Page:The Mexican Problem (1917).djvu/129

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THE "SWING" AND THE "BING"
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ment is almost uncanny. Doheny shows the same remarkable quality in his selection of men. Is there a new engineer just located somewhere on the work: Doheny must run across him, ask a couple of questions, learn the correct spelling of his name, and it is all over in two minutes. He will tell General Manager Wylie a little later the seven qualifications of that engineer and his two deficiencies which are to be watched.

And Wylie is the man with the "go" and the "swing" and the "bing." He inspires and fires the whole line. His eye will detect a misplaced culvert on a railroad, a small leakage, or a large wastage. He knows his cost sheets in detail; but Doheny knows the round result in every quarter. No long letters and no correspondence are wanted by these head men. Results only are asked for, and the correspondence is telegraphic at a cost of somewhere between ten thousand and twenty thousand dollars a year.

Americans are not born for position; they make them. The ambitious young man should seek his opportunity near the left-hand of power. The right-hand man of Wylie is Paddleford, but he began on his left as physician. He demanded activity and Wylie sent him down the line "Flick is the boss driller, but you can help in