CHAPTER X THE RAILROAD AND ITS PRESIDENT SUPERVISION OF THE CLASSIFIED ACTIVITIES--ENGINEERING, OPERATING, MAINTENANCE OF WAY, ETC.--THE DIVISIONAL SYSTEM AS FOLLOWED IN THE PENNSYLVANIA ROAD--THE DEPARTMENTAL PLAN AS FOLLOWED IN THE NEW YORK CENTRAL--NEED FOR VICE-PRESIDENTS--THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS--HARRIMAN A MODEL PRESIDENT--HOW THE PENNSYLVANIA FORCED ITSELF INTO NEW YORK CITY--ACTION OF A PRESIDENT TO SAVE THE LIFE OF A LABORER'S CHILD--"KEEP RIGHT ON OBEYING ORDERS"--SOME RAILROAD PRESIDENTS COMPARED--HIGH SALARIES OF PRESIDENTS. All the widely divergent lines of human activity in the organization of the railroad converge in the office of its president. He is the focal point of the entire system. More than that, he is its head and front. If he is anything less, the sooner he is out of his job the better for both the railroad and himself; for, although there is a great variety of departments in the organization of steam railroad transportation and each department will have still greater varieties of activities, there is but a single activity delegated to the office that bears only the modest word "president" in gilt letters upon its door. The function of that office is to supervise. To understand that supervision better, consider for a moment the rough structure of the railroad. Its activities are grouped into classes. The activity of soliciting business, both freight and passenger, forms the traffic department, in many ways the most important of all; for from it comes nearly all the vast revenue needed for the maintenance of the organism. The legal department looks after the railroad's rights--its franchises, its charters, the law fabric of its almost innumerable relations with the various railroad commissions, legislatures, city councils, and town and country boards. If the road be really sizable--with 8,000 or 10,000 or 12,000 miles of track--it will probably organize into separate departments the buying of its great quantities of supplies, the keeping of its intricate books, and the handling of its money. The business of building its lines and structures will need special talent for an engineering department. The department that will employ the great rank and file of the railroad's army of employees is the operating department, called by some big roads the transportation department. There are two other great factors of conducting a railroad; maintaining its lines--the tracks, bridges, tunnels and other features of the permanent way; and keeping both cars and engines fit for service. This last work, organized as the mechanical department, will probably rank next to operating in the number of its employees, and the value of its equipment is one of the greatest assets of the railroad. It is generally expressed in great shops located here and there and everywhere, at convenient points upon the system.