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Vol. 111.
From The Railroad Record.
Joseph M. Brown
And the Western & Atlantic
Railroad.
This article, which is illustrated with
an excellent portrait of Jos. M. Brown,
General Freight, Passenger and Tick
et Agent of the W estern & Atlantic
Railroad, is especially written for the
purpose of giving the readers of the
Railroad Record a sketch of some of
the incidents in the life, and achieve
ments, of Jos. M. Brown, which can
not fail to be of interest, as he occu
pies an important position among the
leading railroad men of the country,
not only as an official, but also as an
official with original, forceful ideas.
In connection with this, the writer
may mention some other familiar char
acters of the W. & A. and a good
word for the old road itself.
Joseph M. Brown was born in
Canton, Georgia, December 28, 1851,
and is therefore nearly 37 years of
age. After the usual schooling of
youth he entered Oglethorpe Universi
ty, a Georgia college, from which
lie graduated in 1872, taking first
honor and delivering the valedictory.
He took a course in Harvard Law
School and in time was admitted to
the bar in Canton, Georgia, at the same
place and just 28 years after his father,
now United States Senator, Jos. E.
Brown, was admitted to practice law.
Owing to trouble with his eyes he did
practically nothing for about two years
after being admitted to the bar.
He never engaged in the practice of
the law, but obtained a position as clerk
in through freight department in the
general office of the Western & At
lantic Railroad company, in Atlanta,
in January, 1877, and soon af
ter was conductor of freight train;
then lost car agent; then western
agent W. & A. R. R., at Nashville;
then clerk in claim agent’s office; then
claim agent from Jan. 1879 to March
1880; then ticket auditor for a few
months; afterwards time keeper in
machine and car shops,—in all of
which positions his work was efficient
and satisfactory.
In the winter of 1880-’Bl, under di
rection of Gen. Wm. Macßae, then
General Manager of the Western &
Atlantic Railroad, a Car Accountant
Department was inaugurated for the
road and Mr. Joseph M. Brown was
selected to put into operation and
elaborate Gen. Macßae’s system of
car accounts, which not only gave
prompt and perfect satisfaction to the
-A. liuixioz*ous dai’e-devll—the vary man to suit my Bci.wee,
OTTR. “W. <& A. ROI-iTj OF HONOR ” MTTJ.IBRR,.
current demands of the management,
but also furnished a complete and
itemized history of each car from the
time built until returned to the shops
to be torn down. This system is kept
up and regarded as the most complete
in railroad use.
One year in this department and
Mr. Brown was promoted to the posi
tion of General Freight Agent of the
road, in which he showed the metal
that was in him, developing great
adaptability for the position by in
creasing business in the lines already
obtained and creating business not be
fore thought of, and therefore no one
who knew him was surprised at his
master hand which was apparent
when the passenger and freight de
partments of the Western & Atlantic
Railroad were consolidated, in Septem
ber, 1884, and Mr. Brown placed in
ATLANTA, CA., DECEMBER 15, 1888.
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charge as General Freight, Passenger
and Ticket Agent, which position he
now holds.
After Mr. Brown was put in charge
of the freight department, the W. &
A. was paralleled from one end to the
other by a division of a great system,
and recently a new road has been
opened south from Chattanooga, that
takes much business formerly hauled
by the W. & A. and by it turned
over to southern connections. Still
Mr. Brown says “You can’t down a
working road,” and the writer will add,
nor an indomitable general freight
and passenger agent, and so the W.
& A. holds its own.
The most important work of Mr.
Brown, in his railroad career, was the
reduction of rates of passenger fares
on the W. & A. Railroad to figures
much below the rate allowed by law,
which was 3 cents a mile. Through
the recommendation of Mr. Brown,
backed up by facts and figures, the
executive committee directed that the
passage rates be reduced from 3 cents
a mile to 2 J cents for over 100 miles
and graded to 2J and 2A for lesser
distances. The state railroad commis
sion, at the request of the manage
ment of the W. & A. road, issued a
circular fixing the above rates for that
road, and they went into effect March
1, 1888. Some of the other roads
were loud in objection —all predicted
ruinous results. Well, over eight
months have passed and the passenger
business has increased over 40 per
cent in numbers and the receipts in
creased over 20 per cent in dollars.
General Passenger Agent Brown’s
plan was to build up the cities of
Chattanooga and Atlanta and the
cities and towns along the line of
road, and in that build up the busi
nesss and receipts of the road. His
plan is doing all of that.
Mr. Brown is and has been, since
March, 1882, a member of the Rate
Committee of the Southern Railway &
Steamship Association, which com
prises nearly all the railroads south of
the Ohio and Potomac rivers, having
been for several years of the time the
youngest in age of any member of it,
but one whose opinions have always
been valued by his associates. He is
also a member of the National Associa
tion of General Passenger and Ticket
Agents of America, and of the South
ern Passenger Association. Indeed, it
has been remarked that he, more than
any other person, possibly, was the
cause of the organization of the latter
association and the ironclad rules which
it enforces whereby it secures the most
thorough maintenance of rates of any
similar organization in America.
This was brought about by the passen
ger rate war between the M estern &
Atlantic Railroad and the East Ten
nessee, Virginia & Georgia Railway,
in the fall of 1885. The latter com
pany, whose affairs were then in the
hands of a receiver, had been for sev
eral months, demoralizing rates in the
territory in which it and the Western
& Atlantic were competitors. Mr.
Brown required his agents to maintain
the rates for several months, during
which he endeavored to secure the
abandonment by the E. T., V. & G.,
of its practice of rate cutting.
The negotiations at length culmina
ted in a correspondence between Sena-
Continued on page 3.
NO. 24.