Word: pelley
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...first place that John Jeremiah Pelley got to was Anna, Ill., where his father, an Irish immigrant, had settled as a contractor after a stretch in the Confederate Army. Son John hustled baggage in Anna's Illinois Central depot during summer vacations, taught school when he was 18, spent a few months at the University of Illinois in 1899. The summers in the Anna depot destined John Pelley for railroading. Only twice has he remained in one railroad job as long as five years-once as an I. C. superintendent in Fulton, Ky., and once as president...
...Haven not only did John Pelley become one of the most popular figures in U. S. railroading, but he blossomed out as an industrial statesman as well. It was in the summer of 1932 that a New Dealer rang his telephone in New Haven, told him that Candidate Franklin Roosevelt was going to define his position on the railroads a few days hence in Salt Lake City. Mr. Pelley had recently issued a statement about government regulation with which Mr. Roosevelt had found himself in complete accord. Might Mr. Roosevelt quote it in part? John Pelley, a lifelong Republican, amiably...
...A.A.R.'s president in 1934. It did not take him long to establish headquarters on 17th & H Streets. It is full of cheap, golden oak desks and big wall calendars and the unmistakable fumigant which characterizes railroad offices from the Bangor & Aroostook to the Alaska Railroad. President Pelley's own quarters are decorated with an illuminated testimonial from New Haven employes which he prizes highly. "You can always fool the guys above you," he says, "but you can't fool the guys below...
Most of President Pelley's 400 employes-half in Washington, half out-are busy keeping tabs on the country's 1,800,000 freight cars. One of their chores is to gather vital statistics of car loadings. The most notable industrial achievement of President Pelley's two years has been the so-called "average" plan for settling car hire between railroads and reducing profitless hauling and switching of empty cars. The A.A.R.'s car service division referees this activity, which now saves U. S. roads $12,000,000 a year...
...John Pelley's two biggest functions, however, are fronting for the roads before Congress and Labor. In the first capacity he is ably assisted by Robert Virgil Fletcher, a courtly onetime Mississippi judge whose dignity and patience have made him popular with Congressional committees. Now 67, sharp of wit, lucid in explanation, Lawyer-Lobbyist Fletcher heads A.A.R.'s legal department, likes to make speeches like the one he gave last week in St. Paul against government regulation and government ownership. Currently A.A.R. is lobbying, with the support of Labor, for the repeal of the "long-&-short haul" clause...