Central's Boss

In Midland Park, N.J., 17 miles from Manhattan, most residents along the railroad tracks hated the smoke and soot. But William White, who was born in Midland Park in 1897, was an exception; he liked the smell of train smoke. As he grew up, he spent his Sundays sneaking along the Erie tracks, hopping rides. The neighbors were scandalized, but Billy thought of himself as a dedicated railroader. At 16, fresh out of high school, he got a job clerking for the Erie.

At 30, he became superintendent of the Erie's rough, tough ore-and steel-hauling Youngstown district. He was tough enough to shoot up, in eleven years, to eastern district manager. But he was also sentimental; in 1938, when he got an offer as general manager of the Virginian, he wept on telling a close friend: "I'm leaving the Erie!"

White didn't stay melancholy long. He ran the Virginian so well that he caught the eye of Manhattan bankers trying to unscramble the unwieldy Lackawanna Railroad, which is 8% owned by the New York Central. In 1941, Bill White went in as president to help them. He tackled the Lackawanna's finances with what he calls the "cut & fit method," consolidated its 18 separate companies into one, and by so doing trimmed its federal income-tax liability by 20%. With the help of World War II's boom, White piled up $32 million in profits for the Lackawanna in ten years. He also chalked up a $9,300,000 paper profit on $3,800,000 worth of Nickel Plate Railroad stock he had bought for the railroad in the hope of a merger.

Under White the Lackawanna, which is relatively small (28th in operating revenue), became one of the best-run U.S. railroads. Last week, 55-year-old Bill White got the chance to show what he can do with the huge New York Central Railroad, which picked him to succeed 66-year-old president Gustav Metzman, who is stepping upstairs to chairman. Said White of his promotion: "There are no great men; somebody quits, somebody dies, or you happen to be the right age....So much of it is luck...."

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