Alfred Holland Smith

Alfred Holland Smith
Smith circa 1910-1915
Born	(1863-04-26)April 26, 1863 Cleveland, Ohio
Died	March 8, 1924(1924-03-08) (aged 60) New York City
Employer	New York Central Railroad
Title	President

Alfred Holland Smith (April 26, 1863 – March 8, 1924) was the President of New York Central Railroad from January 1914 to May 1918 and from June 1919 until his death. The entirety of Smith's forty-five-year career was dedicated to the railroads. He started his career as a messenger boy at the age of fourteen, earning 4 dollars a week, and became the highest-paid railroad manager in the U.S., receiving an annual salary of more than $100,000 according to one survey.

After the American entry into World War I, Smith joined the federal service as the Eastern Director of the United States Railroad Administration and temporarily assumed control over the largest pool of railroads in U.S. history, carrying one half of the nation's freight. He successfully alleviated traffic congestion and the buildup of Europe-bound cargoes in the docks.

Smith spoke and acted in favor of government-sponsored consolidation of American, Canadian and Cuban railroads into larger corporations but opposed direct nationalization of railroads. Smith's last full year with the New York Central Railroad, 1923, was the company's most successful year. On March 8, 1924, before the record profit numbers were published, Smith was killed in a horse riding accident in Central Park.

Smith was a fifth child in a family. Alfred was fourteen years old when his father died; instead of completing high school and going to college, he had to drop out of school and take care of himself. His first job, that of a messenger boy for the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway offices in Cleveland, paid four dollars a week. Promotions within the office did not encourage him enough, and five years later Smith transferred to a railroad construction crew in Toledo, Ohio area, paid $1.50 a day. The change from an office job to physical work was not easy for Smith, but he eventually developed "a physique which was the marvel of railroad men who learned their job only in the office." Later in life his associates noted that Smith "did not know the meaning of the word fatigue."

Smith's proficiency in both physical labor and clerical work led to his promotion to a foreman. In 1890, after eleven years with Lake Shore and Michigan, he became a superintendent for Kalamazoo, Michigan division. He spent the 1890s supervising different construction teams of Lake Shore and Michigan, and in 1901 became the principal construction superintendent for the railroad, based in Cleveland.