Hale Holden was born on August 11, 1869 in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. He was the second child and first son of Howard Malcolm and Mary Finley (Oburn) Holden, and a descendant of Richard Holden who came from Lindsey, Suffolk County, England, in 1634 to settle at Groton, Massachussets.
Holden went to school in his native Kansas City, where his father was a banker, and entered Williams College in the fall of 1886. After graduation in 1890 he spent two years at the Harvard Law School. He withdrew in 1892 to relieve the strain on his family's finances.
Holden received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from Williams College in 1925.
Holden became a clerk in the law offices of Warner, Dean, and Hagerman in Kansas City, and was admitted to the Missouri bar in the same year. His law firm, in which he soon became a partner, acted as attorneys for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, and in July 1907 Holden accepted an invitation from that company to become general attorney at its Chicago headquarters. During the next three and a half years he not only handled a series of important rate cases for this road before the Interstate Commerce Commission, but at the special request of James J. Hill (whose Great Northern Railway had shared control of the Burlington since 1901) represented the Great Northern stockholders in the celebrated and protracted Minnesota Rate Cases, which laid the basis for federal supremacy whenever the rulings of a state authority placed a burden on interstate commerce. His brilliant performance throughout that litigation established his reputation in Hill's eyes.
In 1910 Holden was appointed assistant to the president of the Burlington, and two years later he became vice-president and director. When Darius Miller, the president, died suddenly in 1914, Holden was elected to succeed him as head of the 11, 000-mile lines that included the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Colorado & Southern, the Forth Worth & Denver City, and the Wichita Valley. At forty-four he was the youngest rail executive of any major system. Holden was not, and never pretended to be, an operating expert, but his over-all understanding of the role of railways in the national economy, his tact, and his ability to express himself led to his being chosen repeatedly to represent, speak, and plan for the entire industry. It was in this role--as a railway statesman--that he left his most significant mark on the development of American business.
In 1916 Holden was spokesman for the industry during the tense negotiations held at the White House in an effort to avert a nationwide strike of some 400, 000 train service employees for the eight-hour day. Upon entry of the United States into World War I Holden became a member of the Railroads' War Board, which sought to unify operations throughout the country. When the federal government took over the railroads at the end of the year--a development that Holden subsequently characterized as inevitable under the circumstances--Director General William G. McAdoo invited him to take charge of the United States Railroad Administration's operations. Holden declined but remained in Washington for two months as a member of the advisory board created to assist the director general. In June 1918 he resigned as president of the Burlington and soon thereafter was appointed director of the Central Western Region of the U. S. R. A. , with authority over some 55, 000 miles of railroads in twenty-one states. He resumed the Burlington presidency on February 15, 1920, and held the post until January 1, 1929, when he became chairman of the executive committee of the Southern Pacific, with headquarters in New York.
On August 1, 1932, he was named chairman of the same company, a new post that placed in his hands direct control over all the activities of the system. Here he remained until his retirement from active business on July 13, 1939. Despite Holden's interest in the individual problems of the Burlington and the Southern Pacific, his better-known contributions continued to be regional or national in scope. A vice-president and director of the American Railway Association, 1919-1924, he also served as chairman of the executive committee of the Association of Railway Executives during 1922-1924 and in that capacity played a leading role in launching the major rehabilitation program that eventually resulted in a virtual rebuilding of the railway plant during the following fifteen years.
Early in 1923 he urged before the Interstate Commerce Commission that all railways west of Chicago be consolidated into four mighty systems. His proposal was not authorized, however, nor was he any more successful during 1924-1926 in his efforts to preserve the Railroad Labor Board as set up by the Transportation Act of 1920; instead Congress in 1926 established national boards of adjustment. As early as the mid-1920s Holden was publicly advocating Interstate Commerce Commission control of all major carriers such as trucks, Great Lakes shipping, and vessels using the Panama Canal, as well as the railroads; in due course this program was written into law.
In 1926 he shrewdly observed that oil-electric engines would be "the future boon of railroading. " In addition to serving as a railway director, Holden was at one time or another on the board of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, the New York Life Insurance Company, the Chemical Bank and Trust Company, and the Railway Express Agency.
Holden died in New York City of a coronary thrombosis and was buried in the cemetery at Dalton, Massachussets.
Holden is remembered as a notable railroad executive. His role as a railway spokesman was his most significant mark on the development of American business. An attorney by training, Holden was instrumental in successfully arguing railway rate cases on behalf of Chicago Burlington. He also represented the industry in helping to avert major railway strikes. Under his leadership, Chicago Burlington and Quincy underwent a massive rebuilding and rehabilitation program.
On September 18, 1895, Holden married Ellen Mitchell Weston of Dalton, Massachussets, who died in 1936. They had two sons, Hale and Philip Dana, and one daughter, Eleanor.
