The statue of William Bliss, president of the Boston and Albany railroad, which stood for many years in the lobby of the old Kneeland Street Station in Boston, typified it. When the Boston and Albany was the Boston and Albany it was the pride not only of its employees but of all New England. But when, in accordance with the general railroad practice of the moment, the Vanderbilts took it over upon a long lease and painted out the old name, placing "New York Central" upon the cars and locomotives, New England rose in its anger, and it was not appeased until a shrewd executive, going to Boston from New York, reversed the new order of things and painted the beloved old name back again upon the equipment. After which serenity ruled once again along the lines of the "Albany," as the Boston people to this day love to call it. What's in a name? More than you can imagine. I asked a shrewd brotherhood man once what the New York Central had sacrificed in operating efficiency when it had chosen to paint the names "Lake Shore," "Michigan Central," and "Big Four" from its western constituent lines, and he said that he guessed--it really is anybody's guess--that 50 per cent. would be about right. The Pennsylvania system, with a great deal of real wisdom and long vision, not many months ago decided to divide itself into four large regional operating divisions, all to be known however under the general title of Pennsylvania System. Yet an old passenger conductor with whom I have ridden these great many years between New York and Philadelphia confessed to me his great personal regret at the passing of the fine old name, "Pennsylvania Railroad." "I feel as if I had buried an old friend," said he. So felt others, and a little later the Pennsylvania dropped the "system" from its official name and came back as the good old Pennsylvania Railroad once again. A few miles further south the people are still grieving over the loss of the "Cumberland Valley," one of the earliest railroads of the land--incidentally a Pennsylvania constituency and one which until the recent change had held its name and its individuality. Across the land the thing repeats itself again and again. Away up in the northwestern corner you will find people to-day lamenting the renaming of their chief railroad system into the Union Pacific. "We were proud of the name 'Oregon-Washington Railway,'" said one of the really big men of that community not long ago. "It was a good railroad and we felt that in no small sense its goodness reflected that of this particular corner of the U. S. A."