Background
William Carlos Brown was born on July 29, 1853 in Norway, Herkimer County, New York, a son of Charles E. Brown, a Baptist clergyman, and Frances (Lyon) Brown.
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William Carlos Brown was born on July 29, 1853 in Norway, Herkimer County, New York, a son of Charles E. Brown, a Baptist clergyman, and Frances (Lyon) Brown.
William Carlos Brown received limited education in the public schools.
With but a limited education in the public schools of Iowa William Brown began his railroad career at the age of sixteen as track laborer on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. His work included the physical handling of wood for locomotives and he soon transferred to train service as a locomotive fireman. While thus employed he taught himself telegraphy and became an operator.
From 1872 to 1875 he was train dispatcher on the Illinois Central Railroad, returning in the latter year for a few months to the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul in the same capacity. His long and successful service with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad began in 1876 when he became train dispatcher.
His progress was steady: chief train dispatcher in 1880, trainmaster in 1881, assistant superintendent in 1884, superintendent in 1887, general manager of parts of the system in 1890, and general manager of the entire system in 1896. During that period the mileage and business of the Burlington increased rapidly.
His work with the Burlington system had come under the observation of W. H. Newman, president of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad. When the latter road passed to the control of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, of which Newman was made president, he induced Brown to leave the Burlington and take charge of the Lake Shore as vice-president and general manager.
A year later Brown was transferred to New York as senior vice-president of the New York Central System, a newly-created position. Newman gradually turned over more and more of his responsibilities to Brown and when Newman retired from the presidency, in 1909, Brown succeeded him.
When responsibilities began to weigh too heavily, Brown transferred a part of the burden to Alfred H. Smith, who had followed him from the Lake Shore to the New York Central, and finally, sensitive over the affliction of growing deafness, he resigned from the presidency on January 1, 1914.
With his retirement from railroad service, he gave up nearly all business activities and led a quiet life, part of the time in Iowa, where he had farming interests, and during his last years, in Pasadena, California, where he died. With comparatively little school training in youth, Brown later gave evidence of consistent and continuous self-education in economics, finance, and government. While general manager of the Burlington he studied grammar with his secretary.
By extensive reading, he broadened his view-point, and he was well informed on the current literature in his own and bordering subjects. Although his practical training up to the time he moved to New York had been in the technique of operation, he began a program for improving the relations between the New York Central and the public, issuing a series of addresses and pamphlets, evidencing a broad grasp of economics.
These were published in a bound volume of over 200 pages, which also included an effective document called "The Freight Rate Primer. " At that time the railroads were endeavoring to convince the Interstate Commerce Commission that an increase in freight rates was justified by the growing costs of operation, and the public attitude toward railroads was unfriendly.
Brown had to combat not only the nation-wide lack of confidence in railroad management but also certain adverse traditions attaching specifically to the New York Central.
William Carlos Brown was involved in a number of significant events at the railroad industry during his 12 years at the Central: his demolition of the old Grand Central Terminal and the construction of the new Terminal at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Manhattan; the related electrification of the trains coming into and going out of that Terminal; the Woodlawn Crash, February 16, 1907, when a Central train with a new electric engine flew off the tracks, instantly killing 20 people and injuring more than 150, some seriously; the financial panic of 1907; the national political issue of whether and how the federal government should regulate railroads, especially their freight rates; and other public issues, including promotion of agriculture. He achieved a measure of success in the work of creating an attitude of friendly understanding that he gave himself energetically, and by his forward-looking policy of publicity - a painstaking effort to broadcast in simple terms the fundamental economic facts concerning the interdependence of railroads and their patrons. At the same time, he met the heavy demands upon him for executive guidance in the expansion of the company's facilities and business. During his period of service with the New York Central its revenues and traffic doubled in volume, and engineering works of large proportions were successfully carried on. Among them were the reconstruction of the Grand Central Terminal in New York City and the electrification of the lines in and near that city.
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
(This work has been selected by scholars as being cultural...)
(Freight rates and railway conditions. Addresses and corre...)
(Originally published in 1908-1909. This volume from the C...)
A moderate disciplinarian, he displayed a keen interest in the work of the Railroad Y. M. C. A. Toward labor unions he was not as uncompromising as many of his contemporaries, although he was not lacking in firmness when, as a superintendent, he did more than his part in keeping the Burlington road open during the great strike of 1888. He had strong organizing ability and the faculty of harmonizing departmental differences.
Quotations:
William Carlos (or W. C. ) Brown joining the Central in 1902 prompted a letter writer to the New York Times to state that W. C. “has made a careful study of safety appliances, and he is in large part responsible for the adoption of the operating rules now in force on. "
Brown himself was quoted in the New York Times at the time of his promotion to President of the Central. He said, “ In the United States, it is the workingman who, even though he starts at the bottom, ends in the important posts at the top of our railroads and our great industrial enterprises. The day of favoritism and family has departed. I believe that plain sticking to it is a good rule for every workingman who is earnest in his ambition. I believe, too, it may not be for his best welfare for any worker to set for himself . . . a definite goal. ”
He said the most important factor his advancement was, “Just sticking to it and making a business of my business, filling every job I got as well as I knew how. . . . It is more or less a mistake to preach to young men that they should fix for themselves a specific goal, and strive toward it . . . . If a fellow sets out with that idea, he is apt to become an office politician, and he wastes more time figuring out how he is going to get the step over somebody else than he expends in attending to the business in hand. The thing he has to do is bend every energy . . . to doing today, as well as it can be done, what he has to do. The man who does that does not need to worry about promotion . . . . Promotion will look for him. ”
William Brown was a member of the first Committee on Safety Appliances and Train Rules of the American Railway Association.
Personally Brown was kind-hearted, considerate, courteous, and modest.
Quotes from others about the person
His qualities were thus summarized by an editorial writer for the Railway Age Gazette: studious, clear-headed, possessed of retentive memory, able to learn new things quickly, an accurate judge of men and subjects.
The New York Times added that Brown was “one of the most popular railroad officials” in the U. S. and had “an extraordinary forcefulness and energy. He has a faculty of disposing of things in the shortest possible span of time, and an equally strong one for analyzing propositions down to the backbone. He talks quickly, energetically, and very clearly. Among his subordinates and associates he is immensely popular, and the joy over his promotion is heartfelt and unaffected. ” He also was described as “courteous and modest . . . a moderate disciplinarian . . . kind-hearted and considerate . . . and not as uncompromising as many of his contemporaries toward labor unions. ”
The National Cyclopedia of American Biography in its 1910 edition stated that Brown was then “probably one of the best posted and most able and efficient railroad men in the United States. He is firm and determined . . . . His career affords a splendid example of accomplishments due to untiring industry, perseverance, and fidelity to one’s duties. ”
William Brown was married, on June 3, 1874, to Mary Ella Hewitt, at Lime Springs, Iowa.
