Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
1991
Abstract
As the title of this modest volume suggests, Edd H. Bailey, the late president of the Union Pacific Company, has written for us his life story. Like typical railroad officials of the past, Bailey climbed the corporate ladder by moving through various positions in the operating department. After a youth spent on a woebegone homestead in eastern Colorado, he joined the Union Pacific in 1922 as a helper in the car department in Cheyenne, Wyoming; by 1965, he was the president and director. Although Bailey lacked a college education, his various "hands-on" experiences made possible his rise to industry-wide prominence. At one point in his career he worked as a special agent in Utah; as he recalls, "Those years with the various Special Agent assignments were the best training period for me. I learned a lot about all facets of railroading from those years and got an over-all view of things most workers never had" (48). Later a brief demotion to freight conductor likewise opened his eyes to certain company practices
Comments
Published in Great Plains Quarterly 11:2 (Spring 1991). Copyright © 1991 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.