Page:Barbour--Peggy in the rain.djvu/226

 his head over the, in his judgment, impractical theories advanced by Gordon, but, shorn of his former despotic power, he could do no more. The new directors were more or less heartily in accord with Gordon's views, and he was able to go about the rehabilitation of the road unrestricted. The last of August he went to Chicago and met the division heads in conference. They had never seen the president and were not predisposed in his favor, but, although, he was still ignorant of the practical details of traffic and transportation, a fact which he cheerfully acknowledged, his enthusiasm, frank desire to learn and a certain personal magnetism won them. On that trip Gordon settled a long-standing dispute with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, and, as a result, a slight increase in wages was announced effective all over the system on September first. The general manager of a little jerk-water road in the Southwest who, in five years, had changed a line of rusty rails into a dividend-payer, was bought over to the Central and Western and given the office of Assistant to the President. The general manager, proving himself out of sympathy with the road's new policy, was superseded and minor