CLOSE-UP ROBERT R. YOUNG The "gdfly of the rils," who is trying to control the New York Centrl, crusdes for the pssengers nd yells bloody murder bout "dmbnkers" by JOHN CHAMBERLAIN took hold of the Pere Mrquette nd the Nickel Plte rods bck in 1937 OU my hve seen pictures of the drem trins of the future their bonds were selling well below the bonds of the New York Centrl. shiny rrows of light lloy steel tht will go hurtling cross the lndscpe t 100 miles n hour or better. According to the prospectuses, Tody n opposite sitution previls. As for shoestrings, Young rgues tht he nd his prtners nd his friends hve more of n investment in Centrl. they will come equipped with children's nurseries complete with Mickey thn ny of the "bnking" interests who control the bord. Mouse decortions nd diper service, nd even the common or proletrin coches will hve chise-longue reclining sets, individul bull's-eye redusing the Centrl in the est, the Missouri Pcific in the grnger-stte belt nd trckge rights in the Fr West, Young hopes eventully to crete ing lmps nd soft rdios tht will croon to you nd you lone s you keep stremlined cost-to-cost system of trvel under one mngement. But your er glued to the bck of your chir. The vestibule doors of the drem trins will open t the pproch of the trveler. There will be br crs nd the bttle for Centrl hs more thn rilrod significnce. In its essence it my denote vst glcil shift in the U.S. cpitlist economy from Wll nightclub crs for the thirsty, nd every evening fter dinner there will be Street to the Midwest. The trditionl control of the Centrl hs resided movies in the dining cr. The dys of curtined sleeping spce nd Iron Miden upper berths will hve disppered forever before the onslught of with the est in generl nd with Morgn interests in prticulr. But if roomette nd "buddgette" nd lightweight fmily coch, nd sightseers Young gets control ll tht my be chnged. For Young's investment bnkwill view mountins nd the bckyrd dumps of cities from glss-enclosed ers nd friends Hrry Sturt of Chicgo, Cyrus Eton of Clevelnd vist domes rising out of the trin roofs. re hrd-scrbble Midwesterners who won't be stisfied until they hve To the extent tht our stritened nd monopoly-throttled builders of de beten the proprietors of the Wll Street investment mrket to pulp. luxe trins cn turn them out, the drem trins will undoubtedly come They re mvericks in their profession; to the striped-pnts oldtimers they true; even before the wr the future ws pprent in the Snte Fe's Chief, seem dibolicl in their willingness to shde the price for their services in the New York Centrl's Midwestern Mercury nd the stremlined wonders floting rilrod bonds. of the Burlington. But even the preview publicity, to sy nothing of the As prt of his wr on Wll Street, Young will nnounce the formtion on trins themselves, might hve lgged into 1951 if it hd not been for tht Feb. 24 of his Federtion for Rilwy Progress, with Ed Stettinius s chirself-constituted god nd gdfly of the rilrods, Robert R. Young of the mn of his dvisory group. The new federtion will invite stockholders, rilwy lbor unions, equipment mnufcturers nd pssengers to join its Chespeke & Ohio rilwy system. The white-hired Mr. Young, who tkes only $7,500 per yer s chirrnks in bttle to crck the lordly Assocition of Americn Rilrods, mn of the bord of the C & 0 where his predecessor got $60,000, is ll which Young insists is "broken-down lobby" for Morgn nd Kuhn, out for every possible rilrod improvement, nd he my hve few wild Loeb "monopoly" interests nd "mence to honest polities" in virtully every stte in the union. impossibles or disrnl fiopperoos on his A Texn, Young sys "dmbnker" cpcious list s well. From legible or "goddmbnker" the wy other timetbles (the suggestion of former Governor Ellis Antll of Georgi) to Texns sy "dmynkee." His vitumtions bout the "Morgn crowd" electroniclly cooked foods for dycoch try service, from new ir nti Wll Street re piqunt in the springs nd gs-turbine locomotives to light ofws his own stock-mrket For I% trin-to-shore telephones, the 135Young broker hen.hepst. stryed lmost indvertently into rilroding. pound bundle of bnty-rooster nervous Ile ws n dventurer mong "brokenenergy tht is Bob Young hs been down securities" when he got control busy pushing them ll. y nd the Nickel Plte Rod The Chespeke & Ohio Rilw He is lso busily engged t the moin 1937 of the Alieghny Corp., deree humn beings brek! re gin proposing to giv lict holding compny which hd both ment in trying to push his wy into New York Centrl; the C & 0 hs sound rilrod properties nd some some 5% o f Centrl common stock very unsound Clevelnd rel estte, for mere $25-1,295 of his own money. nd Young is girding himself for With the help of Alln P. Kirby, heir proxy fight to wrest control of Centrl to Woolworth five-nd-ten fortune wy from the Vnderbilts nd the who put up $3,000,000, Young bought Morgn interests. While i t will undoubtedly tke some mneuvering Alleghny from George Bll, the fruit5174,006 Victim in ilts! jr mnufcturer of Muncie, Ind., who (plus Interstte Commerce Commission blessing) to get the Centrl, the hd previously got it from the two Vn Sweringen brothers of Clevelnd. Since 50-yer-old Mr. Young is tough bby &Bo why mid J. P. Morgn hd hcked the Vn in proxy wr. T h t mn Young.en. rmor sid n old-line rilrod mn the other Sweringens in their ttempt to put together rilrod empire, Young soon dy, "opertes on shoestring. But. discovered tht he ws expected to boy, he sure cn mke shoestring cll on Thoms W. Lmont t the Morlook like cble." teet the Slm! The rt of spinning shoestrings into gn bnk to explin his plns. The Lmont ttitude seemed to be unduly cbles rests in prt upon n evngelishoe Joe 0!.1* ro e,.id proprietry towrd the rilrods, nd tic pproch; t one time Young even Young went wy from the Morgn hd the pstors long his C & 0 line bnk t 23 Wll St. feeling tht he hd preching sermons bout the superior'wy Nickel Plte Rod Chespeke 8i Ohio Ri been spnked. With no vested interest ity o f Young's rilrod ides. But to uphold nd with conviction of Young's showmnship often diverts ttention from more solid ttributes. As righteousness tht ws just s strong mtter of fct his min ppel to s Lmont's, Young proceeded imthe HOG AD, written by R. R. Young himelf, won its uthor plug in Adecr meditely to turn the ncient rilrod security holders is cold-blooded biltisig Age s the dvertising mn of 19 46. I t is widely credited by experts with h',ing forced the estblishment of thro ugh trnscontinentl service t Chicgo. finncing hbit on its hed. He hd ity to produce dividends. When he A Hog Cn Cross the Country Without But YOU Cn't! Chnging Trins 1, W O P..., bl.t f l l t i t e. too w i n K t o 161 b e t noes n o m rout. be e n =Wm lho = I v o us, w i l l = = elnoloil t e m V = = e I I i t Imposed=, s i o ow= C h l r o g o. 3.. L6=n6 e, N o v W o o d.1i1csi Isreimg yeo, t i p! site= it =1=-161.166, k o l = deem So Ink& 60166 t. = e Sul=. 6 6,ww o l d. = k e e Wee,1 664 eiowiek LI tom went to too661 * w o w o t o = Lod r i c k tko=611 i i i t. e t k = t o o istool rolc doale O.dirnow POISMteeit. 6 = 6 M S trwoter r o w t m e.. d i theme eutecin n d o k. 5. 0 4 t 3 f CCS,NR-Inll 06. sme md wuet IS you mke = 4. = I z e = o r e 6no I r o w c o n l o r e = t l e k tops6=1466 IneI Ow go from Owe To m e biginnhoo S loson C1o,16o61 I. N s Nieto= i n O w l e l = moo = 6 tisioge m i n el t o o teedon. C o l s Wee eptil Ooot Ole we be, Igo 15wowo6k S A M kilo p h Moo Co= off C bichoo. S. 1. = =. sod Nom Cotmol 11.bough, tigeo t h f o o r K h e N o w t = tn i l L i e you = o w mon d n W O W won 66461 I..1466 6 = 6 m t. i t Um.1=616 C l m * wg otch * L k A=6046 i t lul 4. lo F L. i. - - = = cooperu i t ore=de W. M o t 1.1.4=oto = m o m T o 6664 0 4 C h c o S S Ohio le4 i n N O M M t o 4LO11Z 6, 1 m o k Finbo e f f tio O t t A m i d wool ow leo loosnole P o o I I. Own I S ho p l o t Why 6666614 A w o k e = dimeoll l o o d t Et &meek =elm wow Comok bee do = o n =, f i l l S ri5 I se pop dew no we k e t op, I N, do kreoweikerw I t =PO! die lont...4=4 6 1 1 6 S 0 my mom ow 6. 6.. 60.4171 6. t i t,,,. = r t. ealt Oirewine w o o, C b o t S, 001 102 0... A. A. A k e, w h o m 0. 111 0 1 k pswynowe. k C.Toolinoedi =go& m t nee ple = A 6ot eliwoo4w E t I p. = 0. 1 1 m m m * = W o e =wood. M A I O =1 N. L o o k e s oiemdcl mitoolks 6 = 6 owe= 1116.61,64.64 Olou = 6. 4. 1 o 6 cum CILI. on e = A L, l b. M l m k s tinet lowneo n o d e Om = o r blot A P A A A S... b.. Alln. n o v. realroi oorwieo m i t s W641661 to -r,66. T u p t i o o t. IL. W e bound co con Aosi. i n o t t o O w = M o t ne6nt, of rotool 1660. Oot e66=6-466 s k i =wily = Wo g 1A1,11,1VSFASEL S e d Umwoute.4=1
YOUNG RELAXES in the librry of his Firholme estte t Newport, R.I. where he likes to live hndsomely mong the rich whom he curses roundly for rectionry bush ness philosophy. Firholmc ws built for John R. Drexel in the '90s for $190,000; Young got it for 838.000 in 1942. It is only short step long the Newport cliffs to The Brekers. owned by one of the Vnderbilts, whose New York Centrl Rilrod Young hopes to cpture. The photogrphs on the mntelpiece re of Young's dughter, Elenor Jne. 103
tents such s the Pennsylvni, nd he begn publicly cstigting the New York Centrl for wht he considers poor mngement long before the C & 0 hd 5% of the stock. Nturlly his criticisms do not ender him to the policy-mking officers of the Pennsylvni nd the Centrl. But s Young himself sys, he thrives on enemies, nd he hs sought bttle imprtilly with the mnufcturers of boxcrs, the proponents of hevy-weight equipment, the regultory moguls of the Interstte Commerce Commission, the directors of the Pullmn Compny, the Assocition of Americn Rilrods nd the Cbinet officers of Mr. Trumn. His opinion of politicins is summed up in his remrk bout the G.O.P.: T h e Republicns hve been less principled thn the Democrts, becuse the Demo. crts hve been t lest consistently unprincipled." While he puts primry blme on the "dmbnkers" for wht he deems to be universlly poor rilrod service, he is lmost s contemptuous of op. erting nd trffic men. The operting rilroders in turn look upon Young with mixture of mlevolence nd musement. They profess to disdin this "hot-ir rtist," but when Bob Young begn climing score of "firsts" for his rilrods, old-line rilroders like the Pennsylvni's Mr. Clement soon broke down nd consented to be interviewed bout their notions of the future. KEY C 8, 0 PLUS OTHER LINES CONTROLLED BY YOUNG MISSOURI PACIFIC 44444. NEW YORK CENTRAL --I CHICAGO LOWS PUE1310.... s T 1 EL I'ASO YOUNG'S AMBITION, to MUM' out his C & 0 kingdom, is to gin control of the New York Centrl, Missouri Pcific nd trckge rights to the West cost. The youthful svge BECAUSE of when his "R.I." initils, Young ws propheticlly clled "Rilrod" he ws. skinny youth on the west Texs plins. But the more fmilir nicknme ws "Punk," shortened version of the "Pumpkin Hed" tht derived from his wide, bdly sunburned forehed, his red fce nd his yellow hir. As Young remembers his dys in the Pnhndle, where he ws born in the town of Cndin on Feb. 14, 1897, he ws rw svge who loved to kill nything tht could run, fly or swim. His fther, Dvid John Young, ws country bnker who hd been cowpuncher. His mother, Mry Arbell Moody Young, hd grown up mong bufflo hunters nd Indin fighters. To this dy Young loves open spces nd htes cities; his Newport nd Plm Bech homes fce the Atlntic, nd he seldom goes out for wlk without tking his binoculrs with him. Aside from' his work his musements re few: swim before brekfst, round of golf, n evening with biogrphy or socil tete--tete with the Duke nd Duchess of Windsor, who re currently visiting him t Plm Bech. When he hs nothing else to do he works on n utobiogrphy which he strted to write s sort of votive offering to his dughter Elenor Jne, who ws killed in 1941 in privte. plnecrsh. A t lest 30 pictures of the vivcious, brown-eyed Elenor Jne decorte his hllwy nd drwing room in Plm Bech, nd it is only recently tht Young hs shken off the effect of her deth. Young's weekends t Newport lst for four dys, nd he tries to spend three months of the winter in Florid. His preference for spending his time by the se is directly relted to his work; s he sys, when he goes to New York or Clevelnd he finds himself "doing the other fellow's job." A believer in "extrsensory perception," Young cn become lmost mysticl bout getting off by himself nd "feeling truth." But solitude, if not mysticism, pys, for by tking long weekends nd long winter "vction," Young hs discovered tht he cn think " jump hed" of those businessmen who befog themselves with gregriousness. Most of his finncil coups hve been plnned while looking t the se; his decision tht the Alleghny Corp. shres hd gret "leverge" possibilities ws mde when he ws ostensibly living in retirement in Florid. In his solitude Young tkes equl joy in plying with words nd plenty of scope for humpty-dumpty tctics, for in 1937 Alleghny controlled seven rilrods possessing $2 billion in rilrod ssets. Receiverships hve long since shered three of the old Alleghny rods wy,but he still hs fir-sized kingdom in the four rods he hs left, nd he hopes some dy to get the Missouri Pcific bck. The centerpiece of the Mleghny system of rilrods is the rich Chespeke & Ohio, which mkes most of its money crrying bituminous col from the West Virgini mountins to Newport News on the Atlntic nd to Toledo on Lke Erie. The other Alleghny rods the Nickel Plte, the Pere Mrquette, the Wheeling nd Lke Erie re lso gret crriers of freight. Even when the Mleghny Corp. ws losing money on its shky rel estte i t mde profit on its rilrods. With such sure-fire thing s the C & 0 col revenue coming into the till every month, most men would hve been content to leve well enough lone. But Young, with chrcteristic insight into populr moods, decided tht rilrods re judged by the public not ccording to their freight-cr. rying potentil but on the qulity of their pssenger service. To hed off slump tht might men demnd for ntionliztion nd, incidentlly, to sve his Alleghny stockholders Young considers it his mission to bring ll the relief he cn to those impressionble members of the trveling public who re tired of trying to wriggle into girdles or trousers in upper berths. On his first trip s bord chirmn over the Chespeke & Ohio, Young decided tht not even the fmous Chessie ct could sleep on mountin grdes in the stndrd equipment vilble for pssengers. Unble to kill the ct in the fce of protests from his dvertising deprtment, Young insists tht somedy he will mke n honest kitten of Chessie. Young's innovtions EJLIVER since 1937 beenhe hmmering wy t old-line rilrod men ndyoung t thehs bnkers sees lurking behind them. his fmous hog d "A Hog Cn Cross the Country Without Chnging Trins But YOU Cn't!" ws the prime mover in forcing the rilrods to estblish through trnscontinentl service t Chicgo nd St. Louis. Another Young d cmpign wiped out blck mrket in Pullmn spce. When Young's Pere Mrquette put two new mize-nd-blue stremliners on its Detroit Grnd Rpids run lst August, the trffic visibly jumped; people forsook utomobiles nd took to riding the Pere Mrquette just for the fun of it. Tipping ws bolished on the new Pere Mrquettes. Ptrons were permitted to phone in dvnce for dy-coch spce nd py for their tickets on the trin, which effectively put n end to ticket. window nnoynces. Young is now permitting pssengers to trvel on credit crds, nd on Jn. 7 of this yer he begn to show moving pictures in the dining crs of C & 0 trins. Mny of the Young innovtions hve n irline tmosphere. And thought Young pro. fesses to believe tht the utomobile will remin the gret continuing thret to ril trvel, when he tlks bout whit rilrods might do to speed their runs it is ir competition tht gives edge to his words. Young does not cre wht he sys bout the top-dog rilwy sys- CARTOON from nother of Young's ds mkes his often reiterted point tht rilrod equipment needs vst mount of rolesigning nd replcement. 11
MOVIES in the dining cr is one of the most recent Young innovtions on the C & Tbles re folded bck to the wlls to mke room for 60 specttors. figures; he writes his own rticles nd ds, nd his poems, though they often flter in meter nd rhyme, hve both imgistic qulity nd epigrmmtic flourish. Usully Young prefers to write bout such things s tropicl pelicns, but he hs lso mde poetry of his bordroom experiences of the erly '30s. One, bout the stock ticker, reds: The squt dwrf, inky lipped, Hs coiled you in his grip The double focus of Young's interests first becme pprent t Culver Militry Acdemy, where he took honors in both mthemtics nd English nd ws grduted s vledictorin. He did not do so well t the University of Virgini. There, s he smilingly cknowledges, most of his writing nd figuring took the form of mking out checks for poker nd crpshooting losses, nd t the end of his freshmn yer he quit school. A t the ge of 19 he mrried Anit O'Keeffe, sister of Georgi O'Keeffe, the fmous modernist pinter. Not wishing to settle with his bride bck in Texs, where dispproving fther nd new stepmother bemoned the prodigl son's bd freshmn record, Young got himself job cutting powder t the Crneys Point, N. J. mill of du Pont Co. for 28 n hour. After six months s powder monkey he got into clericl work, then into the tresurer's office cross the Delwre t the du Pont Co.'s Wilmington hedqurters. When Young's grndfther's estte cme to be settled, he found himself in possession of severl thousnd dollrs. Moving to New York, he lost $5,000 in food-dehydrting venture which proved to be hed of its time. The reminder of his inheritnce he put into the mrket, promising short-sle delivery of Mexicn Petroleum t $98. Mexicn Petroleum promptly rose to $200, nd Young quit the mrket flt broke. Yo u n g decides t o k n o w A F Tgin E R this humiliting experience decided ththe never would he do business withoutyoung knowing. By 1922 hd S100--week job s Generl Motors sttisticin. He spent the '20s rising in the GM orgniztion to the post of ssistnt tresurer t slry-nd-bonus stipend of $35,000 yer. His "ply" consisted of cting s nursemid to his (lughter in Riverside Prk, where he stred t the Hudson nd plnned his own personl mrket dels. But ech weekend he fed his mrket intuitions by long study of Bbson, Moody nd other investment literture. At one time during these yers he could give cpitliztion nd ernings figures from memory of every importnt stock listed on the Big Bord. Quitting the forml employ of GM in 1928, he becme John J. Rskob's finncil specilist, but Rskob, the congenitl optimist, could not go long with Young's predictions of disster in 1929. So, plying his own "extrsensory perceptions" nd solid sttisticl nlyses for himself, Young sold short throughout the 1929 debcle nd therefter. In no yer since 1920 hd Young filed to mke personl investment profit, but fter 1929 his killings reched into the hundreds of thousnds. He went to Florid in the first dys of the New Del, thinking to "retire" on the riches he hd wrested from the depression he hd foreseen. Unknown to the generl public, he could hve sunk out of sight, devoting his life to his dughter, to his poetry nd to his wife's hobby of rrnging flowers. Insted he EX-SENATOR WHEELER (Left), former chirmn of Sente Interstte Commerce Committee, thought Young ws stock jobber until he herd Young's plns for his rilrods. Before Young begn his testimony t Sente her. ing, Wheeler shook his hnd. Alln Kirby, Young's hcker (center), pproves. ws on the threshhold of notoriety, fme, squbbles nd finl grnd opportunity to sve the rilrods. Since Young hd done enough work to lst lifetime during the ber-mrket dys of 1931, it ws ginst his wife's better judgment tht he strted eyeing Mleghny with view to buying control of seven rilrods for shoestring. Normlly Young defers to his wife, but in this instnce he went ginst her t the very moment when everybody from Morgn prtner to office boy ws predicting bnkruptcy for the fntstic holding-compny contrption. Within few yers he hd pid off Alleghny's $78,000,000 bonded debt t pr. After innumerble skirmishes nd proxy bttles with the "dmbnkers" i.e.. representtives of J. P. Morgn nd the Gurnty Trust Co. on the Alleghny nd C & 0 bords he nd Kirby finlly chieved uncontested control of network of rils tht reched from Newport News on the Virgini cost to Petoskey in northern Michign nd from Bufflo, N.Y. to St. Louis, Mo. The story of Young's running five-yer bttle with the "dmbnkers" for permnent control of the Chespeke & Ohio is long one, but single thred runs through it. For behind, ll the fights ws Young's insistence tht C & 0 bonds should be mrketed by whtever underwriter ws redy to come forwrd with the most dvntgeous competitive bid. This insistence horrified the dignified bond flottion houses of Morgn Stnley (the Morgn investment offshoot) nd Kuhn, Loeb, who hd shred much importnt rilrod finncing on their own terms for genertion. Knowing in 1938 tht Sentor Burton K. Wheeler's powerful Committee on Interstte Commerce hd its eye on holding-compny domintion of rilrods, Young decided tht Mleghny must hve no prt in the perpetution of the noncompetitive bidding which ws then stndrd prctice. Accordingly, he overrode the Morgn Stnley influence on his own bord nd offered 1938, C & 0 $30,000,000 bond issue to the highest bidder. A Midwestern syndicte heded by Hlsey, Sturt & Co. of Chicgo nd Cyrus Eton's Otis & Co. of Clevelnd pid the C & 0 $1,350,000 more for the bonds thn the best offer by Morgn Stnley nd Kuhn, Loeb nd thus cycle in U.S. rilrod finncing cme virtully to n end. Young's methods win A F Ethe W smll yersstockholders lter the Interstte Commission joined of thecommerce C.& 0 in blessing the Young methods: no longer is it legl for rilrod to wrd its finncing grvy to nybody without first getting competitive bids. Young in- sists tht his fight for competitive bidding betokens no htred of debt s such, but he sys with hrd glem in his blue eyes tht he sure does hte to see debt sell t discount. The competitive bidding fight, which took most of Young's energy during his first yers s rilrod mn, my turn out to be his gretest contribution to rilroding. In the midst of the competitive bidding squbbles, however, Young developed gloomy imptience: he wnted to get on with some of his operting ides, nd here the "dmbnkers" were continully hmpering him.
YOUNG H O M E I N NEWPORT, R. I. IS A t-o-room TUDOR V I L L A ROBERT R. YOUNG CONTINUED The horrors of wrtime rilrod trvel were bd enough to cuse Young to think long nd hrd bout wht he termed the dvnced stte of decy" of the 7.000 "rolling tenements" of the Pullmn fleet. Accordingly, when federl court ordered the Pullmn Compny to comply with the ntitrust lws nd divest itself of either its mnufcturing or its operting business, Young consulted his Clevelnd bnking friend Cyrus Eton nd cme up in 1945 with $43,000,000 bid for the Pullmn operting pool. Blked in his ttempt to buy the Pullmn cr pool by Phildelphi court, which in effect wrded the Pullmn fleet to "buying group" composed of the big rilrods, Young cme bck with chrge tht the sme "dmbnkers" who dominted the Centrl nd other rilrods lso dominted the Pullmn Compny. He proposed to tke the fight on up to the Supreme Court, which is scheduled to pss on its merits this session. Young's ide is tht i f the Americn rilrods would replce their Pullmn nd coch equipment every seven yers the resulting mss mnufcturing orders would mke the U.S. economy depression-proof. In lyricl flight in testimony before the Interstte Commerce Commission, Young rgued tht rilrod merchndising prctices were ntiquted beyond belief: the entire dvertising budget of $30 billion industry ws only $5,000,000 yer, which ws just bout wht " good-sized toothpste compny" spent on dvertising. I f the rilrods would only follow the promotionl prctices of Coc-Col, Young sid, they would soon get the trffic to justify replcing their equipment every seven yers. Young is lwys sying tht he never gets n originl ide from nyone who hs grown up in the rilrod business, lthough he mkes n exception of Bob Bowmn, his C & 0 nd Pere Mrquette president. For yers rilrod men rgued tht through trnscontinentl service to the Pcific Cost ws imprcticl for the seemingly very simple reson tht it ws esier to ssemble pssengers from Boston, New York, Bltimore, Virgini nd the Crolins t some centrl converging point in the Middle West. But when sentors nd movie tycoons griped to Young bout the wste of time in Chicgo, Young evolved the d bout the hog who didn't hve to chnge trins. His experience in the fight for through trnscontinentl trffic led him to believe tht fustiness lurked everywhere in stndrd rilrod prctice. There ws the mtter of cr technology, for exmple. When Young decided to buy two new stremliners for the C & 0 nd two for the Chicgo-Grnd Rpids-Petoskey run of the Pere Mrquette, he ws struck with the limited cpcity of the de luxe cr-building THE TOWERS, Young home in Plm Bech, ws once owned by Rdio Mnufcturer A- Atwter Kent. Utility Tycoon Hrrison 'Willims lives next door. DUKE A N D DUCHESS O F WINDSOR rc entertined by Mr_ nd Mrs. Young t Newport. Windsors re current Plm Bech guests of the Youngs. R O B E R T R. Y O U N G CONTINUED industry. Young's subsequent decision to replce every bit of pssenger equipment on the C & 0 involved witing for months for delivery. He even hd to fight the estblished engineers for obvious technologicl improvements on his new trins. For yers Timken Roller Bering hd been urging freight-cr purchsers to do wy with their wsteful prctice of ordering crs with friction berings. But no rilrod ws willing to mke the first brek with trdition. There ws reson for this, for freight crs spend good del of their lives on rilrods belonging to the other fellow, nd no single rilrod wnted to spend money to help its neighbor until the neighbor ws redy to reciprocte. But Young decided to brek the impsse nd is ordering freight crs with roller berings for the C& O. His president, Bob Bowmn, hs ssured him tht the new berings will increse the col-crrying cpcity of col cr from 50 to 70 tons, which will result in 4.1% increse in the totl tonnge of ech C& 0 col trin. -Young's young m e n WHE Youngtht begn house-clening in the C & 0nd he ws mzed to N discover it hd no personnel records no system of orderly retirement. Septugenrins nd even octogenrins held onto their jobs, nd nobody knew where to find young men of tlent to replce them. Insofr s he hs been ble to do it without ruining the morle of old hnds, Young hs been infiltrting the C & 0 system with young men, preferbly of wr service nd vition bckgrounds. His director of reserch, Ken Browne, hs n vition-engineering pst. HisTexn Clevelnd public-reltions mn' H. L. Porterfield, is 32-yer-old out of the Air Trnsport Commnd; his New York legl ide, 33-yer-old Willim McMillen, is lso from the A i r Forces. His generl public-reltions mn, 36- yer-old Tom Deegn, formerly worked for Americn Airlines. His new trffic vice president, 37-yer-old Arthur Genet, comes out of bckground of bnking nd generl selling. His Wshington economic dviser is 34-yer-old Joe Borkin, fresh out of trust-busting creer in the Deprtment of Justice. And his personnel mn, 32-yer-old Chrles Hook Jr., comes from the steel industry. Incidentlly, Hook is undertking study of how to stbilize employment in the rilrod business. His plns re for the C & 0 to build up fund out of profit-shring in good times to tke cre of the men during bd times, which is combintion of profit-shring nd the nnul wge. This "countercyclicl plnning" ppels to Young, who is lso proposing countercyclicl mintennce-of-wy budget tht will permit the C& 0 to do its trck repirs during periods when Lewis is striking the col mines. Since rilrods run on strict schedules nd precise trffic controls, the business breeds literl-mindedness tht finds Young's more imgintive flights hrd to tke. The fmous hog d cused utter consterntion mong trinmen for the simple reson tht hog cn't cross the country without chnging trins. (According to ICC regultions, hog hs to be detrined every 28 hours nd fed nd rested for five hours.) Older trinmen lso resent Young's bility to grb the hedlines s n "origintor" for things in which his role is t best tht of skillful midwife. They rgue tht the rilrods' generl-pssenger ssocition ws circulting three dif-
ROBERT R. YOUNG CONTINUED ferent credit plns t the very time Young nnounced his own credit-crd ide. As for the notion of showing movies on trins, they point to the Atlntic Cost Line's experiments with recretioncr movies before the wr. Moreover, they sy tht the py-ontrin ide, while it my work in Michign where pssenger lods run s high s 150 on good dy, could not possibly succeed where the trffic density runs up to 700 or 800 people per trin. Mr. Young's nswer to this is tht ny number of people could be ccommodted if the ticket gents were tken out of the sttions nd put on the crs. But even though Young my grb hedline or two for something tht hs been pioneered in silence by the Atlntic Cost Line or the Burlington, rilrod men would do well to listen to their god nd gdfly. Ever since the dy of lnd grnts nd rebtes, the rilrods of Americ hve been symbol of monopoly," whether deservedly or not. And the fct tht only 15 yers go the western rilrods, includingaverell I lrrimns otherwise progressive Union Pcific, were prty to n greement not to instll ir-conditioning without first consulting ech other does not look very good in the record. Anywy, the true mesure of Young's vlue is not his "originlity." The gretness of Americn industry hs been its discovery of the "Americn system" of mss mnufcture t progressively lower unit cost. Young hs been scoffed t s "Wll Street w h i c h indeed he ws. But more to the point is his experience s n utomobile mn; he grew up in the Generl Motors orgniztion (luring the yers in which the Chevrolet, by rdicl chnges in design nd ggressive mss mnufcture, ctully took the ply wy from the Ford. Young hs competition in his bones, nd competitive ggressiveness is wht the rilrods most need s the irlines nd motor highwys spred. Besides, s Young sys, it is not only the iron horse but the whole competitive system tht is on tril. No New Deler, Young tlks like Liberty Leguer. when he is denouncing the boondoggling of the '30s. But unlike Liberty Leguer, he goes on to denounce his fellow industrilists for permitting the cpitlist system to brek down. Since the business system hd to py for the boondoggling out of txes nd infltion, Young rgues tht it might better hve spent the money directly on its own projects. "Why," he sks, "put ptronge nd grtitude into the hnds of politicins when business cn keep them for itself if it only uses some imgintion?" The question my seem less rhetoricl in 1947 thn it would hve seemed in 1932. But if it's true wht they sy bout the virtues of free enterprise, the time to begin prcticing it is now, before the h'nts of "recession" begin to scre us into prlysis. "Wht I hte most in the world is hypocrite," sys Young. This mrks him s revolutionist mong the lip-service votries of competition. But if Young is revolutionist, he is strictly in the Americn trdition of Ford, Crnegie, et l. He even hs ides bout nd investments in the movies; one of his Ptli6 Industries, Inc. compnies cts s U.S. gent for Britin's Arthur Rnk. Before Young tkes on Hollywood, however, he wnts to finish his job in rilroding; he wnts to be known s the mn who put ll Americ comfortbly on wheels. FUTURE DESIGNS, stimulted by Young's pioneering spirit, will feture phone nd stenogrphic service, like this Americn Cr nd Foundry model.