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As the Showman. But when Jeffers became U.P. president in 1937, Big Bill developed a broad streak of Hollywood showmanship, a liking for lavish dinners —and the publicity and good will they brought the U.P. When he was crowned King Ak-Sar-Ben (Nebraska spelled backwards), an honor given each year to a leading citizen of Omaha, he decked himself out in silk knee breeches, a 35-lb. train, and a crown perched on the side of his head. His own battery of cameramen were on hand to take his picture. So attired, Jeffers presided over, and paid for, a dinner so lavish that Ak-Sar-Ben hastily barred such parties in the future to keep their new kings from going bankrupt.
His most memorable dinner featured a "flaming sword" course of lamb saddle impaled on a blazing sword; red, white & blue uniformed waitresses and a parade of waiters with ice cannons on trays, lit by flashlights and giant sparklers.
The Rubber Boss. When Jeffers went to Washington in 1942 to straighten out the rubber program, his loud ways proved effective. Critics sneered that all he had was a "good publicity man." But plain citizens were delighted at the way he exploded at Congressmen and "bunglers." He bulled through half of the rubber program at a time when a battering ram was more effective than a reasoned argument. When he went back to his $75,000 a year job with the U.P. (later he carefully collected the 97¢ which Uncle Sam owed him on his $1 a year salary), the rubber program was unkinked and well under way.
Actually, Jeffers had a keener perception of war's realities than some of his critics. Back in 1939, he had stoutly spoken up at Council Bluffs, Iowa, in the heart of the isolationist Midwest: "We must make no mistake about it. It is up to the American people to support the Allies with ammunition and supplies whether we like it or not." These remarks roused the ire of many an isolationist, and posters were even circulated urging passengers to stay off the U.P., but Jeffers went right ahead getting himself and his railroad ready for war. He laid out an enormous spending program to improve the U.P.
In the three years after Pearl Harbor, the U.P. spent $278,000,000. It bought 2,270 new cars, 136 locomotives. It laid 1,680 miles of heavier rail to carry the oversize freight trains that Jeffers knew were on the way. Though one of the U.P.'s fondest boasts is that its roadbed is better laid and better kept than any other road's in the U.S., it rebuilt hundreds of miles of roadbed. For the steep grades over the Great Divide it developed the world's biggest locomotive (4-8-8-4), the 132-ft. "Big Boy," and bought 25 of them. The smartest trick of all was to install centralized traffic control on nearly 400 miles of U.P.'s single track, which gave it many of the advantages of double track. The whole 302 miles between Daggett, Calif, and Caliente, Nev. is now controlled by one operator in Las Vegas, sitting behind a battery of levers and buttons.