1037 & 1030

In room No. 1037 on the south side of a massive, red-brick building in St. Paul last week charwomen were dusting and cleaning and bustling about. On the north side of the ugly old office building, in No. 1030 (separated by no more than a locked door and a corridor from 1037), more charwomen were kicking the dust and dirt around. No. 1037 had been vacant since Jan. 24 for lack of a president of the Great Northern Railway. No. 1030 had been vacant since Sept. 4 for lack of a president of Northern Pacific. This week both rooms were reoccupied.

To succeed Great Northern's late William P. Kenney, directors picked big, brusque, likable Frank James Gavin (58), who joined the road as an office-boy 42 years ago, worked his way up through station agent, division supt., etc., became a rock-ribbed "24-hour railroad man." A brief man (he answers telegraphed queries with a snappy "Yes" or "No"), he has no hobbies, no outside interests but his work. But Frank Gavin, who was G. N.'s executive V. P., knows all about his road from operations to finance. Wise to what is going on in U. S. railroading, he says the roads had better justify their existence as public servants or else.

To succeed Northern Pacific's late Charles Donnelly is the job of big (225 Ibs.), reserved, ironhanded Charles Eugene Denney (59), taken from the presidency of the bankrupt Erie. It was the late, smart Railroader John J. Bernet (chief operating officer for the Van Sweringen railroad empire) who first saw that Charlie Denney had something. Son of a master watchmaker, Charlie Denney moved from newsboy to Penn State to Union Switch & Signal Co., through a multitude of railroad jobs to general manager of the Nickel Plate. Then Bernet took him to Erie, left him there as president when he went to head Chesapeake & Ohio. A family man, he used to play avidly with electric trains in his attic when his son was small. But he knows railroading like a book, is hep to what it needs today.

More than just roommates will be Gavin & Denney. From Chicago (by means of joint ownership of the rich Chicago, Burlington & Quincy) to the Pacific Coast their tracks run parallel (G. N. to the north). Bewhiskered, one-eyed, oathy James J. ("Jim") Hill tried to combine them in his G. N. railroad empire in 1895, failed, saw his dream of consolidation in God's country go up in smoke. Last year N. P. had a whopping $4,300,000 deficit; G. N. a piddling (for her) $2,700,000 profit. Today there is no talk of consolidating the twin grain, iron ore, lumber hauling roads that serve much the same territory. Maybe the arrival of new heads Denney and Gavin will revive it.

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