PERSONNEL: Cubbyhole

In Chicago the president's office of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R.—first among U. S. railroads in trackage operated (13,500 miles), fourth in revenue—is a severely handsome, blue-carpeted room overlooking Lake Michigan. It contains two desks, one flat and one rolltop, and last week no one sat at either. But hard at work next door, in the same cubbyhole he has occupied for 29 years, was beaknosed, grey-haired Edward J. (for nothing) Engel.

Edward Engel is fast and thorough, likes to pace nervously while talking. He has no hobbies, no pretensions. The...