Further Gruelling of the General Manager 32 LETTER V. Limitations of the Chief Clerk System 43 LETTER VI. Preventing, Instead of Paying, Claims 52 LETTER VII. The Chief of Staff Idea 63 LETTER VIII. The Unit System 73 LETTER IX. Standardizing Office Files 88 LETTER X. The Line and the Staff 100 LETTER XI. The Problem of the Get-Rich-Quick Conductor 112 LETTER XII. The Labor Nemesis and the Manager 126 LETTER XIII. A Department of Inspection, or Efficiency 136 LETTER XIV. Preserving Organization Integrity 146 LETTER XV. The Size of an Operating Division 156 LETTER XVI. Supplies and Purchases 168 LETTER XVII. Correspondence and Explanations 181 LETTER XVIII. Organization of the Ideal Railroad 192 LETTER XIX. The Engineering of Men 205 LETTER XX. The Fallacy of the Train-Mile Unit 214 LETTER XXI. The Man-Day as a Unit 224   Appendix 228

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Letters From A Railway Official

  LETTER I.

THE NEW GENERAL MANAGER.

Chicago, April 8, 1911.

My Dear Boy:—Once more a circular comes to gladden my heart and gratify my pride. This circular announces your appointment as general manager, a position of honor and importance, extensive in its opportunities for good administration as well as for wasteful neglect.

Some seven years ago, when you were a division superintendent, I wrote you a book of letters which caused us both to be taken more seriously than perhaps we shall ever be again. Can T. R. come back? I don't know, I am sure, but your old Dad can and will. For never before in our splendid profession of railroading has there been greater need for the wisdom of old age, the enthusiasm of youth, and the balanced execution of middle life. We, the railways, we the most scattered and, ergo, the most exposed of property rights, are the first of the outposts to receive and to repel the assaults of anarchy and its smaller sister, socialism. Subtle, sinister, and specious is the reasoning which supports the claims of those who single out the arteries of inland commerce as a thing apart, as something immune to the irresistible laws of cause and effect. Shall we sit idly by, because we have had our part? No, my son. In that inspiring painting, "The Spirit of '76," the old man and the boy, equals in enthusiasm, typify the soul love of liberty of an aroused people. Let you and I, therefore, do our little part to call to arms our brethren of a nation-long village street. Perhaps we are only hired hands of imaginary "interests." Perhaps, nevertheless, we are liberty-loving, God-fearing, right-thinking American citizens. Perhaps we do not need to be backed into the last corner before we turn and stand for the God-given rights for which men of all ages have been willing to fight and die. Perhaps the muck-rakers have not procured all the patents pertaining to perfection, potential or pronounced. But be that as it may, you and I can at least be heard, can have our day in the forum of public opinion, which after all is the court of last resort. In the language of Mr. Dooley, the decisions of the Supreme Court follow the popular elections.

What shall we do to be saved? First, put our own house in order that example may protect precept. It is a pretty good house after all. Only eighty years old to be sure, short in epochs of experience, but relatively long in æons of achievement. It already has some degenerate offspring, but mighty few when you consider the rapidity of forced breeding, the intensity of incubation. Transportation,