diff options
Diffstat (limited to '44853-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 44853-0.txt | 3467 |
1 files changed, 3467 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/44853-0.txt b/44853-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef40591 --- /dev/null +++ b/44853-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3467 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44853 *** + +Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected +without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have +been retained as printed. Words printed in italics are noted with +underscores: _italics_. + +The cover of this ebook was created by the transcriber and is +hereby placed in the public domain. + + + + +LETTERS FROM AN OLD RAILWAY OFFICIAL + +TO HIS SON, A DIVISION SUPERINTENDENT + + +BY + +CHARLES DELANO HINE + + +WITH A POSTSCRIPT BY FRANK H. SPEARMAN + + +CHICAGO +THE RAILWAY AGE +1904 + +COPYRIGHT, 1904, +BY CHARLES DELANO HINE + + + + +_To the railway officials and employes of America:_ + +_Their intelligence is an inspiration; their steadfastness, a +psalm._ + + + + +FILE NUMBERS. + + +LETTER I. +A Word of Congratulation 1 + +LETTER II. +Helping the Train Dispatchers 6 + +LETTER III. +Handling a Yard 13 + +LETTER IV. +Distant Signals on Chief Clerks 18 + +LETTER V. +Safety of Trains in Yards 26 + +LETTER VI. +Standardizing Administration 31 + +LETTER VII. +The New Trainmaster and Civil Service 36 + +LETTER VIII. +Education of Several Kinds 43 + +LETTER IX. +Correspondence and Telegrams 49 + +LETTER X. +The Bayonet Precedes the Gospel 56 + +LETTER XI. +Preventing Wrecks Before They Happen 63 + +LETTER XII. +The Self-Made Man Who Worships His Maker 70 + +LETTER XIII. +The Friend-Mile as a Unit of Measure 79 + +LETTER XIV. +The Management that Breeds from Its Own Herd 89 + +LETTER XV. +More on Civil Service 97 + +LETTER XVI. +The Supply Train 104 + +LETTER XVII. +What the Big Engine Has Cost 114 + +LETTER XVIII. +Be a Superintendent--Not a Nurse 121 + +LETTER XIX. +The Rack of the Comparative Statement 130 + +LETTER XX. +Handling the Pay-Roll 137 + +LETTER XXI. +Military Organization 145 + +LETTER XXII. +Wrecks and Block Signals 153 + +LETTER XXIII. +Unionism 161 + +LETTER XXIV. +The Round-Up 169 + +POSTSCRIPT. +By Frank H. Spearman 177 + + + + +Letters From A Railway Official + + + + +LETTER I. + +A WORD OF CONGRATULATION. + + +March 20, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--The circular announcing your appointment as division +superintendent has just been received, and it brings up a flood of +thoughts of former years. I felt that you had made a mistake in +leaving us to go with the new system, but it has turned out all right. +I can appreciate the fact that you would rather work away from me, so +as to make people believe that you can go up the official hill without +having a pusher behind you. + +This should be one of the proudest periods of your life. You are now +in a position to do good to your company, to your fellow man, and +incidentally to yourself. No matter how highly organized a road may +be, the importance of the office of division superintendent is in +direct proportion to the ability and earnestness of the incumbent. The +position is little or big, restricted or untrammeled, just as you make +it. Many a superintendent has had to double the hill of a swelled +knob, and run as a last section into the next promotion terminal. You +have too much of your mother's good sense ever to cause anybody else +to put up signals for you on this account. Therefore do not lose your +democratic manner. Keep your heart warm and regard the wider field as +an opportunity to get more friends on your staff. Try to call every +employe in your territory by name, as Cæsar did his soldiers; for all +the traffic of goodwill must run in a direction toward you if you want +maximum results, as they call efficiency nowadays. Good old rule 121 +of the standard code says: "When in doubt take the safe course and run +no risks," which, in the case of acquaintance, means if uncertain +whether you know a man or not, speak to him and give him the glad hand +anyway. You will have to discipline men, but that can be done without +parting company with your good manners. Remember that the much-abused +word "discipline" comes from the same root as the word "disciple," a +pupil, a learner, a follower. It is always easier to lead men than to +drive them. + +When you go over the division do not try to see how many telegrams you +can send, but how few. It is usually a pretty safe rule after writing +a telegram on the hind end of a train to carry it by two or three +stations to see if you would rather not take it back to the office +yourself. The dispatchers used to tell your old dad that they couldn't +have told he was out on the line as far as his messages were an +indication. Another thing, do not try to plug your whistle and muffle +your bell. Let everybody know you are coming. The "Old Sleuth" stunt +is for criminals, not for honest employes. Be on hand so frequently +that your coming is taken as a matter of course. Never hunt quail with +a brass band, but bear in mind that men, unlike quail, rather like to +perch on a band wagon. If you are tempted to wait behind box cars to +see if the men on a night pony have gone in the hay, do not yield, but +get out, see that the switches are lined up, and count the ties in +front of the headlight until somebody gives her steam; just as +Napoleon walked post for the sleeping sentinel. Then, if you +administer a polite jacking up it will be twice as effective, even if +the delay to the work that one time has continued. Remember that +things are not as they should be, and it is probably your own fault +if, under normal conditions, a particular movement depends upon your +personal efforts. Any routine action that you take should be +calculated to help many trains, or one train many times; or to help +many men, not merely the trains or men in question. It is all right, +in emergencies, to jump in and do the work of a conductor, of an +engineman, of a switch tender, or of any other employe. The great +trouble is in discriminating between an emergency and a defect which +can better be remedied in some other way. The smaller the caliber of +the official the more numerous the emergencies to his mind. + +You should try to arrange your work so as to stay up all night at +least once a week, either in the office, or better, on the road or in +the yards. You will keep better in touch with the men and the things +for which you, asleep or awake, are always responsible. You remember +when your sister Lucy was little how we asked her why she said her +prayers at night but usually omitted them in the morning. Her answer +which so tickled you was, "I ask God to take care of me at night, but +I can take care of myself in the daytime." It is much the same way +with a railroad. From your point of view it will take pretty fair care +of itself as a daylight job, but at night that proposition loses its +rights. The youngest dispatcher, by virtue of being the senior +representative awake, is to a certain extent general manager. The +least experienced men are in the yards and roundhouses. The +ever-faithful sectionmen are off the right of way. The car inspector's +light and the engineman's torch are poor substitutes for the sun in +locating defects. The most active brains are dulled by the darkness +just before dawn. Then it is that a brief hour may side-track or +derail the good work of many days. It is this responsibility, this +struggle with nature, this helping God to work out the good in men, +that makes our profession noble and develops qualities of greatness in +its members. + +Next time I shall try to tell you something about helping your train +dispatchers. + +With a father's blessing, ever your own, + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER II. + +HELPING THE TRAIN DISPATCHERS. + + +March 27, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--I promised in my last to say something about helping +your train dispatchers. The way to help any man is first to encourage +him and by showing that you appreciate his good qualities give him +confidence in himself. When you come in off the road tell the +dispatcher, if such be the case, "Nice meeting point you made +yesterday for 15 and 16; I was there and they both kept moving almost +like double track." If your division has been badly handled, the +dispatcher, unaccustomed to such appreciation, will at first think +this is a sarcastic prelude to having the harpoon thrown into him; but +your sincerity will soon disabuse his mind of such a notion. Sarcasm +in official intercourse or toward one's subordinates should never be +tolerated. It is an expensive kind of extra that should never be run. +When you praise a man it will add to his good feeling if some one else +happens to be present. If you have to censure anyone, whether directly +or through the channels, do it privately and spare the recipient all +unnecessary humiliation. The official who remembers to mention good +work will find his rebukes and criticisms much more effective in +remedying poor work than the official whose theory and practice are to +take up failures and to let successes be taken for granted. + +Another way to help a man is to lead him away from the pitfalls that +are peculiar to his path of work. The official who is an old +dispatcher has to fight in himself the temptation to be the whole +cheese. He has to learn to trust subordinates with details. Every +position entails some inherent temptations. The absolute, unquestioned +authority given a dispatcher in train movements breeds a temptation to +be autocratic and unreasonable, to put out too many orders, to give +too many instructions. Therefore, try to get your dispatchers in touch +with your crews. If the former are in a skyscraper uptown, get +authority to build an office for them at the terminal where most of +the crews live. Personal contact is much better than long-distance +communication by wire. There is enough of the latter from the very +nature of the business without causing an unnecessary amount by +artificial conditions. + +The temptation of a legislator is to make too many laws; of a doctor +to prescribe too much medicine; of an old man to give too much advice; +and of a train dispatcher, once more, to put out too many orders. It +used to be thought by some that the best dispatcher was the one who +put out the most orders. The later and better idea is that, generally +speaking, the best dispatcher puts out the fewest orders. It is always +easier to give orders of any kind than it is to execute them. It is a +far cry from an O.S. on a train sheet to getting a heavy drag into a +sidetrack and out again. It often takes longer to stop a train and get +an order signed and completed than the additional time given in the +order amounts to. Even a judicious use of the beneficent nineteen +order involves more or less delay. One of the lessons a dispatcher has +to learn is to know when he is up against it; when he has figured +badly; and when not to make a bad matter worse by vainly trying to +retrieve a hopeless delay. A good dispatcher will know without being +told that he has made a poor meeting point. Educate him to consider +that as an error to be avoided under like conditions in the future; +not as a mistake to be made worse by putting out more orders that may +fail to help the stabbed train enough, and may result in having every +fellow on the road delayed. If any train must be delayed, let it be +one that is already late rather than one that is on time. Above all +get the confidence of your dispatchers so that they will not try to +cover up their own mistakes or those of others. Teach them that, in +the doubtful event of its becoming necessary, the superintendent is +able to do the covering up act for the whole division. + +Every superintendent and higher official should remember that if the +same train order is given every day there must be something radically +wrong with the time table. All over this broad land, day after day, +hundreds of unnecessary train orders are being sent because many time +tables are constructed on the models of forty years ago. At that time, +in fact as in name, there were two classes of trains, passenger and +freight. To-day there are in reality at least two distinct classes of +passenger trains and two classes of freights, or at least four in all. +On most of the roads in the country passenger trains of whatever +nature or importance are all shown in one class, the first. As a +result every limited train in the inferior direction on single track +has to be given right by train order over opposing local passenger +trains in the superior direction. In other words, the working time +table, by definition a general law, has no more practical value, as +between such trains, than an advertising folder. A train order by its +very nature is an exception to the general law, the time table. When +the exception becomes the rule it is high time to head in or to put +out a thinking flag. Some years ago your old dad after much persuasion +induced his superiors to let him make four classes of trains on a +pretty warm piece of single track. The result directly and indirectly +was to reduce the number of train orders by twenty or twenty-five per +day. Every train order given increases the possibility of mistake and +disaster; the fewer the orders the safer the operation. The change was +made without even an approach to a mistake or the semblance of +disaster. The dispatchers being less occupied were able to give more +attention to local freights, and the general efficiency of the train +service was greatly increased. The wires could go down and the most +important trains would keep moving. It has stood the test of years and +if the old method were resumed a grievance committee would probably +wait on the management. + +Successful politicians and public speakers have long since learned not +to disgust their hearers by trying to talk in language ridiculously +simple and uncultured. For us to say that the intelligent employes of +to-day cannot keep in mind four or even five classes of trains is to +confuse them with the comparatively illiterate men of a bygone +generation. The public school and the daily newspaper have made a part +of our problem easier. We are paying higher wages than ever before, +but is it not partly our own fault if we fail to get full value +received? + +Therefore, see if your time tables appeal to tradition or to reason; +if they belong to a period when women wore hoopskirts, or to a time +when women ride wheels and play golf. In brief, before you take the +stylus to remove the dirt ballast from the dispatcher's eye, be sure +that there are no brakebeams stuck in your own headlight. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER III. + +HANDLING A YARD. + + +April 3, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--You have asked me to give you some pointers on handling +a yard. You will find that nearly all situations in a yard hark back +to one simple rule, which is: When you get hold of a car move it as +far as possible toward its final destination before you let go of it. + +The training of a switchman is usually such that, if let alone, he +will stick the car in the first convenient track and wait to make a +delivery until he can pull every track in the yard and put with it all +other cars with the same cards or marks. By this time some other +fellow with a similar honesty of purpose but differently applied will +come along and bury the car or block the first man in so that one +engine has to stand idle. A yardmaster has to learn to keep his +engines scattered and to hold each foreman responsible for the work of +an engine. A good yardmaster knows instinctively where to be at a +certain time to minimize the delay incident to engines bunching. The +old switchman who becomes a yardmaster often proves a failure because +he cannot overcome his inclination to follow one engine and take a +hand in the switching himself. By so doing he may perhaps increase the +work accomplished by that one engine, possibly five per cent; but in +the meantime the other engines, for want of comprehensive, intelligent +instructions, are getting in each other's way and the efficiency of +the day's service is decreased maybe twenty per cent. + +Good yardmasters are even harder to discover or develop than good +train dispatchers. The exposure, the irregular hours for the +yardmaster's meals in even the best regulated yards make a good +conductor leery about giving up a comfortable run to assume the +increased responsibility of a yard. The pay of a yardmaster is little +more than that of a conductor and is sometimes less. Right here is a +chance for some deep administrative thought. It is so much easier to +get good conductors than good yardmasters, should we not make the +latter position more attractive? Some roads have done this by making +it one of the positions from which to promote trainmasters, and seldom +have such appointees fallen down. However, there are hardly enough +promotion loaves and fishes to go around. Men get tired of living on +skimmed milk on earth for the sake of promised cream in heaven. Every +switch engine worked costs the company several hundred dollars per +month, and the yardmaster whose good figuring can save working even +one engine is more than earning his salary. + +The closer you can get your yardmasters to your official family the +better your administration. Pick up a yardmaster occasionally and take +him to headquarters with you so that he will keep acquainted with the +dispatchers. This will hold down friction and save the company's good +money. A dispatcher naturally wants to get all the trains he can into +a terminal, while a yardmaster is doing his level best to get trains +out. With such radically different points of professional view there +is a big opportunity for the superintendent and the trainmaster to do +the harmonizing act, to keep pleasantly before employes the fact that +all are working for the same company, that all do business with the +same paymaster. Blessed are the peacemakers doesn't mean necessarily +there must first be trouble. Peace carried in stock is better than +that manufactured on hurry-up shop orders. + +If you are looking for talent to run a yard, consider some ambitious +dispatcher. Too few dispatchers have become yardmasters. The same cool +head, the same quick judgment, the same executive ability are needed +in both positions. The man who has successfully filled both is usually +equipped to go against almost any old official job, without having to +back up and take a run for the hill. The curse of modern civilization +is over-specialization. The world grows better and produces stronger, +better men all the while. Perhaps this is in spite of rather than on +account of highly specialized organization. No industry can afford to +be without the old-fashioned all around man who is good anywhere you +put him. + +The work of the yardmaster is more spectacular than that of the +dispatcher. To come down to a congested yard among a lot of +discouraged men blocked in without room to sidetrack a handcar is like +sitting down to a train sheet with most of the trains tied up for +orders. In either case let the right man take hold and in a few +minutes the men involved will tell you who it is has assumed charge. +Without realizing it and without knowing why, they redouble their +efforts; things begin to move, and the incident goes down in the +legends of the division to be the talk of the caboose and the +roundhouse for years to come. To the man whose cool head and +earnestness are bringing it all about comes the almost unconscious +exhilaration that there is in leading reinforcements to the firing +line. He feels with the Count of Monte Cristo, "The world is mine," I +have the switches set to head it in. + +Get out of your head the young brakeman's idea that yard jobs are for +old women and hasbeens. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER IV. + +DISTANT SIGNALS ON CHIEF CLERKS. + + +April 10, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--You write me that you have been kept very much in your +office of late because the general superintendent has taken your chief +clerk for the same position in his own office. You hope that your +friend, the auditor, may be able to furnish you a good man who has +such a thorough knowledge of accounts that you will be able to give +less attention to such matters and therefore be out on the road that +much more. You will pardon a father's severity, but you are running on +bad track, and my interest prompts me to put out a slow order for you. +You have had the division a short time, it is true, but that is only a +partial excuse for not having better organization than your letter +unwittingly admits. You have been there long enough to have sized up +the men on the division, and you should know where to put your hand on +a man for practically any position. A good organizer does not wait for +a vacancy to occur or even come in sight before thinking of the next +incumbent. He is always into clear on such a proposition. He has +thought it all out beforehand. He has in mind two or three available +men for every possible vacancy that can occur, for every job on the +pike, including his own. Wherever possible by judicious changing of +men he not only has a man in mind, but he has given him some +preliminary training for, perhaps some actual experience in, the +position to be permanently filled. + +The tone of your letter is half complaining because the general +superintendent has taken your good chief clerk. Away with such a +feeling; it is unworthy. You should feel flattered that your division +had a chance to fill the vacancy. You should rejoice in the +advancement of your faithful subordinate. Some divisions, like some +officials, are known the country over as developers of talent. + +Youth is proverbially quick, and I think sometimes that you youngsters +are quicker at getting into a rut than are we old fogies. Why for a +chief clerk must you necessarily have a man with office experience? +Does it not occur to you that your office will be in better touch with +its responsibilities if it is in charge of a man who has worked +outside along the road? Why not look among your trainmen, your +yardmen, your dispatchers, your agents, your operators, or even among +your section foremen? Experience is a great teacher, but it can never +entirely supply the place of native ability, of natural adaptability. +Brains and tact are the essentials and each is comparatively useless +without the other. Both must be developed by training, but such +training does not necessarily have to take the same course for all +men. Railroading as a business is only seventy-five years old, and as +a profession is much younger than that. It is too early in the game to +lay down iron-clad rules as to the best channels for training and +advancement. Common sense demands that such avenues be broad and more +or less definite. The danger is that they will be only paths and so +narrow that they will wear into ruts. + +Do not delude yourself into thinking that by going out on the road you +can get away from the accounts. They are a flagman that is never left +behind to come in on a following section. You can never get beyond +watching the company's dollars and cents any more than a successful +musician can omit practice. Some officials think that the way to +examine a payroll or a voucher is to see that all the extensions are +accurately made, that the columns are correctly added. This mechanical +clerical work is about the last thing an official should have to do. +He should know how, but his examination should be from a different +viewpoint. Primarily he must look to see if the company is getting +value received for money expended. He must know that the rolls and +vouchers are honestly made up, that agreements involved, if any, are +carried out to the letter. The agreements may not be to his personal +liking, may not accord with his ideas of justice, but the +responsibility for that part is his superior's, not his own. There is +a proper channel for him to follow in attempting to protect the +company's interests, but that channel is not the one of a petty ruling +on a minor question involved in a voucher or a payroll. Overtime, for +example, is not a spook but a business proposition. If earned +according to the schedule it should be allowed unhesitatingly. Before +you jack up a yard-master for having so much overtime, see if the +cutting out of that overtime will mean the greater expense of working +another engine. The constant thought of every official is how to +reduce expenses, how to cut down payrolls. This habit of mind, +commendable as it is, has its dangers. In any business we must spend +money to get money. The auditor's statements do not tell us why we +lost certain traffic through relatively poor service. Their silence is +not eloquent upon the subject of the business we failed to get. +Figures must be fought with figures and many a good operating official +has had to lie down in the face of the auditor's fire because, from +lack of intelligent study of statistics on his own part, he had no +ammunition with which to reload. Do not feel that if you happen to +advocate an increase of expense you are necessarily a discredit to the +profession, a dishonor to the cloth. + +There are few roads that would not save money in the long run by +allowing each division say one hundred dollars per month for +developing talent. The expense distributed to oil for administrative +machinery would express the idea. It would then be up to the +superintendent to work out original methods for spending this money to +the best advantage. A bright young fellow with the ear marks of a +coming official could be given training in various positions. While he +is acting in a certain position, the regular incumbent could be sent +to observe methods elsewhere or be given training in some other +department. For example, while your candidate is running a yard, the +yardmaster could be an understudy for a supervisor. A station agent +could take the place of a section foreman, an operator the place of +a chief clerk, and so on indefinitely. Do not understand me as +advocating a wholesale shakeup or the doing away with permanency of +tenure. The limitations of the majority of men are such that they +are better left in one fixed groove. We grow to be narrow in our +methods because men are narrow. What I want is for us to be broad +enough in method to keep from dwarfing the exceptions in the ranks, +and at the same time keep the parts of our administrative machine +interchangeable. The original entry into the service is more or less a +matter of accident as to department entered. Let us not leave a good +man the creature of accident all his days. The company is the loser as +well as the man. We complain because the trades unions advocate a +closed shop, a restricted output, a limited number of apprentices. Is +not their attitude a logical development of the example we have set? +Like master, like man. + +Let your new chief clerk understand that he is never to use your +signature or initials to censure or reprimand any employe, either +directly or by implication. That is a prerogative you cannot afford to +delegate. It is all right if a complaint comes in for the chief clerk +to investigate by writing in your name and saying: "Kindly advise +concerning alleged failure to do so and so;" or, "We have a complaint +that such and such happened and would like to have your statement;" +but he should stop right there. It is all wrong for him or for you to +add, "We are astonished at your ignorance of the rules;" or, "You must +understand that such conduct will not be tolerated." Wait until both +sides of the case are heard. Then you alone must act. The division +will not go to pieces while such matters await your personal +attention. While you are learning that even a brakeman's unpaid board +bill may be satisfactorily explained, the brakemen are learning that +even a superintendent can find the time to be fair and just. A lack of +development of the judicial quality in chief clerks and their +superiors has cost the railroad stockholders of this country many a +dollar. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER V. + +SAFETY OF TRAINS IN YARDS. + + +April 17, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--I have yours saying that my letter on yard work omits +mention of the most important feature, the safety of trains in yards; +that the letter is much like a cup of lunch-counter coffee--very good, +what there is of it, and plenty of it, such as it is. + +I admit that you have caught me not only foul of the main, but outside +the switches. I appreciate your consideration in so politely pulling +the whistle cord for me, when you would have been justified in setting +the air. We all like to be with good company and pull the president's +special, and in this case I seem to have with me no less distinguished +companions than the American Railway Association. That able body has +been detoured too long around this important matter of rules governing +trains in yards. Before I leave their varnished cars and climb into +the gangway of a switch engine to run into the yards, I want the +conductor to throw off a register slip setting forth my admiration for +the great work already done by that brainy organization. I take off my +hat to the American Railway Association. When I take off said hat, +especially to a lady, I always keep both eyes open. Adoration should +not be too blind or one may overlook some other meeting points and +land clear off the right of way. + +Long ago some bright minds, whose identity is lost in the rush of the +years, hit upon the happy expedient of dividing trains into two kinds, +regular and extra; just as early theology divided mankind into the two +convenient classes of saints and sinners. This designation of trains, +doubtless like all innovations opposed at first, soon acquired the +sacredness that time brings to all things. At that period when we got +a car over the road and into the terminal we felt that its troubles +were about ended, as did the contemporary novelist whose terminal was +always a betrothal scene. Under modern conditions a car reaching a +terminal, like a couple leaving the altar, finds that its problems +have only fairly begun. Less romance, more progress. + +Did you ever try to explain to an intelligent traveling man just what +a train is? Did he not ask you some questions that kept you guessing +for a week? Did he not remind you that outsiders usually make the +inventions that revolutionize operation? Radical changes in methods of +warfare are seldom necessitated by the inventions of military men. A +druggist invented the automatic coupler. Railroad men did not patent +the air brake or devise the sleeping car. All this is natural, because +in any profession where one attains excellence in a given method his +mental vision may become contracted; he may reason in a circle. + +Every once in a while we are appalled by a terrible collision in a +terminal, the result perhaps of some poor devil of an employe not +appreciating fully the meaning of "all trains." To the innocent +bystander the switch engine and cars are just as much a train as the +Pullman flyer with its two little green markers on the last car. After +such accidents, for a brief period, we hear a great deal about act of +Providence, presumptuousness of man, fallibility of the human mind, +surprise checking, discipline of employes, company spirit, +governmental supervision and a lot of other more or less unrelated +subjects. Are we not to blame for not having met the issue squarely? +Is it not time that we legislated to recognize the scores of engines +chasing through our terminals, from freighthouse to yard, from engine +house to station? Are they outcasts? Do the millions of dollars of +investment they represent come through a different treasury? + +To the human mind an engine or a motor is a train, while a cut of cars +without motive power is only a piece of a train, and goes to the brain +as an idea of something incomplete. All the artificial definitions of +the standard code cannot alter this state of facts. What do you think +of the following proposed designations and tentative definitions? + +Train.--An engine (or motor) in service, with or without cars. Two or +more engines (or motors) may be combined as one train. + +Regular Train.--A train represented on the time table. It may consist +of sections. A section derives its running existence from a train +order requiring a regular train or the proper section thereof, to +display prescribed signals. + +Extra Train.--A train not represented on the time table, but deriving +its running existence from train order. + +Yard Train.--A train neither represented on the time table nor created +by train order, but deriving its running existence from rules +governing movements within prescribed limits. + +You will find if you work these definitions through the standard code +the changes will be slight, but the results comprehensive and +satisfactory. This will do as a starter, but you will live to see +trains handled on single track without train orders as we now +understand the term. + +If this answers your signal, suppose we call in that flag we whistled +out when we stopped to talk it over. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER VI. + +STANDARDIZING ADMINISTRATION. + + +April 24, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--While backing in on a branch idea I bumped into a load +consigned to the American Railway Association which, with your +permission, I wish to bring in behind the caboose to save a switch. +Yes, I have tied a green flag on the rear grabiron for a marker. When +the hind man has dropped off to shut the switch and has given the +eagle eye a high sign, I shall make a note on the wheel report to the +effect that there is not a much better daylight marker than the +caboose itself. Some people doubt the necessity for green flags on +freight trains or work trains unless the caboose does not happen to be +the last car. Night markers are unquestionably necessary, but are not +a source of additional expense, as the same oil answers for both the +rear red signal and the marker. + +The idea in question is that the American Railway Association might +well afford to pay salaries to more of its officials and let certain +ones give their entire time to committee work and the general welfare. +It is too much to expect that men, probably already overworked on +their own roads, can find the broadest solution of problems in the +very limited time allowed. It might be possible to work out a plan +whereby election to certain positions in the association would mean +that the individual elected was to be loaned to the association for +his term of office, say two years, and then return to service with his +own company. A permanent body of officials in such an organization +would be undesirable, save of course the able secretary, for the +reason that too long a separation from active service would beget an +indifference to practical operating conditions. Under such a plan +officials would have to be elected by name to prevent a company from +unloading any old rail on the association. You know that some +statistician has figured out that the average official life of a +railroad man in any one position is only about two years. +Rearrangement of the staff on the return of an official from such +broadening special duty should not be a difficult matter. But, as a +man once said to me, "You will not bring all these reforms about until +the old fogies die off, and by that time you will be an old fogy +yourself and it will not make any difference." + +There is almost no limit to the number of matters in railway +administration that can be made standard and uniform for all roads. A +great deal has been done, but to a coming generation the present stage +of accomplishment will seem to have been only a fair beginning. The +hopeful feature is that roads now meet each other in a much broader +spirit than ever before. The fortress that parleys is half taken, and +when negotiations looking to uniformity are once begun a long stride +forward has been taken. Take the wage agreements of a dozen roads at a +large terminal. All twelve are intended to mean practically the same +thing, yet the wording of no two will be found alike. This probably is +not due so much to a disinclination to get together as to a lack of +time for working out uniform details. + +Some roads are noticeable for the clearness, conciseness and brevity +of their instructions. Others employ a lot of surplus words which are +as expensive and annoying in operation as dead cars in a yard. On +every road there are a few men in the official family who have a +faculty of expression, either inborn or acquired. Some day when we +more fully overcome the prejudice against sending officials to school +we shall utilize the services of such valuable men as instructors in +style. When this is done, especially in the traffic and legal +departments, we shall materially reduce our telegraph expenses. The +mere thought of the thousands of unnecessary words flying over the +railroad wires every day is enough to give one telegrapher's cramp. +Some roads occasionally censor telegrams with a view to reducing their +number and their length. These efforts, like municipal reform, are apt +to be too spasmodic to prove of lasting value. Success in anything +depends upon keeping most everlastingly at it. You notice that I do +not confine this remark to our own profession. Carry a flag for me +against the man who always says: "In railroading you have to do thus +and so, for it's not like other business." All must admit that +conditions in railroading are intense; that, except in an army in time +of war, there is no profession that is more strenuous or calls for +better staying qualities. These facts, however, do not put us in a +class by ourselves, a little lower than the angels, a few car lengths +ahead of perfection. As Oliver Cromwell said, some things are +fundamental. One of them is that good organization and administration +depend upon certain basic principles which hold true for any industry. +Whatever one's religious views, he must find that the Bible is one of +the best books of rules ever written, one of the best standard codes +on organization that has been devised. Men were organizers on a large +scale centuries before railroads were built. + +When, after months of deliberation, the convention had finally agreed +upon the provisions of the Constitution of the United States, the +document was referred for revision to a committee on style and +expression. The result has been the admiration of the English speaking +race. The caller's book does not show that the American Railway +Association has ordered a run for such a committee. Should a claim of +that sort be made it would hardly be advisable to file the last +standard code as an exhibit. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER VII. + +THE NEW TRAINMASTER AND CIVIL SERVICE. + + +May 1, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--I have your letter telling about your new trainmaster. +You feel that a man from another division has been forced on you by +the general superintendent; that you have suffered a personal affront +because the promotion you recommended on your own division has not +been approved. I am sorry to rule against you, but from your own story +if anybody deserves six months twice a year, it is you and not the +general superintendent. The latter may have been lacking in tact; he +may have been unduly inconsiderate for your personal feelings, but in +making the appointment, which you admit is a good one, he has +doubtless been actuated by a conscientious sense of duty. Remember +that a fundamental principle of highly organized bodies is that a +superior cannot expect to select his own lieutenants. The next higher +is always consulted and generally the latter's superiors also. The +theory is that they are in a position to have a broader view, to size +up more talent, to draw from the system at large, and to accentuate +principles and policies in promotions and appointments. This theory is +supported by practice, which goes even further. On most roads +circulars signed by the superintendent and approved by the general +superintendent announce the appointment of a trainmaster. Do not let +this delude you into thinking the general manager has not been +consulted. In fact, if you could drop a nickel in the slot and get a +phonographic report of conferences on the appointment, you might +happen to recognize the voice of the president himself before the +machine shut off. All of which should convince you that the +stockholders and directors have strewn other official pebbles besides +yourself along the organization beach. You say that the relation of +superintendent and trainmaster should be that of elder brother and +younger brother. Very true, but do any of us ever select our brothers? + +In a primitive state of civilization, when force is law, the military +chieftain rules. He makes and breaks his lieutenants at pleasure. The +oldest form of organization we have is the military, for armies are +older than governments. Every nation has its birth in the throes of +battle. Time passes and the chieftain finds his lieutenants insisting +on permanency of tenure. Gradually they secure it, and channels of +promotion and appointment are defined. These reach the lower grades +and the general finds that he has not even the authority to discuss a +private soldier from the service until the latter has been convicted +by a court-martial of an offense covered by enactment of the +legislative body of the nation. In every civilized country officers +are commissioned by the executive head of the nation and by no one +else. The general-in-chief may recommend, but he cannot appoint even a +second lieutenant. Consider now a commercial organization. Do you +think the high-salaried captain of an ocean liner can select his first +and second officers without consulting his superiors? Does he select +his own crew? Really, now, do you think the general superintendent +should perfunctorily approve your recommendation for trainmaster? + +Men have been organizing armies and have been going down to the sea in +ships for thousands of years. Let the railroads, which have been in +existence only seventy-five years, draw another leaf from the lesson +of the ages. The time is fast coming when an official cannot discharge +a skilled laborer from the service without the approval of at least +one higher official. We may not like it; we may say that such policies +will put the road in the hands of a receiver. That is just what the +conductors said when we took away from them the privilege of hiring +their own brakemen. It will come just the same. We may as well look +pleasant and see the bright side. Where employment is made a lifetime +business, where admission thereto is restricted to the lower grades +and to younger men, public sentiment will not stand for letting the +question of a man's livelihood be decided by any one official, however +fair and just he may be. Safety and good administration may demand the +man's summary suspension from duty by the immediate official or +employe in charge. If the man has been in the service a prescribed +probationary period his permanent discharge will have to be approved +by higher authority. Men will not care to risk having a recommendation +for discharge disapproved. They will learn that the more carefully a +discharge has been considered the less readily will a reinstatement be +made. + +Some people think you cannot have military methods and organization on +a railroad because it has no guardhouse. This is a mistake. Your old +dad, after trying both, finds that railroads, in some respects, have a +more powerful discipline than the army. A discipline based on bread +and butter, shoes for the baby, love of home, and pride of family, +which is the bulwark of the state, has in itself all necessary +elements for maximum practical effectiveness. + +Reinstatements, unless based on new evidence, are demoralizing to +discipline, for the reason that the unworthy employe bumps back to a +lower grade some deserving man, whose good service is then reckoned at +a discount. Some passenger conductors become so color blind they +cannot tell the company's money from their own. They keep down the +wrong lead until the auditor derails them at the spotter's switch. The +ex-conductor gets hungry, the sympathetic grievance committee, not +knowing what is for its own best interests, intercedes. The +management, dreaming of loyalty in coming strikes, reinstates the +offender. Some young conductor, who, on the strength of his promotion, +has married or bought a home, is set back to braking. This causes some +brakeman to carry the mail to the extra list. He quits in disgust and +another road, less sympathetic, gets the benefit of his training. +Other reinstatements follow and more of the younger men quit. Years go +on, a rush of business comes. The management look in vain for +promotion material and wonder at the seeming ingratitude in quitting +of so many good young men whom it was fully intended to promote--in +the sweet by and by. This is not the experience of one road, but of +many. Let us be just before we are generous. + +Speaking of discharged employes, did you ever happen to be in a +general office with an ex-passenger conductor, discharged for +"unsatisfactory services," but seeking immediate reinstatement; and +have an ex-official, who left the service in first-class standing, +come in and ask for the next official vacancy? The conductor might +succeed, but the official would fall a sacrifice on the shrine of +civil service, a fetich because, in its true meaning, so little +understood. + +I shall string a civil service limited for you on some other time +card. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER VIII. + +EDUCATION OF SEVERAL KINDS. + + +May 8, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--I happened to meet your general manager the other day, +and the way he spoke of the good work you are doing warmed the cockles +of my old heart. He said that you couldn't rest easy until you knew +more about the division than any other man. This, of course, is as it +should be, but it is astonishing how many division superintendents are +satisfied to grope along in the dark. Then some fine day the general +officials come along on an inspection trip and unintentionally make +the superintendent look like thirty cents by the sincere questions +they ask about the division which he is unable to answer. If one's +memory has not been trained by education it is a good thing to +condense information and have it in a notebook in the vest pocket. +Some wise man has said that all education after we are twenty-five +years old consists in knowing where to look for things. + +Another help that school education gives to an official is to broaden +him so that he can use different methods on different properties. +There are three main reasons why officials without much early +education have succeeded and will continue to succeed. The first is +native ability, which remains comparatively undeveloped without the +second, which is opportunity. The third is the good luck to work under +organizers and developers of talent. Training under the right sort of +leaders is an education in itself. The danger of relying on such +training alone is that one may copy too blindly the methods of his +master without being broad enough to realize that the same master +under other conditions of territory would adopt radically different +methods. This is the reason why there are so many failures when a new +man takes a crowd of his followers to reorganize a property. If all +succeed, very well, but if one fails the most of the bunch go tumbling +down like a row of blocks. + +Again, the educated man from his knowledge of history is less likely +to forget that what may go in fifteen-year-old Oklahoma will receive +the icy mitt and the marble heart in three-hundred-year-old Virginia. +Triples that are O.K. in cavalier South Carolina may be too quick +acting in puritan Massachusetts. Commercialism, like patriotism, rests +on certain fundamental principles. The application of these principles +may be as uniform as a train of system cars; it may be as diverse as +the cars in a train of a connecting line. Orthodoxy is usually my +doxy. + +The rough and ready efficiency of the West, which has developed a vast +domain, has won the praise of the world. Our rough and ready brethren +are finding that, as society rapidly becomes more highly organized, +this old-time efficiency must be supplemented with technical +education. So you find your self-made magnate giving his sons college +educations. The only regrettable part is that to make it easy the old +man raises the low joints for the boys and they do not always get +bumpings enough to test their equipment thoroughly. Time will correct +this, and more college men, more presidents' sons, will fire, will +switch, will brake, will become men behind cars as well as men behind +desks. It is not only what you know, but what you make people believe +you know, that counts in this little game of life. The American people +never go back on a man who puts aside birth or education and stakes +his all upon his manhood; who is willing to share the dangers and the +hardships of his calling. Our military men have long since learned +this lesson, and the son of the general must do the same guard duty, +make the same marches, dig the same trenches, and face the same +bullets as his fellows. His father knows that for it to be otherwise +would be to handicap the son by the contempt of his comrades. Like the +Spartan mother, he says: "My son, return with your shield or upon it." + +Did you ever consider how uncertain a quantity is opportunity, as +inscrutable as the ways of Providence? In all ages and in all callings +it has been one of the numerous mysteries that make life so +attractive. There is many a veteran conductor, many a gray-haired +station agent, who, if he could have had the chance to start, would +have become a general manager. Some men have to go to another road to +be fully appreciated. When a man is young he is criticized if he +changes roads. When he is older his services are sought because of his +varied experience with different roads. Human nature is prone to limit +the length of everybody's train to the capacity of its own sidetracks. + +In the spring of 1861 there went from his tannery at Galena to the +capital of Illinois an ex-officer, a professional soldier, whose +gallantry and efficiency had stood the tests of the war with Mexico. +Springfield was filled with commission seekers, natives of the State, +and Illinois, like some railroads, did not wish to go off her own +rails for talent. She needed trained clerks to make out muster rolls, +to book wheel reports in the yard office, as it were. This humble +employment the silent soldier accepted with better grace than has +characterized some former railway officials under similar +circumstances. The opportunity came in the shape of a mutinous +regiment, which, like a mountain division, was hard to handle. Three +years later the clerk had run around all the officers, was commanding +all the armies of the Union, and the world rang with the military fame +of Ulysses S. Grant. Strange indeed is opportunity. Some successful +railroad men owe their official start to the seeming bad luck of being +let out as an employe. + +Your general manager said that he had read some of my letters to you; +threw me a warm jolly by remarking that you are a credit to such +teaching. Then he confessed that he had asked the son if the old man +always practices what he preaches. I am pleased to know from his own +lips that you uncovered his headlight on that point. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER IX. + +CORRESPONDENCE AND TELEGRAMS. + + +May 15, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--You have asked me to say something more on the subject +of correspondence and telegrams. In these days of push the button for +the stenographer, letters and telegrams are longer than when the +officials themselves wrote out communications in long-hand. It +therefore usually remains for employes like yardmasters, conductors +and operators to preserve the good old terse style of the past. Some +of them send messages that are models of comprehensiveness and +brevity. When you run across a man who is an artist in that sort of +thing keep an eye on him. The chances are that he uses the same good +judgment in all of his work; that he accomplishes the greatest +possible amount with the least possible effort; that he takes +advantage of the easiest and best way; that he has the prime +requisites of a coming official, namely, a cool head and horse sense. + +Of course, the matter of terseness can be run into the ground. +Clearness should not be sacrificed to brevity. There is a happy medium +between the off agin, on agin, gone agin, Finnegan, of the Irish +section foreman and the regretsky to reportsky of the Russian general. +The point to be gained is to avoid repetition and unnecessary words. +When wiring your office that you will go east on Number Two, the word +east is superfluous for the reason that on your road Number Two can +not possibly run west. For years in our train orders we used the +phrase, right of track. Then somebody was bright enough to think that +as Stonewall Jackson is no longer hauling locomotives from one line to +another over the Valley turnpike in Virginia, the words "of track" +might be cut out. Similar amputations have been made in the morning +delay reports of many roads. + +Human nature is so prone to grasp at the shadow rather than the +substance that men cling to words rather than to ideas. When you have +written a bulletin directing something to be done, do not discount +your faith in its effect by the introduction of our good old friend, +"Be Governed Accordingly." We get in the habit of doing a thing simply +because we have always seen it done and know no other way. We paint on +the sides of our cars such unnecessary words as baggage, chair, +dining, parlor, furniture, stock, etc., etc., just as though these +cars were never used for anything else; just as though the words +really served some useful purpose. The people who do not know the +different kinds of cars are beyond the reach of instruction through +such information. You have heard of the man who entered the dining car +by mistake and asked, "Is this the smoking car?" Whereupon a waiter +grinned and replied, "No, suh, this is the chewin' cah." The Pullman +people years ago discontinued the use of the words "sleeping car" on +their equipment. It is not of record that the voices of the car +inspectors and the switchmen on the outside have awakened any more +passengers than usual on account of such omission. + +We borrowed from the army and the navy the idea of uniforms for +employes, brass buttons, gold lace and all. Lately soldiers and +sailors are wearing plainer, simpler service uniforms. We, however, +have not taken a tumble, perhaps because no one has hit us with a +club, or run into our switch shanty and knocked it off the right of +way. The cap is the essential feature of a trainman's uniform. He +doesn't exactly talk through it, but its badge and ornaments identify +his responsibilities and proclaim his authority. Add to the cap a +plain blue uniform suit with the detachable black buttons the tailor +furnishes, and you have a very satisfactory result. The cap then +becomes the only difference between the costume for the road and that +for the street. Where tried, it has been found that men wore their +best suits on duty and on the street, and kept their worn and shabby +suits to wear around home. At present on nearly all roads, as the +uniform is too conspicuous to be worn off duty, the men are tempted to +defer buying a new uniform until the old becomes very shabby. It has +been found that freight crews are easily induced to take advantage of +the contract price to buy such plain uniforms for street wear. Such +freight crews can be provided with extra caps from the office in +emergencies and be utilized to advantage; sometimes reducing the +amount of deadhead mileage in making special one-way passenger +movements. The street railway of at least one large city has tried +this system of plain uniforms with excellent results. Why should the +most of us be so timid that we must have a precedent before we can +endorse a proposed plan? Like a successful after-dinner speaker, I am +responding to the toast on expression by talking about other things. + +In writing important letters or instructions it often pays to take the +time to sit down and make a rough draft with a lead pencil. If you +have the dictation habit so firmly fixed that this is irksome, revise +the first draft made by the stenographer. Except when writing in the +familiar style, the third person should be used rather than the first +or second. The use of the second person should be carefully avoided in +formulating general instructions; its use in special instructions to a +few individuals is sometimes, but rarely, permissible. In writing or +dictating telegrams figure roughly what the message would cost the +company for transmission at commercial rates, and its probable +reduction if the price per extra word came out of your own pocket. As +far as possible avoid letting your initials become cheap by being used +by too many people. If the management do not disapprove, encourage your +subordinates to do routine business over their own initials or over +symbols, as S. for superintendent (G.S. for general superintendent, +and so on), so that when your initials come over the wire they will +indicate personal attention and final action. This, too, has been +tried successfully in contravention of the fallacy that unquestioning +obedience must be rendered even when it is known that the official's +initials have been signed by the office boy. It may be remarked in +passing, that appreciation and fame await the individual who will be +able to coin some short and expressive words to replace such awkward +and cumbrous designations as superintendent of motive power, engineer +maintenance of way, assistant to the first vice-president, etc., etc. + +Did you ever think how desirable and practicable it would be to adopt +the Government method of addressing the office instead of the +incumbent by name? We do this with train orders, and usually in +addressing station agents. We should also address "The Superintendent, +Getthere Division, Suchtown, Somestate," and not use his name unless +it is intended as personal and to be opened by him alone. + +In all correspondence remember that a reprimand, expressed or implied, +may be taken in a very different sense by the recipient from that +intended by the sender. Your old dad has maintained satisfactory +discipline among quite a bunch of men on more than one trunk line +without ever writing a letter of reprimand or sending a hot message +over the wire. The advice of the famous politician to walk ten miles +to see a man rather than write him a letter is paraphrased for our +business to mean rawhide yourself fifty or a hundred miles over the +road to jack up a man rather than play him a tune on the typewriter. +Another useful injunction is that of a famous soldier and diplomat, +"Never underrate yourself in action; never overrate yourself in a +report." + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER X. + +THE BAYONET PRECEDES THE GOSPEL. + + +May 22, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--The evolution of the relative importance of the several +departments in railroad work is an interesting study. The early +railroads were short and usually had for president the most important +man of affairs in the community, a banker, a lawyer, a publicist, a +what-not. Frequently this man could not give his whole time to the +road and he leaned heavily upon his superintendent, who, perhaps, had +been the engineer in charge of construction. The superintendent of the +early days was general manager on a small scale, and with limited +facilities had to be a man fertile in resources. The superintendent of +to-day is a better man, because the race improves all the time, but he +performs duties of a decidedly different nature. It is idle to +speculate as to just what he would do under primitive conditions. A +return to such circumstances is impossible. We know that in a pinch +our railway officials and employes, as a class, are never found +wanting. They will measure up to standard in the future as they have +in the past. One fact they must never forget is that, like soldiers +and sailors, their faculties must be so alert, their grasp so +comprehensive, that they will not get lost when the fortunes of the +service bring them into strange territory. The pace is too swift to +admit of standing still to get one's bearings. + +There were few officials and the conductors were very important +personages. When the superintendent needed an assistant it was natural +to take a conductor who helped around the office, ran the pay car and +specials, and made himself generally useful. Later on, train +dispatching developed splendid tests of executive ability and the +official staff was recruited by promotions from dispatchers. Still +later, the growing importance of terminal problems gave yardmasters a +chance for recognition and advancement. + +As West Point was the nursery of the early constructing engineers, +many of the early roads were built and operated by military men, whose +impress in railway methods has survived to this day. When the civil +war was over the railroads gained for their service thousands of men +whose ability had stood the stern test of camp and battle, men who +could meet unexpected conditions. These men bore the brunt in the +wonderful railroad development that secured forever the commercial +greatness of our country. The value of military methods was +appreciated by them and almost unconsciously such methods were copied +in organization, in discipline, in correspondence. One reason the +great Pennsylvania organization is so strong and successful is the +training some of its embryo high officials received in the military +railway bureau of the War Department during the great conflict. The +bayonet always precedes the gospel. When the military have cleared the +wilderness of the savage foe the railroad brings a permanent +civilization. Witness the marvelous growth of the great West during +the last forty years. + +A majority of the railroads in the country at some time or other +passed through a receivership. Here came a chance for legal men, and +after reorganizations lawyer presidents have not been uncommon. At the +next stage of development many railroads had been built and systems +were growing larger. The civil engineer, who in earlier years would +have become the president or chief operating official, was now taken +care of in a newly necessitated department, that of maintenance and +construction, sufficiently important to attract his talents. Following +this period competition was keen; it was a struggle for existence. The +man who could get the business was IT. The traffic man had his inning +and, if not president, dictated policies and the amount of his own +salary and perquisites. With the growth of the community of interest +idea the traffic man is just as important; but he is no longer +wreckmaster, and the transportation man is up under the lime light +near the derrick car. Between the different dynasties of departments +the transportation man, like the rock of ages, is always the standby +and always will be. The other departments come and go in relative +importance, but the transportation never shuts off, and is there with +the sand when the others unload from the gangway. + +The revolution in standards of power and equipment incident to recent +years of tractive units and ton-mile costs has brought the mechanical +man prominently in front of the headlight. Fortunately for himself and +for the service in general he has not dodged the rays when anyone +cared to read figures, and the way to higher executive positions has +not been left dark for him. The pendulum is already coming back toward +the transportation man. Whether the next swing will be toward the +signal engineer or toward the electrician it is hard to say. + +The lesson a superintendent should learn from all this is that he has +more and more superiors to please, more and more fads to follow, more +and more improvements to develop, more and more different points of +view to reconcile. He must merge his own importance, his likes and +dislikes in the great corporation with which he has cast his lot. If +his superiors spell traveler with two l's or labor with a u, let him +do likewise. By so yielding he is not losing any manhood. He is +winning a victory over the crotchety part of his individuality and +leaving room for its development along broader lines. He that ruleth +his spirit is greater than he that taketh a city. As no man can take a +city or do any great work unaided he must learn first to rule his own +spirit in order that he may rule others and gain their heartiest +co-operation. The superintendent who is habitually calm and polite, +however great the provocation to speak angrily, will soon find that if +he is firm and just his men are worrying even more than he lest things +go wrong on the division. + +In the matter of discipline there has been a great change in sentiment +and in method. Whether or not it is all advisable is very much of a +question. There are too many collisions in proportion to the +improvement in material and personnel. In the old days the crew at +fault, whether they actually got together or not, were discharged and +forever barred off the road. Nowadays we are apt to give them another +trial on the theory that we are immune from future mistakes on their +part. This may or may not be so, but how about the effect on others in +the service? How about the men who are thereby entitled to promotion? +Is not a failure to make an example of such offenders holding life and +property too cheap? We may pity the unfortunate blunderers, just as we +may pity a drunkard or a thief, but their usefulness to us should be +over. They may start in again, but it must be on some other road. Our +duty to the public and to our stockholders demands that the safety of +a train should be sacred. One of the most absurd conclusions is to +measure the punishment by the amount of damage, according to how +straight the track happened to be, according to how hard they happened +to hit. Some railroad sins can be forgiven, but drunkenness, chronic +or periodic; stealing, money or property; and collisions, actual or +constructive, should be unpardonable on any road, however thoroughly +they may be blotted out elsewhere. Less sentiment and more discharges +will mean fewer collisions. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER XI. + +PREVENTING WRECKS BEFORE THEY HAPPEN. + + +May 29, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--An able and successful general manager--not all able men +and not all general managers are successful--recently called attention +to a most important distinction in the training and practice of +superintendents. He says that too much stress is laid upon the +development of ability to locate responsibility after a wreck occurs, +and not enough upon the quality of controlling circumstances, of +cultivating precautionary habits that will prevent disaster. As he +aptly puts it, the superintendent should be a doctor, a health +officer, rather than a coroner; his staff a sanitary commission, a +board of health to prevent disease rather than a jury to determine its +causes and effects. Some superintendents pride themselves on their +legal acumen, their ability to cross-examine, and on the way they can +catch a crew trying to lie out of a mix-up. This is all very well if +it does not obscure the main object, namely, to minimize disaster in +the future. The investigation serves, perhaps, to determine what men +to discipline and discharge as an example to others in the service. It +should also serve as a lesson in official methods. However thorough +and searching, it cannot restore life or return property. The damage +has been done. All the king's horses and all the king's men cannot put +Humpty-Dumpty together again. + +Some of your men every day will give you the old hot air, "As long as +there are railroads there will be wrecks." To which you should hand +back the stereotyped reply, "Very true, but let's figure on letting +the other fellow have them." A discreet remark or suggestion that will +put a man to thinking for himself is one of the secrets of success in +handling men. Never miss an opportunity to make the point that wrecks +seldom occur from the neglect of any one man. It is when two or more +forget at the same time or fall down together that trouble results. +Impress on the brakeman the fact that the very stop he neglects to +flag is the time when the operator is most likely to let two trains in +the same block. Remind your conductor that when he fails to read the +orders to the engineman in person and sends them forward by the porter +or the head brakeman, that is the very trip the orders get torn or +smeared so that a fatal mistake results. When a passenger train breaks +in two the air usually sets on both portions. It fails to do so when +bums or misplaced safety chains have turned the angle cocks; and that +is the time there should be a trainman riding in the rear car. Men +will tell you so and so cannot happen, but next week it does happen +just the same. The whistle hose and the brake hose cannot be coupled +together because the connections are purposely made of a different +pattern. A green apprentice coupling an engine to a tender at a +roundhouse managed to pound together the couplings of the wrong pairs +of hose, which the engine inspector had failed to notice were badly +worn. That was the day the car inspectors neglected to try the signal +and the air before the train left the terminal. By a strange fatality +the conductor trusted the car men for the station test. The engineman +was too busy to make a running test. They all got wise when the air +wouldn't work at the first railroad crossing. Watch the inspectors to +see that they do not form the lazy habit of giving the signal to try +the air from the next to the last car, of walking only half the length +of the train to see the pistons and the brakeshoes. Never wink at an +irregularity of that sort. It will come back to plague you a +hundredfold. Go right after it quietly, but promptly and effectually. +Do not wait for disaster or for investigation by your superiors to +tell you that a loose practice prevails. Get such information with +your own senses or from observations of your staff. + +It is vigilance, eternal vigilance, that is the price of safety. Teach +your men that a hundred successes do not justify an avoidable failure, +that twenty years of faithful service cannot condone criminal +carelessness. A fundamental is that when backing up there should +always be a man on the rear end. Educate your men to feel that neglect +of this wise precaution is just as mortifying as to appear in public +without clothes. In shoving long cuts of cars without using air, get +your brakemen and switchmen to feel a pride in setting a hand brake on +the end car to take the slack and save the jerk on the drawbars. Work +for the old-time feeling of chagrin that came to the calloused-armed +passenger brakeman, in the days of Armstrong brakes, when he did not +go after them soon enough and let his train run by the station. The +men are not to blame for this loss of pride and interest. We, the +officials, are at fault. We have not kept ahead of the game. We have +been coroners, not sanitary inspectors. + +If an engine is waiting at a hand derail or at a crossover for a +train, neither switch should be thrown until the train has passed. +Then, if the throttle happens to fly open at just the wrong moment, +the train will not be sideswiped. If not trained, your switchmen will +throw every switch possible beforehand so as to be ready. They may +think such precautions are old womanish, but the time will come when +your wisdom will be vindicated. If a train is waiting for a +connection, with a siding switch in rear, the facing point switch +should be opened, so that if the incoming man loses his air or +misjudges distances the train will not be hit. Similarly a flagman +going back to protect a train between switches should open the siding +switch as he passes it. The switch is more effectual than a torpedo, +and if a following train happens to get by him and his torpedoes his +own train will not be hit. He should flag just the same, because a +train entering the open switch too fast might turn over. It is better +to take a chance on a derailment than on a collision. It is better +still to have such training, vigilance and discipline that there will +be little chance of either disaster. + +Train your men to do things because they are right, because it is +manly to do good railroading. Then, when you hold an investigation you +will not find at the moment the accident happened that the engineman +was priming his injector, the fireman putting in a fire, the head +brakeman shoveling down coal, the conductor sorting his bills, and the +hind man starting to boil coffee for supper. + +There is hardly a conductor or an engineman of any length of service +who has not at some time overlooked an order or a train. When he has +forgotten, his partner has remembered. The trouble has come, bad luck, +they call it, when they both forgot. Many a $50 operator has saved the +job of a $150 engineman. Keep your men keyed up to the idea that this +is too uncertain; that each must watch his own job, that in so doing +he may keep his comrade out of the hole, that by conscientious +vigilance he becomes a better man and more of a credit to his calling. +No man wilfully courts danger to life and property. His failures are +an accompaniment, a concomitant they call it in logic, of officials +being better coroners than they are doctors. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER XII. + +THE SELF-MADE MAN WHO WORSHIPS HIS MAKER. + + +June 5, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--I once heard General Sheridan, my old commander, say +that when he was a lieutenant he made up his mind to be the best +lieutenant in his regiment; that in every grade to which promotion +brought him he strove to be the best; that he attributed his high rank +to this consistent effort. Right here is a moral that many a railroad +man should apply to himself. Although Sheridan's comrades at West +Point and in the service knew his efficiency, the powers that were in +1861 found no higher position for him than that of captain and +assistant quartermaster. During the first year of the civil war, while +politicians were called colonels and lawyers tried to be generals, +this trained soldier was inspecting horses and mules in the Southwest, +a veterinary's work. Some men, disheartened by such apparent +inappreciation, would have lost interest, would have let the +contractor palm off inferior animals on the government. Not so with +the future commander of the army. He tried all the harder and his work +was efficient, clean and honest. In the spring of 1862 a Michigan +cavalry regiment needed a colonel and the officer hailing from Ohio, +who had bought horses so well, had a chance to drill both horses and +men. A year and a half later he was commanding a division of infantry, +and six months after that as major general a corps of cavalry. Popular +opinion pictures Sheridan as a dashing fighter, executing the plans of +some one else. Never was there a more incomplete conception. No matter +how hard had been the fighting, how wearing the march, it was Sheridan +who rose in the night to see that the sleeping camp or bivouac did not +suffer from laxity in guard duty, that all was ready for the plans of +the morrow. The general manager did not have to tell him that the +switch lamps on his division were not burning. The general +superintendent did not have to wire him that his water cranes were out +of order. The superintendent of motive power did not have to complain +that his enginemen were not kept in line. The traffic manager did not +lose freight because his night terminals became congested. + +There is many a railroad man who has lost heart and lessened his +usefulness because an honest but inappreciative management has +promoted the wrong man. Then is the time to come out strong, to try +harder than before to be appreciated. The world has little use for +soreheads. The more strenuous the conditions the less sympathy for the +sulker in the tent. Be game and do not kick for rest. The sleeve is no +place to wear a wounded heart. Do not put up a squeal about nepotism. +As long as man loves woman and that woman's children the relatives of +the management will always be the easiest for the promotion call-boy +to find. Remember that though they be marked up first out, there are +other runs to be filled; that sooner or later there are chances for +more crews to get out. If you find flaws in the reasons announced for +certain appointments, forget them in the thought that honesty of +purpose is a distinguishing characteristic of operating management. +Not only look pleasant but head off the efforts of foolish friends to +form a volunteer grievance committee in your behalf. + +Assuming that you are trying to be the best division superintendent, +remember that in the final roundup it is not your own ideas of success +that must prevail. You may know that you are stronger and better than +the official who gets the preferred run. You may know that it would be +best for the company to have you run around him. All the men on the +division may unconsciously feel your superior ability. They may all +swear by you and make your name almost sacred around the lunch counter +and the caboose track. All this will not count for full value if you +do not please your superiors. When the general manager comes on your +division you must be ready for any kind of a statistical run. He has +not time to wait for you to oil around. His every hour is valuable and +like all busy men he forms his opinions in a hurry. Remember that +until we know men intimately we judge them by standards more or less +artificial, but usually pretty accurate in the aggregate. Thus a man +who is careless and untidy in his dress is apt to overlook little +essentials in the management of men and affairs. The dandy is almost +never a coward; for, if physical courage be lacking, his pride +supplies its place. The superintendent whose desk is in confusion +probably has untidy stations and dirty coaches. The man who slouches +coatless into his superior's office and sprawls into a chair before +being invited to sit down is likely to be equally inconsiderate of the +public his company serves. The tobacco lover who cannot refrain from +smoking or chewing the few minutes he is close to the throne will +probably not inherit much of the kingdom of advancement. The man who +clings to the George Washington habit of eating with his knife and the +Thomas Jefferson custom of drinking from his saucer has the burden of +proof on him to show that he is not unobservant of progress in other +things and is not generally behind the times. The self-made man in so +many cases worships his maker that he forgets the divinity that doth +hedge a king. The man above may be no better, perhaps not as good, +morally, mentally, physically and socially, but officially he is the +superior in fact as well as in name. Familiarity breeds contempt and +the more respect you show your superior the more dignity you are +conferring upon yourself, the less likely are your own subordinates to +forget the respect that is due your position. Self-restraint and +mental poise cultivate an unconscious dignity of character that is of +immeasurable value in the handling of men. Abraham Lincoln and Robert +E. Lee, men of radically different types but alike in being idolized +by their people, were popular heroes, although neither was addressed, +even by his intimates, by his first name. The highest compliment you +can pay an associate or a subordinate is to address him in private by +his first name. It shows either that you have known him a long time or +that you think enough of him to separate him from his payroll +designation. + +One of the amiable failings of human nature is to be self-satisfied, a +condition that in our profession is probably intensified. We railroad +men have to think and act in such a hurry that we become very cocksure +of ourselves. We have so little time for introspection that we often +regard the science of railroading as putting it on the other fellow. +When disaster occurs, no matter how defective may have been our +equipment, how parsimonious our policy, how lax our discipline, we cry +out long and loud at the untrustworthiness of employes, at the +decadence of company spirit, at the growing evils of the labor unions. +An intelligent public usually gets on to us, however, and we pay for +such mental and vocal pyrotechnics with compound interest. It will +profit us to do a little more self-examination, to copy the publican +rather than the pharisee. The conductor who burns off journals will +assure us of his distinguished concern and of his constant injunctions +to his brakemen to watch for hot boxes. The superintendent who +rawhides his men will tell you with tears in his voice how necessary +it is to be considerate of the boys on the road. The general +superintendent who sends long and unnecessary telegrams will deplore +with you the tendency of the traffic department to burden the wires. +All these are good men and true, but they have not formed the habit of +healthy, honest self-criticism. Strong, indeed, is the man who can +stand up and say, like Lee at Gettysburg, "I was in command and +responsible. If anyone is to blame I am the man." + +The greatest of executives are those who can make men think for +themselves, who can work men and have them believe they are playing, +who can suggest a new thought to a man and leave him with the idea +that he originated it himself. A great deal of effort is lost, a vast +amount of mental force is wasted in trying to convince people that you +alone originated an idea or a movement. Bury such a thought in the +results produced, for it is results we are after. Get your +satisfaction in said results and your amusement in the honest +self-glorification of some unconscious borrower who has utilized your +idea. It doesn't pay to be too much of an originator. If you have +advanced ideas, keep yourself in the background or you may kill the +ideas. Men find the old alignment so familiar that they are slow to +want curves replaced by tangents. If you are too ubiquitous with +suggestions they will become leery of your good judgment and will +unconsciously set the fish tail when you whistle into town. If you +will run past the distant signal and find your superior at the home, +some of the best stops for the suggestion derail are: "You doubtless +have considered the advisability of thus and so;" or, "I assume you +are not quite ready to decide the question of hit or miss;" or, "As +you were saying the other day, we are losing money by deadheading +crews;" or, "I hope you will be able to carry out your idea of +introducing train staffs;" or, "On further consideration, do you care +to recommend adopting lap sidings for the new extension?" etc. Of +course this kind of a sand valve must not be opened too wide or too +often or some of the soft soap will get on the detector bar and +violate the interlocking rules. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER XIII. + +THE FRIEND-MILE AS A UNIT OF MEASURE. + + +June 12, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--Your chief dispatcher blew through here the other day on +his vacation and dropped in to pay his respects. He rather apologized +for so doing, as he seemed to think it might be considered an +intrusion to call on a stranger. I took it as a compliment to myself +and as a mark of his loyalty to you. It is so easy for us old fellows +to forget that we were once junior officials ourselves that I rather +like to keep in touch with those who are to come after and maintain +the time-honored standards of the profession. I never like to say very +much about my desire to acquire information from everyone I meet, for +experience has made me a little leery of the man who whistles too long +for that station. He is apt to toot his own horn so much that he +doesn't hear the other fellow's signals. So I tried not to do all the +talking, and did not tell my guest of the great improvements I had +made since I came to this position. I preferred to let him hear that +from someone else. If one should take too literally the talk of the +officials on whom he calls he would wonder how the road ever ran +before each held down his particular job; how there can possibly be +any improvement made by those who come after. No, I do not advocate +hiding one's light under a bucket in the cab all the time--only when +running. + +The world is getting to place more and more confidence in the man who +thinks out loud. It trusts him because he is not doubtful of himself. +The stunt of looking wise and not expressing an opinion when a +suggestion is made is no longer popular. A non-committal promise to +look into the matter may be construed as a mask for ignorance or +timidity. The more a man knows the more frankly he acknowledges that a +certain idea is new to him. Men to whom talking and writing do not +come easy sometimes say beware of the windy man, but there are some +mighty efficient railroaders who act and perform all the better for +being able to handle words. Hot air is all right if properly +compressed. The idle breeze dries the ground and runs windmills. Sand +bites the rail in more economical quantities when fed down by the +pneumatic attachment. Every division has its Windy Bill, its +Chattering Charlie, its Gasbag George; but some way, when they are on +the road you always feel safe. They may work a con game on some of the +agents and dispatchers, but they get over the road with the local. You +feel good when you meet them. The man you want to run from is Calamity +Jake, who always has a tale of woe as long as a gravel train. His +caboose rides rough; its stove smokes; the caller doesn't give him +time enough for his wife to cook breakfast; the yardmaster saves all +the shop cripples for his train; he can't trust the ignorant +engineers; the brakemen are all farmers, and the signal oil won't +burn. If you tell him that's all right, that you will try and correct +all these things when the car accountant's office stops kicking on his +wheel reports, he will look at you in sympathetic sadness and bewail +the modern tendency to make clerks of conductors. + +Your chief dispatcher is a fine fellow and understands the art of +getting away. He didn't wear out his welcome but broke away while +making a good impression. You have to unlock the switch for some men +before they can couple their crossings and get out of town. The +dispatcher has to send the operator outside with a clearance. +Acquaintance is one of a young man's most valuable assets, and a two +minutes' interview may grade the way for a lifelong run. Before the +world was as good as it is now, men rather prided themselves on the +number of enemies they had made. Nowadays the friend mile is a more +desirable unit of measure. + +Washington Irving puts it very prettily where he says, "for who is +there among us who does not like now and then to play the sage?" So I +felt rather flattered when your chief dispatcher asked me for advice +as to what to study in order to get on in the railway world. I told +him first of all to read every bit of company literature that he could +get hold of; not to skim through a part of the pamphlet on +refrigerator cars and guess at the rest. A table of freight rates may +become interesting if properly approached. Do not try to memorize data +and statistics, but rather plod through them at least once with a view +to trying to master the principles that govern. Life is very full in +this twentieth century, but, broadly speaking, it is still possible to +know something of everything as well as everything of something. The +day is coming when we will not entrust a man with the important duties +and the great responsibilities of a division superintendent until we +have given him a brief course in every department. We examine a man +before we let him run an engine, but how about the man who runs him? A +superintendent should know enough about an engine to handle the +enginemen just as he does the trainmen. When we have men successfully +running engines who can barely read and write, it is a mistake to +claim that a locomotive is such a sacred mystery that only the +mechanical department can judge whether or not it is properly handled. +Enginemen are transportation men, and the time that master mechanics +put in assigning crews, keeping an age book, and otherwise duplicating +the superintendent's work might a great deal better be given to the +back shop. The yardmaster has one caller and the roundhouse foreman +another. The two callers go up the same street, sometimes together, +and call men in adjoining houses, an expensive duplication of work. +The trainmaster rides in the caboose and the traveling engineer--road +foreman is the modern term--in the engine, but neither dares presume +to know the business of the other. Every trainmaster should be a +traveling engineer and every traveling engineer should be a +trainmaster. That will be the case when we train officials along more +definite lines. Honey bees feed their future queen a special food. No, +I would not decrease the number of officials, if anything I would +increase it. I would not, however, let every official created have a +chief clerk and a stenographer. I would make it impossible for him to +yield to the temptation to add a bureau of records to the amount of +useless information already on file. I wouldn't lose my nerve if now +and then a set of ancient papers got lost, for with less red tape +quicker action would result and little would get away. The first time +the trainmaster had to wait an hour or two before he could dictate a +letter in the superintendent's office, or could use a stenographer in +his own office, he would beef for a separate establishment. If more +help should be needed, which would be very doubtful, put it on, but do +not limit its usefulness to any one official. With a proper, +responsible head it is entirely feasible to carry the community of +interest idea into office organization. If the division engineer is +under the superintendent, why, in sending papers into the next room to +him, write a letter and burden your files with the carbon of the +stereotyped, "Kindly note next attached and take necessary action?" Is +not his office a part of the superintendent's? Have you not the same +right to papers there that you have to those in the office of the +chief dispatcher? Why not go even further and have one chief clerk and +one set of records for the whole outfit, just as an assistant +superintendent can handle a part of the work without having a separate +force? If you ever rearrange an office building, fix it so that the +casual visitor waiting to see the boss will not learn state secrets by +hearing the chief clerk dictate letters. + +A number of roads have tried the experiment of putting the enginemen +and the roundhousemen solely under the superintendent, and of +confining the master mechanic to his proper function of running the +shops. It has usually failed; not on account of inherent weakness as a +system, but because the superintendent didn't superintend, and found +it too convenient to try to shift the responsibility to the mechanical +department. Reform has to begin at the top, and if the division is to +be the unit the superintendent must be something more than a +high-class chief dispatcher finding flaws in train sheets. It is not +enough for him to be a star division engineer, a boss yardmaster. He +must remember that his holding of any of these positions is ancient +history, not to be forgotten, because valuable and instructive, but +nevertheless a thing of the past. As the yardmaster and the dispatcher +must scatter their trains, so the superintendent must keep his staff +doing different things. He must avoid having two men doing the same +thing. If it is better to call the roundhouse foreman a master +mechanic and invent a title for the man behind the back shop, let us +do so; but by all means avoid working the master mechanic at present +as foreman, head caller, road timekeeper and roundhouse clerk. The +superintendent can boss all these jobs, and transportation, including +its operating attributes, must focus at his office. It is not the +superintendent who works the most hours who is the most successful. It +is he who puts in the best licks at the right time, night or day, and +with the right man or men. + +I told your chief dispatcher that a knowledge of law is as important +to a real superintendent as a knowledge of telegraphy. I advised him +to give himself the pleasure of reading Cooky's edition of Blackstone, +which, if taken in homeopathic doses, is one of the clearest things in +the language. Every superintendent gets to be more or less of a +lawyer. It should not be necessary to refer every little fire or stock +claim to the legal department for some of its students to render a +profound opinion upon a matter of common sense. It is so easy to +follow the line of least resistance that we too often evade +responsibility by throwing up our hands and saying that such and such +is a legal question, a mechanical matter, or a traffic problem. We +gracefully pass it up to the other fellow, and think we are in to +clear when an investigation happens to come. By and by, oblivious of +the relation between cause and effect, we deplore the curtailment of +our authority and inveigh against centralization. + +I had some other ideas to set out for you, but we have drifted so near +the switch that there is not room enough to make a drop of the +caboose. So I shall either pull the whole train into the yard or get +permission from the yardmaster to cut off on the main, and like an +orthodox conductor, leave them for the night men to switch out. We +conductors feel that, as a switch engine lies around the most of the +time, it can always do at least one more job, besides having time to +shove us out of the yard and over the hill. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER XIV. + +THE MANAGEMENT THAT BREEDS FROM ITS OWN HERD. + + +June 19, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--History repeats itself, and railroad history is made so +fast that we repeat ourselves very often. Mankind absorbs a certain +amount from the experience of others. In spite of the much good that +comes, the same old fallacies are followed, the same old blunders are +made. Within the last fifty years every road in the country, at some +time or other, has undergone at least one reorganization and a +corresponding radical change in personnel. Always, after several new +camels get their heads under the tent, comes a newspaper +pronunciamento that thereafter the management will breed from its own +herd. This inbreeding invariably leads ultimately to narrowness if not +to deterioration. The cousins intermarry too often and ere long the +road is breeding its own scrubs. + +Within the last five years every road in the country has gone outside +its own ranks for official talent. The oldest roads have had only a +few Leonard Woods and Fred Funstons, a president here, a +vice-president there. Other roads have changed officials so fast that +one is reminded of the traveler sojourning in Paris during the French +Revolution. He instructed his servant to tell him every morning what +the weather was, that he might know how to dress himself, and what the +government was, that he might know how to conduct himself. What then +of our boasted civil service; of the wonderful administrative machines +we build up and find wanting? Is the principle wrong or is its +application faulty? The earnest efforts of able men, crowned by many +partial successes, are sufficient guarantee of honesty of purpose, of +the necessity for something of the sort that has been attempted. He +who criticises, be he ever so honest, must suggest a practical remedy +or he soon descends from the level of the critic to that of the +demagogue or the common scold. + +Our trouble seems to be, not with civil service as an abstract +proposition, but with the type we have been getting. It is about Z-99 +as compared with the real thing. It has too many flat wheels to run +smoothly. It must be jacked up high enough for new trucks and a +stronger kingbolt. True civil service presupposes maximum care in +original selection. It doesn't mean that we shall wait until the grain +and the coal begin to move before we figure on more crews. It rather +contemplates having available firemen in wipers, and willing brakemen +in clerks. Every superintendent believes that he is the best judge of +men on the pike. On every system are probably men who can give him +cards and spades, picked coal and treated water, and then outclass him +on such a run. If we leave the hiring to the different trainmasters, +master mechanics, or agents, we may have mostly the Irish on one +division, mostly the Dutch on another. If we are going into this civil +service business and are taking men, like Federal judges, for life or +during good behavior, let's have a long list of waiting eligibles +recruited for each division. Let's send around periodically a car with +an examining board from central headquarters to size up the talent +recommended by local officials. Put experienced officials, a surgeon +and an oculist on the committee. Show your trainmaster that men who +make it a business have more time than he to keep dudes and cigarette +smokers off the runboard and the payroll; that the former have broader +opportunities than he to develop a high standard of requirements. Let +the committee encourage men already employed to demonstrate their +fitness for transfer to other departments or to heavier divisions. +Let's change ends with our rail and put it where it will do the most +good. The employment bureau, the recruiting office, or the civil +service commission becomes a necessity to every large organization. +Some roads have made a start in this direction, but it is only a +start. To work out the problem will cost us money. Yes, but less than +we are being forced to pay by some of the labor contracts we have had +to sign. It is not only more graceful, it is less expensive, this +leading instead of being driven. + +The great trouble seems to be in this matter of civil service that we +have tried to accomplish too much in too short a time. An industry +whose existence does not antedate the memory of men still living +cannot hope to have struck the best methods already. Yet it can be too +cautious in building Chinese walls around its organization. What we +have been striving for is to cultivate a company spirit, to improve +the efficiency of the service. We have felt that the way to do this is +to make our men feel secure in their positions, to have them convinced +that the shakeup made by our advent is the last they will ever +experience. Have we not chased this rainbow long enough? Should we not +back up and draw some of the spikes we have put in the connection +switches? It is one thing to sit in an office and figure that the +importation of this one man ought not to make anybody uneasy. It is +quite another to make the thousands of men along the road believe that +we can stick to the original package. Blood is thicker than water and +the new man will have his relatives and his followers or the followers +of his friends. If he is too thin-skinned, fear of criticism may +prevent his bringing in some new talent that would be of real benefit +to his road. He is blamed if he does and blamed if he doesn't. +Whichever course he pursues there remains, in greater or less degree, +that uncertainty which is so demoralizing. Remove this uncertainty, +let men know definitely what to expect, and you are over the hill and +closer to the terminal. + +The old-fashioned rule of promote two and hire one worked mighty well +on some roads for conductors and enginemen. In these days of larger +systems the ratio might be changed to three or four or even five or +six to one. If it were definitely understood that every so often, say +every fifth vacancy in certain grades of officials and employes, a man +would certainly be selected from outside the service, I believe that +we could remove the feeling of uncertainty. We would in a large +measure attain the result we have thus far missed. We would build up +organizations with enough fresh blood to stand the test of time. + +Brains and adaptability are not a natural monopoly. God Almighty +hasn't given any road a New Jersey charter broad enough for +incorporating a trust of the most efficient men. No, I am not a +populist or a socialist. I believe in trusts. They have come to stay +and ultimately to benefit the masses. Legislation will no more succeed +in destroying them than it did in preventing partnerships in England +where centuries ago it was thought for two men to unite as partners in +business was an unsafe combination of power. Education comes by hard +knocks and probably anti-merger decisions are worth the inconvenience +that they have caused. The sober sense of the American people will +tell them after a while that in attempting constitutional and +legislative interference they have not benefited themselves one +dollar. They will learn that forcing a change of methods does not +necessarily bring about a different result. They will learn that in +the long run they, the people, are the losers when good capital is +tied up; that they pay the price for unwise competition. The +railroads, the first great trusts, should be early to realize that +some conditions inherently forbid the elimination of competition. Our +prairies are too broad for an agricultural trust. The range of the +human mind is too great for any railroad to patent the ability of its +men. + +This trust freight seems to make you full tonnage without cleaning out +all the rush stuff in my yard. You may cut off ahead of the rest of +the civil service loads and I will have a pony set on your caboose +when you pull through the ladder. Yes, I will tell the operator at the +yard office to scratch them off your consist. I shall have to run +another section and fill out with some cars of company material which +the construction department is kicking about. Please put up--excuse +me, display--signals until the dispatcher can get hold of you at the +end of the double track. By the way, if instead of "will display +signals, etc.," his order should read, "will signal, etc.," would it +not be shorter and, including flags, lamps, whistle and voice, be more +comprehensive? + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER XV. + +MORE ON CIVIL SERVICE. + + +June 26, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--We were speaking of railroad civil service, so called. +As I told you before, our civil service is so far from the genuine +article that I always feel like qualifying the term in some way for +fear of being called in on the carpet for failure to cut the proper +duplex. It is a great big subject, worthy of the most serious +consideration, because it concerns men, not machines. Furthermore, it +is a high type of man with whom we deal or should deal. We are all so +busy that we say we concern ourselves with results. We all butt in too +much on details, usually along the line of our early training. Yet, +withal, we overlook some pretty long shots because we flatter +ourselves we are too busy to place small bets. + +Even after we have wasted so much of the building season that we give +the contractor a bonus to rush the new line to completion in time to +hold the charter, wouldn't it pay us to have a care as to the kind of +men we let him work on our right of way? Next year, when the grievance +committees come up from the new division, we make them feel that it +means something, it gives them a stamp of honor to work for our +system. Why not begin a little farther back? Why not hook up in the +beginning so that our different departments can get busy early in the +game? Let the people who are to settle the new country help build and +maintain the road. Let the immigration agent camp with the +reconnoitering engineer. When the latter comes back to locate or +retrace, let the former be interesting colonies. Let our own +organization follow the surveyor's flag. Let's be our own contractor +and get back more of the money he disburses. Why let a floating gang +of Dagoes take so big a bunch of it back to sunny Italy? Why not spend +it ourselves so that its recipients will use it to develop the country +and hurry the origination of traffic? Let's handle this coin both +going and coming and cut out some of the empty haul. + +The political revolutions in continental Europe and the famine in +Ireland in 1848 brought to this country a high class of immigrants. We +gave them work and schools. They helped build the railroads. Some +continued on the roads after construction; others helped develop the +surrounding country. Our flag made them free, and when civil war came +they were among the bravest of its defenders. To-day their children +and their children's children, all Americans, rank high among railway +officials and employes. Perhaps all this is a happen so; perhaps much +of it is due to big, brainy men whose policies were not narrowed by +specialization in departments. We are now doing little new +construction. We should do it better than ever and in the full sense +of the word. Is it enough to pass it up to the construction +department? + +Did it ever strike you that there may be many good reasons why both +officials and employes may desire to transfer to another road? A young +man, feeling the home nest too full, the local demand for skilled +labor too light, has struck out for a newer country. He makes good. We +find him in after years running an engine, working a trick, or, +perchance, holding down an official job. Death occurs at the old home. +Marriage brings new interests in another country. An invalid member of +his family needs a change of climate. An unexpected development of a +chance investment in a remote locality demands occasional personal +attention. The orphaned children of a relative claim his protection. +Any one of a dozen praiseworthy motives may prompt him to make a +change, provided he can continue to derive his main support from the +calling to which he has found himself adapted. + +Would he be able to transfer without beginning over again at the +bottom? Between the civil service of the companies and the seniority +of the brotherhoods he would find it like making a link and pin +coupling on the inside of a sharp curve. He would be lucky if he could +get a regular job on another division of the same system. Let him +persist in suggestions as to how the matter may be brought about, and +the average official, hidebound by precedent, will consider him nutty, +a candidate for the crazy house instead of for another run. Who is the +loser? Not only the man, but the company, which should have the +benefit of his wider experience, of his peculiar interest in its +territory, of the infusion of fresh blood which his advent would mean. + +Suppose an official has resigned for any good personal reason, or +because he couldn't reduce the size of the engine nozzles fast enough +to suit a new management. When he starts out to hunt a job his +brethren of the profession receive him with sympathy. They promise to +help him out. Each begs him to understand how impossible it is for him +to catch the pay car on that particular line. Perhaps his informant +has been on that company's payroll only six months himself, but he +waxes eloquent on the benefits of civil service, on the desirability +of making their own men, of overcoming previous demoralization. This +would be amusing if it were not a serious business. Each seems to +flatter himself that he got aboard because of peculiar personal +fitness, and inferentially denies such attribute of genius in the man +on the outside. As a matter of fact, the recognition of outside talent +is usually a consequence of acquaintance, of happening to know the +right man at the right time, of having previously worked with the +appointing official. All this contains too much of the element of +chance. When we reserve certain vacancies for men outside of the +breastworks and select them in advance we shall get better results. + +We have made our civil service frogs so stiff that our discipline has +climbed the rail. We know it is so hard for a conductor or an +engineman to get a job that we sometimes hesitate too long before we +make an example for the good of the service by discharging a flagrant +offender. If we knew that by and by he could hit on some road the +vacancy reserved for outsiders we would have the benefit of the +change. The man would learn a lesson, would not be debarred from his +occupation, and would give better service on another road. Talk with +your employes about this and you will be astonished to find how many +will fall in with this idea of leaving open a door of hope by filling +just so many vacancies with outside men. + +Your official or your employe seeking a transfer or hunting a job will +be impressed with the fact that all assistance rendered will be with a +view to favoring him because he is a good, worthy fellow. He will not +hear it put on the ground that any company is fortunate to have his +services, that his future employers are being especially considered. +If he has known from boyhood the territory and civilization where he +desires to work, it will not be urged as a special qualification. +Right here is where the most of us fall down. We too seldom make our +subordinates feel that we are the gainers by having them in our +employ. We are too likely to make them feel they are lucky to have a +job. This may do for the indifferent men, but it puts no premium on +superior ability and loyalty. It renders a discharge, when made, less +effective as an example. You cannot treat all your men alike in all +things. In a few things, collisions, stealing, booze-fighting, for +example, you have to do so. In most things you must avoid destroying +individuality. You must build up personal pride in each. Even sister +engines of the same type do not steam or pull exactly alike. Man, made +in the image of Deity, has pride, brains and courage to make more +complex his disposition. Corporations have no souls. Railroad men have +souls and good red blood. Their intelligence is an inspiration; their +steadfastness, a psalm. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER XVI. + +THE SUPPLY TRAIN. + + +July 3, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--Blacksmiths' horses and shoemakers' wives proverbially +go unshod. A railroad puts up its poorest sample of transportation in +the routine handling of its own material and supplies. Company stuff +is moved and handled last of all; and probably at maximum expense. For +example, if we wish to ship a car of wheels to division headquarters +we load them after we are lucky enough to get an available car. Then +after proper billing authority has been furnished we go through some +more red tape, so that the auditor may not confuse figs with thistles, +revenue producers with deadheads. When we happen to have a train with +such light tonnage that all excuses for moving the car have been +exhausted it reaches the yard nearest its destination. The master +mechanic's office in a day or two has pounded sufficiently at the +yardmaster to get the car set, usually several hours after it has been +promised. It is not of record just how much time and money have been +wasted by the mechanical department through not having the car when +expected. + +If our administration is unusually smooth we may be able to load our +scrap wheels on this same car. Usually, however, we wait until the car +has been hauled down the line before some office away off somewhere +gives disposition for the wornout material. Or, having unloaded all +the wheels, we wait until next week before we order in another car, +and go through the same performance to ship a couple of pairs to some +junction point on the same division. I will not bore you with the +expensive details of getting a car of ties loaded and distributed, of +how much time the sectionmen are worked to poor advantage because the +car or material failed to show up when expected. + +We, mounted on wheels, with transportation as our chief asset, let our +own business get it where the chicken felt the axe, where the sharp +flange caught the bum. It used to be more comfortable in the old days. +We could have the sectionmen do so many jobs without its seeming to +cost anything. The fact that we have learned better makes me rash +enough to believe that we may yet progress beyond thinking that some +of our own transportation costs little or nothing because we do it +with the local freight or a switch engine. We haul a car clear over +the division to pick up a few pounds of scrap paper; provided, of +course, the agents have not confused the day with that for loading +dairy line shipments. The weakness in handling company material +naturally leads to a distrust by other departments and a desire by +each to control the distribution of its own supplies. + +Did you ever think in what a haphazard, hit or miss manner we handle +our traveling workers? The scale inspector is a very necessary +individual because freight revenue is a function of weight. He is so +valuable to us that, although the test car is a nuisance in trains and +yards, we haul him hundreds of miles to do a few minutes' or a few +hours' work. If he should try to do any other company business; if he +should repair furniture, solicit traffic, inspect ties or examine +interlocking plants, he would infringe on the prerogatives of other +men who earn salaries by riding much and working little. Yes, I know +we must have departments. Our great task is to work them to the best +advantage; to let them overlap a little when business is dull, or +where local conditions permit. We should switch our departments +together so that we can cut in the air on enough to hold the train +without going after expenses with a club. + +The employe who does not receive supplies regularly, whose +requisitions for stationery are arbitrarily cut, will try to get +enough ahead to keep himself from running out. When you take an +inventory you must figure on removing the temptation for everyone to +hold back full returns for fear of not rendering good service in the +future. With a lot of money tied up in supplies at central or division +storehouses our service often suffers, even accidents occur for want +of a lantern globe, or a few gallons of oil. The average local freight +crew has no more compunctions in replenishing the caboose from a can +of oil consigned to a country agent than did the slave in taking +chickens. It all belongs to the company. Massa's chicken, massa's +niggah. Some roads are now distributing oil to sections and to small +stations from a box car fitted with inside tanks and self-registering +pumps, a very economical arrangement. This car runs on the local +freight at fixed times. The next step has been to put with it supply +cars, handled by the oil man, who issues supplies and tools to agents, +section foremen and pumpers. A stationery car comes next in the +outfit. This progressive development is hampered in most cases by +adherence to the time-honored requisition. It does not promote a good +company spirit in an agent to haul by him a car filled with supplies +and deny him a much-needed broom, a comfort-giving pane of glass, +simply because a requisition has not passed through the prescribed +number of chief clerks' office baskets. Issues are for the good of the +service, not for charity. The best way is to require a division +official to accompany the cars on his division, hold him responsible, +and make his check good on our traveling bank. Let the employe sign on +a line in a book for articles received, just as an agent receipts to +an express messenger, and let the official countersign once for all +the employes on a page. Then you have the economy and benefits of +centralization without the demoralizing interference with local +administration. + +The supply cars are only a beginning. The evolution must be a supply +and inspection train run exclusively for company business, and to do +every practicable kind of company business. It should supply every +department and pick up the surplus and scrap in each. It should run +over as many divisions as feasible, giving it time to return and +restock so as to cover its territory at prescribed intervals, say +every thirty or sixty days. This train should be manned by monthly +company men, preferably of the semi-official class. The position of +fireman should be part of the course of a special apprentice. If no +special apprentice is available for engineman, use the man in mind for +the next vacancy as road foreman. Let the scale inspector be the +flagman. For conductor have a coming trainmaster, not afraid to pull +off his coat to help adjust a scale or to unload a keg of track +spikes. Have an ambitious brakeman for train clerk, whose records +would replace requisitions and waybilling. For pilot use the +superintendent, the trainmaster, the chief dispatcher, the master +mechanic, the road foreman, the division engineer, or the supervisor. +Have as many as possible of those last named accompany the train and +give the division a rigid inspection. Pretty soon you would find the +general superintendent frequently hitching his car to this train. Put +the contents of the train in charge of a high-class traveling +storekeeper. On the ground the employe would indicate his +requirements, the division official would recommend, and the traveling +storekeeper, closely in touch with the management and its policies, +would take final action. Whatever happened to be done, it would be +right up to date, and in accordance with existing needs. Arriving at a +roundhouse, the train itself would spot a car of wheels and a car of +oil, taking care to reload scrap wheels and empty oil barrels. In +general do not issue a new article unless an unserviceable one is +turned in. The recollections of those present will make fresher the +record of expendable articles issued on a previous trip. Long range +requisitions, approved by distant authority, may result in false +economy, in a lack of clearly defined responsibility. The essence of +good administration consists in dealing with men and things, in giving +them greater value than their paper symbols. If love for requisitions +should still linger in the official breast, the proprieties of such +chaste affection could be preserved by going through all the forms +until their absurdity is fully demonstrated. + +The supply train should have a car fitted up as a workshop in which a +handy man could repair station trucks, office chairs, lanterns, switch +lamps, etc., etc., and save shipping many miles for a new part. Many +tools and utensils would last longer if, in some such way, they could +receive the stitch in time that saves nine. Prompt repair and +interchange among various points should diminish investment in reserve +supply. An article should not have to be returned to the place where +previously used. Under present methods the return journey may put it +in worse shape than when first sent in. When repaired it should be +issued wherever it will do the most good. + +Another car in the supply train should be a laboratory in charge of +the superintendent of tests or his representative, whose office would +thus get more closely in touch with division officials and with +service conditions. The scrap car, with its broken side rods, its +worn-out shovels, its twisted drills, might mean a whole lot in +connection with arbitrary theoretical tests. + +With the train, on stated trips, should be the employment bureau. Pick +up candidates, haul them over the division. Talk with them, note their +adaptability in strange surroundings, see of how promising a stretch +is the rubber in their necks. Give them transportation back home and, +if desired, tell them to report again next trip for further +examination. + +When your supply train has to tie up away from a night roundhouse, let +the crew take short turns as watchmen. Incidentally the train might +serve as an object lesson as to the endurance and capacity of men, the +length of runs, and the care of an engine. If your labor contracts do +not permit you to man your own train, do the necessary toward an +amendment of such unwise schedules. + +The more you think of the increased efficiency of the service, of the +ultimate economy, of the smoother administration, the more you will +cuddle up to the notion of a company train. Experience will show the +wisdom or unwisdom of numerous details that will suggest themselves. I +have given you only an outline with a few samples of methods to be +pursued. I want you to think out the rest for yourself. It is theory +to-day, but the theory of to-day is the forerunner of practice a few +years hence. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER XVII. + +WHAT THE BIG ENGINE HAS COST. + + +July 10, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--The progressive president of a rustling railroad has +recently gone on record as regretting the too rapid introduction of +big engines. To which from many an ancient office, from many a greasy +roundhouse comes a loud amen. The fad for big engines, the slavery to +the ton mile, the rack of the comparative statement, have cost the +granger roads a pile of good coin. Procrustes, the highwayman of the +ancients, fitted all his victims to stone beds, doubtless charging to +other expenses the stretching of an arm or the cutting off of a foot. +Nowadays we get our brains warped and our legs pulled just the same. +The methods are more subtle, the operations more graceful. Our +equanimity stands for almost any old thing, provided it is done in the +name of progress, or is called a process of analysis. Able men devote +their lives to the solution of problems of practical railroad +operation, to making maximum net earnings for their employers, only to +be discounted by the financial writers. Fools rush in where angels +fear to tread. The same writers who, to hear them tell it, can save +financial panics by sound advice to the country bankers, who can +instruct our Uncle Samuel how to handle his navy, who can hurry +Russian troops to Manchuria, can tell us just how to run our railroad, +just how many tons we should pull per train. Invention is the +handmaiden of progress. Inventors are usually laymen or outsiders. +Inventors and architects have to be held in check to prevent +development from becoming abnormal or one-sided. The man who invented +the air brake was not asked to come in and take charge of all +transportation. The men who design big engines should not be allowed +to forget conditions of track, territory and traffic. + +Railroads are run to make money. A motion to manage them like golf +links is never in order. The track is built for running trains. To the +man with too much ton mile on the brain the running of a train, the +very object of the road's existence, becomes a bugaboo. He will +sacrifice business, incur risks of other losses, rather than run a +train. In some cases this is all right, in others it is all wrong. +There is a happy medium which all of us should be allowed to work out +for ourselves, to suit our own conditions. The trouble is that we are +denied a sliding scale. All roads look alike to the critic, the +reviewer and the broker. + +Roads of dense traffic with much low-class freight, such as coal, +coke, ore, pig iron, etc., to move, found it more economical to have +large engines and heavy trains. The nature of the business demands a +considerable supply always on hand. This permits waiting for full +tonnage for every train. A few cars, more or less, at one end or the +other of the line make no great difference to the shipper. These roads +usually have more than one track and an old solid roadbed. This good +thing of economical transportation was pushed along to us of the +prairies. Here traffic is relatively thin, the track with dirt ballast +is less solid, hauls are many times longer, and single track is the +rule. Moreover, we frequently have merchandise, implements, machinery +and other high-class freight in one direction, and such perishable +stuff as live stock and dressed meats in the other. A dozen years ago +we had developed a combination freight and passenger engine, usually a +ten-wheeler with fairly high drivers, which handled such business +promptly and profitably. We could take out a Raymond excursion or a +theatrical special one way, and coming back make a fly run with +belated stock for a distant market. We may yet do the same with the +compound battleship, but it will first require alterations and a big +expenditure on track. When stock shows up you must get it moving. You +cannot hold it to club trains, as in the case of coal and pig iron. +You miss the market and there is a big claim to pay, to which the +financial gentleman in New York does not give sufficient weight when +he makes his wonderful analysis of our figures. It does not show up in +grate surface, tractive power, or weight on the drivers. It is not +complimentary to our wisdom that stock shippers have been compelled to +invoke State aid to force us to run stock trains regardless of full +tonnage, to do what our own best interests demanded. We should avoid +the necessity for even a just regulation of our affairs. It opens the +door to much that is unjust and undesirable. + +The big engine has made us straighten curves, reduce grades, relay +rail, renew bridges, buy land, increase terminals, extend passing +tracks, abandon light equipment and increase wages. Its presence on +single-track roads has retarded traffic and has increased expenses. It +has torn up our track and increased the number of wrecks. Its long +hours and trying work have been an element of demoralization among our +men. The efficiency of our crews is limited to the endurance of the +fireman. This last condition must be remedied by an automatic +stoker--the most crying need of the present. Supply usually keeps +pretty close to demand and the automatic stoker should not be very +long in coming. + +Yes, directly and indirectly, the big engine has cost us a lot of +dough. It is not an unmixed evil. It has its good points, to be sure. +Some of the new conditions it has forced would have come in time +anyway. Its advantages would be greater, its operation cheaper, if its +coming could have been broken to us more gently. It is now a +condition, not a theory, and we must do our best with it, regardless +of our personal predilections. Whether or not it has come to stay is +an open question. It probably has, but modified for higher speed, when +all conditions permit. We are not yet wise enough to know just what it +is costing us. Not even our own statisticians have had time to digest +fully the figures of increased equipment due to slower movement; of +increased cost of maintenance, both of track and equipment; of +unparalleled increase in freight claims; of higher wages; of +strengthened power of the labor organizations; of altered trade +conditions due to dissatisfaction with transportation; of changed +location of industrial plants; of the effect of reduced speed on water +competition; of the numerous conditions that go to make a railroad so +complex. In the language of the good old funeral hymn, some time we'll +understand. + +We must make up our minds to prompter movement of freight, which may +mean increased speed. The people demand it and public opinion is king. +Here again the shipper steps in to help us out, for promptness +simplifies our terminal problems. The art of war has been defined as +getting the mostest men there the fustest. The art of railroading +comes to mean moving the mostest trains the soonest. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER XVIII. + +BE A SUPERINTENDENT--NOT A NURSE. + + +July 17, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--I am so sure that you will be a general manager some day +that I have been writing you a good deal of advice as to matters that +are above the control of a division superintendent. As a rule, +however, a man will fill any position better if he has a good +conception of the work that is beyond his own sphere. Some people do +not like to hire an ex-official for work subordinate to positions that +he may previously have held. They fear that the old superintendent who +gets aboard as yardmaster or dispatcher will be a nuisance, that he +will be all the time scheming for promotion, that he may try to +dictate to his superiors, that he will have too much dignity to climb +a side ladder, that he will be only temporary, that they will soon be +put to the trouble of breaking in another man. All of which is narrow +and shows in the aforesaid objectors a lack of confidence in +themselves and in their own organization. It all depends on the man +himself. If he is the right stuff he will take a broader view for +having been an official. He will appreciate the difficulties of his +superiors. His desire to make good should induce him to put forth +maximum effort. He may be able to get his men out of ruts of many +years' standing. It is so seldom that we get fresh blood we should be +thankful that circumstances permit us to get a three-hundred-dollar +man to work for one hundred. He may be only temporary for that +position, but if he makes us money we should be willing to be +incommoded later on. It is a selfish fear, this feeling that by and by +our royal selves may suffer the personal inconvenience of having to +look after a certain part of our machine that we thought was running +itself. Vain hope, this looking for any kind of perpetual motion. We +are paid official salaries to be big enough to tower over such lazy +feelings, over our own personal disinclination to exertion. Let me +repeat, once more, that for every position you should have an +understudy. Then if anybody drops out through promotion or otherwise +your task is a simple one. + +A fact that none of us should overlook is that we all have superiors. +The president reports to the directors, and the latter to the +stockholders. The stockholder, big or little, is his or her majesty, +the citizen. Our superiors must know what we are doing. They will not +butt in and give us so many directions if we just keep them advised of +our progress. Your general superintendent is an able man, but neither +you nor he is a mental telegrapher. After you get the surgeons called, +the wreck train started, the general superintendent should be the next +man to have the wire. Tell him briefly what has happened, what you +have done, are doing and expect to do. If conditions are such that it +is wise for you to go to the wreck or the washout yourself, wire him +that you are on the ground. Don't think this is enough, but every half +hour or so tell him how you are getting along. He will feel better and +the officials above him will feel better. You will feel better +because, if they are wise, they will let you alone and not bother you +with instructions. Above all things do not try to pass responsibility +up higher by asking what to do. Tell the general superintendent what +trains you will detour, what equipment you will need from other +divisions for stub runs, what you have requested your neighbors to do. +War has been declared, the writs of the courts have ceased to run. You +are the general in the field and it is all up to you. From the moment +that you are wideawake enough to answer the telephone at the head of +your bed, your brain should be earning your company many dollars a +minute. As you slip into your clothes, think connectedly where all +available men and material are to be had. As you rush over to the +office, figure what the situation needs to protect the morning +suburban trains. When you see the train sheet, tell the dispatcher +what trains should be kept on time as long as possible, what trains +should be tied up to prevent a blockade. Don't sit down and take the +key, or act as call boy or for one second forget that you are the +superintendent, that the whole push looks to you. The cooler your +manner, the less hesitating your instructions, the greater the +confidence of your men in you and in themselves, the better their +work. + +Arriving at the scene of trouble, size up the situation, reassure the +panic-stricken passengers, organize everybody present, give politely +all the information you have, how many hours passengers will be +delayed, what train will come to take them forward, when their baggage +can be expected. Be cool but sympathetic; alert, but polite. In a few +minutes your presence for good will be felt. Tell the wreckmaster what +to do first, but do not try to handle his men. Resist the temptation +to use an axe or shovel yourself. Do not shrink from the sight of +blood. Lead the relief parties, but do not try to be surgeon or nurse. +Let the others do the lifting of the killed or injured. You do your +work with your brains and with your voice. Be a superintendent. Care +first for the injured and the dead. Then look to the comfort of the +other passengers. Next in importance comes the mails, then the express +and the baggage. Do not give any grand stand orders to burn cars or +roll heavy equipment down the bank. Think twice before you destroy +more property. The line must be opened, but conditions may be such +that an extra hour or two will not complicate the situation, and will +save the company thousands of dollars. Men often earn big salaries by +the things they avoid doing. + +When the work has been organized, circulate among the gangs, give each +foreman a word of praise, tell them all that you have ordered coffee +and sandwiches, that the company also gives its men square meals at +wrecks. Arrange to feed your transferred passengers earlier rather +than later than usual. Do not hesitate to feed badly delayed +passengers at the company's expense. When everything is running +smoothly keep your mouth shut and your ears open. As the country +people come flocking in to see the wreck, as the roadmaster yells his +orders, you will hear some sweetheart ask her swain if that is the +superintendent who has such a big voice. When he shakes his head and +the wreckmaster roars to take a fresh hitch, she guesses again, only +to be told that the quiet man over there with apparently the least to +say is the boss of all. Soon many of the bystanders are pointing +admiringly at you as the master of the situation. When it is all over, +when, hours or days later, you lie down for a well-earned rest, you +will feel that you are a railroad man, that you are holding down a job +for which no old woman need apply. There is some self-satisfaction in +this world which outruns the pay car, which cannot be measured in +dollars and cents. + +What I am telling you holds good for a trainmaster, a yardmaster or +whoever happens to be the senior representative present. Sometimes it +is better to send out the trainmaster and stay in yourself to handle +an already congested situation. Sometimes the trainmaster is at the +wrong end of the line and you must go yourself. Common sense is a +pretty safe guide as to one's course of action. The principle to be +remembered is to avoid interference with the man on the ground. If it +is a minor derailment which the conductor is handling, do not rattle +him with messages, with requests for reports. When you examine your +conductors on rules, include questions and explanations which outline +action expected in emergencies. Forbid your dispatcher sending a +stereotyped message to get written statements of all witnesses every +time a personal injury occurs. Have your conductors, your agents and +your section foremen so drilled that they will keep the office +informed and will depend on themselves, not on the dispatchers, for +such things. Your rules, your organization, the instructions on your +blanks will amount to little if they are continually discounted by +special messages. You had better lose a set of reports than tear your +organization to pieces. When somebody falls down, discipline him in +such a way that the others will keep in line. + +It takes patience and persistence, forbearance and firmness to drill +men to a high state of discipline. Disobedience and indifference can +sometimes be traced to unwise orders. The impossible or the +unreasonable is expected. There are too many bulletins and too many +instructions. Do not think a thing is done, an abuse corrected, a +condition remedied simply because you have given an order to produce +the desired effect. It is up to you to follow the matter to a finish. +You must know by observation, by inspection, by the reports of your +staff, that your order is being obeyed. The way to enforce discipline +is not to keep repeating the order. Except in rare cases an order +should not be repeated or a bulletin reissued. Weak men try to +strengthen their discipline by extravagant language in their +instructions. Do not say that no excuse will be taken for failure to +turn in these reports or to comply with these instructions. You may be +made to appear ridiculous, even mendacious, by a cloudburst, by a +holdup, by an act of God or the public enemy, as the old law phrase +runs. Vitality in expression is a good thing. It is useless without +vigor in enforcement. The latter does not depend upon the kind of +breakfast food you order in the dining car, but upon the ginger in +your administration. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER XIX. + +THE RACK OF THE COMPARATIVE STATEMENT. + + +July 24, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--You ask what I mean by the rack of the comparative +statement. I mean that, figuratively speaking, we are all pretty +securely fastened to the corresponding month of last year. What was +originally intended as a tavernkeeper's tab, as a rough check on +operation, has become a balanced ledger, a rigid standard of +efficiency. Time, even a short period, brings a sacredness to all +things. If we make a so-called better showing on paper than a +twelvemonth previous, we shake hands with ourselves and forget how +rotten we were considered just one short year ago. The ball team that +wins the championship and takes the big gate receipts is the one whose +members play for the side rather than for high individual averages. +The tendency is for our owners to expect us to make base hits rather +than send in runs which win games. + +If in April and May we have a lot of ties on hand, we may not be +allowed to put them in the track because they will be charged out +before June 30, and make too heavy a showing of expenditure for the +fiscal year. So, with labor comparatively plentiful and the weather +comfortable, we wait until the new fiscal year comes in, until the sun +shines hottest on the track. Then, with farmers paying harvest wages +we have to offer more money. If we get the extra men the heat lessens +their efficiency. It is true we have probably had to pay the producer +for the ties, but if we fail to charge them to the final account, we +have a childlike confidence that they have not yet cost us anything. +The little matters of failure to utilize the full life of the tie, of +interest on the money invested, we dismiss with the thought that +trifling losses must be expected in the conduct of large affairs. + +Maintenance of equipment as well as maintenance of way suffers from +too much comparative statement. Some new official pulls our power to +pieces to show us how they used to build up train-mile records on the +Far Eastern. The crowded rip tracks reflect the tractive power of the +big engines. Bad orders, the bane of a yardmaster's life, the teasers +of the traffic man's tracers, block our terminals. Our shopmen and our +car repairers, despairing of full time, move away. Yet withal we are +serene, for are not we operating just as cheaply as they did at this +time last year? + +When I am in doubt, when I become mixed with the complexities of our +profession, I go back to my boyhood on the farm. From that gateway as +a basing point I can think out a rate sheet with fewer differentials. +The same common sense housekeeping which my mother practiced will fit +any railroad, however diversified its territory. The same +well-balanced management which enabled my father to pay off the +mortgage and extend his acres is suited to any railroad, however +complicated its financial obligations. The bigger the proposition, the +greater the need for sticking to homely basic principles. We learned +on the farm to expect about so much rainfall every year. Whether the +heaviest would come in one month or in another, the good Lord never +found time to tell us. We did the things that came to hand, sometimes +similarly, sometimes differently, from the corresponding month of the +previous year. If our crops were short we did not starve our work +horses. We sometimes found it paid, even with a poor crop in sight, to +go to the bank and borrow rather than neglect the ditching in a wet +field. If we made some surplus money we did not blow it all in for +tools and improvements. We knew that the inevitable lean years +preclude throwing the fat in the fire. If we ran behind some year, we +did some retrenching, to be sure, but we did not lose our nerve, did +not lose our faith in the future. + +Some kinds of fertilizers on the farm are said to make rich fathers +and poor sons. The way some railroads have been run for a record you +would imagine that race suicide had reached a point where no further +generations were expected. One of the gravest of our mistakes has been +the application of the comparative statement, regardless of its effect +upon our men. The farmer finds it wise and economical to arrange work +for several monthly men in order to minimize the number of day hands +for his rush seasons. In the winter he may lay them off, but this is +for a period sufficiently long and sufficiently definite to enable the +farm hand to become something else, say a wood chopper or a lumberman. +Can we expect our car repairers, our sectionmen, to be loyal and +faithful if we lay them off with necessary work in sight, simply to +make our books look better? They know that later on we shall, at the +last minute, at the scratch of an indefinite somebody's pen, put on a +big force and with a hurrah, boys, rush it through. Is this fair? Is +it not better to keep twenty men steadily employed than to have forty +on half time? The unquestioned deterioration in the quality of our +labor, in the morale of our forces, cannot all be laid on the union's +doorstep. There is a responsibility here which we cannot shirk. + +Cutting down expenses has been done in an unintelligent, cold-blooded +sort of a way. We go home at night feeling good at having cut down our +payrolls. We should be feeling sorry at the necessity for taking from +men the wherewithal to pay the unceasing rent and grocery bills. Our +methods give some room for the populists' plea to put the man above +the dollar. No, I do not expect ever to see an entire correction of +these conditions. In the play of economic forces the weak have to +suffer. I believe, though, that through minimizing such suffering we +can improve the service and earn bigger dividends for our +stockholders. Each of us can do a little; all of us together can do a +great deal toward making the problems easier. As the French say, +noblesse oblige--rank imposes obligation--every time. It is up to us, +the educated, powerful class, to take the lead and to do the most. We +cannot expect the poor, unlettered man to work out his own salvation +unaided. We cannot turn him loose to face an unequal struggle. If he +fails, if he has too much time for brooding, society at large has an +anarchist and we are the losers. Do not understand me as advocating +the employment or retention of unnecessary men. What I am kicking for +is a better balanced system. When we lay off our extra sectionman in +the fall, do we give him a pass and ask him to come to town and work +when we put on more unskilled winter labor in the shops and +roundhouses? No, he is in a different department. An official or a +foreman might be put to the inconvenience of waiting a few days, of +breaking in a new man. Next spring there might have to be a +readjustment when the work trains go on. Some big, strong railroad men +are coming to the front who will improve these conditions by working +from a broader viewpoint. We need more brainy men with nerve enough to +stand up and insist upon a consideration of the welfare of our +properties ten, twenty or fifty years hence. Because we need them they +will be developed. + +Now do not hand me the old song and dance about business being +cold-blooded and devoid of sentiment. We spend money directly and +indirectly for advertising with a view to fostering public sentiment +in favor of our line. Business comes from an increase in population, +from development of resources, from the growing sentiments of the +human race. Life owes its origin to love, which originates in +sentiment. The family, directly traceable to sentiment, is the unit of +civilization. The way to have our heads rule our hearts is not to +forget that we have hearts. + +Business is so attractive because it is chock full of sentiment which +can be made an asset. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER XX. + +HANDLING THE PAY ROLL. + + +July 31, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--I have your letter about the supply train. Please do not +fail to consider that it is an inspection and administrative train as +well as a traveling storehouse. The term company train perhaps comes +the nearest to a comprehensive designation. As a tentative +proposition, to be modified by experience, I think I would distribute +one-half of the expense of the train to supply, the other half to +inspection and consider both halves as money well spent. With the +enormous growth of business, with the increasing expansion of systems, +we have had to leave more and more to departments. The result is that +each department becomes more and more forgetful of the others. It +isn't enough to have the heads at the general offices take lunch +together. We must begin farther down in our administration to keep our +departments in touch. Representatives of the traffic department should +accompany the train and distribute their own advertising matter. +Perhaps the best feature of all would be the improved feeling among +the country agents due to more intimate acquaintance with the +operating and traffic officials with whom they are doing business. We +can afford to compete with the organizers of the telegraphers and +clerks for this spirit. It will interest you to know that at least two +large systems are figuring on a company train. When it comes, as come +it will, we shall all wonder, as in the case of the telephone, how we +ever got along without it. + +You ask if the pay car should be included in the outfit. Yes, if local +conditions permit. Before going into this very far, however, let us +consider our system of paying only once a month. Has it sufficient +merit to stand the test of time? It breaks down in some cases when we +wish additional cheap labor. Many of us have turned over to +contractors the unloading of company coal at fuel stations. The avowed +reason for so doing is that the shovelers being often recruited from +the hobo or the squalid class, we cannot hope to handle them as well +as a contractor who pays daily or weekly. Right down the track a +little way our agent is remitting company money which is not earning +any interest. Another reason given is that our officials are too far +away to give the coal wharves proper supervision. As a matter of fact +the official is on hand about as frequently as the contractor. This is +a sad commentary on the versatility and elasticity of our +organization. Before throwing money to the contractors why not give +our section foreman or our agent a bonus for supervising the coal +heavers? Let our men be a little interchangeable. If a man becomes +worn out from too much sun on the track, let the breeze blow through +his whiskers in the coal shed for a few weeks. No, I do not think the +track would suffer if the section foreman had to put the fear of the +Lord in another gang of men. The old-time section foreman had +ingenuity and originality enough to do many things. His prototype of +to-day may be dwarfed by over-specialization. When we treat our men +less like machines we can subdivide gangs and still get results. + +Nearly every winter a bill is introduced in some legislature requiring +corporations to pay their men at least twice a month. Railroads at +once get busy and manage to be exempted from the provisions of these +measures. Such resistance is based on a variety of arguments, the +vastness of territory covered, the large number of men employed, the +necessity for careful auditing, etc. How long we can hold out against +the spirit of the age is a question. Why not keep ahead of the game +and lead public opinion? At such times we become very solicitous of +the thriftiness of our men. We claim that we are their benefactors; +that by paying them so much money at one time we are helping them to +save. As a matter of fact people who have studied such questions tell +us that when payments are frequent less stuff is bought on credit and +fewer bills are run. Savings banks find that, under certain +conditions, men who are paid daily or weekly will put by more money +than those who have a monthly pay day. It is an economic question, +dependent more upon sociological conditions than upon railroad policy. + +It is usually pretty good business sense to take advantage of trade +discounts. Do you not think we could make better bargains with our men +if we did not wait to pay them until we are six weeks in arrears? We +pay them for only one month and are always in their debt. Every once +in a while we lose a good man from the service because he is hard +pressed and can raise money only by taking his time check. + +The monthly payroll was adopted before bonding and surety companies +revolutionized business methods. The theory is that the roll must be +approved and audited before payment in order to insure accuracy and +prevent fraud. Did you ever hear of a payroll being disapproved as +such? No matter how unwise their employment, how injudicious the time +put in, the men must be paid. We are under moral and legal obligations +to pay for service performed. Did you ever hear of a padded payroll +being caught in the auditor's office? The man who stuffs the roll +alters the data against which the auditor checks. The few arithmetical +errors discovered do not justify the time consumed. Again, why should +you send your general superintendent a payroll of names any more than +you should send him copies of your train sheets? What difference +should it make to him just how much each particular man worked? He +should have a summary of results, totals, maxima, minima, averages, +etc., just as the morning report gives him a summary of the train +sheet. If he wants more detailed information, let him come to your +office and examine the time books, just as he should occasionally go +over your train sheets. He is furnished a car to travel for just such +purposes. + +Assuming the desirability for more frequent payments, the day, the +trip, the piece, would seem the best unit. Railroads have +comparatively few credit lists. The ability to force patrons to pay +cash is a business asset, and should give us the benefits of a cash +basis. Our present system of payments is slow and cumbrous. In our +desire to guard every avenue to fraud we have gone too far and +retarded administration. The bonding company gives us a check which +should enable us, under a proper system of inspection, to have the +timekeeper practically the paymaster. I confess that I have not yet +been able to work out all the details to my own satisfaction. I have +gone far enough, however, to be convinced that there are men in our +business bright enough to solve the problem. When given proper +attention it will be found that for the same or less expense we can +pay daily, improve the service and render a better account of our +stewardship to the stockholders. + +An agent remits daily. Why not let him turn in as cash a receipt or a +deduction to cover his own pay? If he can do this, it is an easy step +to accept as cash the time slips of his force, of the operators and +sectionmen at his station. The time slips of shopmen, roundhousemen, +yardmen, trainmen, enginemen, etc., when countersigned by the proper +chief clerk, should become cash at a certain designated agency or +local bank. It might be found practicable to use a form of time slip +similar to a postal note or a street car transfer which could be +punched and then authenticated with a stamp. An advantage of this +would be that these original data would be available for tabulation in +electrical integrating machines in the auditor's office. The plan +followed in compiling statistics would be similar to that in use for +many years in the census office in Washington. + +Such a system of payment presupposes fewer checking clerks but more +traveling auditors and inspectors. It does things first and talks +about them afterward. It is predicated upon the belief that checks and +balances must begin to work nearer the foundation, that true +centralization of results demands a full measure of local autonomy. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER XXI. + +MILITARY ORGANIZATION. + + +August 7, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--While in Washington last week I dropped in to see some +old cronies at the War Department. The iconoclasts have been at work +there, too, with gratifying results. The military secretary's office +has superseded the former adjutant-general's department. Under the new +dispensation every letter must receive definite action, not a mere +acknowledgment, the very day of its receipt; every telegram must be +answered within two hours. An emergency request came in for some +equipment for a militia encampment. In three hours the Philadelphia +clothing depot acknowledged the order, reported loading and shipment, +and advised that bill of lading had been mailed. This means better +supply, less suffering, more effective movements when real war comes. +It means a saving in blood and treasure. + +We of the railroads are inclined to scoff at the slowness of +government methods. Are we doing as well as the rejuvenated War +Department? Of course, when there is a wreck, a washout, a fire, we do +some great stunts. Day in and day out we are sadly lacking in +promptness with our telegrams and our letters. The pulse of business +is so quick that these delays cost us money. The remedy is simple. Get +the departments in line. A diplomatic censor with rank enough, say, +that of assistant to the president, should be able to show even the +highest officials where they are falling down, where they are +duplicating work, where their telegrams have no business on the +company's wires, where their letters are too lengthy, where their +offices are lame. The departments on a railroad correspond to the +bureaux of the War Department. + +The Spanish war showed the weakness of the departmental system under +modern conditions. It has been corrected by the creation by Congress +of a general staff, with a chief of staff, usually a general officer +detailed from the line, who, as next in rank to the Secretary of War, +controls all departments, thus insuring unity of action. He has help +enough to enable the general staff to give attention to details. The +president of a railroad is often too busy and seldom has assistance +enough to hold his departments in check. They do not always maintain a +proper proportion to each other. If he appoints a committee to +consider a question, the tendency is for such committee to leave the +transportation part to its transportation man, the mechanical question +to the mechanical member and the traffic problem to the traffic +representative. The results of such work are likely to be narrow or +one-sided. Each member should consider every phase of the matter and +not minimize his own versatility. Remember that the layman may +discover a radical inconsistency in professional practice. Give each +man due weight in his specialty, but do not let him be absolute. A +minority report from a committee should always be welcome as affording +more information for the parent body or the appointing power. A little +careful consideration, a little lively debate on a committee report, +may be a healthy check. + +While speaking of military organization, let me impress upon you that +in the army the line always commands the staff. A staff officer cannot +command troops except by express direction of the President. Enlisted +men and junior officers must show a staff officer the respect due his +rank, just as our conductor is respectful to the division freight +agent, but when it comes to taking orders, that is another question. A +lieutenant of the line, if he happens to be the senior present, may +have under his command a surgeon with the rank of major, a commissary +with the rank of captain, etc. Certain special work, such as the +construction of buildings, of a telegraph line, of a road, may be put +under a staff officer reporting directly to headquarters and exempted +from the orders of the local commander of troops. We do the same when +we put certain construction work under our engineers working +independently of the superintendent. In an emergency all officers, men +and material come under the control of the senior line officer +present. With us the line is the transportation department, to whose +senior representative, in time of trouble, usually the superintendent, +every official and employe of whatever department should yield +unquestioning obedience. + +They have another feature in army administration which we would do +well to emulate. On the theory perhaps that a cat may look at a king, +the lowest may address the highest. The official ear and mouthpiece of +the War Department is the military secretary. He may be addressed by +the lowest man in the service, provided, that under the address is the +important phrase in parenthesis, "through the proper channels." Unless +the communication is grossly irrelevant or disrespectful it must be +forwarded through the channels, each officer indorsing his opinion, +pro or con. If it reaches an officer whose authority and views can +give favorable action, it need not go higher. Otherwise, it must keep +going. The reply comes back to the man through the same channels. All +this is worth the trouble it costs, for, even if unfavorable action is +taken, the man feels that he has been given consideration; that he is +not a mere machine; that there may be good, honest reasons for turning +him down. This strong effort to preserve individuality is the reason +that the American people never have cause to lose confidence in the +man behind the gun. Its short-sighted absence in railroad +administration is the prime cause of our loss of confidence in the +spirit of our men. The inauguration of such a feature might cause our +agitators to be annoying and importunate for a time. The greater the +consideration shown, the sooner would the agitators be laughed at and +discouraged by their comrades. It would break up the fashion of +ignoring the superintendent and running to the general manager with +every petty little grievance. + +If your trainmaster sees fit to make a general recommendation, for +example, about a train rule, provided he does so through your office, +you should forward it, giving your own views. If you happen to +disapprove, do not try to kill the proposition by holding the letter. +Under the narrow practice of most roads the trainmaster would have no +redress and would be considered disloyal if he attempted to reach the +general superintendent. + +In the handling of railroad papers there are a number of short cuts. +There are too many letters written just for the sake of having a +carbon to complete a file. If you must have a carbon, require offices +reporting to yours to make an extra copy on the typewriter of the +original letter. Stamp both copies with the office dater, and just +below use a one-line rubber stamp; for example, "To the General +Superintendent," adding in pen, if necessary, such words as +"recommended," "disapproved," etc. If no special action is taken, no +signature is necessary, the office stamp being sufficient +authentication. Forward one copy, keep the other, and in routine +correspondence your file is complete without the scratch of a pen or +the click of a typewriter in your office. Certain classes of papers +referred to your subordinates, for example, special itineraries, +claims, statistics, etc., can be kept track of by a number system in a +small book, without using any carbon. Master the file system of your +office. If someone happens to drop in for information, do not be put +to the mortification of explaining that your clerks do not come down +Sunday morning, or that they are all playing ball on the company nine. +Filing should be uniform on divisions and in departments, one general +plan for the whole road. Some roads have as many varieties as a pickle +factory. + +It was nice of your friend, the chief dispatcher, to write so strong a +letter indorsing the sacredness of signatures. He is right; most +telegraphic instructions on a division should go out over the initials +of the chief dispatcher. Years ago your old dad, with the title of +trainmaster and the duties of an assistant superintendent, obtained +smooth results from the following bulletin: + +"Instructions from this office governing the movements of trains, +engines and cars, and the temporary assignments of men, will be given +over the initials of the chief dispatcher. Messages concerning such +routine matters will be addressed to the chief dispatcher. The idea is +to limit the use of the trainmaster's initials to cases handled +personally by him." + +The men caught right on. They saw that it was impossible for a man to +be issuing all the instructions over the wire when he spent most of +his time on the road. + +I have long thought that a train order should be as individual as a +bank check and be signed by the dispatcher's own initials. I am +beginning to believe that no signature is necessary; that the +dispatcher's initials, given with the "complete," should be +sufficient. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER XXII. + +WRECKS AND BLOCK SIGNALS. + + +August 14, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--You ask what we are going to do to prevent so many +wrecks. My various admonitions to you have been in vain if I have +failed to score some points looking to that end. We must get closer to +our men, improve their discipline, which means also their spirit. We +must have more official supervision. We must pay division officials +better salaries. The minimum pay of a division superintendent, +regardless of the price of wheat, should be $300 per month and +expenses, with such greater amount as the importance of the division +demands. Trainmasters cannot be expected to enforce discipline and set +an example in neatness if paid less than some of their conductors and +enginemen. Not a bad rough rule for fixing intermediate salaries is to +split the difference between the highest man in one grade and the +lowest in the next higher, and then add enough to make convenient even +money. Do not think you are saving money if you avoid raising the pay +of your officials when you raise that of employes. + +Wrecks are a reflection of administration. Sometimes cause and effect +are years apart, so distant, in fact, as to be almost unrecognizable. +Adversity makes heroes and the more disorganized we find conditions +the more comprehensive and earnest should be our efforts to seek the +cure. Neither public opinion nor our own self-respect will stand for +shifting too much of the blame to our predecessors. Whatever safety +appliances we adopt we shall never be able to eliminate entirely the +element of human judgment, we shall never get beyond trusting +somebody. Therefore we must train our men to alertness. We must build +up a loyalty that pervades every rank. Those roads have the fewest +wrecks due to defective equipment which cater to the welfare of their +men. Such roads do not expect a man to live on air. When repair work +is slack they put their men to building cars and engines, taking +advantage of the low price of material. If we have to operate so +closely that we cannot make such wise investments in influence, we are +grading the way to disaster. We are preparing to pay out later in +wrecking, personal injuries, maintenance and renewal of equipment, +much more than the expense of anticipating future needs by keeping our +men employed and contented. No amount of engine and car inspection can +overcome inherent defects due to careless workmanship. Will the track +walker who knows not when he will be laid off prevent as many +disasters as he whom we find time to tell in advance what tenure to +expect? We can overdo this matter of running our railroad too strictly +in accordance with the auditor's statistical blue print. As surgery +the operation is a great success, but unfortunately the patient dies. + +We have divided responsibility sufficiently when we furnish both the +conductor and the engineman a copy of the train order. If it is +desirable for the brakemen and the fireman to be informed, we should +furnish a copy to each man in the crew. What is everybody's business +becomes nobody's business. Even if it were practicable it is +undesirable, this idea of showing the orders to every member of the +crew. It would seem better to have three different standard signals +for an engineman whistling into town; one indicating a wait order or a +meeting point, either by time table or train order; another indicating +a passing point, and a third indicating no other trains to be +considered. The wrong signal sounded by the engineman should cause the +conductor to stop the train with the air before the switch is reached. +Some roads now have the engineman sound a prescribed signal, after the +station whistle, to indicate orders to be executed. The objection to +this is that valuable time may be lost by the conductor before being +sure whether or not he heard the signal. A condition should not be +indicated in a negative manner by the failure to do something. All +indications should be of a positive nature, that a positive +understanding may result and positive action be taken. It may be a +little hard to give up the good old long blast for stations, but +safety demands some such modification. + +The fad for main track derails at interlocking plants seems nearly to +have ditched itself. We are realizing that it is not necessary to kill +an engineman who runs past a signal. The money that such unnecessary +derailments have cost might better have been spent in enforcing +discipline by increased official supervision. If main track derails +were proper for an interlocking plant, it would logically follow that +every block signal should be interlocked with a derail. Desirable as +they are on auxiliary low-speed routes, it is doubtful if derails have +any place in a main track, even at drawbridges. We are learning, too, +that a good derail can be installed without cutting the rail. + +Public opinion is aroused on the subject of our failure to safeguard +human life in proportion to our progress in other matters. We must +cough up the money for more block signals. I say block signals, not +because they are the panacea for the evil that many people imagine, +but because they are the best safeguard yet devised. They are useless +without proper discipline and supervision. The vertical plane coupler +is not all that can be desired. Yet if modern equipment had to stand +the slack of the link and pin it would be in a bad way. The block +signal even with the train staff or the train tablet is far from +perfect. It is impolitic, however, for us to hesitate too long before +going down into our clothes for the coin. While waiting for the +perfect method to be developed the perfect man may be evolved and bump +the most of us out of our jobs. + +There will be fewer wrecks when executive and general officials have +better control of temper and judgment. Feeling in an indefinite way +the responsibility for an appalling wreck, the high official thinks he +must do something. He butts in with some ill-considered instructions +which breed distrust of the entire system of running trains, which +discount the whole organization. This action may result for a time in +an abnormal, unhealthy vigilance, which is certain to be followed by a +demoralizing reaction. When a condition, like a man, gets the drop on +you the only sane thing to do is to throw up your hands for the time +being. Wisdom consists in looking for the true prime cause of the +aforesaid drop. The frontal attack on a buzz saw is suicidal. Always +take it in flank. + +When you get your block signals, consider the permissive block as an +abomination before the Lord. The only block to have is the positive +block in both directions. If there is trouble in a block, let the +dispatcher give the delayed train a message to flag over. Encourage +your men to flag over, block or no block, against any train on the +road when common sense dictates such a course. The object of all rules +is to run trains with safety, not to tie them up on technicalities. +Flagging means good flagging, signals as sure and unmistakable as +fixed signals. Some day we shall find time to instruct our flagmen +uniformly. They should all either put the red light on the end of a +tie and swing the white light across the track, or they should swing +both lights; not sometimes one way, sometimes the other. A red light +of itself means stop. If the flagman swings it he runs a big risk of +blowing it out. In matters of this sort there cannot be too much +uniformity for all roads. Where we run uniformity into the ground is +where we fail to recognize the radical differences in individual +characteristics of men of the Atlantic, the Pacific and the prairie +type. + +Realization, if not repentance, must precede salvation. We must save +ourselves. If not, the government doctrinaires will undertake a task +for which we are better qualified. We cannot stop killing people +to-day or to-morrow, this year or next. The problem is not as easy for +us as for the oft cited English railways. Their block signals are a +coincidence, not a prime cause of their safer operation. Much of our +mileage has only a speculator's or a promoter's excuse for existence. +Much of our traffic is so thin that English thoroughness would put a +part of our lines out of business, much to our relief, but much to the +intolerance of the public. Until our systems are sufficiently stable +to remove the tempting sign, "Please kick me," from the view of the +financial manipulator, we cannot keep out of the scrimmage, we cannot +build up as safe and conservative operating organizations as the +English. We can, however, do much better than we are doing. Automatic +devices will help, but they are only a check. The balance lies, my +boy, in developing the human interest of the men, high and low, who +work for the road. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER XXIII. + +UNIONISM. + + +August 21, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--"What will you put in its place, Bob?" was perhaps the +hardest query that the brilliant Ingersoll had to answer in his +assaults on the Christian religion. Does not the same question +confront us in our attacks upon organized labor? We endeavor to tear +down, but do we build up? This subject, like the marriage relation, +cannot be entered into lightly. It is longer than a train of ore +jimmies, and broader than a box vestibule. It is a bridge too close to +the track for the telltales to sting your face in time to get off a +furniture car. Like the ostrich, believing itself hidden with its head +stuck in the sand, we feel that if we call them committees of our +employes we are not recognizing the union. Is this consistent? We +claim, and justly so, that a high principle is involved; that if we +recognize the union we practically force every man to join, regardless +of his own inclinations and of his freedom as an American citizen. +This is sound doctrine, but its application is very faulty. Our spirit +may be willing, but our flesh is damnably weak. Do we give the +non-union man a show for his white alley? Not as long as we fail to +question the credentials of committees. We know that all their names +appear on the payrolls, at least during the time they are not laying +off and using our transportation for organizing or grievance work. We +do not disturb ourselves to find if they were elected as employes. Did +the non-union men have any voice in their selection? Not much; they +were elected in the lodge room. We, in effect, say to the non-union +man that the way to the band wagon is through the lodge room door. +Then we are very much shocked to find that he, like ourselves, is +following the lines of least resistance. It is so much easier to run +with the current of traffic than to cross over; it takes so much less +nerve to open up for trailing points than to keep our hand off the air +valve when approaching facing points. When a move is made to run out a +non-union man, we are so afraid of being accused of holding somebody +up that we put on the man the whole burden of making good. + +Unionism, like religion, and like love, is the outgrowth of certain +feelings and emotions in the human breast that strive to overcome the +limitations of mankind; that seek to make an eternity of time, an +ideal of an idea, a solid phalanx out of heterogeneous parts. You may +win the strike, down the union, hire your men as individuals; but +sooner or later, in the Lord's own good time, in obedience to natural +law, they will organize in some form, under some name or other. Only a +few will stand out; some from sheer contrariness; more from strong +individuality of temperament. The outsiders, from a lack of +organization, have little positive influence, simply a negative +conservatism. + +Since these things are so, why not, to drop into familiar phrase, be +governed accordingly? Instead of letting the men organize the road, +why not have the road organize the men? The system of collective +bargaining, of labor contracts, has come to stay. It is merely a +question of how and with whom we shall deal. It is so easy to let out +work by contract, to call on the supply dealer to help us out, that +doubt as to our own powers of organization becomes habit of mind. We +farm out our rest rooms, our temperance encouraging resorts, to the +Railroad Y.M.C.A. Where comes in the company, whose existence makes +occupation possible, whose capital is invested, whose property is +involved? + +Do you think we have made effort enough to let our men organize as +employes? Should not all our plans for terminals and headquarters +include the excellent investment of a club house and assembly hall? +When we have tried this plan and failed have we not been too easily +discouraged? Sometimes the cause of failure has been our own mistake +in selecting the wrong location, in deferring too much to the +convenience of our own land company, in attempting too much official +supervision, in allowing our local officials to butt in to ride their +pet hobbies. Let us try turning the building over to a committee of +our employes and inculcate a feeling of pride and responsibility. Our +employes are a high grade of men; many of them are nature's noblemen. +It is true they sometimes worship false gods, indulge in strikes, +commit violence, and require vigorous discipline. Although misguided +in all this, they are usually honest as individuals. When banded +together there results the same tendency that exists in political +parties, in churches and in societies, to mistake their own +organization for the only defender of the true faith. This same spirit +plans religious crusades, gains converts by the sword and destroys +freedom in the name of liberty. This spirit run mad breeds anarchy. It +may result in a condition, as with us in the strikes of 1894, when +cold lead and sharp steel are needed to cool hot blood, when the +innocent have to suffer with the guilty. This spirit is unreasonable, +but its existence cannot be ignored. + +"Men," says Marcus Aurelius, "exist for one another; teach them then +or bear with them." It is up to us to do more of the teaching act. A +prime requisite of a teacher is honesty. Let us be honest. Let us +either recognize the unions outright, or else try to teach them that +they have not yet attained full age; that as yet they are lacking in +the ripe wisdom which permits of a larger participation in affairs. +Let us be fair and tell them wherein they are lacking. Capital, from +inherent differences in nature, can never surrender itself to the +absolute control of labor. Capital can, however, give labor, its poor +neighbor, the results of deeper study, of wider view, of larger +experience. It can point out the consequences of mistakes of past +centuries, as, for example, the shortsighted policies of the trade +guilds in England. We can teach the unions that much more than the +payment of dues should be essential to membership; that they are in a +position to demand high standards of conduct. The unions must learn +that if they would be powerful, they must be severe as well as just. +If they desire merely benevolent and comfortable care of their members +they must put away the ambition for recognition. To be respected they +must purge their ranks of the morally unfit. The union must expel the +thief and the drunkard, as well as the thug and the ruffian, if justly +discharged by the company, before it can hope to be trusted as a judge +of capacity. It must learn that the American people will never stand +for the closed shop, the restricted output, a limited number of +craftsmen. + +The failure of the A.R.U. strike in 1894 taught a much-needed lesson. +It put many a good man on the hog train, but it was a terrible warning +to would-be strikers. Did we maintain our advantage? Did we develop +more men and prepare for the great rush of business the years were +sure to bring? Perhaps we did the best we could; perhaps in the name +of economy we maintained too few officials. Perhaps our officials were +so overworked that they did not have time to watch the game. Perhaps +the situation got away from us because the unions increased their +official payrolls relatively faster than did the railroads. Perhaps +the union leaders made relatively greater progress than railway +officials in attracting the men with insurance or profit-sharing +features. The whole question is interlocked with so many side lines +that it is easy to overlook a dwarf signal or two. Be that as it may, +we lost our nerve and shut off too far back in the country when we got +a meeting order for the flush times of 1902. We were so afraid the +other fellow might make a dollar or two if we happened to tie up, that +we yielded the inch which has resulted in the ell of union domination. +A war, terrible as it is, may result in good. There are worse things +than strikes to contemplate. We chose peace at any price, and we are +paying the price. We blame our statesmen and politicians for not +resisting union influence, for being morally responsible for the +uncompromising attitude of union leaders. Why should they open our +firebox door for us as long as we fear to burn our own fingers? The +great comfort in the situation is that we are beginning to wake up. We +have walked long enough in our sleep. The slumbering giant, business +sense, is aroused. The worst is over if we but do our part. The unions +have come to stay. Their extermination, even if desirable, is as +impracticable as liquor prohibition. We cannot surrender supinely. The +solution lies in wise regulation, in education, in the inculcation of +true temperance of thought and action. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +LETTER XXIV. + +THE ROUND-UP. + + +August 28, 1904. + +My Dear Boy:--When you have a conference of your staff, do not +overlook the storekeeper. Even if he reports to the general +storekeeper, he should be on your staff in somewhat the same relation +to you as is the master mechanic who reports to the superintendent of +motive power. If the management, in the last treaty of peace, has +awarded the storekeeper to some other sovereignty, be foxy enough to +invite him to be present for his own good. He will not decline to +come. Then, when you are discussing work trains; when the master +mechanic figures out the engines; the trainmaster, the crews; the +roadmaster, the men; the chief dispatcher, the working hours; the +whole arrangement will not fall down from lack of material which the +storekeeper did not know about in time. Invite the storekeeper out on +the road with you; drop in frequently at the storehouse and see if you +cannot help him out of his difficulties. We all have our troubles. Do +not proclaim your own inefficiency and narrowness by writing the +general superintendent that your failure has been due to the store +department falling down on material. Unless you have kept close to the +game, you may find that you were lame in not giving sufficient +warning; that the stuff was loaded in time but was delayed by the +transportation department waiting for full tonnage. + +When you get to be general manager, do not forget the general +storekeeper. Keep close to him and take him out often. When you become +operating vice-president, do the same with the purchasing agent, whose +position, like that of the general storekeeper, is an evolution from a +clerkship in some general office. Not all of us have realized the +necessary elevation of these places to official status. They, too, +have come to stay. They will survive even the awkwardness of their own +titles. Would not "purchaser" or "buyer," and "supplyman" or +"supplier," be better terms? + +Speaking of inviting people to ride in your car. From operating +vice-presidents down we do not avail ourselves sufficiently of the +company of representatives of the accounting department. They do not +and should not report to us. They, however, compile statistics from +data which we furnish. We want to have our data in such good shape +that they will not misinterpret. As they count our Australian ballots, +it is important for us to know how to put the cross opposite the eagle +or the rooster. On the other hand, the service will not suffer if we +have a chance, on the ground, to show the inconsistency of some +arbitrary requirements. + +I carried by an idea in a recent letter. I asked the man on the +opposite run to take it back; but he, too, had a big switch list and a +time order. So it has been an over in the freight room until now I +bill it free astray. The thought is that our organization should +provide automatically, as in the army and the navy, for the next in +rank available to assume the duties of an absent or incapacitated +official. A superintendent has to be sick or absent for quite a long +time before we designate an acting superintendent. We let the chief +clerk sign for him, an absurd fiction if long continued. Why should +not the assistant superintendent, or, if none, the trainmaster, sign +as acting superintendent as a matter of course when the accidents of +the service take the superintendent off the division? An assistant is +really a deputy, although, with all our borrowing and mutilating of +titles, we have not utilized the comprehensive qualification of +"deputy." The time is soon coming when we shall welcome the +opportunity of making our organization elastic by giving understudies +the title of acting so and so. As we grow in liberality we shall feel +proud to lend one of our men to another road for a few months at a +time to do special work or to introduce some new idea that he has +developed. The other road will be glad to pay the man a good salary, +and he will return to us all the broader and more valuable because of +service elsewhere. We have been meantime training another man for any +vacancy in the grade that may occur. By the same token, we shall by +and by consider it a privilege to get back in our official family a +man whom we trained to our ways in youth, but who has been broadened +by service with different roads. We shall get over considering him as +having lost his rights, as an unpardonable offender against our sacred +civil service. There is never any affection stronger than our first +real love. + +As you master the details of your profession, as you carry out loyally +the policies of your management, keep in mind the possibility of +radical changes. We shall not forever keep up the absurdity of a +Pullman conductor's snap and a train conductor's busy job. When we +each own at least the sleeping and parlor cars local to our own rails, +the conductor will run the train and perhaps work the sleepers, while +a collector will work the coaches and chair cars. When oil burners and +automatic stokers have revolutionized the fireman's duties, when train +orders are unknown, when the position or color of a signal is the only +instruction, we may transfer the command of the train to one of the +men in the engine. When we so protect our trains by block signals or +other devices that to send back a flag is an absurdity, our trainmen +will become starters, and perhaps collectors, with duties not +dissimilar to those of guards on elevated roads. When the much-needed +motor car for suburban and branch service is perfected, other changes +will come. You may not live to see electricity displace steam for +heavy motive power, but you had better not gamble all your life +insurance on such a proposition. + +The tendency has been to limit all the utilities of a railroad to +transportation. Before long we shall, for a time at least, be going to +the opposite extreme. Some of us have entered the pension and life +insurance business, some own coal mines directly or indirectly. Should +we not manufacture our own ice at various points as needed and cut out +some haul? Should we not control the banks in the cities and towns +where we disburse so much money? Why not grain elevators and +industrial plants? Can we afford to manufacture relatively fewer of +our own appliances than that comprehensive organization, the Standard +Oil Company? These questions cannot be answered easily or by a simple +yes or no. They all depend upon time and circumstance. Our trouble has +been a fundamental error in reasoning, a dogmatic generalization from +too few particular cases. Stagnation is usually death to business. As +we cannot back up, it would seem wise to be ready to move forward in +power and influence. Ours is a high destiny. The railway officials of +the future will never be without knotty propositions to tackle. They +will not have to work as long hours as we, but their problems will be +more intense. The injector saves the drudgery of jacking up an engine +to pump her, but it does not warrant sitting down while waiting for +the steam derrick. + +Through all the improvements, real or imaginary, through all the +changes that the years may bring, bear in mind the human element. +Although the race grows better all the time, the old Adam and Eve will +be ever present in all of us. High explosives, armor plate, modern +weapons, modify the conditions of war, but as the Japs and Russians +are teaching us to-day we can never do entirely without the individual +initiative, without the courage necessary for the hand-to-hand +conflict. Some may deplore this condition, but, in the words of the +Salvation Army lassie, I thank God for it. + +For a period covering some thirty years, beginning and ending over a +hundred years ago, an English nobleman and statesman, the Earl of +Chesterfield, man of letters, wrote a series to his son. The morals +inculcated are hardly acceptable in this better age. The manners +taught, the art of pleasing so attractively set forth, have a value +to-day, have made the term Chesterfield a synonym for grace. Lord +Chesterfield's letters to his son were collected to the number of +nearly five hundred and published in book form. He has had many +imitators, and I confess to being one of them. Whether or not he +borrowed the idea from some ancient father I have never sent a tracer +to find out. Now that you and I are to be near enough for +heart-to-heart talks, my weekly letters will cease. Whether or not +they shall be preserved in book form it is up to you to say. + +Affectionately, your own + +D. A. D. + + + + +POSTSCRIPT. + +BY FRANK H. SPEARMAN. + + +When a young army officer, a West Pointer, resigns his commission to +become a railroad man the unusual happens and observers naturally +follow the result with interest. Major Charles Hine was more than a +lieutenant of the Sixth United States Infantry when he threw up his +commission to become a freight brakeman on the Big Four. He was even +then, at twenty-eight, a graduate of the Cincinnati Law School, a +member of the bar and a practical civil engineer. When the country +needed her army men in 1898, Lieutenant Hine, then on the staff of a +Big Four superintendent in Cleveland, secured leave of absence, +volunteered and was commissioned a major of the First District of +Columbia Infantry. After Santiago, Major Hine promptly resumed his +work as a railroadman. He has served as brakeman, switchman, +yardmaster, conductor, chief clerk to the superintendent, trainmaster, +assistant superintendent and general superintendent. He is, by nature, +a student; no task is too onerous to dismay him if there is in it or +behind it something he can learn. Thus he has not only stored away +information, but he has learned how to impart it, and his fund of +shrewd observation and good common sense he has drawn on in writing a +railroad book entitled "Letters From an Old Railway Official to His +Son, a Division Superintendent." + +The letters cover a breadth of ground in railway operation that is +really astonishing to any one who does not know the man behind them. +This is not all; loaded as they are with nuggets of hard, practical +sense in railroad practice, they have a form and finish that make them +doubly attractive. They are short, compact, of an easy and agreeable +style and both lively and humorous as well as instructive. + +Major Hine has long since won his literary spurs as a contributor to +the Army and Navy Journal, The Railway Age and The Century Magazine. +His present book is bright, quick and gossipy, and it would interest a +man that did not know the difference between a puzzle switch and a +gravity yard, but its especial appeal is to the young railroad man of +to-day who understands that whether in the operating department, the +accounting department or the motive power, he must, to get ahead, know +all that he can, and the letters cover as many railroad subjects as +they bear numbers. They will take their place at once in railroad +libraries and in railroad literature. Major Hine--recently doing +special railroad work on the staff of the general manager of the Rock +Island system and at present on the staff of the second vice-president +of the Burlington, specially charged with the subject of company +supplies--may write longer and more pretentious books than this; but +hardly one of more real value to the ambitious young railroad man. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters from an Old Railway Official, by +Charles DeLano Hine + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44853 *** |