailing courtesy; or, as someone has put it, he knows how to grant a favor without placing the grantee under an obligation, and he knows how to refuse a request without offending the individual who makes it.

George Jay Gould.

George Jay Gould, whose name is so generally identified with high finance, is the son of the late Jay and Helen Day (Miller) Gould. He was born in New York in 1858 and received his education at the hands of private tutors or in private schools. Inheriting a genius for finance and an instinct for railroading, he has succeeded in successfully conducting those vast enterprises and investments which were brought into existence by his father. Mr. Gould is an ardent devotee of field sports, particularly those of which horses are a part and portion. He married Miss Edith Kingdon, who was at one time a member of Augustin Daly’s Dramatic Company in this city. By her he has two sons, both of whom are as fond of strenuous sports as is their father. Nevertheless he does not permit his pastimes to interfere with his business affairs, and is a familiar figure in the financial districts of New York City. He has been president of the Little Rock and Fort Worth railroad, Texas and Pacific railroad, International and Great Northern railroad, Manhattan Elevated railroad, Missouri Pacific railroad, and the St. Louis and Iron Mountain and Southern railroad. Mr. Gould is a good specimen of the young American who does not let his great wealth hamper his activities.

Clement Acton Griscom.

The placing of young men in positions of extreme responsibility seems to be peculiar to this country. Abroad such positions are usually held by persons of mature or advanced years. That the commercial world of America does not suffer from its departure from European customs in the respect cited is evidenced by its commercial and mercantile progress. Clement Acton Griscom, Jr., manager of the great American line of steamers is a case in point. He was born in 1868 and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1887. His father is Clement Acton Griscom, Sr., president of the line. Griscom, the manager, entered the service of the company the day following his last examination at college and two weeks before he received his diploma. He first worked as office boy in the freight department at a salary of $3.00 per week, and, as the story goes, although a college graduate and the son of the president, the other employes treated him exactly as they did the other boys. His business progress then was something in this order: junior clerk at $5.00 per week; junior clerk in the passenger department, $7.00 per week; clerk in the ticket department, dock clerk from 7 a. m. until 6 p. m., assistant to the manager of the Chicago office, assistant to the general manager in New York, supervisor at the head of the purchasing board steward departments, and finally manager. It will be seen that young Griscom had to “hoe his own row” completely, and, although at the time he, like the ordinary boy, objected to so doing, he now recognizes the wisdom of his father in compelling him to learn all there was to be learned. Under Mr. Griscom’s management, the American Line flourishes. He is also president of the James Riley repair and supply company, a director of the Maritime Exchange and is interested in a number of other enterprises. He married the daughter of General William Ludlow, and his friends say that his home life has had a determining influence on his career in general.

James J. Hill.

Intimates of James J. Hill, the transportation giant of the northwest, say that the ambition of his life is to encircle the world with a system of railroads and steamships, all of which shall be under his guiding hand. He has nearly attained it. He owns the Great Northern railway, which stretches from Seattle, Washington, to St. Paul and Duluth, Minnesota. He is proprietor of the line of steamers which ply between Duluth and Buffalo. He is largely interested in the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, which covers the territory between Chicago, Philadelphia and New York. He is organizing, in Europe, a steamship company whose vessels shall have for their terminal ports Seattle, Washington, on the one side, and Vladivostok, Yokohama and Hong Kong on the other. He is now reaching out across the Pacific to Seattle, intending to connect his Great Northern road with the Trans-Siberian road, and the man who controls all these huge enterprises earned them from humble beginnings, and asserts that the principle that has enabled him to reach power and affluence is simply that of economy. When he earned five dollars a week he saved; now that he is the owner of an income the size of which he can hardly pass upon, he saves, not in miserly fashion, but he detests unnecessary expenditure. Mr. Hill was born near Guelph, Upper Canada, September 16, 1838. He was educated at Rockwood academy and started life in a steamboat office in St. Paul, Minnesota. Hard and continuous work brought its reward in the shape of his being made agent for the Northwestern Packet company in 1865. Then he branched out for himself, establishing a fuel and transportation business on his own account. From that time on his rise was rapid. He founded the Red River Transportation company, 1875; organized the syndicate which secured control of the St. Paul and Pacific railroad, became the president of the organized road and finally merged it with other lines into the Great Northern system of which he is now president. Mr. Hill is married and has several sons, all of whom are following the railroad business.

Melville Ezra Ingalls.

One of the many railroad presidents who began life on a farm is Melville Ezra Ingalls. He was born at Harrison, Maine, September 6, 1842. Brought up on his father’s farm, he had his full share of hard work during boyhood. He was first educated at Burlington academy, later at Bowdoin college, and graduated from the Harvard law school in 1863. Establishing himself in practice in Gray, Maine, he soon found that the village was too small for his hopes and ambitions, so he removed to Boston. There he became identified with political affairs and was elected a member of the Massachusetts senate in 1867. In 1870 he was made the president of the Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Lafayette railroad, which was then in a bankrupt condition. A year later he was made receiver for the road. Then it was that Mr. Ingalls’ genius for railroading began to show itself. With the aid of the organization in 1873 and 1880, he put the successor of the road, which was the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Chicago, on a sound footing, subsequently consolidating it with other roads under its final title of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis railroad, now known as the “Big Four” system. Mr. Ingalls is president of the road, and up to February, 1900, was also president of the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad. Mr. Ingalls’ successes have left him the same charitable, genial and approachable individual that he was when a struggling lawyer in a little village in Maine.