recommends rates to honorable bodies like this commission.

Q. Then you in the operating department don't deal with the public?

A. Yes, sir, we do, more and more every year.

Q. Is the traveling freight agent in your department?

A. No, sir, he is in the traffic department.

Q. Then you have no control over him?

A. No, sir, no direct control, but as I said before, we all work very closely together on our road.

Q. It is claimed that there has been discrimination in car distribution in this state, because a traveling freight agent promised more cars to some shippers than the latter were entitled to according to the supply available. How about that?

A. I am unable to say.

Q. Getting back to your narrative, please resume the interesting description of your department.

A. As I was saying, we have several departments, each under a superintendent or other officer. We have a general superintendent, a chief engineer, a superintendent of motive power, a superintendent of transportation, a superintendent of telegraph, a signal engineer, a superintendent of dining cars, and a general storekeeper, all of whom we call general officers in charge of departments.

Q. I thought you said you are the head of the operating department.

A. Yes, sir; that's right.

Q. I don't quite understand. You say that there are eight departments in your department?

A. Yes, sir; that is what we call them. It always has been so.

Q. Then when is a department a department?

A. You see these are really not departments; they are just parts of the operating department which is really a department.

Q. Then, why not have definite designations?

A. I don't know. We have never thought it necessary. We are getting good results and giving good service to the public.

Q. What are results?

A. I am not sure; the longer I live the less certain I am about these things.

Q. I am glad to hear that. This impartial commission has been constituted because some railway officers tried to dictate what was best for this enlightened commonwealth. Now, tell us, please, what you think of the plan the United States government has of making the "bureau" the next unit of organization below the "department"?

A. I have never given government organization much attention. The part of the government that concerns me most is the Interstate Commerce Commission, which seems made up mainly of inspectors.

Q. Have you ever studied the organization of the federal courts, and of the army and the navy?

A. I can hardly say that I have studied their organization, but I have observed them some.

Q. Then you and your road do not give much attention to organization?

A. Perhaps not to theories. We are very practical. I never could see where a railway is like the government. They are very different.

Q. Is not human nature the same in its basic characteristics, whether employed by a railway or the government?

A. I suppose that it is, but many things about a corporation are different.

Q. Is not the government the largest of employing corporations with its citizens as the stockholders?

A. Perhaps so. I would rather go on and tell you something practical about our work.

Q. Pray do so.

A. You see, I am the responsible head, so that I insist upon being consulted about all important matters, and leave only routine affairs to be acted on by my subordinates.

Q. What are important matters, and what are routine affairs?

A. Why, the important things are those that I handle personally, and routine, well, routine is what comes along every day and is so well understood that it does not require my personal attention.

Q. Do you think any three men could agree upon what should be considered routine business?

A. I don't know. I had never thought of it that way. Many things have to be left to discretion. That is where judgment comes in.

Q. Whose judgment?

A. The judgment of the man handling the matter; in this case, my own.

Q. You have been here all day. Who is handling matters in your absence?

A. My chief clerk.

Q. You did not mention him before. What officer is he?

A. He is not usually counted as an officer, but is considered the personal representative of an officer.

Q. Does he sign your name?

A. Yes, sir; but puts his initials under my name.

Q. Suppose he forgets to put his initials. Could you swear to the signature in court?

A. I don't know. You understand that is only for routine business.

Q. Does he sign your name to your personal bank check?

A. No, sir; he does not.

Q. Then the company's business with the citizens of this state receives less careful attention than your own personal affairs?

A. No, sir; the company's business comes first with me. I am a poor man to-day.

Q. When you are away your chief clerk has to sign instructions to the general officers in your department?

A. Only routine matters.

Q. Does he receive a higher salary than they?

A. No, sir; a lower.

Q. What determines relative salaries?

A. Qualifications and experience.

Q. Then you have the less qualified and the less experienced man instructing higher officers.

A. It might seem so, but in our case we are very fortunate. My chief clerk is an unusual man, and is very considerate and diplomatic. He knows that I do not stand for inconsiderate requirements of others.

Q. From whom do you receive your instructions?

A. From our president.

Q. Always personally?

A. Not always; his chief clerk is authorized to represent him.

Q. Is his chief clerk as considerate for you as your chief clerk is for your subordinate officers?

A. That is a very delicate question. I would rather not answer unless the commission insists.

(Hearing adjourned for day. General counsel sends cipher telegram to president stating indelicacy of state officials is almost unbearable; that bankers and business men should petition governor to stop destroying credit of railways.)

All of which, my dear boy, is not as bad as it sounds, but, through difficulty of explanation, points the way to desirable improvements in railway administration.

Affectionately, your own,

D. A. D.

  LETTER IV.

FURTHER GRUELLING OF THE GENERAL MANAGER.

Tucson, Arizona, April 29, 1911.

My Dear Boy:—After the commission kicked for rest, the general manager tied up in his caboose. Nobody was allowed to run around him and he was marked up first out the following morning. The commission not having any agreement about initial overtime, the attorney acting as yardmaster handed him a switch list and told him to dig out these loads:

Question: How many letters a day do you write?

Answer: I don't know, a great many.

Q. How many a day go out of your office?

A. I can't state exactly, probably a hundred or more.

Q. Then you do not see them all?

A. No, that would be impossible in such a large office.

Q. Does the chief clerk see them all?

A. I think he does.

Q. You are not sure then?

A. No, not entirely. I have had no complaints about that.

Q. Is the only way you know about how things are going to have a complaint come in?

A. Not exactly. I try to keep ahead of the game.

Q. Are the offices of your subordinates run in this same haphazard manner?

A. I do not admit that it is haphazard. The general method is the same.

Q. Who is in charge of the distribution of cars?

A. My superintendent of transportation.

Q. To whom are his instructions given?

A. To the division superintendents.

Q. Does he give his instructions personally?

A. The important instructions he gives personally. Of course, he cannot do it all alone. You understand