Precisely why William Johnson Harahan was demoted from the presidency of the Van Sweringens' Chesapeake & Ohio Railway in 1929 has never been satisfactorily explained. Certainly that able railroad man, son of a onetime president of Illinois Central, had done nothing to impair C. & O.'s profits, which were excellent, or its West Virginia coal traffic, which was expanding. Best guess for his removal seemed to be that Mr. Harahan, who had gone to C. & O. before the Van Sweringens bought control of it in 1922, was not as close to the Bachelor...
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