A native of Rock Island, Illinois, Mr. Hays was born in 1856, and was but a child when his parents removed to St. Louis, Missouri, in which city he was reared and received his educational training. He was but a boy of seventeen when he started out in life on his own account as a clerk in the passenger department of the Atlantic & Pacific Railway. From that time on his advancement was continuous and rapid, solely the result of his thoroughness, efficiency and genuine merit. After a year he was transferred to the auditor’s department and later was called to a position in the office of the general superintendent, where his aptitude, enterprise and initiative were soon recognized. From 1878 until 1884 he was secretary to the general manager of the Missouri Pacific Railroad and in the latter year was offered and accepted the position of secretary to the general manager of the Wabash & St. Louis Pacific Railway Company. [Illustration: CHARLES M. HAYS] In 1886 he was appointed general manager of the road and the following year became general manager of the Wabash Western, comprising all of the Wabash lines west of the Mississippi and also between Chicago and Detroit. In 1889 he was appointed general manager of the reorganized and consolidated Wabash system and controlled the important and manifold interests of the railway for six years or until he resigned to become general manager of the Grand Trunk, succeeding L. J. Seargeant. Five years later he left the Grand Trunk to take the position of president of the Southern Pacific Railway Company but remained in that connection for only a year, as the railway passed under the control of the Harriman interests, whose policy differed from that of Mr. Hays. About that time he received a communication from Sir Charles Rivers Wilson, again offering him the position of general manager of the Grand Trunk and he returned to the latter road late in 1901 as second vice president and general manager. His connection therewith was continuous from that time until his demise, and on the retirement of Sir Charles Rivers Wilson in October, 1909, he was appointed president. In the meantime his connection with railway interests constantly broadened, making him one of the notable figures in railway circles on the American continent. He became president of the Central Vermont Railway, the Grand Trunk Western Railway, the Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee Railway, the Toledo, Saginaw & Muskegon Railway, the Michigan Air Line Railway, the Chicago, Detroit and Canada Grand Trunk Junction Railway, the Detroit & Toledo Shore Line, the Southern New England Railway Company, the Canadian Express Company, the Grand Trunk Railway Insurance & Provident Society and of various corporations featuring largely as factors in commercial and industrial development. He was chosen to the presidency of the St. Clair Tunnel Company, the International Bridge Company, the Montreal Warehousing Company,