| June 1898, No. 4 | The Railway and Shipping World (Toronto) | Page 85, col. 1 |
The G.T.R's. general manager.
Chas. M. Hays was born at Rock Island, Ill., in 1856. & on Nov. 10, 1873, entered the Passenger Department of the Atlantic & Pacific Ry. at St. Louis, Mo.; from Jan. 2, 1874, to Mar. 9, 1874, he was employed in the auditor's office, & from Mar. 9, 1874, to Jan. 1, 1877, as clerk in the General Superintendent's office of the same road; from Jan. 1, 1877 to April 1, 1884, he was Secretary to the General Manager of the Missouri Pacific Ry.; & from April 1, 1884 to Oct. 1, 1886, Secretary to the General Manager of the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Ry.; from Oct. 1, 1886, to July 1, 1887, he was Assistant General Manager of the same road; from July was General Manager of the Wabash Western Ry.; on July 1, 1889, he was appointed General Manager of the Wabash Railroad Co. (successor to the Wabash Western & Wabash Rys); & in Feb., 1894 was appointed Vice-President & General Manager of the Wabash Railroad. On Dec., 31, 1895, he severed his connection with the Wabash Co. to accept the position of General Manager of the G.T.R. System, under a 5 years' contract, at a salary of $25,000 a year.
Mr. Hays married Clara J., daughter of Wm. H. Gregg, St. Louis, Mo., & is a Presbyterian. His residence is 320 Drummond St. Montréal.
A contemporary, in speaking of Mr. Hays recently, said:—"There is no doubt at all about the fact that he is a great railway manager. He took charge of the G.T. when it was losing money right & left, & has already brought it to a point where revenue & expenditures meet. This is a great feather in the cap of the Manager, for no one had ever succeeded in doing it before.
"One of the great troubles with the G.T. used to be that it was managed from England. The Manager in Canada had to write or cable home whenever there was anything to be done that was at ail out of the ordinary, & the consequence was that important moves were delayed so long that opportunities were always being lost.
"When Mr. Hays took charge of the road he stipulated on having autocratic authority to follow out his own ideas in his own way. There was some demur at this, but the power he sought for was finally conceded to him, & the result is seen."