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RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND 
 WORKING 
 
This volume is published under the auspices of the Advisory 
 Board on Railway Education, whose co-operation with the University 
 of Chicago has resulted in the development of the Chicago courses 
 in railway organization and operation. 
 
 ADVISORY BOARD ON RAILWAY EDUCATION, 1906 
 Chairman — Edward W. McKenna, Second Vice-President of the Chicago, Miwaukee 
 
 & St. Paul Railway. 
 Vice-Chairman — Daniel Willard, Second Vice-President of the Chicago, Burlington 
 
 & Quincy Railway. 
 Secretary — Ernest R. Dewsnup, University of Chicago. 
 
 Alexander F. Banks, President of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway. 
 
 Abraham C. Bird, Vice-President of the Gould Lines. 
 
 William C. Brown, Vice-President of the New York Central Railroad. 
 
 Delos W. Cooke, Assistant General Traffic Manager of the Erie Railroad. 
 
 Frederic A. Delano, President of the Wabash Railroad. 
 
 John N. Faithorn, President of the Chicago Terminal Transfer Railroad. 
 
 Samuel M. Felton, President of the Chicago & Alton Railway. 
 
 Samuel T. Fulton, Assistant to the President of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific 
 
 Railway. 
 William A. Gardner, Vice-President of the Chicago & North- Western Railway. 
 James T. Harahan, Second Vice-President of the Illinois Central Railroad. 
 William Hill, Assistant Professor of Political Economy, University of Chicago. 
 William B. Jansen, Fourth Vice-President of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe* Railway. 
 Harry Pratt Judson, Acting President and Head of the Department of Political 
 
 Science of the University of Chicago. 
 Julius Kruttschnitt, Director of Maintenance and Operation, the Harriman Lines. 
 J. Laurence Laughlin, Professor and Head of the Department of Political Economy, 
 
 University of Chicago. 
 Harry I. Miller, Second Vice-President of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railway. 
 Edward F. Potter, General Superintendent of the Wisconsin Central Railway. 
 
Railway Organization 
 and Working 
 
 A sertes of lectures delivered 
 before the Railway Classes of 
 the University of Chicago 
 
 Edited by 
 ERNEST RITSON DEWSNUP 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
 
 1906 
 
f 5° 
 
 <> 
 
 ^^ 
 
 LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
 
 Two Copies Received 
 NOV b 1906 
 
 Dyriffht Entry 
 
 CLASS A XXc„ No, 
 COPY B. 
 
 <jS? 
 
 Copyright 1906 By 
 The University of Chicago 
 
 Published October 1906 
 
 Composed and Printed By 
 
 The University of Chicago Press 
 
 Chicago, Illinois, U. . A. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This volume is a compilation of special lectures de- 
 livered before the University classes in railway trans- 
 portation during the period extending from November, 
 1904, to May, 1906. It may be said in explanation 
 that the University of Chicago, during the past two 
 years, has undertaken, in association with a number of 
 railways, the training of railway employees with the 
 object of increasing their professional efficiency. To 
 this end, courses have been conducted in a number of 
 subjects bearing upon the traffic, auditing, operating, 
 and other sides of the American railway. One feature 
 of these courses has been the practical co-operation 
 of railway officials in the form of special lectures. A 
 large number of applications having been received 
 for printed copies of these lectures, as many of them as 
 practicable have been collected into the present volume. 
 It is the regret of the editor that he failed to secure 
 others equally as interesting and as instructive as those 
 contained in the subsequent pages. The volume, being 
 but a compilation of scattered lectures, lays no claim 
 to a balanced treatment of the whole subject of railway 
 transportation. There are several obvious omissions 
 which were unavoidable under the conditions sur- 
 rounding the preparation of the volume. Nevertheless, 
 to those acquainted with the literature of railway trans- 
 portation it will not need emphasizing that the book 
 really occupies a unique place. The numerous aspects 
 of the railway service which it treats, the plain and non- 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 technical way in which every subject is handled, the fact 
 that more than a score of railway experts of the high- 
 est reputation have collaborated in its production, all 
 combine to make the volume indispensable to the ambi- 
 tious young "railroader" who desires to< make sure his 
 rise in the service by establishing it upon as broad a 
 foundation of knowledge as: possible. The lack of a 
 concise treatment of the varied aspects of railway opera- 
 tion has been felt for a long time by railway men and 
 the interested public. 
 
 It is' also to> be hoped that the book, and others of its 
 kind that may follow, will have a stimulating effect 
 upon the teaching of railway economics in our universi- 
 ties. The study of this volume ought certainly to give 
 the student of railway economics a more vivid appre- 
 ciation of the organization he studies. 
 
 But in arranging for the original lectures and in 
 preparing them for this volume, the editor has had 
 keenly in mind the influence it may exert upon the 
 rank and file of railway employees, the men from whom 
 our railway lieutenants, captains, colonels', and generals 
 of tomorrow must come. The more efficient training 
 these men can receive, the greater good will they be able 
 toi confer upon the community with whose interests 
 their business is indissolubly connected. One may 
 almost dare to affirm that, in the solution of the so- 
 called railway problem, education is likely to play a 
 more beneficial part than much of the legislation that 
 attracts public attention. 
 
 The educational movements at Montreal, Chicago, 
 and elsewhere are significant. The railways' are feeling 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 the difficulty of finding men equal to the responsibilities 
 of the present complex organization. They are begin- 
 ning to realize the necessity of drawing into their 
 service many of those bright minds that find their way 
 into a frequently thankless professional occupation. 
 Consequently, we find the railways increasingly anxious 
 to learn what the colleges and universities of the land 
 can do for them in this regard. Though hardly under- 
 stood by all at present, to the writer it goes without 
 saying that it is just as necessary and just as beneficial 
 for the railway officer to be trained scientifically for his 
 work as for the civil engineer for his occupation, the 
 doctor for the practice of medicine, and the lawyer for 
 the pursuit of law. 
 
 In the preparation of this volume, I am indebted 
 first and foremost to the writers of the papers', and 
 also to numerous others who have given me assistance. 
 I am indebted to Mr. E. H. Fritch, Assistant Secretary 
 of the Amercan Railway Engineering and Maintenance 
 of Way Association, for the use of some of the dia- 
 grams appearing in the volume. 
 
 The index has been prepared by Mr. C. W. Schroe- 
 der and Mr. A. G. Caldwell, Fellows in Railway Trans- 
 poration, of the University, and I am under obligation 
 to them for the assistance given in this and other ways. 
 
 In an appendix I have included some papers written 
 by students of the classes, which will be found instruc- 
 tive and will serve the purpose of indicating the prac- 
 tical nature of the educational experiment now being 
 made by the University of Chicago. 
 
 E. R. D. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Work of the Law Department of a Railroad 
 Company i 
 
 By Blewett Lee, General Attorney, Illinois Central 
 Railroad. 
 
 The Passenger Department 9 
 
 By Percy S. Eustis, Passenger Traffic Manager, Chicago, 
 Burlington & Quincy Railroad. 
 
 Railroad Advertising 23 
 
 By Charles S. Young, In Charge of Advertising, Chicago, 
 Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway. 
 
 Suburban Passenger Service 37 
 
 By William L. Smith, Assistant to the Second Vice- 
 President, Illinois Central Railroad. 
 
 The Industrial Commissioner 44 
 
 By William H. Manss, Industrial Commissioner, Chicago, 
 Burlington & Quincy Railroad. 
 
 The Problem of Handling Less - than - Carload 
 Freight Expeditiously and Economically at 
 Terminal Stations 63 
 
 By Nelson W. Pierce, Local Freight Agent, Chicago; 
 Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway. 
 
 Office Work ln Terminal Yards 76 
 
 By Ferdinand S. Atkin, Superintendent of Terminals, 
 Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway. 
 
 Car Distribution and the Supervision of Fast 
 Freight 80 
 
 By John M. Daly, Car Accountant, Illinois Central Rail- 
 road. 
 
 The Problem of Car Service 99 
 
 By Walter E. Beecham, Car Accountant, Chicago, Mil- 
 waukee & St. Paul Railway. 
 
 Freight Claims 113 
 
 By Ralph C. Richards, General Claim Agent, Chicago 
 & North-Western Railway. 
 
 ix 
 
x CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Some Notes on Freight Rates 127 
 
 By Ernest R. Dewsnup. 
 
 Organization of the Operating Department of 
 Railroads 141 
 
 By R. H. Aishton, General Manager, Chicago & North- 
 Western Railway. 
 
 The Purchasing Agent 147 
 
 By E. V. Dexter, Purchasing Agent, Chicago & Alton 
 Railroad. 
 
 Ballast 160 
 
 By A. S. Baldwin, Chief Engineer, Illinois Central Rail- 
 road. 
 
 Railway Terminal Facilities 175 
 
 By L. C. Fritch, Assistant to the General Manager, 
 Illinois Central Railroad. 
 
 Railroad Signaling 196 
 
 By Charles A. Dunham, Signal Engineer, Great Northern 
 Railway. 
 
 Classification and Types of Locomotives . . . 212 
 
 By C. A. Seley, Mechanical Engineer, Rock Island System. 
 
 The Compound Locomotive 226 
 
 By W. R. McKeen, Jr., Superintendent of Motive Power 
 and Machinery, Union Pacific Railroad. 
 
 Car Construction 243 
 
 By J. H. Ames, Chief Engineer, American Car and Foundry 
 Company. 
 
 Duties of a Comptroller or Chief Accounting 
 Officer 264 
 
 By F. Nay, General Auditor, Chicago, Rock Island & 
 Pacific Railway. 
 
 The Auditor of Expenditures 295 
 
 By Harry M. Sloan, Auditor of Disbursements, Chicago, 
 Rock Island & Pacific Railway. 
 
 The Work of the Freight Auditor 335 
 
 By W. F. Dudley, Assistant General Auditor, Chicago, 
 Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway. 
 
CONTENTS xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Vitalized Statistics 367 
 
 By James Peabody, Statistician, Atchison, Topeka & 
 Santa Fe Railway System. 
 
 Railway Development in Canada 385 
 
 By William McNab, Assistant Engineer, Grand Trunk 
 Railway System. 
 
 Railway Education 402 
 
 By Ernest R. Dewsnup. 
 
 Appendix 427 
 
 The Differentiation of Duties of the Officials of the 
 
 Freight Traffic Department 429 
 
 Returns from Local Freight Stations 433 
 
 The Handling of Out-Freight at the Illinois Central 
 Out-Freight House, Foot of South Water Street, 
 Chicago 440 
 
 Cost of Handling Freight 447 
 
 The Red Ball System of Handling Fast Freight . . 458 
 
 Per Diem and Car Service Rules ; Their Meaning and 
 
 Application 463 
 
 Index 489 
 
 DIAGRAMS 
 
 A Manifest Fast-Freight Board 90 
 
 Train Block Used on Fast-Freight Board 94 
 
 Freight- Yards — Types of Clusters Opposite 186 
 
 188 
 188 
 188 
 190 
 190 
 190 
 190 
 
 Type of Industrial District Yard 
 
 Type of Division Terminal Yard ..... 
 
 Type of Car Cleaning- Yard 
 
 Type of Inbound Freight-House 
 
 Type of Outbound Freight -House .... 
 Another Type of Outbound Freight-House . 
 Type of Inbound, Outbound, and Transfer House 
 
THE WORK OF THE LAW DEPARTMENT OF 
 A RAILROAD COMPANY 
 
 BLEWETT LEE, GENERAL ATTORNEY, ILLINOIS CENTRAL 
 RAILROAD 
 
 The reason why a special department is made of the 
 legal work of a railroad company is simply that the 
 amount of legal business is so great that, for its syste- 
 matic transaction and economical management, such a 
 department is necessary. This situation is not peculiar 
 to railroad companies, but is the same with any corpora- 
 tions or individuals having a large amount of property 
 or business. All property invites predatory attack by 
 those who wish to obtain it from its rightful owners. 
 The property of a railroad company is peculiarly 
 exposed. Frequently its tracks traverse sparsely set- 
 tled regions inadequately policed. Enormous quanti- 
 ties of goods are subject to its care, and may be lost by 
 theft or accident. The nature of the railroad business 
 is one which is extraordinarily provocative of litigation. 
 
 A large part of the work of a railroad Law Depart- 
 ment consists in giving counsel either by conference or 
 by written opinions. The number of opinions called 
 for every day in a large railroad system is very con- 
 siderable — so great, in fact, that it is usually impossible 
 for the general officers of the company to supply them 
 without distributing the work to> subordinate attorneys. 
 Frequently this is necessary for other reasons, as, for 
 instance, the familiarity of local lawyers with the facts 
 upon which an opinion is requested, or with the local 
 law of the state or municipality which is involved. 
 
2 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 The conduct of the internal management of a cor- 
 poration which owns a railroad is peculiarly under the 
 survey of the Law Department. When a railroad 
 company is organized, it is necessary to> obtain a charter 
 from the state. In addition to 1 the usual reasons for 
 incorporating — which are generally to unite the 
 resources of many individuals for a common purpose, 
 to avoid the incident of the death of its members, and 
 to limit the liability which they incur — a railroad com- 
 pany has an especial need of a charter for the following 
 purposes. The right to take tolls must be granted by 
 the state. Railroad companies are historically the suc- 
 cessors of toll-roads,, such as turnpikes, built by private 
 capital ; or, later, tramways upon which the public used 
 their own vehicles and tolls were paid simply for the 
 use of the way. Still later, railroad companies came to 
 supply the carriages used upon their lines. This has 
 not altered the principle that the state must consent to 
 the taking of tolls. What is still more important, a 
 railroad company must have the right to> condemn land 
 — that is, to compel the owner to part with it at a forced 
 sale for a reasonable compensation. Without this right, 
 the expense of procuring way-lands for any consider- 
 able line would be prohibitive. The state has the power 
 to condemn land for public purposes, and this power, 
 by charter, is given to* the railroad companies. While 
 originally a charter required a special act of the legisla- 
 ture, now in every state there are general laws under 
 which, by filing certain papers and fulfilling certain 
 conditions, a railroad charter can be obtained. The 
 work of obtaining it belongs to the Law Department. 
 
WORK OF THE LAW DEPARTMENT 3 
 
 After the charter is obtained, by-laws must be drawn 
 which provide for the conduct of the business of the 
 company — for its meetings, officers, and internal man- 
 agement. The drafting and amending of by-laws from 
 time to time is legal work. There is also the work of 
 drafting the resolutions to be adopted at the meetings 
 of the stockholders and directors of the company, and 
 the preparation of the minutes for corporate meetings. 
 Nearly all corporate action takes the form of written 
 resolutions, and frequently such resolutions have to be 
 prepared with great pains. In the case of consolidation 
 of different railroad companies into' one corporation, or 
 the purchase by one railroad company of the road of 
 another, the minutes of the meetings of the corpora- 
 tions involved are frequently very elaborate and care- 
 fully framed to accord with the statutes covering the 
 transaction. There is also* the preparation of the con- 
 tracts of the company, which often are of the greatest 
 importance. Leases of railroad properties have to be 
 prepared, and must be drawn with care, so as to protect 
 the rights of both the lessor and the lessee. Agree- 
 ments by which traffic rights are granted to one rail- 
 road company over the lines of another frequently 
 involve much important detail. The preparation of 
 mortgages of the railroad, securing bonds, calls for the 
 greatest care. The financing of a railroad depends 
 upon these instruments, and the most ingeniously elab- 
 orate provisions must be inserted therein in order to 
 tempt capitalists to invest in the bonds, and to provide 
 for them the security to which they are entitled. 
 
 The conduct of the business of a railroad company 
 
4 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 requires the drafting of contracts of very varied char- 
 acter. Crossing contracts are often elaborate in their 
 provisions, especially where an arrangement is made 
 for the construction of an interlocking plant. The 
 contracts for the construction of the railroad bed fre- 
 quently involve great sums, and the most careful 
 provisions are necessary to prevent litigation. The 
 establishment of spur-tracks involves contracts for the 
 protection of the railroad company against fire and 
 other losses, and in the use of the spurs. Where the 
 railroad company is not strong enough to purchase cars 
 straight out, contracts of conditional sale of rolling- 
 stock are necessary. Where way-lands are bought, 
 deeds must be drawn. Leases have to be prepared of 
 the lands of the company, not yet required for railroad 
 purposes, which may be let to advantage. An enor- 
 mous number of licenses must be drawn to parties who 
 string wires above, or lay pipes or other structures 
 beneath, the track. Where, for any reason, it is unde- 
 sirable to commit the railroad company definitely to a 
 given location, or time is necessary to examine land 
 titles, options must be drafted for the purchase of land. 
 Union passenger stations call for agreements of a com- 
 plicated character. Elaborate leases of rolling-stock 
 are sometimes necessary. Traffic arrangements between 
 connecting roads are frequently embodied in written 
 contracts. Contracts may be made to carry express, 
 for the purchase of coal, for compressing and loading 
 cotton, for the transportation of circuses, for the trans- 
 fer of passengers and baggage between stations, and 
 the like. There are forms of bills of lading to be pre- 
 
WORK OF THE LAW DEPARTMENT 5 
 
 pared, covering the contract of shipment of freight, 
 with special forms for the transportation of live stock 
 or explosives. Where railroads are subject to a fore- 
 closure, reorganization agreements may have to be 
 drawn. The use of bridges or terminals also gives rise 
 to elaborate contracts. 
 
 Turning to the subject of litigation, it will be seen 
 at the very outset that the condemnation proceedings 
 necessary for the construction of the line will involve 
 many suits. Damage suits on account of injuries to 
 passengers or employees are unavoidable, and are apt to 
 be very numerous; some involving fictitious, most 
 involving exaggerated, too many involving real, 
 injuries. Claims for injuries to live stock are likewise 
 numerous, and stir up hostility toward the railroad 
 companies in the public mind out of all proportion to 
 the values involved. Fires caused by sparks from the 
 engines give rise to frequent and very dangerous suits. 
 A whole town may be burned by a fire started by the 
 spark from an engine. Railroad companies are, as a 
 rule, insurers of freight carried. Theft and accident, 
 and especially fires, give rise to numerous claims, fre- 
 quently of large amounts. The injury or delay of 
 freight in transit is productive of many claims. The 
 construction of the roadbed constantly gives rise to suits 
 for damages by reason of overflow. Lost baggage con- 
 tributes its quota of claims against the company. Such 
 claims as cannot peaceably be adjusted ultimately give 
 rise to suits, and even before suit is brought, the advice 
 of the Law Department is constantly necessary in the 
 process of adjustment. The company is constantly 
 
6 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 harassed by garnishments of the wages of its employees 
 on its lines, and the danger of double payment is to 
 be guarded against. The arrest of wrongdoers against 
 the company has to be made under legal advice, as, 
 upon failure of any criminal proceeding, a suit for 
 malicious prosecution against the company may be 
 expected. 
 
 The relations of the company to the state make fre- 
 quent calls for the services of the Law Department. 
 Sometimes the defeat of hostile legislation in Congress 
 or by state legislatures requires the services of the com- 
 pany's lawyers. The ordinances by virtue of which 
 railroads are built in cities, their tracks elevated, and 
 their various connections with local industries estab- 
 lished, must be passed upon by the company's counsel. 
 The subject of taxation is one involving continual con- 
 troversy with the state, and frequently gives rise to liti- 
 gation of tremendous importance. State railroad com- 
 missions not infrequently subject railroad companies 
 to the most drastic regulations, and may keep the com- 
 panies in a continual state of contest. Proceedings 
 before the Interstate Commerce Commission have to 
 be conducted, and frequently involve great labor and 
 high technical skill in their preparation. 
 
 In regard to the organization of the Law Depart- 
 ment it may be said that, as in the case of railroad 
 organization generally, it varies greatly, and especially 
 with the size of the company. It is very difficult even 
 to select an organization which can be taken as a type. 
 The highest legal officer of the company is usually 
 called the "General Counsel," but may be called the 
 
WORK OF THE LAW DEPARTMENT 7 
 
 "General Attorney" or the "General Solicitor," al- 
 though this latter title is frequently given to his 
 immediate subordinate. He has, as a rule, superin- 
 tendence of the entire Legal Department, and is fre- 
 quently a lawyer of national prominence, or a man of 
 influence with the powers that be. The position is one 
 which calls for ability of a high order. The word 
 "general" implies that the duties of the officer are not 
 confined to a particular locality, but involve the whole 
 line, or a considerable part of it. Where a railroad 
 extends through a number of states, it is practically 
 impossible for a lawyer to be familiar with the details 
 of the legislation and decisions in all the states, and 
 the necessities of the case require that in any state 
 where a considerable portion of the company's lines are 
 located there shall be a District Attorney, with juris- 
 diction over the lines in that state or a part of them. 
 Sometimes' a State Attorney is appointed, with au- 
 thority over the Local Attorneys of the company 
 throughout the entire state. In each county along the 
 line there is usually a Local Attorney, whose business 
 it is to try cases and to give advice for that county. 
 These duties may even occasionally, though rarely, 
 require his entire time and constitute his sole employ- 
 ment. 
 
 The work of settling claims and procuring evidence, 
 and securing the attendance of witnesses, is imposed 
 upon Claim Agents. It is their business to reach 
 injured persons as soon as possible, and to endeavor to 
 settle claims without delay. Even a short delay in- 
 volves having to pay the claimant's lawyer as well as 
 
8 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 himself. The statements of the various witnesses are 
 taken and reduced to writing by the Claim Agent, for 
 the purpose of enlisting the witnesses, as it were, on 
 behalf of the company, and also of preserving the 
 record of the facts before they are forgotten. The im- 
 portance of the work of the Claim Agents in the set- 
 tling of cases has never been appreciated. A rough 
 estimate has been made that it is about three times as 
 expensive to> dispose of a claim by litigation as by 
 amicable settlement. In some companies the Claim 
 Department is part o<f the Law Department. Much is 
 to be said in favor of this organization, especially in 
 the case of personal-injury claims; some of the ad- 
 vantages being, that the effort to settle is continuous, 
 instead of being dropped when suit is brought, and 
 that the time lost in communication and getting in 
 touch between the Law Department and the Claim 
 Department is saved. Few subordinate officers effect 
 so great a saving in the expenses of a railroad company 
 as good Claim Agents, and a false economy in not 
 having a sufficient number of them, or in not giving 
 them sufficient time for their work, or in not securing 
 men of proper intelligence and ability, is apt to result 
 later in a very serious increase of the company's 
 unavoidable outlays. 
 
 In conclusion, it may be remarked that, just as in 
 medicine it is cheaper and more effective to prevent 
 than to cure diseases, so* in the conduct of the affairs of 
 a railroad company it is very much better to> consult the 
 Law Department before taking a step than afterward. 
 
THE PASSENGER DEPARTMENT 
 
 PERCY S. EUSTIS, PASSENGER TRAFFIC MANAGER, CHI- 
 CAGO, BURLINGTON & QUINCY RAILROAD 
 
 The Passenger Department, some railway officials 
 have said, is like the appendix — of no apparent use and 
 a great deal of trouble. Some people say it is a bureau 
 which makes rules and arranges train service expressly 
 to annoy and inconvenience the public. There is provo- 
 cation for both these statements. 
 
 In a general way, the public correctly understands 
 that the Passenger Department is that which has charge 
 of every detail relating to passenger traffic. From the 
 point of view of the railway man, it is the department 
 whose duty it is to obtain a part of the existing com- 
 petitive passenger traffic, or to develop new business 
 of the kind for the railway; and, as any department 
 of the road is only a part of the whole, it must work in 
 harmony with all other departments toward the success 
 of the whole. There is, however, no well-settled plan of 
 organization for the Passenger Department, no defini- 
 tion of its functions, and no uniform outline of its 
 duties and responsibilities. On some railroads it can 
 hardly be dignified with the title of "department," 
 being merely a bureau or clerkship in charge of some 
 details. On others, the General Passenger Agent mere- 
 ly has charge of getting passenger business for the 
 company; and, judging from' his' actions, his chief 
 intructions are to get business any way he can. 
 
 On most railroads the Passenger Department prints' 
 
 9 
 
io RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 the tickets and distributes them to agents, fixes the rate 
 of fare, and advertises for patronage. The Baggage 
 Department is usually a bureau of the Passenger De- 
 partment ; in fact, on some roads the head of the latter 
 is the head of both. On some railroads immigration 
 work is in charge of the Passenger Department, and on 
 others it is a separate department. Some roads include, 
 as a bureau of the Passenger Department, the Com- 
 missary, for the operation of dining-cars, and this some- 
 times extends to the operation or oversight of eating- 
 houses. On a few railroads the General Passenger 
 Agent also' has supervision of the United States mail 
 and the express traffic, each of which is a business of 
 considerable importance and has a necessary connection 
 with the passenger-train service. 
 
 On all railroads the head of the Passenger Depart- 
 ment toi some extent influences the character of the pas- 
 senger-train service which is offered for public patron- 
 age ; but, as before stated, his duties and responsibilities 
 in this respect vary greatly on the different roads, as' 
 indeed they do with respect to every matter of impor- 
 tance, as well as in regard to minor details having to 
 do with passenger traffic. 
 
 That the Passenger Department is' an important 
 division of the railroad is clear when we realize that 
 there are 207,000 miles of railways in this country, car- 
 rying nearly 700,000,000 passengers annually on pas- 
 senger trains running upward of 500,000,000 miles and 
 earning a revenue for the railroads of close to $520,- 
 000,000, of which more than 80 per cent, is for the 
 transportation of passengers, and the balance is the 
 
THE] PASSENGER DEPARTMENT 
 
 II 
 
 earnings from miscellaneous traffic, such as express, 
 mail, and baggage; the total earning of passenger 
 trains being approximately 27 per cent, of the total 
 earnings of the roads. 1 
 
 There is great variety in the conditions under which 
 the Passenger Department operates. It is one thing 
 in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, where 
 the population is 750 people to the mile of road, and a 
 very different thing in the West — in Nebraska and 
 Colorado, for instance — where the population is but 
 150 to the mile of road. In New England the pas- 
 senger earnings of the railroads are more than 44 per 
 cent, of the total revenue; on the New York, New 
 Haven & Hartford Railway about 49 per cent, of the 
 whole are passenger earnings. But on what is called 
 the southwestern group of roads — those in Texas, Ok- 
 lahoma, New Mexico, etc. — the passenger earnings are 
 but 23 per cent, of the total. 
 
 There is a like wide difference in the passenger earn- 
 ings per mile of road and the earnings per passenger- 
 train mile, as shown in the following table : 
 
 
 Passenger 
 Earnings per 
 Mile of Road 
 
 Earnings per 
 
 Passenger 
 Train Mile 
 
 New England roads, Group i 
 
 $ 6,c6s 
 
 11,268 
 
 1.354 
 
 1,274 
 2,523 
 
 $1.27 
 I.42 
 I . IO 
 
 New York, New Haven & Hartford Railway 
 Southwestern roads, Group g 
 
 Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway 
 
 Average for the United States 
 
 O.85 
 I.08 
 
 
 
 In territory where the population is dense and the 
 
 1 The figures in this and the following paragraphs refer to the year 
 ending June 30, 1903. 
 
12 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 conditions are fixed by long experience, the public 
 everywhere has passenger-train service more or less 
 adequate and satisfactory, and the everyday study of 
 the Passenger Department is to keep such existing traf- 
 fic moving satisfactorily at the minimum of expense, 
 and to increase the revenue by offering new and im- 
 proved service. How very different are conditions in 
 the West, where the population is less per mile of rail- 
 way by 80 per cent ! In one district or state the popula- 
 tion is chiefly urban, with a large class of business men 
 and wealthy people having need or leisure for travel — 
 and money, of course. In another district there are few 
 large cities, and the population is mainly engaged in 
 agriculture — people with a fair average wealth per 
 capita, it is true, but with little need or leisure for travel. 
 It is one thing to increase passenger traffic where people 
 have little money, leisure, or necessity for travel, and 
 quite a different question where a good many people 
 have all of these. In many parts of the United States, 
 in districts larger than European kingdoms, we have 
 railroads with but a small contiguous population, where 
 everything, the railroads included, is in a pioneer state ; 
 and while people in such new settlements are, as a rule, 
 good travelers, there are comparatively few of them to 
 the square mile or to the mile of railroad, and the 
 question of passenger-train service is not so< much one 
 of present profit as of the development of the territory 
 for future profit. 
 
 In a business of such magnitude, conducted under 
 conditions varying according to the size of the road 
 and the territory which it serves, the difficulties are 
 
THE PASSENGER DEPARTMENT 13 
 
 many and the problems important. I will outline a few 
 on one of the western railroads. 
 
 The first in importance is train service. The Pas- 
 senger Agent soon learns that he may not run only 
 such passenger trains as will earn the most money per 
 mile of road at the least expense; the Freight Depart- 
 ment would suffer if he did. In one place, for instance, 
 the road w T ould lose a great deal of live-stock ship- 
 ments if the Passenger Department did not furnish an 
 evening train on which the stock-shipper may return 
 free from his market to his home — a train for which 
 there is, perhaps, inadequate paying traffic. In another 
 place, where a daily passenger train earns but little, as 
 the towns are small and the district agricultural, the 
 Passenger Agent must run a service which the traffic 
 will not warrant; else the people will ship their mer- 
 chandise in, and their products out, by rival roads. 
 Moreover, if this district is not easy of access by pas- 
 senger service for land-seekers and business men hunt- 
 ing new locations, it will not grow as it should. 
 Thousands' of miles of our western railways were built 
 — in fact, are now located — in sparsely settled regions 
 of this kind. The question of today's passenger-train 
 service is not so much one of what will pay now as what 
 will best develop the country for future profit. 
 
 Having fixed upon his train service, by whatever 
 method, the Passenger Agent's next difficulty is that 
 he cannot collect fare from all who* ride. A host of em- 
 ployees are moved about from place to place free on 
 passenger trains, that they may perform their duties in 
 construction or repairing the road, and in transacting 
 
14 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 the business of the railway. To a considerable extent 
 their families are also transported free. All this utilizes 
 the carrying capacity of the trains, which is charged to 
 the Passenger Department. As a rule, no account is 
 taken of this' class of free business called "employees/' 
 but it is very large. 
 
 What is: even worse for the Passenger Department 
 is the other free business. There are a great many 
 reasons for this free traffic. One, for instance, is' found 
 in the case of the stock-man, who commonly goes to 
 market with a car or two of stock on a freight train, 
 but returns home on a free drover's ticket on a pas- 
 senger train. It is also common practice to give passes 
 to newspaper-men along the line. Without at this time 
 dicussing this free list in detail, it is sufficient to say 
 that the aggregate is large. On a carefuly run railroad 
 I have known it to* be 10 per cent, of its entire passenger 
 business, taking noi account of the employees'. On few 
 roads does it run much lower than that, and on many 
 it runs much higher. It does not follow that the issue 
 of these passes is unbusinesslike or unnecessary, and it 
 is only mentioned here to> illustrate one of the diffi- 
 culties with which the Passenger Agent has to deal 
 in making a good showing for his department. No 
 account is' taken, in reviewing the results of the Pas- 
 senger Department, of the free business carried for 
 other departments on the road. The questions asked 
 him are: "How much per mile of road have you 
 earned? How many miles of passenger-train service 
 have been run to accomplish that ? What is the average 
 
THE PASSENGER DEPARTMENT 15 
 
 earnings per mile for each train ? What is the average 
 per train-mile?" 
 
 As a rule, the discussion of results starts with a 
 rather poor average per train-mile, and the head officer 
 immediately raises the question : "Are we not wasting 
 money in running such fast and handsome through 
 trains ?" But a careful review of the average earnings 
 of each train quickly leads to the discovery that the 
 trouble with the general average is not with those 
 trains, but with a host of trains' earning far less than 
 the average, which are run chiefly to protect the inter- 
 ests of the Freight Department, or not for present 
 profit or real need now, but for the purpose of develop- 
 ing a new country. 
 
 Another difficulty presents itself in connection with 
 rates. The manner in which we conduct all business in 
 this country is sufficiently astonishing, and our railway 
 business methods are not the least striking. It is, it 
 must be, like our agricultural business, of wonderful 
 vitality to stand the strain of so much that is foolish 
 and wasteful in its conduct. To me, one of the most 
 foolish things in the conduct of our railroads is the 
 manner of making rates. The law in most states fixes 
 a maximum passenger rate per mile, and an important 
 function of the Passenger Agent is to make his reduc- 
 tions from this figure with good reason; that is, for 
 the greater profit of the road. By the use of the legal 
 rates' per mile, or by agreement between competitive 
 lines, or by some other method, a very reasonable and 
 proper set of standard and regular rates is arrived at; 
 but a lack of good business sense seems to be shown in 
 
16 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 the matter of reducing them for cause. Rates are very 
 sensitive. An apparently sensible and businesslike 
 reduction from the standard rate may be made for the 
 movement of some business' in Illinois today, with the 
 result of establishing a similar basis of rates later on in 
 Nebraska, in a case where there is no good business 
 reason for it. I have often referred to an extreme 
 case, illustrating the sensitiveness of rates, which oc- 
 curred some years ago. The roads from Missouri and 
 southeastern Kansas made certain excursion rates to 
 the Merchants' Fair, or fall festivities, in St. Louis. 
 This' led to other roads making other rates from terri- 
 tory contiguous to St. Louis and to other points; and 
 the influence quickly spread until, as a matter of fact, 
 a certain absurd and unbusinesslike reduction in rates' 
 was made from St. Paul to Boston, because certain 
 apparently businesslike and sensible rates had been 
 made from Joplin, Mo., to St. Louis! 
 
 It is in excercising this function of reducing rates 
 that the Passenger Agent so often errs. In his effort 
 to seek new traffic for his road by reducing the standard 
 rates, he frequently fails to> take account of the effect 
 of such reduction upon all existing traffic, or the traffic 
 of the future, in that or other districts in which he is 
 interested. This unbusinesslike proceeding is not, how- 
 ever, peculiar to Passenger Agents', but is often prac- 
 ticed by Freight Agents, and by those higher officials 
 to whom, as they are my superiors', I shall not refer 
 more specifically. 
 
 The rate of fare between two points having been 
 fixed by some means or other, there is no> way of main- 
 
THE PASSENGER DEPARTMENT 17 
 
 taining it. It is maintained only so long as it is to* the 
 interest of each road to do so. The obligation on the 
 Passenger Department to reduce rates for profit, and the 
 inability in any way to> maintain rates, is a constant 
 source of trouble — one of the greatest we have. The 
 public knows this, and often seeks to make it to the in- 
 terest of one of several competing lines to cut the rate, 
 sometimes by means of an offer to concentrate on one 
 line the major portion of business — for instance, the 
 transportation to a large convention of passengers who 
 would otherwise divide their patronage among all the 
 roads. More often, however, the suggestion to cut 
 rates comes in the shape of a false, and perhaps dis- 
 honest, report that a competing line has offered a con- 
 cession. There is no man so credulous of such false 
 reports as is the average Passenger Agent ; for, as there 
 is' no fixed cost for transportation, Passenger Agents 
 often seek advantage over their competitors by cutting 
 rates, secretly or otherwise, trusting to the Lord that 
 each such cut will bring extra business to> already 
 scheduled trains, and will have no> concurrent bad effect 
 upon existing traffic nor upon the business of the future. 
 In other words, dishonest travelers and shippers con- 
 sider the railway a proper "graft," and the contracting 
 agent a "soft mark;" and he is. 
 
 One might go on indefinitely describing the diffi- 
 culties of conducting a Passenger Department on the 
 average road, presenting important problems, differing 
 on the different railroads and in the different territories 
 which they serve ; but, in the brief time at my disposal, 
 
1 8 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 it seems to me better to outline my ideas as to> what the 
 Passenger Department of a railway should be. 
 
 In the first place, there is keen competition among 
 the roads' in almost every part of this country, not- 
 withstanding all that we read about community of in- 
 terests and mergers; and, in the second place, this is 
 a day of specialties. I have just been reading an Eng- 
 lishman's notes on travel in this country. He seems to 
 have been struck by our great versatility. He says we 
 are horribly versatile, and is surprised at our unlimited 
 exercise of the right of private judgment which, he 
 says, not one man in ten is competent to exercise; and 
 more to the same effect. These passing remarks of his 
 are prompted by his experience on some of our rail- 
 roads. He goes on to> say that, in his opinion, our great 
 versatility results' in our merely putting the thing 
 through — and occasionally we don't. To some extent, 
 his comments are justified; but I think we are coming 
 more and more, in our railway business, to follow the 
 same definite and careful rules that people in other 
 lines of business' are pursuing. It is with this idea of 
 care and definiteness in every branch of the business 
 that I venture to> make the following suggestions as to 
 how a good Passenger Department should be con- 
 ducted : 
 
 i. The head of the department should have real 
 charge of the passenger-train service, and of all the 
 traffic that is handled by it. 
 
 2. He should constantly confer, and co-operate thor- 
 oughly, with the Freight Department — the more impor- 
 tant revenue department of the road — and arrange 
 
THE PASSENGER DEPARTMENT 19 
 
 the passenger-train service with the entire interest of 
 the road in mind. 
 
 3. He should have no responsibility whatever for 
 the movement, or what is called the Operating Depart- 
 ment and should be required, in every particular, not 
 only to co-operate with the Operating Department as 
 with the Freight Department in arranging passenger- 
 train service, but to leave the handling of it to the oper- 
 ating officials. 
 
 4. He should have a Rate Bureau, which should not 
 have authority to make rates, but simply to compile 
 tariffs upon bases' laid down by the chief ; which bureau 
 should be the only official source of rate quotations. 
 
 5. His Advertising Bureau is important. A most 
 ordinary piece of work from that department is the 
 issue of the public time-tables, usually giving a list of 
 agents who will explain what they mean. But real 
 advertising, that which draws public attention to the 
 road as a carrier, is' quite an art. Much money has been 
 spent in advertising which accomplishes nothing, and 
 only recently have the roads commenced to specialize 
 that bureau. Some of the roads which do> this', how- 
 ever, while keeping strict account of all advertising 
 paid for in cash, take no account whatever of the cost of 
 advertising which is paid for in transportation. Nat- 
 urally this results in the issue of advertising tickets' in 
 large numbers to buy advertising which is next to 
 worthless. The chief should carefully block out, from 
 whatever appropriation he has at his command for the 
 year, what work is' to be done by the Advertising De- 
 partment in each special district, and how it is to be 
 
20 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 done: so much in newspapers, so much in billboards, 
 so much in booklets, folders, signs, maps, etc. 
 
 6. A soliciting force should be employed, composed 
 of men who are posted about the road for which they 
 work, and not merely selected because they are good 
 talkers, or liars. It is necessary to travel constantly to 
 give information to the agents who' have to sell the 
 tickets, and to call upon the intending passenger in 
 response to inquiries. 
 
 7. An Immigration Bureau should be organized. 
 The importance of this varies, it is true, on the differ- 
 ent roads, but almost all western roads' have sparsely 
 settled, partly developed territory, and an Immigration 
 Bureau is necessary for that reason. That a road's 
 interests in that respect require careful attention is 
 evidenced by the fact that an Indiana man will move to 
 Texas' or Montana, according to the manner in which 
 he happens to be solicited. 
 
 8. The Baggage Department : Our system of check- 
 ing baggage in this country is easy for the passenger 
 and, all things considered, works very well; but the 
 Baggage Department is necessary to' keep it going 
 straight. 
 
 9. The Commissary Department is, on a great many 
 railroads, considered so special that it is not part of 
 the Passenger Department. But as it does not pay 
 expenses' on any road, and brings business, or other- 
 wise, according as to whether or not it is run to suit 
 the traveler, it appears' to me very necessary that it be 
 just as much a part of the Passenger Department as is 
 the Baggage Department. 
 
THE PASSENGER DEPARTMENT 21 
 
 10. Mail and express traffic should be a bureau of 
 this department. True, the mail compensation is fixed 
 by law, and the usual express' arrangement is a con- 
 tract for so much space, or a percentage of the express 
 company's gross receipts; yet this traffic is moved 
 almost wholly on passenger trains. Mail, express, and 
 passengers' all have their special needs on these trains — 
 the passenger traffic, however, being the important 
 part; and unless all three are considered jointly, some- 
 thing is going to suffer. Undue weight will be given 
 to the claims of one to> the detriment of the others. 
 
 Without attempting to go into details to the extent 
 of suggesting how many titled assistants' would be 
 necessary to carry out such a plan, I have given this 
 outline as' much to- show how the Passenger Agent 
 should classify his business and duties, as to show what 
 these duties and his responsibilities are. ' If the Pas- 
 senger Agent has his organization and his responsibili- 
 ties well outlined in some such way, he can readily con- 
 trol the business of his department. If it is not a suc- 
 cess from every reasonable point of view, the fault is 
 his alone. In case of failure, it will, I think, be found 
 to be due to the fact that he does not get statements 
 enough, and does' not sufficiently study the business of 
 the day. He allows too many subordinates to make 
 rates for him, when he should himself see that every 
 tariff, and every departure from a standard rate, is 
 made for what appears' to be good reason, after careful 
 consideration; or he has a host of traveling agents in 
 the field, at a large expense, from whom he requires no 
 regular reports showing where they have been, what 
 
22 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 they have been doing, and what the results' are. He 
 has arranged his train service on an extravagant basis, 
 or in a manner unsatisfactory to the public, without 
 proper conference with district and local passenger 
 agents, superintendents, conductors, trainmasters, and 
 other employees who are on the ground and can give 
 the best advice. He may not receive — or, if he does, 
 he may not study — the monthly statements showing 
 the earnings per mile of every passenger train run on 
 the road, compared with the past, and the receipts for 
 ticket sales at every station. He may have spent several 
 hundred thousand dollars in advertising, without any 
 definite plan for its' use where it is needed and will 
 count. He probably has no time to study carefully the 
 art of wording an advertisement to attract the public 
 notice, and employs for this purpose a worthy man 
 who does not know any more about it than he does. 
 He may have issued millions of miles of free tickets 
 during the year, without reckoning that it is an expense, 
 with the result that, as he placed no value upon what 
 he gave, he got little value in return. 
 
 These may appear to be exaggerations of the faults 
 and difficulties in the conduct of a Passenger Depart- 
 ment. They are only the leading mistakes we make, 
 and I mention them deliberately and advisedly. 
 
RAILROAD ADVERTISING 
 
 CHARLES S. YOUNG, IN CHARGE OF ADVERTISING, CHI- 
 CAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL RAILWAY 
 
 Railroad advertising of today, like "all Gaul," may 
 be divided into three parts : advertising to the traveling 
 public, advertising to agents' of the home road, and 
 advertising to agents of connecting roads. 
 
 The church will pardon the illustration if railroad 
 advertising to ticket agents be likened unto- home and 
 foreign missionary work. Both are important, and, 
 as with other missionary work, it is always a question 
 of whether more money should be spent in home or in 
 foreign missions. 
 
 Suppose we consider ourselves away from home, 
 and take up foreign missions first. Until a few years 
 ago commissions were paid agents of connecting lines 
 for business routed by them over what we may call 
 "home lines." Those commissions have been abolished, 
 and there is nothing of that nature now to* influence 
 such agents in sending business over the home line. 
 Therefore there is' a great need for interesting the 
 agents in the home line and in its train service. There 
 are a number of different methods in vogue for adver- 
 tising train service to> ticket agents of connecting lines. 
 In all of these methods the mail plays an important 
 part, and the post-office reaps a big benefit. The mail- 
 ing-card and mailing-leaflet are perhaps the most com- 
 mon forms'. 
 
 23 
 
24 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 Mailing cars are sent, by many lines west of Chicago 
 to ticket agents of lines east and south of Chicago, and 
 to ticket agents of lines west of the western termini of 
 the Chicago lines. These mailing cards emphasize su- 
 periority in train service, direct connections, low rates, 
 or other features in which it is' hoped to interest the 
 agents of connecting lines. A few of these, picked up 
 at random from our sample-case, may serve as an illus- 
 tration of what goes through the mail to these agents. 
 One of them calls attention to a low rate to California. 
 The address is placed on the reverse side by addresso- 
 graph machines. The address does not include the 
 ticket agent's name, but reads' for instance, ''Ticket 
 Agent, Pennsylvania Railroad, Harrisburg, Pa.," so 
 that any change in the ticket agent there will not neces- 
 sitate a change in the addressograph chains. Another 
 one calls attention to President Roosevelt's remarks on 
 laying the corner-stone of the new gateway to' the Yel- 
 lowstone Park; also to the choice of routes offered by 
 the Chicago 1 , Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway. Still an- 
 other deals with the possibilities of making money in the 
 cattle business in South Dakota. Probably very few of 
 the ticket agents east or south of Chicago' would or 
 could take advantage of that opening themselves, but 
 they are likely to* receive requests for information 
 regarding such openings. In all of these the rate is 
 the point emphasized, and the name of the line and 
 the service of that line are made subordinate features. 
 
 To vary the monotony of mailing-cards, a leaflet is' 
 occasionally used. For instance, a leaflet, printed in 
 four colors illustrating the autumn foliage of the Rocky 
 
RAILROAD ADVERTISING 25 
 
 Mountains, has been used to call attention to the train 
 service between Chicago and Denver in connection with 
 the attractions of Colorado as an ideal autumn resort. 
 
 An incident that took place in connection with the 
 preparation of a leaflet calling attention to a tourist- 
 car line via the St. Paul road from St. Paul and Minne- 
 apolis to Kansas City and California, shows how impor- 
 tant it is to watch little things in railroad printing. 
 The figure of a small Chinese boy occupied the lower 
 left-hand corner, and the compositor elected to display 
 the name of the General Passenger Agent just below it. 
 We saw the combination just in time to make the 
 change and to escape trouble. 
 
 A card, showing the train service between Chicago 
 and about six or eight prominent summer resorts in 
 Wisconsin and Michigan, and advertising the train 
 service between Kansas City and Chicago, was sent to 
 ticket agents of connecting lines south and west of 
 Kansas City, where the climate is rather torrid in the 
 summer time, in the hope that agents, by the use of 
 these cards, would be able to answer inquiries regarding 
 good summer resorts in the northland. 
 
 Aside from mailing-cards and leaflets, the abundant 
 and regular distribution of time-folders among agents 
 of connecting lines' is an important work. Agents, we 
 are told, will prefer a line whose folders come to them 
 regularly. Most lines issue their folders on the first of 
 each month, and, if agents of connecting lines' can 
 know absolutely that they will receive a folder from a 
 certain line between the first and fifth of each month, 
 for instance, they will have a friendly feeling for that 
 
26 RAILWAY ORGANIZATIONJAND WORKING 
 
 line merely for the cooperation it renders them by giv- 
 ing the information needed. 
 
 Books descriptive of various' resorts and sections of 
 the country are sent in limited quantities. At the larger 
 points on connecting lines' the ticket agent may receive a 
 framed picture or a framed wall-map showing the sys- 
 tem. Newspaper clippings, and page and half-page 
 advertisements from newspapers, are also* sent to ticket 
 agents of connecting lines to remind them of some fea- 
 ture of the passenger service or of some bargain in 
 rates. The use of back pages of newspapers, not only 
 for the purpose of carrying page advertisements to the 
 regular subscribers of the paper, but also to- serve as 
 mailing-slips to ticket agents of connecting lines, has 
 become common. In a recent issue of the Chicago 
 Tribune there appeared an advertisement on the subject 
 of larger sleeping-car berths'. On the opposite page 
 there was an editorial on the same subject. The adver- 
 tising railroad printed a red check-mark over the 
 editorial, and a red hand pointing to the advertisement 
 on the opposite page. Ten thousand copies of the 
 paper were then mailed to agents of connecting lines. 
 
 All of this work — the mailing of leaflets, cards, and 
 newspaper clippings to ticket agents of foreign lines — 
 like all other foreign missionary work, has to be fol- 
 lowed up by personal effort; in railroad work, by 
 Traveling Passenger Agents. Of course, it is' impossi- 
 ble for these to see all the agents or all the coupon 
 ticket agents'. They report to the General Passenger 
 office as to the receipt of this advertising matter in 
 their respective territories ; and if they state that adver- 
 
RAILROAD ADVERTISING 27 
 
 tising is not received, investigation is started to 
 ascertain which link in the chain is broken. 
 
 Coming home from foreign missions, to missionary 
 work among agents of the home line, I shall quote a 
 few paragraphs from an advertising circular issued by 
 the St. Paul road, which, I think, will indicate some 
 important features of this side of railroad advertising : 
 
 TO ALL AGENTS 
 
 The object of advertising by this company is to increase its 
 passenger business. It is important to keep this fact well in 
 mind. 
 
 Newspaper advertising. — Both display and reading notices are 
 provided for by our newspaper contracts. We expect to receive 
 this advertising as the paper expects to receive transportation 
 named in contract. Any failure to secure advertising requested 
 should be promptly reported to your Division Passenger Agent. 
 
 Drop out-of-date advertising. — Out-of-date advertising is worse 
 than no advertising at all. Cut it out. Recent inspection 
 of papers carrying our advertising on transportation basis shows 
 'a surprising amount of advertising for events that have passed. 
 Publishers of newspapers are prone to allow a notice once 
 inserted to run indefinitely. It is easier to do so than to change 
 copy. The interests of the advertiser demand frequent change 
 of copy, and you represent the advertiser. Vigilance is the price 
 of good advertising, and }^ou will probably find it necessary fre- 
 quently to call the attention of newspapers to the fact that our 
 advertising must be published according to directions, and under 
 no circumstances after the latest date given for insertion. You 
 must give the newspaper dates for the advertisements. 
 
 Business follows advertising. — Wherever and whenever possi- 
 ble, inquiries resulting from advertisements should be promptly 
 followed up with a view of securing the business. Following up 
 inquiries forms the connecting link between advertising and the 
 sale of tickets. 
 
28 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 Distribution of booklets. — Booklets descriptive of resorts on 
 the lines of this company and of points reached by its lines are 
 issued to promote business. They will be forwarded to agents on 
 request of Division Passenger Agents, but should be distributed 
 with judgment. They are expensive, and are intended for those 
 likely to travel. 
 
 Publication of news items. — From time to time news-slips con- 
 taining current items of railroad news will be sent you for pub- 
 lication in newspapers with which we have advertising arrange- 
 ments. They will be carefully prepared from a news standpoint, 
 and the advertising feature almost eliminated. If the editor 
 does not care to publish them as news, his action will have no 
 effect on his advertising contract with this company. 
 
 Friendship with editors and reporters. — In delivering these 
 items and advertising, and in handling transportation requests, it 
 is urged that agents maintain a friendly attitude toward news- 
 paper-men. The St. Paul road has received thousands of columns 
 of complimentary publicity from newspapers, and expects to 
 receive a great deal more. This service will be increased, and 
 our advertising handled in a better manner, through the courteous 
 treatment of newspaper-men by employees of this company. 
 
 Advertising to be avoided. — This company has discontinued 
 advertising in programs, booklets, souvenirs, catalogues, direc- 
 tories, special editions of papers, and in novelties of all kinds. 
 We will rely chiefly on the distribution of our own advertising 
 matter, and timely advertising in newspapers, to help the agents 
 sell more tickets. 
 
 Co-operation in advertising. — Suggestions for advertising, 
 and for the improvement of our advertising, will be cordially 
 received and carefully considered by the General Passenger 
 Agent. It is not possible to adopt all the advertising plans sub- 
 mitted to this department, but frequently an agent has an oppor- 
 tunity to call attention to an advertising feature that may increase 
 passenger earnings, and that is what we want. If in doubt about 
 any advertising matter, do not hesitate to consult your Division 
 
RAILROAD ADVERTISING 29 
 
 Passenger Agent or the General Passenger Agent. They will 
 help you. 
 
 It is doubtful whether there is any class of advertis- 
 ing so important to the railroad as newspaper advertis- 
 ing. The publication and distribution of time-table 
 folders is the only branch of the work that can be 
 seriously regarded as competing with newspaper adver- 
 tising for first place. The growth of newspaper adver- 
 tising by railroads during the last few years has been 
 most remarkable. In every case where results have 
 been traced, the increase in ticket-sales has borne a 
 close relation to' the increase in newspaper advertising. 
 This growth has been largely at the expense of novelty 
 advertising. With the progressive railroads the day 
 has gone by when penknives, rulers', ink-stands, 
 envelope-openers, clocks, and other forms of novelties 
 were used for extracting money from the railroad 
 treasury for investment in advertising. 
 
 Of almost equal importance is' the advertising in 
 magazines and weekly publications of national circula- 
 tion. For prompt presentation of a subject of travel or 
 immigration to> the entire country, no> class of publica- 
 tions approaches these in value to' the railway adver- 
 tiser. A small proportion of railway advertising in 
 the magazines and principal weeklies is paid for in 
 advertising transportation, but the bulk of it in cash. 
 
 Within the last few years several railroads, notably 
 those with tracts of undeveloped land to advertise, have 
 used the cheaper weeklies and monthlies, known as 
 "mail-order papers," to great advantage. For reaching 
 the rural readers, who are in the great majority in this 
 
SO RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 country, these papers are in a class by themselves. 
 Advertising designed to attract immigration into a 
 certain field is therefore apt to be most effective in these 
 papers. Mr. J. M. Campbell, who now advertises Ivory 
 Soap, and who formerly established a new and enviable 
 record in advertising the Rock Island System, recently 
 said he thought the immigration advertising published 
 by the Rock Island in mail-order papers had proved to 
 be the best advertising ever done by that railroad. 
 
 Some railroads place their newspaper and magazine 
 advertising through advertising agencies. Other lines 
 prefer to have the advantage of dealing directly with 
 the newspaper, and forego* the slight financial saving 
 made possible by placing the work through an agency. 
 With the metropolitan newspapers most of the display 
 advertising is paid for in cash, and most of the reading 
 notices in transportation. Both display advertising and 
 reading notices in papers of the smaller cities and 
 towns are paid for in transportation. 
 
 The advertising in country papers along the lines 
 of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway is han- 
 dled by the General Passenger Department in Chicago, 
 through the several Division Passenger Agents. The 
 copy is written and sent out from Chicago', but the 
 checking of advertisements is done by the Division 
 Passenger Agent, who, in turn, takes up with the 
 publication, either directly or through the local agent, 
 the question of omission of the advertisements, wrong 
 insertions, or other failure in service. 
 
 The publication of news matter concerning a rail- 
 road that will favorably advertise the road is secured, 
 
RAILROAD ADVERTISING 31 
 
 occasionally in the metropolitan press and more fre- 
 quently in the country press, by the modern railroad 
 advertising department. The news may concern the 
 installation of a new train, the opening of an Indian 
 reservation to settlement, a particularly fast run, or 
 any one of the large number of events that are fre- 
 quently happening in railroad circles, which the papers 
 are glad to> handle as news matter, if furnished with 
 the facts sufficiently early. 
 
 Coupon advertisements have been used by railroads 
 more and more during the last few years. Especially 
 is this the case with advertising that is to be followed 
 up. For instance, low rates to South Dakota, to which 
 state immigration is now strongly directed, is a subject 
 that has been pushed in this way, and with profitable 
 results. These coupon advertisements have resulted in 
 a greater measure of advertising going to papers with 
 large circulation. A count of coupons invariably 
 shows that the greatest number is received from papers 
 of great circulation, reaching the middle classes, rather 
 than from papers of a higher quality, but of limited 
 circulation. On the other hand, the readers' of the 
 higher quality papers are not likely to cut out coupons. 
 Many big advertising campaigns in the last five years 
 have been directed to the great middle class, and, for 
 that reason, coupon advertisements have shown a 
 growth in railroad advertising. 
 
 Railroads make use of bulletin-boards, flyers, win- 
 dow-signs, and electric signs in their advertising work. 
 Many railroads' use electric signs for night display in 
 their city ticket offices. Bill-boards, with eight- and 
 
32 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 twelve-sheet posters, are frequently employed, and 
 painted bulletin-boards are used in the larger cities. 
 The distribution of framed maps and pictures — such as 
 are seen in hotels and ticket offices — and of transparen- 
 cies, is a common practice. Street-car advertising is 
 often met with in larger cities, many railroads using 
 double-space cards. Most street-car advertising is 
 specially directed to some feature prominent at that 
 particular season of the year. 
 
 With reference to> the booklet form, of railroad adver- 
 tising, the copy is generally prepared outside the 
 department. For illustration, take the case of the 
 booklet entitled Lake Lore, issued in June, 1904. Work 
 on the book was commenced in April, 1903. Arrange- 
 ments were made with Mr. Forrest Crissey to> write it, 
 and he spent a good portion of one summer visiting the 
 resorts described. Another book, Summer Homes, 
 gives a list of summer resorts on the lines of the Chi- 
 cago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, with information regard- 
 ing hotels, boarding-houses, rates, etc. A larger 
 quantity of the latter booklets is put out, as the cost 
 of production is considerably less. 
 
 The time-table folders are generally prepared, 
 printed, and distributed by the Advertising Depart- 
 ment. There are nine forms of folders issued by the 
 St. Paul road; but the tendency is to< cut down the 
 number to> one or two> forms. 
 
 Through the editorial end of the newspaper, rail- 
 roads endeavor to secure the publication of news items. 
 These come from various sources, but, like most copy, 
 are finally handled by the Advertising Department. As 
 
RAILROAD ADVERTISING 33 
 
 an illustration, I may mention one which first appeared 
 in the News of Chula, Mo. It was noticed, reprinted 
 in slip form, and one of these slips was inclosed in all 
 mailing matter from all departments of the railway, 
 and from all outside agencies, for several months. It 
 has' been reprinted by over 3,000 papers, and is still 
 going. 1 
 
 The lecture is a popular form of advertising with 
 some railroads, especially western lines. For instance, 
 a number of lectures on the Grand Canon are being 
 delivered throughout the country. These call attention 
 to the natural scenery^ and the advantages obtained 
 through traveling via the particular lines mentioned. 
 There also are a good many lectures' on Colorado, Cali- 
 fornia, and Yellowstone Park. Inquiries from people 
 who hear the lectures are furnished the railroads, 
 
 *A GLEAM OF SUMMER SUNLIGHT 
 
 A SURE 'NUF HURRY UP TRAIN BETWEEN CHICAGO AND KANSAS CITY 
 
 The new train on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway 
 passed through Chula for the first time Sunday night, about three 
 hours after dark. There was no hesitation at Chula town, at least 
 none perceptible. There are no high places in Chula town, hence 
 we question whether she ever touched the track. She just ripped a 
 great fiery hole in the darkness and left the atmosphere heated 
 steam-hot for a second ; then whistled for Niantic or Chicago — we 
 are not certain which. If "Central" had not been closed, we would 
 have telephoned to Chicago to see if she hadn't run clean through 
 the Union Station. She is sure 'nuff a "hurry-up train." Chicago 
 is only about three miles up the track now. She is a gleam of 
 summer sunlight, vestibuled and electric-lighted from the cowcatcher 
 clear back a hundred yards behind the last coach. She is knee deep 
 with velvet carpets, and her cushions are as soft as a girl's cheek. 
 She is lighted to a dazzle and heated to a frazzle. She was built to 
 beat the world, and her gorgeous splendor makes us chuckle to think 
 we have a pass on her. She goes so fast that the six porters look 
 like one big fat nigger. She is called "The Southwest Limited." 
 She stops, going both ways, at Chillicothe, and you can get on her 
 there, but, you'll have to hurry. 
 
34 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 and they are followed up by descriptive booklets and 
 folders. 
 
 Trie story o>f two advertising campaigns, very 
 briefly told may be of interest. In July, 1904, the Rose- 
 bud Indian Reservation in South Dakota was opened 
 for settlement. The St. Paul road first brought the 
 matter to the attention of the public through an inter- 
 view in the Chicago Journal. The interview contained 
 the statement that between 50,000 and 100,000 people 
 were expected to take advantage of the opening. These 
 figures caused some astonishment, and the interview 
 was given considerable publicity on that account. De- 
 scriptive folders, with maps and flyers, were printed 
 and distributed liberally in the East and Central West. 
 A timely Indian sketch was used for all advertising on 
 the Rosebud opening. It was reproduced page-size in 
 black and white in fifty of the best newspapers along the 
 lines of the company. The Saturday Evening Post of 
 June 9 of that year very opportunely came out with a 
 page-and-a-half article, written by Mr. F. A. Miller, 
 General Passenger Agent of the St. Paul road. It 
 was good reading matter, and, in view of the fact that 
 the circulation was something more than a half million 
 copies, it is not surprising that the railway gained a 
 great deal of advertising through it. Although the St. 
 Paul road was more distant from the reservation than 
 its principal competitors, it received the lion's share of 
 the business. 
 
 In placing "The Southwest Limited" — a new train 
 between Chicago and Kansas City — in service in 
 December, 1903, an excellent opportunity was offered 
 
RAILROAD ADVERTISING 35 
 
 for advertising. This was done with folders, 
 blotters, and eight-sheet posters throughout Texas, 
 Indian Territory, Oklahoma Territory, portions of 
 Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado, and in and about both 
 Kansas City and Chicago. One train was started three 
 days in advance, and exhibited in towns along the line. 
 The train was a half-day late getting to Kansas City, 
 because of the great crowds that came out at local 
 stations to see the new equipment. Street-car ads, 
 in addition to newspaper display and mailing-cards to 
 agents of connecting lines, were used to 1 celebrate the 
 day the train was one year old, and, so far as we know, 
 it was the first train in America to a have birthday 
 party. 
 
 In addition to direct passenger business, there is the 
 land and immigration advertising to be handled, and 
 publicity matters in connection with the work of 
 development along local lines — of the greatest impor- 
 tance among western railroads. The St. Paul road, in 
 September, 1903, at a time when some unfair crop 
 stories had started about South Dakota, sent a party 
 of newspaper correspondents to investigate these 
 stories; with the result that it secured the publication 
 of several hundred columns showing actual crop sta- 
 tistics, wih splendid results to South Dakota. 
 
 Most railroads have yearly advertising appropria- 
 tions. Those of the western lines range from $50,000 
 to $350,000 in cash, and double these amounts in trans- 
 portation. 
 
 The number of employees in the advertising depart- 
 ments of Chicago terminal lines' range from a half- 
 
36 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 dozen to fourteen. In the case of the Chicago, 
 Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway there are nine. This 
 includes a time-card clerk, who is responsible for the 
 correctness of every figure in the time-tables' showing 
 the arrival and departure of trains for a system of 
 over 7,000 miles. The principal folder contains 
 seventy-two pages, and is' issued once a month. 
 
 In conclusion, I think the work of real advertising 
 by railroads has just started. There is still a great 
 deal to be done, and there are excellent opportunities in 
 this field for young men of ability and energy. 
 
SUBURBAN PASSENGER SERVICE 
 
 W. L. SMITH, ASSISTANT TO THE SECOND VICE-PRESI- 
 DENT, ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD 
 
 The Illinois Central Railroad system enjoys the 
 reputation, not only among professional railroad 
 men, but among all who are well acquainted with rail- 
 road operation, of conducting the best suburban rail- 
 road service in the world. 
 
 What probably first attracted the eyes of the world 
 to this service was the wonderful record it made during 
 the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. Its achievements 
 during that period were known and discussed, especially 
 by practical men, all over the civilized world, and have 
 been talked about until the present day. From May 
 1 to October 31 of that year the Illinois Central carried, 
 without the loss of a single life, or even an accident of 
 any consequence, 18,339,184 passengers. When these 
 figures are realized, and it is considered what was re- 
 quired in the way of train movement and service, this 
 result is almost beyond belief. Nothing nearer per- 
 fection has ever been known in the annals of railroad 
 operation. More amazing, however, even than this is 
 the fact that on one day during the Fair — Chicago Day 
 — this road safely handled 505,125 passengers — more 
 than one-half of a million people, or about one-fourth 
 of the entire population of this great city at the present 
 time. 
 
 From reliable sources it has been ascertained that 
 
 37 
 
38 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 the total number of passengers' carried, at the present 
 time, by suburban lines in the United States is about 
 135,000,000 per annum. Of these the Chicago lines 
 carry approximately 29,000,000 — not far from one- 
 fourth of the entire number. The Illinois Central alone 
 carries about 15,000,000, which is over one-half of the 
 whole number carried in Chicago, and nearly 12 per 
 cent, of the total number carried in the United States. 
 
 Having thus gained, from reliable statistics, an idea 
 of what the suburban carrying roads have done, and 
 what they are "up against" — to borrow an expressive 
 slang phrase — let us next consider briefly some features 
 of the manner in which suburban service is performed, 
 taking as a basis — and I believe the best — the operation 
 of the Illinois Central at Chicago. I have been em- 
 boldened to say the "best" partly by a remark made to 
 me only recently by the President of the great Rock 
 Island system, who' knows a great deal about suburban 
 service, as well as about all other branches of the rail- 
 road business. As he sat in one of our suburban cars, 
 it gave me great pleasure to hear him say, with positive 
 emphasis, that our suburban service was "the very best 
 in the country." 
 
 It has been said that railroads pave the way to civili- 
 zation. With as much truth it may be asserted that 
 suburban service, as much, or possibly more, than any 
 other one factor, builds up the great cities' of the world. 
 The principal requisites of such service are safety, com- 
 fort, and speed, in the order named. 
 
 The Illinois Central runs over three hundred subur- 
 ban trains' daily in Chicago, and handles safely from 
 
SUBURBAN PASSENGER SERVICE 39 
 
 40,000 to 50,000 passengers each day, over a total of 
 fifty-six miles of suburban lines. By far the larger per- 
 centage of that number is carried between the hours of 
 7 and 9 o'clock in the morning, and 5 and 6 130 o'clock 
 in the evening. The average train mileage per month is 
 about 100,000, and as' each train averages nearly five 
 cars, this is equivalent to a car mileage per month of 
 approximately 500,000, or 6,000,000 car-miles in one 
 year. What this means to a city of two million or more 
 people, in their daily and nightly pursuits of business 
 and pleasure, can hardly be estimated. 
 
 The Illinois Central has eight tracks over nearly the 
 entire territory in which it operates suburban trains. 
 Of these tracks two are used for regular passenger 
 trains, two for freight trains, two> for suburban express' 
 trains, and two for suburban local trains. Of course, 
 each track is used by trains' of the classes mentioned 
 running in the same direction. These tracks are laid 
 with the heaviest and best steel rails, and every inch is 
 carefully inspected day and night to keep them in as 
 nearly perfect condition as human agency can accom- 
 plish. With a perfect roadbed, block signals, inter- 
 locking switches, and elevated tracks for miles, without 
 crossings' of any kind to> interfere with the movement 
 of trains, it is possible to make the highest speed, and 
 with almost absolute safety. 
 
 During the rush hours in the morning and after- 
 noon, suburban trains arrive at and depart from Ran- 
 dolph Street about two minutes apart; and, to get a 
 good idea of the perfection of the system under which 
 they are operated, one should notice, at one of the inter- 
 
40 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 mediate stations, how both local and express trains 
 closely follow each other, receiving or discharging their 
 "precious cargoes of humanity" almost in a constant 
 stream. From experience and observation, Chicagoans 
 do not appreciate this service more than during the 
 long, cold winter months, when they can, almost with- 
 out exception, find these trains on time, and the cars as 
 warm and comfortable as the home fireside. I have 
 heard a number of persons say that they find this 
 travel a real recreation, during which they read the 
 newspaper, and find a few minutes for pleasant di- 
 version from business cares. Some of the more senti- 
 mental refer to the scenic features of the great lake, 
 with its various beauties' for many miles, on one side, 
 and the great city of Chicago, with its "towering monu- 
 ments" and "stately mansions," on the other. 
 
 As "in each life some rain must fall," so of this 
 suburban transportation, which many men of many 
 minds and of massive brains have striven to perfect, 
 some will complain, not stopping to> draw the "deadly 
 parallel," as the newspaper-men say, between such 
 service as we are here discussing and other kinds which 
 might be mentioned, did delicacy not forbid. When 
 one can and does' travel for miles with the comfort and 
 safety here described, there should be no fault found 
 with the time. The railroad furnishes the maximum 
 facilities for the prompt and safe movement of pas- 
 sengers, according to their general daily habits of com- 
 ing and going, so to speak, but at times the people seem 
 to come all at once, and, as they want to go in the same 
 direction, the train is crowded, and some fail to* get a 
 
SUBURBAN PASSENGER SERVICE 41 
 
 seat. This' inconvenience, however, lasts only a few 
 minutes at most. As usual, there are two sides to the 
 problem. On a certain evening, a short time ago, 
 there was a great crowd at the Van Buren Street sta- 
 tion. A local suburban train, with three large side-door 
 cars, each with a seating capacity of one hundred, came 
 along. Every car was filled until there was no standing 
 room, and the conductor said he had over five-hundred 
 passengers. I was one of the number. I knew that 
 another train was not far behind, and got off at the first 
 station. In less than five minutes another train, with 
 identically the same equipment and capacity, followed, 
 with a total of lessiihan one hundred passengers. I 
 think this illustration explains itself. 
 
 The successful handling of the World's Fair traffic, 
 mostly by side-door cars, resulted in the invention by 
 our company of a greatly improved side-door car, a 
 number of which have recently been put into regular 
 service. The following is a partial description of it: 
 steel construction throughout of the underframe and 
 upper frame, giving greater protection to the passengers 
 against accidents and from fire; a floor plan combining 
 with transverse seats an aisle on each side of the car, 
 affording access to every part of the car from either 
 side ; side-doors which slide within the walls of the car, 
 and end-doors' with vestibules connecting all the cars, 
 affording access from within to every part of the train ; 
 carrying capacity far in excess of any other car, with 
 seats for the largest number of passengers; perfect 
 system of lighting, heating, and ventilation; electric 
 connection between the side-doors of the entire train 
 
42 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 and the locomotive, giving signal automatically to> the 
 engineman of the opening and closing of doors ; abso- 
 lute control by the trainmen of the opening and closing 
 of the side-doors; inability of passengers to> expose 
 themselves ten danger; rapidity of loading and unload- 
 ing passengers without disturbance of those who re- 
 main in the cars' ; distribution of passengers throughout 
 the car or the entire train after it has resumed motion ; 
 distribution of passengers evenly on station platforms', 
 with assurance that the train can be entered conven- 
 iently at any point ; short stops at stations', with conse- 
 quent improved train schedules. 
 
 This' side-door car is seventy-two feet long and ten 
 and one-half feet wide. It has a seating capacity of one 
 hundred. The "old-style cars," as they are now called, 
 are of twoi sizes, with a seating capacity of forty 
 and fifty-six, respectively. So rapid is the method of 
 operating the side-door car that one hundred passengers 
 have been discharged from a car at a terminal station in 
 four seconds; and ordinary stops at intermediate sta- 
 tions, where many passengers leave and enter the train, 
 are made in six te> eight seconds. Since the introduc- 
 tion of these cars', the number of accidents to pas- 
 sengers, always comparatively few and trivial, has' 
 decreased. 
 
 What are known as "tank locomotives/' or locomo- 
 tives carrying a supply of fuel and water upon their own 
 frames, instead of upon separate tenders, are used 
 almost exclusively for this service, and it is' the most 
 extensive use of this class of locomotives in the country. 
 These locomotives are approved for suburban service 
 
SUBURBAN PASSENGER SERVICE 43 
 
 on account of being more compact, and cheaper to oper^ 
 ate and maintain. They run without being turned, and 
 are safe when the engine is running with the tank 
 ahead. Express trains are run between Van Buren 
 Street and Hyde Park, a distance of about six miles, 
 without a stop. 
 
 The suburban service of the Illinois Central includes 
 a number of special features, such as regular fast 
 through special trains, making long distances without 
 stops, for the benefit of business men; also special and 
 regular trains for golf-players and picnic parties, as 
 well as for the accommodation of all classes of people. 
 The service is not entirely confined to the carrying of 
 passengers, special cars being fitted up for the expedi- 
 tious handling of mail and express. 
 
 It would take us too* far afield to enter into a similar- 
 ly detailed discussion of other features of the service; 
 e. g., how station and train platforms are on the same 
 level; how train platforms are railed, and closed in 
 with gates, to minimize the risk of accident ; how elec- 
 tric bells at station waiting-rooms announce the ap- 
 proach of trains; etc., etc. After all, suburban, like 
 any other kind of railroad service, to be the best must 
 be properly managed, and this is the secret of the Illi- 
 nois Central Company's success from the World's Fair 
 period to the present moment. 
 
THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSIONER 
 
 WILLIAM H. MANSS, INDUSTRIAL COMMISSIONER, CHI- 
 CAGO, BURLINGTON & QUINCY. RAILROAD 
 
 The pre-eminent factor in all business of modern 
 times is the tendency toward concentration, and in this, 
 as in all things, it is the direction in which we are 
 moving that determines the final destination. We may 
 not agree as to> the contributing causes, but we must 
 recognize the fact that both in the United States and 
 in Europe, where different conditions prevail, the high- 
 est efficiency of production at the minimum expenditure 
 of labor and capital is the result of concentration. This 
 concentration means centralization of power, and cen- 
 tralization of power means specialization. Specialists 
 of the highest capacity must be secured for the manage- 
 ment of the various departments. 
 
 The railroads are representative of this concentra- 
 tion in business, as each department is managed by a 
 trained specialist. As President Hadley, of Yale, has 
 said: "Among all our important industries the rail- 
 way is the one which has most quickly and completely 
 felt the effects of modern methods in the handling of 
 capital." The Freight Traffic Manager knows more 
 about freight rates, freight-handling, freight classifi- 
 cation, than any man of the railroad. Under him are 
 the tariff clerks, the classification men, the solicitors, 
 etc., with their specialties; all, however, in the last 
 analysis subject to' the Traffic Manager. This is true 
 
 44 
 
THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSIONER 45 
 
 of every department of the railway service. No official 
 presumes to interfere with the management of any 
 department not directly under his supervision ; for such 
 interference would be a gross violation of the unwritten 
 law of railroad etiquette. That this is the day of the 
 specialist is more marked in the railway service than in 
 any other branch of modern industrial life. I have 
 gone into this concentration and specialization in rail- 
 roading at some length in order to show why the 
 creation of new traffic and the development of territory 
 contiguous to the railroad have been assigned to one 
 department — the Industrial Department. 
 
 The creation of new traffic is not a modern develop- 
 ment of railroads. American roads from their incep- 
 tion were built to create new traffic. Herein lies one 
 difference between American and European railroads. 
 Europe, with her centuries of development and dense 
 population, built her railways to accommodate existing 
 traffic, both freight and passenger. The builders knew 
 approximately how much traffic they could figure on, 
 before a mile of road was laid. In America the situa- 
 tion was that of a sparsely settled country; the larger 
 part of the territory through which the contemplated 
 roads were to run was yet in the possession of the 
 government, waiting for settlers. The roads were built 
 for the purpose of creating traffic, of settling with im- 
 migrants and pioneers the vast prairies, of building 
 towns and enlarging the scope of their mercantile activi- 
 ties, and, with the increase of population and wealth, 
 of establishing factories and converting the raw ma- 
 terials into finished products. So, I repeat, it is not a 
 
46 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 new movement on the part of the railroads to< create 
 new traffic. The assigning of this work to a new and 
 separate department is the result of concentration, and 
 of the recognition of the fact that the creation of new 
 traffic is a business in itself, demanding a specialist to 
 study, plan, and execute as in every other department. 
 Why the Industrial Department is a development of 
 the closing years of the nineteenth century, rather than 
 dating back to the beginning of the railways and their 
 organization into departments, becomes apparent when 
 we stop to consider some of the economic changes of 
 the United States. We are called an agricultural na- 
 tion. It took from the time of Washington's eighth an- 
 nual message to Congress in 1796 to the days of the 
 Civil War to pass a bill establishing the Department of 
 Agriculture. It required twenty-six years more before 
 its secretary was recognized as a member of the Presi- 
 dent's cabinet. When the lands of the East became ex- 
 hausted, the West still had large areas open for the 
 homesteader. These lands were at the disposal of the 
 government, and were all in the rain-belt. About the 
 year 1890 a marked change was noticed. Since that 
 date all free lands at the disposal of the government are 
 found in the arid — or, strictly speaking, the semi-arid — 
 regions, where the average rainfall is only from twelve 
 to sixteen inches per annum. Cut off from migrating 
 to the free lands in the rain-belt of the West, the eastern 
 farmer commenced to pay more attention to scientific 
 farming. The attention of Congress was called to the 
 great possibilities of irrigation, and the Department of 
 Agriculture looked to similar regions of Asia and 
 
THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSIONER 47 
 
 Europe for seeds and plants to be grown in our semi- 
 arid regions, with the hope of larger results. Irrigation, 
 however, is limited to the water supply of the rivers, 
 and its danger lies in an overproduction of ditches, 
 which will mean discontent and trouble. Semi-arid 
 cereals must find their places in the markets of the 
 world, and machinery must be created for their utiliza- 
 tion and education for their adoption. 
 
 The passing of the free lands in the rain-belt had, 
 however, a greater effect upon the industrial history 
 of the United States than it had upon the agricultural ; 
 for the year 1890 is an epoch-making one in the com- 
 mercial life of the nation. Before then the farms of 
 Europe contributed the largest number to the population 
 of the United States', and those who follow the reports 
 of the Immigration Bureau will notice that before 1890 
 the Teutonic,. Anglo-Saxon, and Celtic races predomi- 
 nated. Since then, however, the Slavic and Latin races 
 have contributed the largest number of our adopted 
 citizens. They are recruited in large part, not from 
 the farms, but from the congested cities and towns, 
 and from the factories and the mines, of the continent. 
 Before 1890 the faces of the immigrants were turned 
 toward the growing West and the possibilities it con- 
 tained ; but today the city nearest to their port of land- 
 ing keeps the majority of them. The open air, the bat- 
 tle with nature, the mastery for a home and a farm, 
 were then the short history ; today it is the shop and the 
 factory, and the wage-earner — one of a procession of 
 flat- or tenement-renters. 
 
 This is true, not only of the immigrant, but of the 
 
48 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 American-born citizen. In the growth of families, the 
 farm became too> small to support the second genera- 
 tion. An outlet had to be found. If farming were to 
 be the vocation, some must leave the home to go where 
 free or cheap lands were still available. Canada thus 
 attracted many. It is stated that over fifty thousand 
 American citizens emigrated to Canada in 1904, to< be- 
 come members oi another nation. The population of 
 some states — as, for instance, Iowa — is reported to> have 
 decreased from 1900 to 1905. The farms could not 
 provide a living for this generation, and they must seek 
 other fields of activity. To what could they turn but 
 to the industries? In 1880, 44 per cent, of the total 
 population of the United States were engaged in agri- 
 cultural puruits, and only 32 per cent, in commercial 
 and industrial life; whereas in 1900 only 35 per cent, 
 followed agriculture, and over 40 per cent, the 
 industries and commerce. The growth o>f our cities is 
 also indicative of the change toward industry. Since 
 1890 over 37 per cent, of our people live in towns of 
 four thousand or more, whereas before that not more 
 than 22 per cent, were found in towns. 
 
 In 1900 we had 44 per cent, more factories, 50 per 
 cent, more capital invested in manufacturing, 25 per 
 cent, more laborers in those factories, and the annual 
 value of the output was worth 40 per cent, more than 
 before 1880. In i860, 81 per cent, of our exports con- 
 sisted of agricultural products, but in 1900 they 
 amounted to only 60 per cent. During the same period 
 our manufactured products increased from 12 to 32 
 per cent, of our total exports; and this increase has 
 
THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSIONER 49 
 
 risen to larger proportions since 1900, some estimating 
 it as high as 45 per cent. As an exporting people we 
 rank third. Summing up, our manufactured exports 
 have increased 483 per cent., whereas our exports 
 of agricultural products are but 71 per cent, of what 
 they were before the war. It might also be interesting 
 to note the increased amount of coal, iron, cotton, etc., 
 that we are using, as compared with the five great 
 nations of Europe, but the time at our disposal will 
 not allow this. 
 
 It is evident, then, that the Industrial Department 
 is the result of the natural development and economic 
 changes of our nation. How best to meet these condi- 
 tions, and to present the advantages which the rail- 
 roads had to offer to manufacturers in the way of raw 
 materials, fuel, labor, and market, was the problem 
 that the managements of the roads had to solve. With 
 the press of their own duties, the heads of other depart- 
 ments could not devote the necessary time to make a 
 careful industrial study of the territory through which 
 the road ran, to devise ways and means for interesting 
 manufacturers or local capital, nor to establish indus- 
 tries and develop raw materials. What is everybody's 
 business is nobody's business, and the many activities 
 needed for the creation of conditions conducive to in- 
 dustrial development demanded a specialist. Such a 
 specialist, called the "Industrial Commissioner," is to- 
 day an official of many railroads. 
 
 What are the essential requirements of an Industrial 
 Commissioner? Concerning this there may be a dif- 
 ference of opinion, as every road has its own peculiar 
 
5© RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 problems demanding* a man of temperament and train- 
 ing able to deal with those conditions. 
 
 The Industrial Commissioner must be a student of 
 human nature — a man accustomed to deal with people. 
 His office is much frequented by persons seeking infor- 
 mation, asking advice, or presenting propositions. He 
 can save much time, expense, worry, and misunder- 
 standing if he can read character. There are promo- 
 tions, and schemes of promotions, between which the 
 Commissioner is called upon to differentiate. "To err 
 is human," but corporations are looking for results, 
 and one can be busy about trivial things and neglectful 
 of the larger. 
 
 The Industrial Commissioner should be a student of 
 political economy. Thus he is able to note the changes 
 taking place, and, with a resourcefulness common to 
 all developers, to adapt methods to the changed condi- 
 tions. He should have what we might call a speaking 
 acquaintance with all manner of business. A manu- 
 facturer seeking a location is favorably impressed when 
 he learns that you know, if only in a casual way, some- 
 thing about how he does things. Thus you are enabled 
 to speak more intelligently on the sources of the raw 
 material, the fuel supply and its amount, the market 
 for the finished product, and the class of labor em- 
 ployed. With such information a bond of sympathy 
 between yourself and the person seeking a location is 
 established, and this confidence will be of great assist- 
 ance in the competition for the locating of the plant. 
 
 The Commissioner should know the relative amounts 
 of certain commodities produced, and the total imports 
 
THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSIONER 51 
 
 and exports. This is of great value in soliciting capital 
 for opening mines, developing raw materials, establish- 
 ing new factories, or in preventing some of the com- 
 munities along the road from making investments 
 which, in the very nature of things, would mean failure 
 or long discouraging years of adversity. Advice from 
 railroads, I appreciate, is gratuitous, but many Indus- 
 trial Commissioners have received the gratitude of 
 communities, not only for locating an industry, but for 
 dissuading them from locating certain others. There 
 is such a thing as having too many factories of one 
 kind, and their establishment means that the "For 
 Rent" sign sooner or later will be nailed to the front 
 door. These vacant factory buildings are a menace 
 to the establishment of other industries. In agricul- 
 tural sections, where money heretofore has largely been 
 invested in farms and farm mortgages, one industrial 
 failure becomes the slogan of the so-called conservative 
 element of the community. A tombstone makes a 
 marked impression. 
 
 In seeming antithesis to the foregoing, I would name 
 the attribute of optimism as essential to a successful 
 Industrial Commissioner. I do not mean by optimism 
 either an oriental imagination or the quality of seeing 
 everything as blue sky; for our economic life depends 
 ultimately upon our relations with material things. The 
 dreamer is essential to life's progress ; but an Industrial 
 Commissioner is one who has been on the mountain- 
 top and beheld the possibilities, and then has entered 
 the valley of work to realize his vision. We may call 
 it optimism in service, which calls forth all reserve 
 
52 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 patience, tenacity of purpose, untiring effort, and faith 
 in the ultimate outcome. 
 
 To the peculiar traits which each man possesses, pro- 
 phetic as they are of his success or failure, must be 
 added the spirit of co-operation. There is no> depart- 
 ment of the railroad where co-operation is more de- 
 manded than in the Industrial Department. It depends 
 more or less upon every branch of the service, and 
 requires the assistance of many an employee. This 
 may seem a strong statement; therefore let me illus- 
 trate. A manufacturer is contemplating a location. 
 To locate him to mutual advantage, the Industrial 
 Commissioner must consult the Freight and Passenger 
 Departments on the question of rates; in case of side- 
 tracks, the Operating and Engineering Departments 
 must be conferred with; should there be a lease of 
 company land involved, the Real Estate and Tax Agent 
 must give his recommendation; the question of con- 
 tracts must be decided by the Law Department; the 
 Auditing, Claim, and Advertising Departments like- 
 wise are involved ; and at all times the executive officers 
 are consulted relative to plans and methods. The suc- 
 cess of an Industrial Commissioner is largely due to 
 the active co-operation and assistance he receives from 
 every department and employee of the road. 
 
 As the superintendent of a factory familiarizes him- 
 self with his plant, its machinery, and his men, so must 
 an Industrial Commissioner acquaint himself with the 
 territory through which his road runs. If he can know 
 it for thirty miles on both sides of the rails, so> much 
 the wiser is he. He ought to spend the first six months 
 
THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSIONER 53 
 
 of his time on the road, putting himself in close touch 
 with the factories, their owners and managers, and 
 the business men of the towns ; studying the conditions 
 to learn where the raw material is found, and the 
 prejudices for and against certain kinds of industries. 
 This knowing and becoming known is of much assist- 
 ance in the correspondence which will follow. It is 
 more satisfactory to correspond with a man you have 
 met than with an utter stranger. You are thus able 
 to cultivate a spirit of co-operation, and to send seekers 
 of locations where they will meet a hearty and attentive 
 reception. Prospective manufacturers have been lost 
 to roads because they were sent to< towns which were 
 prejudiced against their kind of manufacturing, and 
 because they, reasoning from the particular to the 
 general, concluded that the railroad was opposed to 
 locating an industry like theirs on the line. While 
 becoming personally acquainted with the various 
 officers and agents of the road, the towns and their 
 representative citizens, a complete census of every town, 
 village, and hamlet along the system should be made. 
 The population of a town and o>f its surrounding 
 territory naturally is important to< every prospective 
 manufacturer, as on that depends the supply of labor. 
 Nationality also* is important. There are racial char- 
 acteristics in trades as in politics and religion. Certain 
 nationalities are more skilled in some lines o>f manu- 
 facturing than in others, and some manufacturers prefer 
 and require certain nationalities because of their past 
 experience. The assessed value of the town and the 
 tax-rate are closely scrutinized. The death-rate indi- 
 
54 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 cates the health fulness of the place. Every merchant 
 and manufacturer needs the services of the banks, and 
 he wants to know their number, amount of deposits, 
 total capitalization, and the provisions for savings 
 banks or loan associations for his employees. If hard 
 times come, the so-called country bank takes a personal 
 interest in a local corporation, and is more willing to 
 provide funds than the large city institution. 
 
 Some towns have suffered from, a want of manu- 
 facturing activity because of the unfitness of the water 
 supply for boiler purposes. In some towns factories 
 cannot be induced to locate because the citizens, fearing 
 an increased tax-rate, have voted against a water sys- 
 tem, and thus are not able toi provide fire protection. 
 
 A complete list of every industry on the system is 
 essential to the Industrial Commissioner, that he may 
 know the kinds of industry, the number of hands em- 
 ployed, and approximately the amount of business 
 done in each town. By ascertaining this, manu- 
 facturers can determine, before seriously considering 
 a city, whether they can, with advantage, locate there, 
 and whether their line of manufacturing will conflict 
 with, complement, or co-ordinate with the existing 
 industries. For instance, from, these reports a foundry 
 seeking a location could obtain information as to the 
 number of factories using castings, the kind and 
 amount, and whether a local market for its products 
 existed. 
 
 The subject of climatic conditions, as' they affect 
 labor, is an interesting one, on which I shall not, how- 
 ever, enter here. Suffice it to say that in the rigor of 
 
THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSIONER 55 
 
 the arctic regions, because of the benumbing tempera- 
 ture, long nights and short days, scant supply of food 
 and fuel, great economic strides cannot be made. In 
 the tropics, with the profligacy of nature and enervating 
 heat, activity is not looked for. The temperate zone is 
 the home of the greatest economic progress. The 
 changing seasons and the environment have much to 
 do with the success of labor. 
 
 Another important item is the labor and cost of 
 labor. This, and the question of fuel, raw materials, 
 and market for the commodity, are the four chief con- 
 siderations. Many factories move in order to change 
 their labor problem. Hence it is important to know 
 what percentage of the people own their homes, and 
 the politics of the town — not the partisan politics, but 
 whether the predominating political power is in the 
 hands of the men who own their homes, or in those of 
 the renters; whether equity and justice prevail, and 
 protection is afforded. The class of labor, the market 
 for securing labor, the intelligence of the community, 
 the educational and religious advantages for the 
 family, and the character of labor utilized, male or 
 female, must be known. Where the father and brother 
 find employment, and the girl cannot, the family is 
 likely to move to a place where all members desiring 
 work can be accommodated. Often factories are in 
 demand which employ none but women, in order to 
 give employment to girls already there and to induce 
 other families to move to the town, thus increasing the 
 supply of male help. The price of labor will adjust 
 itself to the supply, demand, and skill required. 
 
56 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 Without the raw material there can be no finished 
 product. There must be hides for shoes and harness, 
 timber for furniture and paper, iron for rails, etc. The 
 office of the Industrial Commissioner should be a minia- 
 ture museum, containing samples of the various clays, 
 sands, gravels, coal, and other minerals, from the 
 entire system — each with an analysis attached when- 
 ever possible — together with a list of the places where 
 timber, hides, wool, etc., may be obtained in abundance. 
 
 The Mississippi Valley, with which I am. most 
 familiar from the standpoint of manufacturing, is not 
 at the present time blessed with water-power good for 
 twelve months in the year; and water-power needing 
 an auxiliary steam plant is not considered remunera- 
 tive from an investment point of view. The power of 
 the larger plants is thus derived from coal. Where 
 this coal is found, the cost at the mines, railroad rates, 
 heat units, disintegration, and the ability of the mines 
 to supply the demand is necessary information. With 
 the United States owning 40 per cent, of the coal area 
 and producing 33 8-10 per cent, of the coal of the 
 world, our economic growth can be said to be due in 
 large part to the value, accessibility, and nearness of 
 our coal-mines. The other mineral resources need 
 capital for their development and exploitation. Often 
 manufacturers are ignorant as to where their raw 
 material can be found, and one of the functions of an 
 Industrial Commissioner is to present to< the business 
 world facts relative to the location of the raw material ; 
 with the result that capital is soon raised for its 
 
THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSIONER 57 
 
 development, and an increased traffic in a new com- 
 modity gained for the road. 
 
 Most manufacturers and jobbers of today have dis- 
 tant markets for the product which is moving away 
 from their plants; and, in order tx> be near their 
 markets, they either must move or provide warehouse 
 facilities near their source of demand. Business of 
 today is conducted differently from what it was fifteen 
 years ago. Then it was no uncommon thing for a 
 merchant to purchase his supplies for an entire season. 
 Today the retail merchant allows the manufacturer or 
 jobber to carry the stock, while he orders in small 
 amounts, and demands that his order be filled and 
 delivered at his store within forty-eight hours after 
 ordering. This has led to the building of large ware- 
 houses throughout the United States, so that these 
 short-time orders may be supplied and the manu- 
 facturer have a place for storage facilities. The ware- 
 house proposition is one of the new phases of the 
 Industrial Department. When the manufacturer can- 
 not be induced to move his plant, advantages may be 
 shown for the building of a large warehouse along the 
 tracks of a railroad. Thus freight is created, and such 
 a warehouse becomes a permanent source of traffic, 
 both in and out. 
 
 The Industrial Commissioner, together with the 
 land and immigration agent, makes a market for the 
 various commodities by increasing the population of 
 the country. Farming has been extensive rather than 
 intensive, and many are the unutilized waste places. 
 The virgin soil and favorable climate in the past have 
 
58 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 produced in abundance, and large returns were obtained 
 from low-priced lands. But lands, like corporate inter- 
 ests, have increased in value, and farms once purchased 
 for ten dollars per acre have increased to> one hundred 
 dollars per acre or more. Watered stock you might 
 call this, looking at it from a certain point of view. But 
 the revenue on this valuation does not pay the fixed 
 charges, and the farmer must apply the scientific method 
 of farming, select and test his seeds, etc., and thus earn, 
 not only the fixed charges, but also a dividend. The 
 instruction of the farmer by means of the so-called 
 "seed and soil" trains is a part of the work of the 
 Industrial Commissioner; for he thus develops his ter- 
 ritory, increases its productivity and wealth, betters its 
 environments, creates more traffic, and ultimately will 
 make farming more intensive rather than extensive. 
 Intensive farming means more farms and larger popu- 
 lation to the square mile ; and with an increased popula- 
 tion the factories must soon come. 
 
 Organization for action is generally accomplished by 
 establishing commercial clubs, or improvement associa- 
 tions, where such associations are not found; or by 
 reinfusing into established associations, which have 
 degenerated into social clubs, the spirit of their charter. 
 This is one of the difficult tasks of the Commissioner. 
 The enmity and jealousy in small towns are proverbial. 
 The fear that some one member of the club will benefit 
 by the coming of a factory has kept many a town from 
 realizing its possibilities. Around the stove in the coun- 
 try store sits the power that has prevented many a 
 geographically well located town from becoming a 
 
THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSIONER 59 
 
 large industrial center. To such towns one must go 
 and tarry, showing with all the force and power at 
 one's command that, as mercantile centers, they are in 
 a state of decadence; that the circle of their agricul- 
 tural trade is yearly growing smaller because of the 
 new progressive towns which have been founded near 
 them, because of the inroads made by outside merchants 
 which deprive them of much of their business, and 
 because the rural mail delivery has made it unnecessary 
 for the farmer to^ go to town for mail or to purchase 
 his supplies f rom the local merchant ; so that their con- 
 tinued prosperity depends upon their adding an indus- 
 trial business to their agricultural and town trade. The 
 employees of shops trade with the local merchant and 
 rarely spend their money in other towns. Then, after 
 organizing their commercial clubs, it must be learned 
 what class of industries they desire, and how they wish 
 to foster and induce them to come; or their attention 
 may be called to certain small local industries which, 
 with more capital, could be converted into larger insti- 
 tutions ; or, perhaps, to some raw material in their town 
 or vicinity which could be converted into the finished 
 product at a profit. An active association can often 
 thus be established, and a manufacturer sent there will 
 always find someone to greet him, to show him the 
 advantages of the town, and to call on short notice a 
 committee to discuss with him the proposition, and he 
 will thus receive encouragement for locating his plant. 
 Enthusiasm for local improvement is a unifier of inter- 
 ests, and a destroyer of personal enmity and jealousy. 
 Press clippings, trade and mechanical journals, the 
 
60 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 many railroad agents and traveling salesmen, and 
 personal contact with manufacturers and promoters of 
 the better type, will greatly assist in obtaining informa- 
 tion of manufacturers seeking new locations, or of 
 those desiring to> develop certain kinds of raw material. 
 No fixed rule can be framed for handling the various 
 locating propositions presented. Each demands a care- 
 ful analysis and a treatment peculiar to itself. Some 
 demand a bonus; others, an increase of stock; others, 
 a site ; and in others the raising of the entire amount of 
 capital is necessary. Some of the firms advertised as 
 seeking new locations should be sent to a financial 
 hospital rather than to towns for the recuperation of 
 their capital. Patentees who* have devoted time, money, 
 and energy tOi the perfecting of an invention do* not 
 always realize that a patent right does not carry with 
 it a guarantee of commercial and financial value. In- 
 vestigation, opinions o>f experts, and discernment on 
 the part of the Industrial Commissioner are necessary 
 before he dare call the attention of a commercial club 
 to* a company whose capital stock consists of these 
 untried patents. Although commercial clubs judge 
 each firm on its' merits, yet they consider the unqualified 
 introduction of a manufacturer or promoter by an In- 
 dustrial Commissioner as equivalent to< an indorsement 
 by the railway company, and for that reason will often 
 grant a hearing and extend courtesies. Any industry 
 desiring concessions or financial inducements for locat- 
 ing ought to give to< a responsible committee of a town 
 a report such as it would give, should it go to a bank 
 and ask for a loan. Those who* refuse to do this ought 
 
THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSIONER 61 
 
 to receive no consideration. When firms locate without 
 asking- for financial assistance from a community, their 
 books are closed to the public; but when a firm does 
 ask for financial help, it becomes, for the time being at 
 least, a quasi-public institution. 
 
 I might speak of the work of a Commissioner in 
 suggesting improvements in terminal facilities in the 
 larger cities, which will necessarily bring more jobbing- 
 houses, warehouses, and factories; of his suggestions' 
 for better facilities to take care of the traffic of the 
 established industries; of his work in negotiating for 
 side-tracks, as well as of his duties in representing his 
 road at the banquets held by the various commercial 
 clubs; but time will not permit, and I shall close with 
 the following observation: 
 
 It is not only in the establishment of industries, in 
 the development of the territory to its highest produc- 
 tivity, or in the increase of its population, and. of so- 
 called secondary or local merchandise freight, that the 
 Industrial Commissioner can be of value to the rail- 
 road; but he also impresses upon its constituents that 
 their interests are identical with those of the road, 
 which is anxious to assist in building up their towns, 
 by doing all that can reasonably be expected of it. For 
 by increasing the prosperity of the farmer, the 
 merchant, and the manufacturer, revenue is added to 
 the railway's treasury. Thus the Industrial Commis- 
 sioner secures for his road the good-will of the people ; 
 and, in the final analysis, since prejudice for or against 
 is one of the strongest human incentives, the good-will 
 of the people becomes one of its most valued assets. 
 
62 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 This good-will obtains many carloads of freight, assists 
 in securing passenger traffic, and makes possible the 
 granting of the requests of the railway company. The 
 Industrial Commissioner should be the link of harmony 
 and co-operation between the public and its greatest 
 benefactor. 
 
THE PROBLEM OF HANDLING LESS-THAN- 
 CARLOAD FREIGHT EXPEDITIOUSLY 
 AND ECONOMICALLY AT TER- 
 MINAL STATIONS 
 
 NELSON W. PIERCE, LOCAL FREIGHT AGENT, CHICAGO; 
 CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL RAILWAY 
 
 The problem of handling less-than-carload freight 
 expeditiously and economically at terminal stations is 
 one that has in the past commanded, and will ik> doubt 
 in the future continue to command, the most careful and 
 studious attention on the part of railway officials' hav- 
 ing direct charge of terminal work at large originating 
 and distributing points. While it is a very broad sub- 
 ject, capable of elaboration, I do not think it advisable, 
 for the purpose of this paper, to enter into details, but 
 shall confine myself to brief reference to the main 
 features. 
 
 As a rule, the volume of traffic has increased much 
 faster than the railway terminal facilities — this will 
 apply as fully to the terminal yards as to the warehouses 
 — and it has been absolutely impossible for the railway 
 managements to anticipate the increasing demands. In 
 the congested centers it has become almost impossible 
 to secure additional ground room. Another feature, 
 especially characterizing Chicago deliveries, is the ir- 
 regular manner in which the freight is delivered for 
 shipment. As a rule, the deliveries during the morning 
 hours approximate 40 per cent, of the total tonnage of 
 
 63 
 
64 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 the day. The heavy deliveries are made later in the 
 day, and this' fact very seriously handicaps the expedit- 
 ing of terminal work, from the point of view both of 
 economy and of safety. The question of labor also 
 enters into the matter of handling less-than-carload 
 freight with due regard to economy of service. It is 
 almost impossible to* maintain a force sufficient to* meet 
 the emergencies, and it is, in many cases, equally impos- 
 sible to fill in the depleted ranks promptly. Hence, 
 with the extremely exacting conditions insisted upon 
 by the business public, it is an absolute impossibility to 
 supply all demands, either in receiving freight or in 
 delivering it to the public. 
 
 If freight delivered to the railway companies for 
 forwarding to the consuming territory could be deliver- 
 ed with uniformity as to hours during the day, it would 
 greatly tend to* avoid delays at terminals and in for- 
 warding, reduce to a minimum errors in loading and 
 billing, and greatly improve conditions contingent 
 upon the handling at the forwarding terminal. Special 
 efforts have been made in the direction of overcoming 
 the difficulties cited above, but commercial conditions 
 have rendered it impossible even partially to 1 relieve the 
 situation. 
 
 The local freight agents in Chicago and at other 
 points have in the past investigated the problem in its 
 various phases, but, on account of the location and ter- 
 minal facilities, it has been found extremely difficult to 
 formulate a system that would apply to all. My 
 recommendation in regard to this much-vexed question 
 is that a system of uniformity should be adopted by the 
 
HANDLING LESS-THAN-CARLOAD FREIGHT 65 
 
 various lines, based on practical experience in regard 
 
 to— 
 
 1. The hour for delivering at freight stations. 
 
 2. The method of receiving, inspecting, and loading 
 freight cars. 
 
 3. Uniform hours for closing warehouses', to pre- 
 vent delays in forwarding trains, at the same time en- 
 abling the billing force to prepare the waybills in time 
 to avoid delays in forwarding. 
 
 4. Concerted action by terminal lines, which will, 
 in my opinion, result in closer understanding with the 
 shipping public and, to a certain extent, secure their 
 co-operation in correcting the difficulties of the past 
 and present. 
 
 With a uniform system and a mutual understanding, 
 as suggested above, the honest co-operation of the ship- 
 ping public, and reasonable consideration of the ter- 
 minal necessities by the railway managements in 
 furnishing the best facilities consistent with the exist- 
 ing conditions, the problem resolves itself into' a ques- 
 tion of using the terminal facilities to the best possible 
 advantage; and, as the future depends on the Local 
 Agent, he will, as a matter of" pride and precaution, use 
 his best efforts to handle the business' promptly and 
 economically. This is a matter of: practical experience, 
 as theories applied to the ever-changing conditions can- 
 not work out good results. 
 
 The teaming community has been more or less re- 
 sponsible for the unfortunate conditions at terminal 
 stations in the past, caused, to a great extent, by labor 
 troubles' involving the different branches of labor 
 
66 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 unions. These conditions are, however, improving, 
 and it is sincerely hoped that the disturbing element 
 will soon revert to normal conditions. 
 
 To handle this business expeditiously and econom- 
 ically, it is necessary to have sufficient warehouses: and 
 team driveways' to> accommodate it; also, cars for 
 loading the same, proper distribution of territory to be 
 loaded in each car, the least possible handling of freight 
 from the time it reaches the freight-house door until 
 it is deposited in the proper car for forwarding, and the 
 least possible changes in the loading of cars both as to 
 stations loading in them and places' situated on ware- 
 house tracks for loading. 
 
 The question of handling freight economically must 
 be looked at from two different points of view, the 
 operating and traffic. While it is a simple matter, from 
 an operating standpoint, to reduce the cost from one to 
 two cents per ton by reducing the force, this, as' a rule, 
 means more detention to teams, which immediately 
 gets the Traffic Department into' trouble ; with the result 
 that, if sufficient help is not put on again and at once, 
 the shippers threaten to withdraw their business and 
 ship via other routes. Ofttimes the business lost in 
 this 1 way is difficult to estimate and hard to> regain, the 
 company losing more in the reduction of freight traffic 
 than it gained in the diminution of the cost per ton. 
 Therefore, from a business standpoint, it is not always 
 a question of how cheaply a freight-house may be run, 
 but how well; always keeping an eye on the expense, 
 making every dollar count, while, at the same time, 
 giving the shipping public the best possible service, 
 
HANDLING LESS-THAN-CARLOAD FREIGHT 67 
 
 with the least possible detention to teams. Such a policy 
 is bound to bring the business your way, as against 
 your competitor who* has reduced his cost per ton to a 
 point where he cannot take care of his business 
 promptly and satisfactorily. 
 
 Another problem that has given the officials of rail- 
 roads a great deal of serious thought is the proper load- 
 ing of freight so as to prevent overs and shorts. In the 
 old days the chalk system was' used ; in fact, it is still in 
 use on some roads. According to that system, when 
 the freight was received, the caller called off the con- 
 signee and destination, the receiving clerk called back 
 to him the car number and location, which were put on 
 the box with chalk, and from these marks the trucker 
 delivered the freight to the car. This method had, 
 however, so many drawbacks that it was discarded 
 by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway and 
 replaced with the veri-check system. 
 
 The introduction of this system has had a noticeable 
 tendency to reduce the overs and shorts, as the inspec- 
 tors daily detect more or less freight, dropped into 
 wrong cars by the truckers without being detected by 
 the stevedores, which would have gone astray under 
 the old system. It is true that the cost is increased 
 under the veri-check system, as it costs from one to 
 two cents per ton more to operate than under the old 
 chalk system ; but this additional cost is' made up in the 
 claim department by paying less claims on account of 
 freight being incorrectly loaded. Besides, it produces' 
 a better feeling with the shipping public to know that 
 
68 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 every safeguard is being put around the loading and 
 forwarding of freight. 
 
 The most important factor in the loading of less- 
 than-carload freight is a good staff of freight-house 
 foremen, who' understand their business thoroughly; 
 who are capable of reducing the number of errors to 
 a minimum, and to< trace and rectify those that have 
 occurred ; who are competent to investigate and locate 
 complaints, to arrange for their correction, and, to 
 guard against their recurrence ; and who are sufficiently 
 good judges of human nature to select, from among the 
 applicants for freight-house work, the highest standard 
 of men for truckers and callers, as it is' from the ranks 
 of these that the positions of receiving clerks are filled. 
 The assistants in each house should watch the receiving 
 clerks, callers, and stowers, taking care that they do 
 their business properly and with dispatch, and that the 
 truckers do> not loiter and kill time in the runs. All 
 freight-house team-yards should have a man to look 
 after the teams arriving and departing, whose duty it 
 should be to advise and instruct teamsters which doors 
 to pull into to avoid delays, and to keep the freight- 
 house doors busy, distributing the work at the doors 
 equally. 
 
 On the work of receiving clerks and callers largely 
 depends the prompt and proper handling of less-than- 
 carload freight, outbound, and it is of the greatest im- 
 portance that these two branches' of the work should be 
 filled with the best class of men that can be hired for 
 the money. Their work is of the most trying kind, 
 especially the callers, who are the men that come in 
 
HANDLING LESS-THAN-CARLOAD FREIGHT 69 
 
 direct contact with the teamsters and are obliged to 
 read the marks on the packages. There are a great 
 many indifferent and incompetent teamsters, who do 
 not properly stow their shipments on the wagons, thus 
 causing long delays at the receiving doors, due to the 
 fact that the freight must be sorted out before being 
 loaded on trucks, and weighed and called off to the 
 receiving clerk. 
 
 Another impediment to the rapid handling of busi- 
 ness is the indifferent manner in which some of the 
 firms mark their freight. They seem to labor under 
 the impression that the rule, adopted by the railroad 
 companies a few years ago, that each and every package 
 must be plainly marked as to consignee and destination 
 was issued expressly for the convenience of the railroad 
 companies, and they mark their freight in any way, 
 so long as there is a partial compliance with the rules 
 sufficient to avoid the danger of having the freight 
 refused and returned to them. If the shippers would 
 co-operate more closely with the railroad companies in 
 marking their freight with a brush and ink, instead 
 of with a carbon pencil, which shows up poorly on 
 everything, and especially on certain kinds of boxes, it 
 would materially reduce the expense of the roads as 
 well as of the shippers, since the teams would be re- 
 leased that much sooner, loss would be prevented, overs 
 and shorts would be decreased. 
 
 The hours for delivery of less-than-carload ship- 
 ments to the out-freight houses' should be from /a.m. 
 until 5 p. m., it being important to close these houses 
 earlier than is the custom now, in order to allow the un- 
 
7o RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 loading of all teams earlier and the loading-up of all 
 freight received. This would enable the pulls from the 
 houses to go to the distributing yards promptly at 6 
 oi'clock, to be made up into- trains, which could leave 
 without delay, and thus arrive at their destination at 
 the earliest possible moment. If the yards are kept open 
 later than 5 p. m. for the receiving of teams, either the 
 pulls from the houses, and consequently the departure 
 of the trains, are delayed, or the freight is allowed to be 
 piled up on the freight-house floor, causing the addi- 
 tional expense of rehandling, as well as risks of loss and 
 damage by fire or otherwise by carrying freight in the 
 warehouse over night. I do> not think there is' a rail- 
 road in the city of Chicago that does not carry over 
 more or less merchandise freight, except Saturdays and 
 Sundays, on account of late delivery. This could be 
 avoided by earlier closing, and with concerted action 
 on the part of all roads, and still the same business be 
 done. The shippers in that case could not attach all 
 blame for delay to the railroad companies, as they do 
 now. 
 
 In this connection, there is a very important matter 
 which must not be overlooked, viz., the billing of the 
 freight, and the proper sorting and assembling of the 
 bills to be sent to the distributing yards or passenger 
 depots in time to go forward with the regular freight 
 trains or by train mail, and reach their destination 
 promptly. The fact that, at the present time, 60 per 
 cent, of the freight for forwarding at the freight-house 
 is received after 2 p. m. involves considerable work in 
 the office after 6 p. m., and many opportunities for 
 errors and delays. Arrangements should be made with 
 
HANDLING LESS-THAN-CARLOAD FREIGHT 71 
 
 shippers' to send their shipments to the freight-houses 
 more uniformity at all hours of the day, instead of con- 
 centrating them in the afternoon, and to< load their 
 wagons in such a way that each and every shipment, 
 whether consisting of one, twenty, or more articles, can 
 be unloaded from the wagons to the warehouse trucks' 
 without any delay in sorting out the articles after arrival 
 at the depot, each article being plainly marked wih the 
 full name and destination, and the accompanying ship- 
 ping ticket showing its actual weight. Such arrange- 
 ment would materially facilitate the handling of less- 
 than-carload freight. The railroad company furnishes 
 a receiving clerk to check and receipt for the goods; a 
 caller to take the goods from the wagon, place them on 
 trucks to be weighed, and forward them to the car: 
 and a stower to receive and properly stow them in the 
 car; but a majority of the shippers', as a general propo- 
 sition, send their goods to< the freight-houses so loaded 
 on the wagons that it is impossible to< sort out the differ- 
 ent packages for any one shipment, thus compelling the 
 railroad companies to unload nearly the whole load on 
 the freight-house floor in order to sort out the different 
 shipments'. This is a source of great annoyance, delay, 
 and additional expense to the railroad companies, as 
 well as to the shippers themselves on account of their 
 teams being delayed. Again, much of the teamster 
 element of today is of such an indifferent and incompe- 
 tent character that it is difficult to- make any headway 
 at the receiving-doors, more delays arising from this, 
 as a general thing, than from all other transactions in 
 the houses. 
 
72 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 As an illustration of how the business is handled at 
 the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company's 
 out-freight houses in this city, I will say that, for the 
 out freight, less-than-carload shipments, we have two 
 warehouses, the length of two blocks. There are 
 twenty-nine receiving-doors on the team side of the 
 houses, and nineteen doors on the car side, at which are 
 placed at one time, for loading, 152 cars, nineteen cars' 
 in length and eight cars in depth. Each car is desig- 
 nated by a name and number, and is so placed each and 
 every day of the week. The tracks are all numbered, 
 beginning at the house, from 1 to 8, and the runs 
 through the cars are numbered from 1 to 19, beginning 
 at the west end of the house. 
 
 To illustrate the manner of a shipment received for 
 any one of these 152 cars, suppose that a team backs 
 up to Door 19, with a shipment for Deerfield, 111. — a 
 station on the Chicago & Milwaukee Division, between 
 Chicago and Milwaukee. The caller will take the ship- 
 ment from the teamster, put it on a warehouse truck, 
 run it to> the scale, and call off the name of the con- 
 signee, city or town, state, and weight. The receiving 
 clerk will check the shipping-ticket to see if the same is' 
 correct, and, if so, will give the caller a veri-check 
 ticket, bearing the box number, run number, number of 
 pieces of freight, with his signature attached. This tick- 
 et is placed on a piece of freight on the truck, which is 
 thereupon pushed out to the center of the house for the 
 first trucker coming along to pick it up and take it to the 
 car in which it belongs ; or, if a trucker is present, it is 
 handed directly to him. The trucker is governed, as 
 
HANDLING LESS-THAN-CARLOAD FREIGHT 73 
 
 to the movement of the truck, by the box and run num- 
 bers on the ticket. The particular car in which this 
 shipment loads would be the Pennock car, which takes 
 freight from all stations on the Chicago & Milwaukee 
 Division, from Pennock to Everett, of which Deerfield 
 is one; and the run number would be 17, since the car 
 stands 1 7 on Track 1 . In each car there is a box num- 
 bered to correspond with its location on the track. The 
 trucker will go to the car and see if the number on his 
 ticket corresponds with the number on the box. If so, 
 he will have the stower receive the freight and deposit 
 his ticket in the box, taking his truck back to the house, 
 and leaving it wherever he finds the first loaded truck, 
 which he immediately handles in a similar manner. 
 The stower will examine the shipment to see if it is in 
 good condition, and will then stow it in as near station 
 order as possible, putting the last shipments' to be un- 
 loaded in the end of the car, the loaded near the door. 
 Of in-freight, less-than-carload freight-houses we 
 likewise have two, and we set for unloading at one time, 
 at House 1 , thirty-three cars ; at House 8, twenty-three 
 cars; total, fifty-six cars. We work the men in gangs 
 of four or five, as best suits the business, the gangs con- 
 sisting of a check clerk, a caller, and two or three 
 truckers. The houses are divided into sections, both 
 lengthwise and crosswise — crosswise as to the number 
 of doors on the side of the house, and lengthwise with a 
 fence through the center of the house, between the dif- 
 ferent sections as made by the doors, the north side of 
 the house in each section being used for the placing of 
 transfer-to-connecting-line freight, and the south side 
 
74 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 for city freight. The check clerk takes his gang and 
 goes to the first car adjacent to Door i ; the caller picks 
 up the freight, puts it on a truck, calls off all the marks 
 on the packages, which the check clerk then enters in a 
 blind tally-book provided for that purpose. If it is a 
 shipment for tranfer to> a connecting line, the trucker 
 will be instructed to put it in Transfer Section i, which 
 will be the north side of the house ; if for city delivery, 
 in the city section, which is the south side of the house. 
 
 To show how the men delivering or picking up 
 freight for a connecting line know where to find it, let 
 us suppose a man takes the numbers and initials' of all 
 the cars set at the house for unloading, and enters them 
 in a book provided for that purpose in the foreman's 
 office, showing opposite each particular car its section 
 for unloading. The expense bills for connecting lines, 
 when sent to the foreman's office, are numbered to cor- 
 respond with the section in which the car is unloaded ; 
 and all expense bills for city freight, when taken from 
 the cashier's office by owners or others, are presented 
 at a window in the foreman's office, where there is a 
 man whose business it is to section-number them, put- 
 ting the number of the section on the expense bill. The 
 party after the freight then takes it to the delivery man 
 of that section as numbered, who gets the freight and 
 delivers it to< the owner, taking his receipt for the same. 
 In the case of such freight as butter, eggs, or cheese for 
 connecting lines, it is sent directly from the cars to 
 teams for transfer. 
 
 The in-freight, less-than-carload business' requires 
 good men for callers, checkers, and delivery men; and 
 
HANDLING LESS-THAN-CARLOAD FREIGHT 75 
 
 I am sorry to say that they are hard to get and to keep. 
 Before the days of the union we could and did get the 
 proper amount of good work out of them, but at 'present 
 it is different, it being their policy to< do as little as pos- 
 sible for their pay, and not to allow a good worker or 
 a non-union man to remain among them. 
 
 As a matter of information, I may say that the less- 
 than-carload business at the out-freight houses of Chi- 
 cago averages some 800 tons per day, loaded into some 
 1 75 cars, being received from some 700 teams, the time 
 spent in unloading the teams averaging about 20 
 minutes. At the in-freight houses there is unloaded a 
 minimum of 100 cars each day, with a minimum ton- 
 nage of 400 tons', and, besides all of the deliveries to 
 city teams, there is a minimum of 100 teams per day 
 loaded with freight for connecting lines. The business 
 is increasing in volume every month, and, under the 
 conditions, we are justified in expecting at least a 10 
 per cent, growth each year. 
 
OFFICE WORK IN TERMINAL YARDS 
 
 FERDINAND S. ATKIN, SUPERINTENDENT OF TERMI- 
 NALS, CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL RAILWAY 
 
 The office work connected with yard operations may 
 be divided into three distinct parts: (i) "receiving," 
 or "in-freight;" (2) "forwarding," or "out-freight;" 
 and (3) "transfer," or receiving from and delivering to 
 connecting lines. In immediate charge of this work 
 is a chief clerk, who must be a man of considerable 
 executive and business ability, since he is virtually the 
 acting superintendent many times' in a day. 
 
 1. In-freight. — The clerical routine arising from 
 the receiving of freight arriving in trains from off the 
 company's lines demands, for its' handling, a force 
 consisting of a "train clerk," "number-takers," "seal- 
 takers," "carders," a "transfer clerk," a "grain-sealer," 
 a "rate clerk," and an "expense-bill clerk;" besides, of 
 course, the chief clerk. 
 
 On the arrival of a train in the yard, the number- 
 takers secure a list of the numbers and initials of all 
 cars in the train, also noting the condition of loads on 
 open cars — whether they are low enough to clear tun- 
 nels:, bridges, etc., and whether staked on the cars, etc. 
 All the doors — side, end, and roof — are inspected by a 
 seal-taker, who* records the seals attached to them. 
 The seals now generally employed are made of tin, with 
 a circular piece of lead attached. The tin band bears a 
 serial number, and the lead disk, after a car-door has 
 
 76 
 
OFFICE WORK IN TERMINAL YARDS 77 
 
 been sealed, bears the impression of the seal-punch 
 used — either letters or numbers identifying the station 
 where the punch is used. All of these seal numbers or 
 letters must be taken, and a copy made in an impres- 
 sion-book for future reference. 
 
 In the meantime the train clerk examines the way- 
 bills as carefully as possible for "hold" or "diversion" 
 orders, and makes a transcript of them on the "train- 
 sheet," stating the car number, initial, forwarding sta- 
 tion, destination, contents', and via what connecting 
 line. After the train clerk has completed the tran- 
 script, a carder tacks on each car a. card showing the 
 road to' which the car is to be transferred, or, should it 
 be destined for the home road, the switching district to 
 which it is to be taken. The train is then ready to be 
 switched into the classification-yard. 
 
 Some of the incoming cars may have to* be trans- 
 ferred to other railroads, and a record of all such is 
 kept by a transfer clerk, the expense-bill clerk making 
 out an expense bill for every loaded car thus handled. 
 In connection with this work, the latter clerk also' sees 
 that the bills' are properly extended, and it is the usual 
 practice for him to call back the expense bills to the 
 clerk so as to check any possible error. 
 
 There is a rate clerk. who revises rates, or rather 
 checks them over to see that the freight has been billed 
 at a proper classification, and also to make sure, in case 
 of through-bills, that his company is given its proper 
 proportion of the through-rate. He is held responsible 
 for all errors in wrong rates or extensions made by the 
 billing agent. 
 
78 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 Where cars contain grain for inspection, a grain- 
 sealer accompanies' the grain inspector, his duty being 
 to reseal all cars opened for inspection or samples. 
 
 2. Out-freight. — In the " forwarding" or "out- 
 freight" work there are, as in the "in-freight" depart- 
 ment, the usual number-takers, seal-takers, carders, 
 rate clerks, and clerks taking care of waybills. As the 
 outbound cars are made up into' trains, they are checked 
 as before for their car numbers' and initials, and all 
 loaded cars are properly sealed and reported to the 
 train clerk, who then checks up the list of cars and 
 furnishes a waybill for each loaded car, showing the 
 contents, destination, etc. In the case of "foreign" 
 empty cars', a way-, or card-, bill is furnished. 
 
 The conductor of the train also 1 takes a list of the 
 numbers of all cars in his train, which list is checked 
 with that of the number-taker, and if they agree, and 
 correspond with the numbers on the waybills, he re- 
 ceives his waybills for the cars'. In addition, the list 
 made by the number-taker is given to' the car record 
 clerk, who records the numbers of the cars, date of 
 leaving, train number, and destination. 
 
 3. Transfer freight. — As regards transfer freight 
 — or the receiving of freight from, and the delivery of 
 it to, connecting lines — cars are usually classified for 
 the various roads when first switched, and are then 
 made up into "transfer" trains. A record is made of 
 all cars loaded or empty. Duplicate expense bills are 
 made for each car in the transfer train, showing the 
 name of the consignee, destination, contents, weight, 
 charges, car number, and initial. Both of the bills are 
 
OFFICE WORK IN TERMINAL YARDS 79 
 
 sent to the road receiving the cars, one copy to be 
 signed and returned by the agent of the receiving road, 
 and the other to be retained by the receiving road for 
 its' record. Any car received in a damaged condition, 
 or short as to its billed contents, must be noted on the 
 expense bill returned to the delivering road. This is 
 also true as to seals, which, if defective, must be im- 
 mediately reported to the delivering road by the receiv- 
 ing agent, giving the car number and initial, date of 
 its arrival, and a statement of the trouble. If the ex- 
 pense bill is returned to the delivering road without 
 any such addition, it is an indication that the shipment 
 has been received in good order; and the transaction, 
 so far as the actual transfer is concerned, is closed. 
 
 Young men seeking employment with railroad 
 companies dislike to take positions in terminal yards, 
 as the pay is small, the hours long, and the work very 
 exacting. Yet no one expecting at some future time 
 to occupy the position of agent of a terminal station 
 can afford to neglect this work. As' agent he would not 
 be able to manage the station so successfully if he did 
 not have the experience to be acquired in the terminal 
 yard. Here is the first round of the ladder, and a 
 person familiar with the small details can handle the 
 general business to better advantage. It is a wide field, 
 and I know of none better suited for a young man 
 making his start in railroading. 
 
CAR DISTRIBUTION AND THE SUPERVI- 
 SION OF FAST FREIGHT 
 
 JOHN M. DALY, CAR ACCOUNTANT, ILLINOIS CENTRAL 
 
 RAILROAD 
 
 CAR DISTRIBUTION 
 
 The conditions surrounding car distribution are de- 
 pendent upon the commodities and the geographical 
 location of the railroad. For instance, it is much more 
 difficult to* handle car distribution on a road whose par- 
 ticular product is grain or hay, than on a road where the 
 particular commodity is coal or stock; and, again, it is 
 more difficult to handle distribution on a road with a 
 great number of branches or feeder lines, than on a 
 road that has a straight main line. 
 
 The first essential and all-important requisite is that 
 the person in charge of distribution thoroughly famil- 
 iarize himself with the products originating on his line, 
 and the seasons during which they move. He should 
 also* know the destination of such commodities, in order 
 that he may, prior to* their movement, gradually ac- 
 cumulate the surplus equipment in the section where it 
 will be needed, and thus avoid hauling the empty 
 cars out of the territory shortly before they will be 
 required for loading. In this manner the empty car 
 mileage, which is one of the large items of operating 
 expenses, is reduced to a minimum. 
 
 The Car Distributor must know at all times where 
 his equipment is located. Such information is furnished 
 
 80 
 
CAR DISTRIBUTION 81 
 
 him by wire every twenty-four hours', giving the total 
 number of each class of car on hand loaded, empty, held 
 for movement, and in bad order. These data are com- 
 piled on each train district by the Chief Dispatcher at 
 a given hour each day, the agent telegraphing the 
 Chief Dispatcher, on a printed form, the number of 
 cars waiting for movement east and the number of cars 
 waiting for movement west, over or less than forty- 
 eight hours ; the number of cars held for unloading at 
 his station; the number of empty cars of each class — 
 box, stock, coal, etc. — on hand ; the number of cars re- 
 quired for loading, under which item are specified the 
 products awaiting shipment, the destination of the ship- 
 ment, and, if beyond the home road, the route over 
 which the consignment will be sent, so that the Chief 
 Dispatcher may utilize foreign railroad cars belonging 
 to lines over which the business will move. 
 
 In order that the agent may get this information 
 correctly, the shipper is furnished with regular printed 
 forms, on which are shown what cars he requires. This 
 form reads about as follows : 
 
 CAR ORDER FORM 
 
 RAILROAD 
 
 .190. 
 
 To Agent, 
 
 Please furnish cars as follows: 
 
 Wo^i,i of Cars Cars Load tion of of Remarks 
 
 v\amea \i7„„ + „,j w„„+«j wi+u cu,-^™'* cu^m't 
 
 Number 
 
 Kind of 
 
 To 
 
 Destina- 
 
 Route 
 
 of Cars 
 
 Cars 
 
 Load 
 
 tion of 
 
 of 
 
 Wanted 
 
 Wanted 
 
 With 
 
 Shipm't 
 
 Shipm't 
 
82 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 This printed car-order form is Supplied to shippers 
 in order to insure getting from them a clear and distinct 
 statement of their requirements, so that the Chief Dis- 
 patcher may use his best judgment, and very often fur- 
 nish a shipper with empty cars belonging to> the road 
 to which the traffic will be delivered, that being much 
 preferable to loading the cars of his own line away 
 from home. 
 
 For certain commodities, such as lumber, machinery, 
 and ties, shippers frequently order coal- or flat-cars, it 
 being more convenient to load the product into these 
 than into box- or stock-cars. When such orders are 
 placed, showing the commodity, destination, etc., the 
 Chief Dispatcher can, however, often prevail on the 
 shippers to use box- or stock-cars, when it is to the inter- 
 est of the road to do so. For example, a railroad may 
 have a shipment in southern Illinois for points in Iowa 
 or Minnesota. The shipper calls for coal-cars, which, if 
 loaded into Iowa, where the road has no> return traffic 
 for them, must come back empty. On the other hand the 
 road may have some stock- or box-cars moving west 
 empty, which, if utilized, would save the empty haul 
 into Iowa, and, in addition, would save the empty haul 
 from Iowa back to' the southern Illinois mines, if the 
 coal- or flat-cars were used. Again, a shipper may 
 order, for instance, Illinois Central large-capacity box- 
 cars for a shipment of grain, cotton, or any other com- 
 modity. If he did not insist upon knowing its desti- 
 nation and route, the Dispatcher might furnish Illinois 
 Central cars for it. The shipment is, however, destined 
 for New York or New England points, to which some 
 
CAR DISTRIBUTION 83 
 
 eastern foreign cars, then on the division, may be uti- 
 lized. 
 
 This printed form is simply one part of a system 
 which is absolutely necessary to insure successful car 
 distribution. The plainer and simpler the system, the 
 better will be the results obtained; whereas, without 
 system, there can be nothing but confusion. The print- 
 ing of these small blank costs' but a trifle ; but by enu- 
 merating on them each item of information required, 
 they become a safeguard against agents' accepting 
 incomplete orders and confusing the Dispatchers. 
 
 It is a deplorable fact that some employees seem to 
 think that the supervising officials of railroads delight 
 in detecting errors on their subordinates. This, of 
 course, is an entirely erroneous impression : two-thirds 
 of the time of superintendents is devoted to formulating 
 rules and devising means to prevent their men from 
 making mistakes. The superior officer is as much 
 responsible for the errors and acts of those under his 
 authority as he is for his own, and his success depends 
 upon the support given him. 
 
 In accordance with the system of car distribution, 
 the shipper must order the cars he requires from the 
 agent at the station where he will load. The agent, at 
 the usual hour each day, will order the cars from his 
 Chief Dispatcher. In case the Chief Dispatcher is' un- 
 able to furnish all of the cars ordered from his district, 
 he calls upon the Superintendent of Transportation 
 to help him from other divisions or sources'. Hence, 
 a shipper cannot order cars direct from the Superin- 
 tendent of Transportation, or from the Chief Dis- 
 
84 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 patcher, without creating confusion. If the Superin- 
 tendent of Transportation accepted an order of that 
 kind, and directed the Superintendent to take care of it, 
 the latter might order the cars to> the station direct; 
 but when they reached there the agent would know 
 nothing about the order. He would ask the Chief Dis- 
 patcher what the cars were sent for. The Chief Dis- 
 patcher, not knowing about the order, would no doubt 
 instruct the agent to bill them and send them on to some 
 other point where he knew they were required. Had 
 the order been transmitted through the proper channel, 
 when the cars reached the station, the agent would 
 know all the facts connected with it, and there would be 
 no hitch in taking care of the shipment. 
 
 The commodities to be moved, and their seasons for 
 shipment, must be carefully watched. The condition 
 of the crops as they mature, and the prospects for 
 marketing them, must likewise be closely studied. On 
 the Illinois Central, for example, we know that fruit 
 and vegetables begin to move in refrigerator-cars from 
 Louisiana points the latter part of March, and keep 
 gradually increasing in volume as the shipping terri- 
 tory expands, until by the middle of June we are load- 
 ing fruit and vegetables all the way from New Orleans 
 as far north as Centralia, 111. — a territory of over seven 
 hundred miles. To know what the requirements will 
 be, it is necessary for the Car Distributor to get reports 
 of the condition of the crops as they progress, and of 
 the acreage planted. Frost may kill the tomato or 
 peach crop, in which case he must make his deductions' 
 in figuring on the supply of equipment necessary to 
 
CAR CONSTRUCTION 85 
 
 take care of it, in order to prevent hauling" more refri- 
 gerator-cars into that section than are actually required 
 for the business; thereby avoiding the return of empty 
 cars, which involves an enormous unnecessary expense. 
 
 There are other factors to consider, in addition to 
 the maturing of the crop. The market price may be 
 extremely low, in which case the grain will not move in 
 such volume as it would if the price were high. The 
 shippers who can afford to store it will naturally do so 
 until the market is favorable. Again, the size of the 
 grain crop is' not an indication as to> the volume that will 
 move to early market. The crop of the preceding 
 year may have been very poor. In that event a good 
 portion of the present year's crop will be held over for 
 the following year, for feeding and other local con- 
 sumption, by reason of the supply having been exhaust- 
 ed during the current summer. 
 
 The importance of a uniform system ,in doing work 
 of this kind, which is more or less complicated, and the 
 advantage of a simple method or system, cannot be too 
 strongly emphasized. Let us take the loading of to- 
 matoes, for example. At Crystal Springs, Miss. — a 
 town of 1 100 people — we are to load a maximum of 
 forty-five carloads of tomatoes in one day. The refri- 
 gerator-cars, after having been iced, are placed on long 
 loading-tracks. The men who receive the tomatoes 
 from the farmers divide the cars before any loading is 
 done, by placing flags in the car doors. A white flag 
 indicates that the teams having green, or unripe, toma- 
 toes are to bring them to that car ; a red flag denotes' 
 that those having ripe tomatoes are to unload them in 
 
S6 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 that car ; and a half-red and half- white flag means that 
 the medium-ripe tomatoes are to go to that car. In 
 this way the teamsters have no> trouble whatever in 
 lining up for the proper car, the tomatoes having been 
 sorted in the fields before being loaded on the wagons. 
 The object of loading them in this manner is to enable 
 the shipper to route the green product to the most dis- 
 tant point, and the ripe product to the nearest market. 
 If a car was loaded with half ripe and half green 
 tomatoes, and shipped to> a reasonable distance, the 
 chances are that the ripe tomatoes would age and decay 
 in transit, and long before the green tomatoes were in a 
 marketable condition. I cite this' simply to> show what 
 good results may be obtained by some plain, simple 
 system. This principle of a uniform system is at the 
 foundation of the successful operation of railroads as 
 well as of other large corporations. 
 
 The distribution of coal-cars is, as a rule, very diffi- 
 cult, the mines, located on branches and spur-tracks, 
 being badly scattered. The supply of empty coal-cars 
 comes principally from the large manufacturing centers, 
 where the coal is' consumed, and in order to afford the 
 mines in the various localities' their equal proportions 
 of the cars, it is necessary to keep in close touch with 
 the movement of the empty cars in different directions. 
 It is impossible for the men in charge of large ter- 
 minals, like Chicago and St. Louis, to notify the Car 
 Distributor at three, four, or five o'clock in the after- 
 noon how many empty coal-cars they will be able to 
 forward between six in the afternoon and six the fol- 
 lowing morning. The Distributor is, therefore, unable 
 
CAR CONSTRUCTION 87 
 
 to instruct the Superintendent or the Dispatcher how 
 to divide, between his own and other divisions, the 
 equipment he receives during the night. Consequently, 
 the Distributor places an arbitrary distribution order on 
 the percentage basis; for instance: 25 per cent, 
 to Bloomington District, 25 per cent, to Springfield 
 District, 30 per cent, to Chicago District, 20 per cent, 
 to Champaign District; this order being in effect dur- 
 ing the night. During the day, when it is possible to 
 keep in closer touch with the forwarding of empty 
 cars, they are distributed by train lots', or a given num- 
 ber of cars. 
 
 It is also the duty of the Car Distributor, Dispatcher, 
 agent, conductor, and all concerned in the distribution 
 and furnishing of cars, to see that large-capacity cars' 
 are furnished for shipments that will load to< the ca- 
 pacity of the car, and that small, light cars are furnished 
 for the light traffic. For example, it is not good policy 
 to furnish an 80,000 pounds' capacity box-car to handle 
 6,000 or 7,000 pounds of merchandise, when it is just 
 as easy to furnish a 40,000 pounds' capacity car. 
 Neither is it good practice to> furnish two 40,000 
 pounds' capacity box-cars for shipment of grain, when 
 the shipment could have been loaded into one 80,000 
 pounds' capacity car. It is more difficult to haul the 
 two than the one, and, in addition, they occupy double 
 track-room in yards, and also entail double the switch- 
 ing expense on terminals. 
 
 The Car Distributor must keep in touch with the 
 repairs to cars, in order that he may get the class of 
 equipment which he requires for immediate use — i. e., 
 
88 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 box-, stock-, coal-, and refrigerator-cars — given pref- 
 erence on the repair tracks' over the class of car which 
 he does not so require. He should also keep informed 
 as to the location of his cars on the tracks of foreign 
 roads, so as to* prevent too many of them getting into 
 fields where they will be tied up and delayed. This in- 
 formation is furnished him from the car-record room. 
 Each railroad car in existence bears the initials' of 
 the road owning it, and an individual number which 
 remains with the car from the day it is built to the day 
 it is destroyed. Railroads exchange information show- 
 ing the disposition of each other's cars. For example, 
 the Illinois Central loads ten cars at Omaha for Boston. 
 When the ten cars are delivered to the Lake Shore & 
 Michigan Southern at Chicago', the agent of the Illinois 
 Central at this point makes a report to the Car Account- 
 ant of his own road, showing the initial and number of 
 each of the ten cars, the date they were delivered to the 
 Lake Shore, their contents, and their destination. When 
 the Lake Shore delivers the ten cars to the New York 
 Central at Buffalo', it mails to the Car Accountant of 
 the Ilinois Central — because they are Illinois Central 
 cars — a postal card giving the number of each car and 
 date they were delivered to the New York Central. The 
 New York Central, in turn, furnishes similar informa- 
 tion, showing the date the cars were delivered to< its 
 connections. In addition to furnishing information 
 showing the present location of the cars', this system 
 also enables the owner to check their per-diem earn- 
 ings. When the record shows that a connecting line 
 has a great many more of our cars than we have of 
 
CAR DISTRIBUTION 89 
 
 theirs, the Car Distributor makes extraordinary efforts 
 to get that connection to furnish us more of their cars, 
 in order to protect loading originating on our line des- 
 tined to points on theirs. This is especially true during 
 the busy season, when there is a shortage of cars. 
 
 THE HANDLING OF MANIFEST FAST FREIGHT 
 
 In explaining the system of supervising the move- 
 ments of cars' loaded with high-class freight, or "fast 
 freight," the accompanying model board may be of 
 service. In the first place, it is necessary to define what 
 is meant by "fast freight" and what commodities are 
 considered "fast freight" and eligible for movement in 
 "fast freight" trains. Each agent is provided with a 
 small book of instructions covering the use of the 
 blanks and the reports, and also showing the commodi- 
 ties eligible »for movement in "fast freight" trains, and 
 the commodities eligible for movement in "time freight" 
 trains. For instance, perishable goods — such as meats, 
 dairy products, merchandise, etc. — are "fast freight;" 
 sugar, rice, coffee, and machinery are "time freight." 
 
 "Manifest freight" moves on a train scheduled at 
 approximately twenty miles per hour; "time freight," 
 on a train scheduled at about twelve miles per hour. 
 The tonnage that the engine can haul on "manifest" 
 trains at twenty miles per hour is about 30 per cent, less 
 than the tonnage which the same engine can haul of 
 "time freight" scheduled at twelve miles per hour, on 
 account of the higher rate of speed ; hence, it is more 
 expensive to transport these high-class commodities 
 than the lower grades of freight. For instance, the 
 
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CAR DISTRIBUTION 91 
 
 agent at New Orleans loads' a car of sugar for Chicago, 
 also a car of potatoes for the same point. In billing the 
 car of sugar, he takes the "time freight" waybill, print- 
 ed in blue, and uses it to carry the car through to Chi- 
 cago. On the car of potatoes he will use the "mani- 
 fest fast freight" waybill, printed in red. If he also 
 loaded a car of lumber, grain, coal, or other low-grade 
 commodity, he would bill it on the ordinary waybill, and 
 would use neither the "time freight" nor the "fast 
 freight" waybill for it, as such commodities are not 
 eligible for billing under the "fast freight" system of 
 movement, in either of the above designated classes of 
 trains, except where they are used to' fill out such trains 
 in the absence of sufficient of their assigned commodi- 
 ties. 
 
 In addition to' these waybills, the yard clerk places 
 a small card on the side of the "fast freight" and "time 
 freight" cars'. On the "fast freight" car the card used 
 is printed in red, the same as the waybill ; on the "time 
 freight" cars the card is printed in blue, as is the case 
 with the waybill. 
 
 This separate waybill for each car is used in order to 
 give to each car an individual identity and rights in 
 the train. Thus, in case the car is set out at any point, 
 the waybill must be left with the agent at the station 
 where the car is set out, and its peculiar construction 
 and color will immediately call his attention to the fact 
 that it is an important shipment which must not be de- 
 layed. If the agent fails to notice the importance of the 
 shipment from the waybill in the rack, the yard master, 
 
92 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 or switchmen, in going through the yard will locate 
 the car by the card on its side. 
 
 Again, should a car billed "manifest freight" reach 
 the end of a district, and the yard master fail to' put it 
 into the proper train to< take it beyond, the clerk giving 
 out the bills to conductors would discover the error of 
 the yard master, by noticing this particular waybill, 
 with its peculiar form of identification, in the rack, 
 after giving the conductor all the bills he called for. 
 He would then call the yard master's attention to' his 
 error, and possibly succeed in getting the car into the 
 proper train before its departure, thereby avoiding a 
 delay to' the shipment and, later on, an investigation. 
 
 In this, as in every other branch of the service, sys- 
 tem is at the foundation. By making the envelope for 
 this waybill of a special size, by printing the waybill in 
 red or blue, and by carding the car with the plain letter 
 M, printed in red or blue, a particular identity is given 
 it. Thus also anyone handling such car is notified 
 that it should receive special attention. If no card 
 were put on it, and the waybill were the common way- 
 bill used by railroads, only with a notation on the face 
 or in the corner of it to the effect that it was "manifest 
 freight" or "time freight," then we should not be as- 
 sisting the switching crews, yard masters, agents, and 
 conductors, in handling the cars as they should be 
 handled or as we desire, and we should be creating 
 openings for delays', instead of guarding against and 
 preventing them. 
 
 After these high-class cars have been loaded at the 
 house, or on team tracks, the bill clerks make up the 
 
CAR DISTRIBUTION 93 
 
 special waybills, filling out the blanks for "Station 
 from," "To," "Contents," and "Consignee." The let- 
 ter in the small diamond and the manifest number are 
 not put on the bill until the train is made up and ready 
 to go forward. For example, on the Illinois Central 
 Railroad all the high-class commodities for the East 
 from the terminal or adjacent points are assembled in 
 the shaping-up yards at Chicago during the day and 
 evening, then switched together into- the proper assign- 
 ed trains, and when the train is made up, the waybills 
 are passed to the yard clerk, who> sorts them out so that 
 the car in the train destined for the nearest point will 
 receive the lowest waybill number. For instance, we 
 have in this train, say, one car for Cleveland, one car 
 for Buffalo, one car for Albany, and twenty-seven cars 
 for New York. The waybill for the car destined for 
 Cleveland is the first, for Buffalo' the second, etc., so 
 that, when the car for waybill No. i is left at Cleveland, 
 the agent can report its receipt without disturbing the 
 consecutive numbering of the remainder of the way- 
 bills. After the yard clerk at Chicago has numbered 
 these waybills, he makes his report on a "Form 35," 
 which shows the manifest number assigned ; e. g. : No. 
 1 for Illinois Central car 52480, destined for Cleve- 
 land, with butter and eggs; No. 2 for car destined for 
 Buffalo; No. 3 for car destined for Albany; and Nos. 4 
 to 30, consecutively, for cars destined for New York. 
 The yard clerk then sends this report to the Superin- 
 tendent of Transportation, in whose office the board is 
 located. The man in charge of the board takes a train 
 block, marked, say, 51, that being the number of the 
 
94 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 train. He takes Chicago's pegs numbered i to' 30 and 
 inserts them in this train block. Under peg No. 1 he 
 puts the letter D, which shows it is destined for Cleve- 
 land. Under peg No. 2 he puts the letter B, which is 
 Buffalo's cipher, showing the car to be destined for 
 Buffalo', from Chicago 1 . Under the next peg he places 
 the letter A, which signifies Albany. Under the rest is 
 the letter N, or New York's cipher. 
 
 2 
 
 -r-r-, a ,k, C? 1 CHICAGO 
 
 TRAIN 5| new t ?ork 
 
 00Q<9<90 
 
 
 
 ®00©(9© 
 
 
 
 oo&oo® 
 
 
 
 ®SQQQ® 
 
 
 
 o&>qoq ° 
 
 
 
 ©©©(§])© ° 
 
 
 
 This block, or train, when made up after this fashion, 
 is placed on the hook (on the board) between Chicago 
 and Cleveland for trains moving in the eastbound di- 
 rection. When our train reaches Elkhart, the yard 
 
CAR DISTRIBUTION 95 
 
 clerk takes the waybills, runs through them, and finds 
 that they are numbered consecutively from I to 30. He 
 then reports by telegraph to' the Superintendent of 
 Transportation : 
 
 Manifest C-i to C-30, arrived 2 :oo a. m., left at 2 -.30 a. m. 
 
 Upon receipt of this No. 37 report, the man in charge of 
 the board checks it against the train and finds it is O. K. 
 He then passes the train block from the district Chi- 
 cago to Elkhart over to the district Elkhart toi Toledo, 
 and puts this report in the drawer under the station 
 named Elkhart, so that, in case he wishes to locate any 
 particular car in the train, he refers to the No. 35 report 
 from the agent at Chicago showing the manifest num- 
 ber assigned the individual car; and then, by referring 
 to the Elkhart drawer, he can determine the time it 
 arrived and left that point. In this manner the actual 
 location of a car within two or three hours can be 
 readily ascertained without further inquiries, making 
 it a very valuable system for patrons of roads using it. 
 
 On the arrival of the train at Cleveland, the agent 
 will report on the Form 37 as follows: 
 
 Manifest C-i arrived at 5:00 p. m. 
 
 leaving blank the forwarding column, for the reason 
 that the car is destined for Cleveland and does not go 
 forward. He next shows 
 
 Manifest C-2 to C-30, arrived at 5 :oo p. m., left at 5 130 p. m. 
 
 At Cleveland the yard master adds five additional cars 
 to the train. He telegraphs the Superintendent of 
 Transportation the manifest number assigned each of 
 these cars, the initial and number, and destination, on 
 
96 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 the No. 35 report, as was done at Chicago-. The clerk 
 in charge of the board, upon receipt of this No. 35 
 report, places in this same train Cleveland's manifest 
 pegs numbered 1 to 5, or 51 to- 56, as the case may be, 
 with the proper destination pegs under them. 
 
 When the train arrives at Buffalo, the agent at that 
 point will report: 
 
 Manifest C-2, arrived at 3 :oo a. m 
 
 that being the car from Chicago for Buffalo 1 ; 
 
 Manifest C-3 to C-30, arrived at 3 :oo a. m., left at 3 130 a. m. 
 Manifest D-51 to D-56, arrived at 3 :oo a. m., left at 3 130 a. m. 
 
 the last five being the Cleveland cars, D } being Cleve- 
 land's initial. 
 
 In case one of these cars was damaged or rendered 
 unsafe for movement in the train at Laporte, Ind., and 
 it was necessary to< set it out at that point for repairs, 
 the conductor in charge of the train, when leaving the 
 waybill for the car, is obliged to telegraph the Train 
 Master in charge of the district between Chicago and 
 Laporte, and also- the Superintendent of Transporta- 
 tion (Form 38), to the effect that he 
 
 Set out Manifest C-n at Laporte on account of rough journal 
 (or for any other cause). 
 
 When setting the car out, the conductor leaves with the 
 agent at Laporte this manifest waybill for C-n. The 
 man in charge of the board will, on receipt of this 
 notice, take peg No. C-i 1 out of the train and insert 
 it in one of the small holes opposite Laporte station 
 by running it through the paper telegraph notice, the 
 peg in the hole serving the same purpose as if the tele- 
 
CAR DISTRIBUTION 97 
 
 graphic advice was held on the board with nail or pin. 
 This, of course, shows that there is a car of "fast 
 freight," destined for New York, set out at Laporte. 
 
 In case the conductor forgets or fails to give this 
 notice to the Train Master and Superintendent of 
 Transportation, on the arrival of the train at Elkhart 
 the yard clerk finds that he has all of the waybills con- 
 secutively numbered, i to 30, except manifest C-11. 
 He therefore makes his report as follows : 
 
 Manifest C-i to C-10, arrived at 2 :oo a. m., left at 2 130 a. m. 
 
 Manifest C-12 to C-30, arrived at 2 :oo a. m., left at 2 130 a. m. 
 
 This' naturally shows that the car for waybill C-i 1 did 
 not reach Elkhart, although it left Chicago in that train. 
 The man in charge of the board will then take peg No. 
 C-i 1 out of the train block and insert it in any station 
 on that district with a blank report attached to it, show- 
 ing that the car was set out of the train at some point 
 which he is unable to determine; and he immediately 
 wires the Train Master to have the conductor state 
 where he left it. It then becomes the duty of the Train 
 Master to get this information, and also to have the car 
 repaired and moved in some slow freight train through 
 to Elkhart during the next twenty- four hours', in order 
 that it may be placed in Train 51 when that train is 
 made up the following morning, and avoid stopping the 
 "fast freight" train at Laporte to pick it up. 
 
 It will be seen that, by giving to each car an indi- 
 vidual waybill and number, such car secures a separate 
 and distinct identity, and is surrounded by checks ; and 
 also that, if the conductor should fail to report the set- 
 ting-out of a car, the man in charge of the board will 
 
08 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 immediately detect it, and prevent any unnecessary de- 
 lay to the shipment by notifying the Train Master to 
 look it up. If it were not for this' individual check, the 
 car would be overlooked and possibly remain sidetrack- 
 ed for a week, until some heavy damage claim resulted, 
 which in turn would involve the conductor, and also the 
 agent, in trouble for their failure to make a proper 
 report. In other words, the object of the system is to 
 prevent damage, and consequent loss, by forestalling 
 delays instead of locating them after the damage has 
 occurred. 
 
 The system is' also' intended to> check the movement 
 of trains over the different districts, for the purpose of 
 seeing that they make their running time, and to> locate 
 the districts' or the terminal points where they fail to 
 run up to their schedule. 
 
THE PROBLEM OF CAR SERVICE 
 
 WALTER E. BEECHAM, CAR ACCOUNTANT, CHICAGO, 
 MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL RAILWAY 
 
 The field of car service is the only one within the 
 domain of railroad affairs that has' not been thoroughly 
 prospected for the introduction of economies, probably 
 because of its vast extent and undefinable limits, and 
 also by reason of the fact that it presents, at the 
 threshold of endeavor, so many difficulties, perplexities 
 and uncertainties that no one has had the courage to 
 undertake a task of such great magnitude. 
 
 In all other branches of the service the cost of opera- 
 tion down to a scientific minimum is pretty well known ; 
 but no one can say how much might be saved, or how 
 largely the earnings of railroads might be increased, 
 if cars were handled economically, judiciously, and 
 expeditiously. Scattered, as they are, over a vast 
 expanse of territory, and hidden away on thousands of 
 side-tracks in large terminals, it is' not possible, with 
 the facilities at the command of the roads, to exercise 
 the close supervision over them which the enormous 
 value of their use to their owners' and the public alike 
 imperatively demands. 
 
 Taking as an object-lesson, for the purpose of this 
 paper, the Chicago terminals, in which twenty-five rail- 
 roads and belt lines converge — beginning at South 
 Chicago on the Calumet River, fourteen miles in a 
 southeasterly direction from the Courthouse, and run- 
 ning westward to the tracks of the Chicago Belt, thence 
 
 99 
 
 Lore. 
 
ioo RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 north to Cragin and Galewood on the St. Paul, thence 
 in a northeasterly direction to Evanston, embracing a 
 radius of twenty-five miles within the switching limits, 
 a vast territory in which thousands of cars' are seen 
 every day — we get a pretty fair conception of the mag- 
 nitude of the proposition which confronts the railroads, 
 and we realize how inefficient are the arrangements of 
 today for successfully dealing with it. 
 
 The first and most serious difficulty met with, in 
 considering the question, is the lack of information 
 relative to the car situation in these large terminals, 
 and how utterly inefficient are the means for gathering 
 it. The next difficulty, nearly equal in importance, is 
 the lack of co-operation on the part of the railroads 
 themselves'. I want to record my belief at this time 
 that before any real reforms can be inaugurated in 
 common terminals, the seat of 95 per cent, of the 
 trouble, the railroads must place their switching power 
 under the direction of a joint Superintendent of Ter- 
 minals, representing all interests; and, further, the 
 facilities' for keeping in touch with the situation every 
 hour in the day and every minute in the hour must be 
 such as to' meet the requirements. As it now is, the 
 means of communication between railroads are inade- 
 quate to the demands ; and before this difficulty can be 
 remedied, a telephone exchange and ample telephone 
 wires, assigned to this exclusive use, must be instituted. 
 It is a self-evident truth that a railroad is no railroad 
 without terminals, and it is equally true that, without 
 close co-operation, the best results of operation in 
 common terminals can never be obtained. 
 
THE PROBLEM OF CAR SERVICE 101 
 
 There are in the United States' and Canada, in round 
 numbers, two million freight-cars, representing an 
 investment of one billion dollars' in rapidly depreciating 
 property. How to make each and every one of this 
 vast multitude of cars render to its owner the fullest 
 possible measure of service in its money-earning 
 capacity is an undertaking worthy of the brains, genius, 
 and energy of this great and unapproachably mag- 
 nificent country — a land of unknown and unimaginable 
 possibilities, fraught with so many promises of certain 
 reward and material prosperity for those who have the 
 courage and ability to take advantage of their oppor- 
 tunities, and perseverance to follow any occupation 
 successfully. 
 
 It is asserted, with statistical accuracy, that there are 
 in existence at this time enough freight-cars to pro- 
 vide amply for all the requirements of traffic conditions 
 for some time to come, if they were properly distrib- 
 uted, and promptly and efficiently handled ; but, never- 
 theless, no such shortage of cars has been experienced 
 in this country in any previous years as the railroads 
 now have to contend with. I do not want to be under- 
 stood as unqualifiedly indorsing the proposition that 
 there are cars enough for the prompt movement of all 
 the traffic that is offered in any one day, or in any one 
 week or month; and I doubt very much if it was 
 intended to be thus' interpreted, because that would be 
 unreasonable. In the first place, if there were cars 
 enough, they could not be handled ; in the second place, 
 if they could be loaded and moved promptly, the rush 
 of traffic to common centers would be so great as in a 
 
102 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 short time to^ block every railroad centering therein; 
 and, again, it would be utterly impossible to find mar- 
 kets or storage for the products' of the factory and farm. 
 But I am inclined to the opinion that there are cars 
 enough to< provide for the actual needs and reasonable 
 requirements of the present day, if they could be 
 brought under proper and efficient control and employed 
 to the best advantage. However, the magnitude and 
 extent of railroad operations in this country make this 
 a proposition of such bewildering possibilities and 
 uncertainties, as well as of financial risks, that those 
 responsible for the results of operation cannot at this 
 time see their way clear to the adoption of the only 
 scheme that is thought to hold out any hope or promise 
 of solving the problems of car service, or of removing 
 the evils that beset car supply. 
 
 It is an exceedingly difficult undertaking toi explain 
 many of the causes which contribute to' the car short- 
 age that annually afflicts the railways, because of the 
 ever-changing conditions, and for the reason that they 
 are general instead of local. Besides, our means of 
 gathering information concerning the car situation, 
 even from a local point of view, are very crude, inade- 
 quate, and unreliable. There is at the present time 
 absolutely no> way of telling where all the cars are, and, 
 until we are able to do that, we cannot exercise as close 
 supervision over them as' is necessary in order properly 
 to employ them. 
 
 Strange as it may appear, what supervision the roads 
 have over their own cars does not extend beyond the 
 owners' rails. Under the present practice, when a car 
 
THE PROBLEM OF CAR SERVICE 103 
 
 leaves the home road, it passes under the jurisdiction of 
 another, and may not return to the owner's service for 
 months and even years. There is a sort of understand- 
 ing that a car belongs to the road that owns it, not to 
 any road that happens to get possession of it, and there 
 is some kind of agreement between the railroads that 
 requires cars to be returned to the owners with reason- 
 able dispatch — an agreement which is religiously lived 
 up to when cars are not greatly in demand, but not very 
 scrupulously observed when the demand is greater than 
 the visible supply. Generally speaking, it is more 
 honored in the breach than in the observance, and it 
 quite frequently happens that cars are not returned to 
 the owners until they are unfit for further service. 
 
 This is not altogether the result of retaining the cars 
 in local service on any one line. They drift from one 
 road to another, and travel from Maine to California, 
 and from the line of the Canadian Pacific to* the South- 
 ern extremity of the state of Florida, without once 
 touching the home line for long periods of time. We 
 chase them by wire and by letter, but without result. 
 The wanderers refuse to return to the fold. 
 
 This is not a satisfactory condition of affairs and, 
 in my judgment, is not a good thing for the railroads 
 as a general proposition, but it is one of the almost 
 insurmountable difficulties that confront us in handling 
 cars'. 
 
 Previous to July, 1902, it was the practice to pay 
 mileage for the use of cars belonging to> other roads. 
 The rate in the early seventies was one and a half cents 
 per mile run loaded, and nothing for empty mileage. 
 
104 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 Later this was changed to three- fourths' of a cent per 
 mile, loaded and empty ; and, again, to' 6 mills per mile 
 loaded and empty ; at which latter figure it remained up 
 to July, 1902, when the per-diem plan was adopted, 
 and the rate for a freight car was fixed at 20 cents per 
 day, with a penalty o<f 80 cents in addition, for retaining 
 possession of a car belonging to another road over 
 thirty days'. 
 
 The per-diem proposition was first publicly advo- 
 cated in 1876 by Mr. J. T. Rigney, of the Baltimore 
 & Ohio Railroad, in the first Car Accountants' Conven- 
 tion, held at Cleveland, Ohio*. Mr. Rigney was not 
 taken seriously at the time, because the idea was not 
 considered practicable; but, as' time went by, and the 
 evils of the mileage plan became more and more appar- 
 ent, the need of a change was more keenly felt, and the 
 per-diem plan was adopted. The strongest advocates of 
 this plan not only contended, and very reasonably so, 
 that the per-diem basis' was the only true one for set- 
 tling car-hire accounts, but they went still farther and 
 asserted, with just as much confidence, that, if per 
 diem were adopted, it would accelerate the return move- 
 ments of cars to the owners and very perceptibly 
 increase the supply of cars on all roads. 
 
 These expectations have, however, not been fulfilled, 
 save in the first few months after the plan was 
 inaugurated. At that time it was an experiment. No 
 one could confidently predict the result, and while 20 
 cents per day was little enough for a freight-car as an 
 abstract proposition, it was readily seen that the large 
 number of foreign cars that were in the possession of 
 
THE PROBLEM OF CAR SERVICE 105 
 
 non-owners at all times would make payments on 
 account of car hire amount in the aggregate to very 
 large sums of money. Hence an effort was made to 
 hurry the cars back to their owners, with the result that 
 we had a more plentiful supply of cars than usual at 
 that time of year; in fact, it was difficult for some lines 
 to find storage room for them, but that was' at a time 
 when cars were not very much in demand, and no road 
 could afford to hold them even at the low rate of 20 
 cents per day, because they were not earning anything, 
 mostly standing idle on the side-tracks. After the 
 roads had recovered from their fright, however, and 
 had fully realized that the interchange of cars was 
 nearly even, and that consequently balances for car hire 
 would not be very materially altered whether the rate 
 was 20 cents or 20 dollars per day, they soon fell back 
 into the old way of handling them; except, perhaps, 
 that they were a little more particular to see that foreign 
 cars did not stand idle on the side-tracks, or were not 
 retained in possession when there was no use for them. 
 In other words, the roads very generously surrendered 
 possession of a foreign car if they had no use for it; 
 and that seems to be about the size of the situation at 
 the present day. Upon reflection, it will readily be 
 seen that it could not be otherwise, and that all the fault 
 for such a state of affairs rests with the railroads them- 
 selves, which have always rated their individual inter- 
 ests higher than their mutual interests, and have been 
 ever ready to< sacrifice the latter for the former, when- 
 ever deemed necessary or expedient or politic, under 
 the plea that self-preservation is the first law of nature. 
 
106 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 albeit forgetting entirely that in unity there is strength. 
 
 If the railroads were not engaged in handling inter- 
 state commerce, this policy would undoubtedly be the 
 true one, as in that event there would be no mutual in- 
 terests in which the equipment was involved ; but inter- 
 state commerce forces the railroads to interchange cars' 
 whether they desire to' do so or not. It has no regard 
 for the wishes of the railroads with respect to the use 
 to be made of their equipment, and distributes cars 
 throughout the length and breadth of the land without 
 reference to' what the railroads may or may not think 
 about it. 
 
 It seems to me that this condition of affairs, which it 
 is beyond the ability of the railroads to change, can be 
 met and successfully combated only by united action. 
 When cars are drifting with the flow of traffic, in large 
 numbers in one direction, it is impossible to wait for 
 the return tide to> drift them back again. Steps must 
 be taken, therefore, to force them back against the pre- 
 vailing tide; otherwise they will as naturally drift with 
 it into all parts of the Union, as a stone, thrown into 
 the air, obeys the law of gravitation and returns to* the 
 earth. There is only one way in which this' can be 
 accomplished, and that is by placing the distribution of 
 equipment, as among railroads, in the hands of an 
 organization especially adapted to that line of work — 
 an organization which not only will be representative 
 of mutual interests, but will be endowed with sufficient 
 authority to enforce its mandates upon all concerned, 
 with impartiality and equity, and without fear or favor, 
 in a manner similar to that in which the distribution is 
 
THE PROBLEM OF CAR SERVICE 107 
 
 now supervised on any of the large systems. That there 
 is abundant precedent for believing that such a plan 
 as this would be successful, one has' only to< investigate 
 the results that have attended the consolidation of 
 several large systems' in recent years. 
 
 Take the Pennsylvania Lines, for example, which 
 own and control more freight-cars than would be 
 included in a pool of equipment embracing the North- 
 Western, Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, and Burling- 
 ton lines; or, say, between 160,000 and 175,00 freight- 
 cars of all kinds'. Will anyone undertake to say that 
 this vast equipment cannot be more economically em- 
 ployed, efficiently distributed, and promptly handled 
 under one management than under two' or more differ- 
 ent managements, each one working independently of 
 the other and permitting its selfish interests to blind 
 its' eyes to< the common good? Has it not been dem- 
 onstrated time and again, in many ways, that it is 
 necessary to put the distribution of equipment in the 
 hands of one man, even on such a system as the St. 
 Paul, in order to protect the requirements of its several 
 divisions? And why? Simply because the out-bound 
 from some divisions is so much greater than the in- 
 bound that it is necessary to keep them constantly sup- 
 plied with empty cars, as otherwise they would go out 
 of business' for the want of cars to* load. 
 
 At a recent meeting of car-service officers, held in 
 Chicago, I read a paper on this subject, and one of the 
 members, in commenting thereon, wanted to know 
 what we would do when there were no cars to dis- 
 tribute. I told him that such a condition would never 
 
108 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 exist; that there would always be cars to distribute; 
 that there must be cars to distribute, whether there were 
 or not — paradoxical as that may appear. This' reminds 
 me of an incident that occurred many years ago. The 
 General Manager of the St. Paul road — a man of won- 
 derful energy and strong character, but of very explo- 
 sive temperament, which was liable to< blow up at any 
 time and in unexpected places — ordered a Train Dis- 
 patcher to> send some empty flat cars' to Bay View for 
 rails'. The Train Dispatcher answered that he could 
 not, as he did not have the cars. The General Manager 
 replied, in tones that none of us ever mistook : ' 'Don't 
 you tell me you cannot send cars when or where I tell 
 you to;" and he walked out of* the Train Dispatcher's 
 office. It is needless to> say that the cars were promptly 
 sent. 
 
 The evils that afflict the car supply are principally 
 due to> a lack of co-operation on the part of the railroads, 
 and to delays in common terminals. It is at this latter 
 point that reforms must begin; and perhaps the first 
 step will be the pooling of the switching power. But 
 as this subject leads me away from my theme, I will 
 not pursue it any further at this time. 
 
 Two' of the best examples of the proper management 
 of equipment are offered by the Pullman Company and 
 the Armour car lines. The cars of the Pullman Com- 
 pany are distributed all over the United States and 
 Canada, and are managed with consummate skill from 
 the general offices in Chicago. This is passenger 
 service, it is true, but the principle involved is the same. 
 The Armour car lines' management is above criticism 
 
THE PROBLEM OF CAR SERVICE 109 
 
 from an operating view-point — nay, it is more than 
 that, it is superb and incomparably superior to anything 
 of a like nature. They own the cars and a large share 
 of the product carried, and thereby enjoy exceptional 
 conditions ; but I am speaking now from my knowledge 
 of the handling and maintenance of the equipment, and 
 the methods of supervision employed, both from a 
 mechanical and from an operating point of view. Their 
 relations to the public have been defined with excep- 
 tional ability by Mr. J. Ogden Armour in a series of 
 articles in the Saturday Evening Post, and need no 
 defense at my hands. But I cannot, at this time, 
 refrain from saying that I have no sympathy with the 
 attacks now being made on corporations of all kinds. I 
 consider that the private car lines now in existence fill 
 a legitimate place in transportation affairs; and I pre- 
 sume they were instituted for the purpose of gain. I 
 have never known money to be invested in such enter- 
 prises from purely philanthropic motives, or for sani- 
 tary reasons', or for the good of the public health, or 
 even because the investors were anxious to put money 
 into circulation ; and those who have the brains, energy, 
 and courage to organize, and the aptitude successfully 
 to manage, such large affairs' are entitled to the rewards 
 of material prosperity. I have no* sympathy with any 
 attempt to get it away from them, except through the 
 medium of barter and trade. 
 
 One of the best showings made of the results under 
 an equipment pool is to be found in the Railway Equip- 
 ment Register for February, 1906. About a year and 
 a half ago, the Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, Oregon 
 
no RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 Short Line, and Oregon Railroad & Navigation Com- 
 pany established a clearing-house for the purpose of 
 pooling their equipment; and in the last annual report 
 of tke Union Pacific Company appears the following 
 comment as to the results attained : 
 
 The clearing-house, put into effect this year by the companies 
 for the common use of their rolling-stock, was an important factor 
 in the excellent results attained by the Transportation Depart- 
 ment. By this clearing-house system of distributing cars there 
 was effected an increase of 1.60 cars in the average number of 
 loaded cars per train, and also a gain of 1.55 per cent, in the per- 
 centage of loaded freight-car mileage to total freight-car mile- 
 age, representing a saving of about 5,726,992 empty car-miles. 
 
 A recent issue of the Railroad Gazette presents some 
 figures: obtained from Mr. J. Kruttschnitt, Director 
 of Maintenance and Operation, showing the results 
 under the clearing-house system, with comment thereon 
 as follows : 
 
 Year Ending June 30 
 
 1904 
 
 Increase or Decrease 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 
 LOADED FREIGHT CAR MILES 
 
 
 Union Pacific System . . 
 Southern Pacific Co. . . . 
 
 269,763,446 
 344,926,922 
 
 240,405,820 
 338,783,730 
 
 Inc. 29,357,626 
 Inc. 6,143,192 
 
 12 
 2 
 
 Total 
 
 614,690,368 
 
 S79,l89,5SO 
 
 Inc. 35,500,818 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 EMPTY FREIGHT CAR MILES 
 
 Union Pacific System . . 
 Southern Pacific Co. . . . 
 
 99,719,947 
 140,793,852 
 
 96,008,791 
 158,982,665 
 
 Inc. 3,711,156 
 Dec. 18,188,813 
 
 4 
 11 
 
 Total 
 
 240,513,799 
 
 254,991,456 
 
 Dec. 14,477.657 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 Grand total 
 
 855,204,167 
 
 834,181,006 
 
 Inc. 21,023,161 
 
 3 
 
THE PROBLEM OF CAR SERVICE 
 
 in 
 
 
 RATIO EMPTY CAR MILEAGE 
 
 
 
 Union Pacific System . . 
 Southern Pacific Co 
 
 26.99 
 28.99 
 
 28.54 
 31-94 
 
 Dec. 1.55 
 Dec. 2.95 
 
 Total 
 
 28.12 
 
 30.57 
 
 Dec. 2 . 45 
 
 
 
 
 This illustrates in a striking way the great saving which has 
 been made in movement of empty cars ; which means, of course, 
 a consequent increased availability of equipment for securing 
 loads. Had the 1904 ratio of empty mileage prevailed in 1905, the 
 empty car-mileage would have amounted to 261,435,000 miles, or 
 nearly 21,000,000 freight-car miles in excess of the actual figure. 
 This saving is roughly equivalent to 500,000 freight-train miles; 
 that is, the 1904 ratio would, with an average of 42 cars to a 
 train, have required the running of 500,000 more freight-train 
 miles. Since the close of the fiscal year covered by the table 
 there has been especial opportunity for efficiency in handling 
 equipment to be shown because of the unusually severe car short- 
 age and the constant heavy demands on the equipment. In the 
 four months ending October 31, 1905, the ratio of empty car haul 
 was still further reduced 1.15 per cent, on the Union Pacific, and 
 1. 19 per cent, on the Southern Pacific — an addition of nearly 
 one-half to the saving in the fiscal year 1904-1905. Results as 
 favorable as these speak for themselves for the success of the 
 equipment clearing-house as a measure of operating efficiency. 
 
 If a few railroads find the pooling of equipment so 
 greatly to their advantage as this indicates, it is hard 
 for the human mind to* estimate the beneficial results 
 that might follow the pooling of equipment in general, 
 and the placing of it under the sole charge and control 
 of experienced car distributors. 
 
 The general public looks upon pools of all kinds with 
 alarm, and it is popularly believed that dark and damn- 
 able conspiracies against the peace and good-will*of the 
 commonwealth are concealed within their innermost 
 
112 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 recesses, and that they are stirred only with evil intent 
 toward the people. But whatever of truth there may 
 be in this does not apply to a car pool ; in fact, the idea 
 suggested is only the culmination or completion of what 
 is now almost a fact, and for which interstate commerce 
 is responsible. 
 
 Loaded cars' are pooled in handling interstate com- 
 merce, whether railroads are agreeable to it or not. 
 In fact, railroads could not operate without interchan- 
 ging loaded equipment, or pooling it. My idea is to 
 carry this a little farther and pool the empty equipment, 
 or such cars as may be designated as the circulating 
 medium of equipment — the standard box-cars — in 
 order that the railroads may have it within their power 
 to distribute the empty equipment to offset the distri- 
 bution made by the shippers of the loaded equipment. 
 If such an arrangement as this could be perfected, it 
 would be necessary to divide the country into districts, 
 so many roads to be embraced in one district, and to 
 be under the charge of a district distributor. Then 
 two or more general distributors, having jurisdiction 
 over all, would have to be appointed, who would soon 
 work out the necessary details for the successful 
 operation of the plan. 
 
FREIGHT CLAIMS 
 
 RALPH C. RICHARDS, GENERAL CLAIM AGENT, CHICAGO 
 & NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY 
 
 When property is delivered to a railroad company 
 or other common carrier for transportation, the carrier 
 must transport it to its destination with reasonable dis- 
 patch at the agreed or published rate, and deliver it to 
 the consignee in the same condition as that in which it 
 was received. If it fails so 1 to< do, it must pay the 
 owner its value, if lost ; or compensate him for the dam- 
 age, if any is done ; unless such failure is caused by the 
 act of God or the public enemy. In some of the states 
 this liability as an insurer continues after the property 
 is unloaded at its destination from the cars into the 
 warehouse and is ready for delivery, until the consignee 
 has had a reasonable time — depending upon the cir- 
 cumstances, but generally from twenty-four to twenty- 
 eight hours — to call and remove his property. In other 
 states — Illinois, for instance — the carrier's liability as 
 an insurer ends as soon as the property has been un- 
 loaded from the cars and is ready for delivery. After 
 that time the carrier is liable only for loss of or 
 damage to the property caused by its negligence; and. 
 in order to recover, the owner must prove the 
 negligence. 
 
 Because of the failure of the carrier always to per- 
 form this duty, claims are made against it for loss of 
 the property which it fails to deliver, for damage to 
 
 "3 
 
H4 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 articles which has occurred while they are in the posses- 
 sion of the carrier, and for charges made in excess of 
 the published or agreed rate. In ordinary railroad par- 
 lance, claims arising from the first two causes are called 
 "freight claims;" those arising from the latter are 
 called "overcharge claims." The first class is the sub- 
 ject of this paper. 
 
 Generally speaking, claims of this nature are investi- 
 gated and adjusted by an officer know as the Freight 
 Claim Agent; but on some lines, usually the smaller 
 ones, this investigation and adjustment are made by 
 the General Freight Agent or Auditor ; on others, by 
 the General Claim Agent, who> also has charge of the 
 investigation and adjustment of personal-injury and 
 other claims. The investigation is usually by corre- 
 spondence. 
 
 The duty of the Claim Officer is not only to investi- 
 gate and adjust claims, but also to ascertain the cause 
 of the losses, to recommend the adoption of proper 
 measures for the safe and expeditious handling of 
 traffic, thereby preventing losses and damages from oc- 
 curring in the future, and to< educate the employees as 
 to the rules and how the work should be done; or, in 
 other words, to* stop the leaks. 
 
 There are about 210,000 miles of railroad in the 
 United States, employing nearly 1,300,000 men. For 
 the year ending June 30, 1903 (the last year for which 
 the Interstate Commerce Commission has published its 
 report), there were transported 173,000,000,000 ton- 
 miles of freight. I estimate that the number of claims 
 presented to the different railroads during that year 
 
FREIGHT CLAIMS 115 
 
 was 1,600,000 or 1,700,000 — about 8 per mile per an- 
 num — costing the companies about $5 per claim, or an 
 aggregate of $8,500,000 — about $40 per mile of road 
 operated. This does not include the value of equipment 
 and track damaged or destroyed in wrecks, in which 
 part of the property for which claims are presented was 
 damaged or destroyed, or the cost of picking up such 
 wrecks, which would probably be about $2,500,000 
 more; and I think a comparative estimate of the 
 amount paid as wages to men engaged in investigating 
 and adjusting such claims would be $850,000, or 50 
 cents per claim; making the total cost $11,850,000, or 
 nearly 1 per cent, of the freight earnings as reported 
 by the Interstate Commerce Commission for that year, 
 which were $1,338,000,000. 
 
 Whether the business of carrying this immense ton- 
 nage is profitable depends upon the cost of handling 
 it. One of the items of cost is the amount paid out for 
 loss and damage, which I estimate to have increased 
 about 400 per cent, in the last seven years, while during 
 the same period the freight earnings have increased 53 
 per cent. If the other operating expenses had increased 
 at the same ratio, there would have been not only no 
 profit from operations, but an absolute loss. Conse- 
 quently the matter of loss and damage claims, which 
 previous to 1898 was a comparatively insignificant 
 charge, has become, from its large increase a matter 
 of anxiety to' the owners and managers of railroads, 
 and the question of how to reduce that loss has 
 lately been given attention and consideration. In 
 order to reduce the charge, it is, of course, necessary 
 
Il6 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 to ascertain its cause; when that is known, the remedy 
 ought to be easily determined and applied. While the 
 ratio toi the total freight earnings the country over is 
 about i per cent., it differs on different roads, for 
 reasons which I shall try to' explain. 
 
 Nearly all claims are adjusted or arranged in a 
 manner satisfactory toi both the claimant and the car- 
 rier, much less litigation resulting from them than one 
 not acquainted with the business would suppose. On 
 the line with which I am connected we had, during the 
 year ending June 30, 1904, 58,146 freight claims and 
 but 32 lawsuits, the ratio being so' small as to be not 
 worth considering. Many claims — I think at least 
 one-half of those presented on local shipments — are dis- 
 posed of inside of a week after their presentation; 
 indeed, a large portion of them are adjusted on the day 
 of their presentation. Claims for loss or damage on 
 shipments passing over two or more lines take longer 
 to investigate, but I believe the average time taken to 
 investigate and settle all claims is less than sixty days, 
 although occasionally such claims are unreasonably 
 delayed in adjustment, on account of the dilatory 
 methods o>f claim officers, of the neglect of agents in 
 answering and attending to correspondence, and of the 
 failure of some of the companies to> provide a sufficient 
 force to do the work promptly and properly. 
 
 An association known as the Freight Claim Associa- 
 tion, composed of nearly all the railroads and steamship 
 companies of this country and Canada, has adopted a 
 code of rules for the investigation and division of line 
 claims, which has immensely improved methods here- 
 
FREIGHT CLAIMS 117 
 
 tofore in vogue and greatly expedited the adjustment 
 of claims. Where the members cannot agree upon such 
 division, the matter is decided by an arbitration com- 
 mittee elected each year by the members of the associa- 
 tion, by whose decision all members are bound, 
 although they have the right of appeal to another com- 
 mittee — which right, however, is rarely exercised. 
 
 The number of freight claims made against a carrier, 
 like those for personal injuries, depends not so much 
 upon its mileage or tons carried — which, of course, 
 must be considered — as upon the kind and amount 
 of traffic handled; the character of the people and the 
 population of the country through which its lines run ; 
 the class of men engaged in the carrier's service, and 
 their familiarity with the rules; and the quantity and 
 quality of supervision exercised over the employees. 
 For instance, take one of the transcontinental roads, 
 with freight earnings of about $36,000,000, whose busi- 
 ness is largely in carload lots, which go through from 
 shipping-points to destination without breaking bulk; 
 its claims amount to about $70,000. Another line, 
 operating both in the North and the South, with freight 
 earnings' of about $31,000,000, whose business is 
 largely in less than carload lots, which are frequently 
 handled and transferred; having employees who are, 
 perhaps, less prompt and careful than those wholly in 
 the temperate latitudes : its claims cost about $500,000. 
 A third road, operating in the northern and central 
 tier of states, whose business is even more largely in 
 package freight than the last-mentioned, with freight 
 earnings of $38,000,000,, but which has, perhaps, a 
 
n8 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 higher grade of employees, and more and better super- 
 vision, the communities tributary to' it being more con- 
 servative and less litigious than those tributary to 
 the second-mentioned road : its claims amount to $300,- 
 000. These examples will, perhaps, serve to illustrate 
 what I have just said about the reason for the difference 
 in the number of freight claims on different systems. 
 
 When property is received by a carrier, it should 
 first be examined to see that it is properly crated to 
 stand transportation, and marked with the name of the 
 consignee and its destination, in accordance with the 
 shipping directions; then a receipt or bill of lading 
 should be issued for it. As this receipt is evidence of 
 the contract and, like a note, is good for the value of 
 the property it calls for, and the carrier must deliver 
 the goods or pay for them, care should be taken to> make 
 it correctly, and not only the name of the consignee 
 and the destination of the property, but the number and 
 condition of the packages and the rate, if one is agreed 
 upon, should be shown. Subsequent to its receipt, a way- 
 bill is made for the consignment, which should accom- 
 pany it. Then it must be properly loaded in the car, 
 transported, unloaded, delivered to the consignee or on 
 his order, and a receipt taken for it. All of which 
 sounds very easy and simple; but, because it is not 
 always done, a loss or damage occurs, and, as a matter 
 of course, a claim, follows. 
 
 From an experience of many years in handling mat- 
 ters of this kind, I have learned that a large amount 
 of this annual loss is caused ( 1 ) by want of sufficient 
 supervision; (2) by carelessness and thoughtlessness of 
 
FREIGHT CLAIMS 119 
 
 employees; (3) by employees' lack of knowledge of 
 and familiarity with the rules regulating the manner 
 of handling the traffic, and failure to realize the result 
 of non-compliance with the same; (4) by neglect on 
 the part of shippers properly to> crate and mark the 
 packages, which results not only in damage to the con- 
 tents, but also in their failure to reach their proper 
 destination. The part of the trouble which I shall dis- 
 cuss is that mentioned under the second and third 
 heads. By way of illustration, I shall cite some cases 
 to show the result of such carelessness. They may be 
 subdivided into the following heads : 
 
 A. Receipting for more freight than is actually 
 received, or receipting for the same in good condition 
 when it is in bad order. — (a) An agent gives a receipt 
 for ten packages of oranges without counting them; 
 when the shipment reaches' its destination, there are only 
 nine; a claim is presented for one short, and must be 
 paid. (&) A shipper loads a car of butter, and presents 
 a receipt to the agent which specifies 500 tubs of butter ; 
 the agent does not check the consignment, and does not 
 know whether there are 500 or 300 tubs in the car, 
 and signs the receipt without making the notation 
 "shipper's load and count;" the shipper takes the 
 receipt, makes a draft on the consignee for the value of 
 500 tubs of butter, and attaches the receipt to the draft, 
 which is paid by the consignee ; the car reaches its desti- 
 nation; the consignee presents the receipt for the 500 
 tubs of butter ; there are only 300 tubs in the car, and 
 the result is a claim for the value of the 200 tubs, which 
 could have been avoided if the notation "shipper's load 
 
120 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 and count" had been put on the receipt, (c) An agent 
 receipts for a lot of stoves or furniture in good order, 
 when an examination would have shown that it was in 
 bad order; the property reaches its destination; the 
 consignee presents his good-order receipt; the stoves 
 or furniture are damaged, and a claim is made, which 
 would not have been done if the receipt had shown the 
 condition of the goods. 
 
 B. Waybilling freight to a wrong consignee or desti- 
 nation. — (a) A car of household goods is shipped from 
 Omaha to> Geneva, Nebr. ; the agent bills the car to 
 Geneva, N. Y. ; the car goes to New York ; the owner, 
 to Geneva, Nebr. ; the car is finally brought back ; the 
 road whose agent made the mistake has to pay for the 
 extra haul of the car, and allow something for the 
 additional expense to which the owner of the goods 
 was put while waiting to get them back from New 
 York, (b) Twenty cases of shoes are shipped from 
 Chicago to' Kankakee, consigned to John Smyth; they 
 are billed to John Smith, and by mistake are delivered 
 to' John Smith, who is dishonest and financially irre- 
 sponsible; John Smyth presents his bill of lading, and 
 the company responsible pays the claim ; it tries to col- 
 lect the same of John Smith, but nine times out of ten 
 fails. Both losses would have been avoided if, after 
 the waybill was made, it had been compared with the 
 shipping directions, as the error would have been dis- 
 covered at that time and corrected; the rules require 
 this to be done, but often it is not complied with. 
 
 C. Loading freight in one car, but billing it in an- 
 other. — A shipment of dry goods is billed in car 54569 ; 
 
FREIGHT CLAIMS 121 
 
 it is loaded in car 5456; car 54569 reaches its destina- 
 tion with the dry goods short; car 5456 goes to some 
 connecting line, and the billing road never hears of the 
 dry goods except in the way of a claim. 
 
 D. Failure to see that all packages are marked with 
 the name of the consignee and the destination. — A ship- 
 ment of ten cases of fine machinery is made from Mil- 
 waukee to Memphis ; nine of them are marked, one is 
 not; the car goes through to Cairo, where it is trans- 
 ferred ; the nine marked cases go to Memphis ; the other 
 one, not being marked, is held over at Cairo; it is put 
 away and forgotten; a claim is presented for the one 
 short, which, of course, is the most valuable of the lot ; 
 it cannot be found, and has to be paid for. If the rule 
 requiring the marking of all packages had been com- 
 plied with, the whole consignment in all probability 
 would have reached its destination. 
 
 E. Transferring freight carelessly. — A shipment of 
 rugs and wedding presents is made from San Francisco 
 to Washington ; it is carried from the shipping-point to 
 Chicago, where it is checked short, although really in 
 the car, and by mistake is put with another lot of house- 
 hold goods, going to Newark, N. J., consigned to an- 
 other consignee; it goes to Newark, and is sent to a 
 warehouse with the other goods; a claim is presented 
 for $1,200 or $1,500; it has to be, and is, found, and 
 finally properly delivered. The mistake would have 
 been avoided if a proper check had been made at trans- 
 fer points, either in unloading the original car or in 
 loading the shipment with which this consignment was 
 by mistake mixed and loaded ; or if the contents of the 
 
122 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 car in which it was loaded had been properly checked 
 at Newark. 
 
 F. Improper loading and crating of freight, and 
 rough handling of cars. — A type-setting machine, 
 valued at $2,500, is shipped from Marinette to New 
 York; it is not properly crated and is inse- 
 curely loaded ; when it reaches its destination, it is not 
 worth unloading ; a claim is presented for its value, and 
 paid. This would have been avoided if the agent at 
 the shipping-point had had the machine properly crated 
 and put the expense on the waybill as advances, if the 
 shipper declined to do the work ; or if he had take^n the 
 trouble to' see that the machine was properly secured in 
 the car; or if the trainmen had handled the car care- 
 fully. 
 
 G. Delivering freight to the wrong person or with- 
 out an order from the consignee. — (a) A case of dry 
 goods is billed to A. S. Peterson, but is delivered to A. 
 E. Peterson; a claim is presented by A. S. Peterson, 
 who holds the bill of lading, and it is paid ; A. E. Peter- 
 son leaves within two days, and is heard from no> more. 
 (b) A barrel of sugar is billed to C. S. Williams; it is 
 delivered to a drayman, who claims he hauled it to 
 Williams' store; Williams claims he did not receive 
 the sugar and refuses to pay for it ; the shipper presents 
 a claim ; the drayman did not have an order from Wil- 
 liams to haul his freight ; it is unnecessary to say who 
 pays for the sugar. 
 
 H. Delivering "Order or Notify" freight or ship- 
 ments for which a negotiable bill of lading is issued 
 without requiring the surrender of the bill of lading. — 
 
FREIGHT CLAIMS 123 
 
 A car of wheat is billed to the order of Armour & Co., 
 notify John Jones; the delivery is made to Jones with- 
 out his surrendering the bill of lading properly indorsed, 
 which Armour has sent through a bank with a draft 
 for the value of the wheat ; Jones, of course, after get- 
 ting the wheat forgets to> pay the draft, and the carrier 
 has to do so. 
 
 The rules prohibit such deliveries as those described 
 under F and G; but agents fail to comply, and loss 
 thereby results. 
 
 A freight claim is presented by the claimant direct 
 to the Claim Officer of the carrier, or to the agent at the 
 place where the claimant resides. When received at 
 the Claim Office, it is immediately entered in a register 
 kept for that purpose, given a number, and then exam- 
 ined by the Claim Officer or his assistant. If sufficient 
 information is furnished at that time, it is immediately 
 disposed of; if additional information is necessary, the 
 matter is given to an investigator for further inquiry. 
 When the facts are ascertained^ the claim, if meritori- 
 ous and reasonable, is paid, or, if not a just charge, 
 declined. If the amount is deemed excessive — it is 
 never too* low — that matter is negotiated, and some 
 agreement or compromise is reached. Fortunately, in 
 the very large majority of cases the amount is reason- 
 able, being based on the invoice price of the merchan- 
 dise lost, or, if damaged, by the cost of repair, with 
 freight charges added. Generally the payment is made 
 by the Claim Officer drawing a check for the amount 
 and mailing it to the claimant, the check expressing on 
 its face what it is for, and its indorsement acting as a 
 
124 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 receipt. Where line claims are paid, the carrier to 
 whom the claim is presented makes the payment, and 
 bills on the other carriers interested in the claim for 
 their share of the loss or damage. Losses are divided 
 according to the revenue which each carrier interested 
 in the matter received; damages, according to* the 
 mileage each carrier transported the property. 
 
 I have attempted to explain briefly what freight 
 claims are and their cause. I learn from men in this 
 line of work in England, Scotland, and Canada that 
 the railroads there are suffering to the same, if not to 
 a greater, extent from the same trouble as we in this 
 country. There always will be some losses and dam- 
 ages as long as railroads are run by men, who 1 are 
 pretty much the same everywhere; and the only thing 
 we can do is to try to reduce them to the minimum. 
 We all hope that they have reached the maximum, and 
 that the pendulum will soon swing the other way. It 
 is now doing so- on the Chicago & North- Western Rail- 
 way, where we advertise to> have, and do have, "the 
 best of everything." The following suggestions, if 
 adopted, would, I think, help some in bringing about a 
 reduction in claims' : 
 
 i . As men are the important equation on a railroad, 
 we want a new method of hiring them, so that we 
 shall get the highest class that the wages paid and 
 the chances of advancement in the service — which are 
 great — will hire. To do* this, the railroads should have 
 a bureau of employment, with a first-class man at the 
 head, for the purpose of selecting the right man for the 
 right place — a method or system under which at least 
 
FREIGHT CLAIMS 125 
 
 as much care will be taken in the selection of men as is 
 now taken, with such good results, in the selection of 
 things, such as engines, cars, rails, etc. ; as, after all, 
 men are, always have been, and always will be more 
 important than things; and as the personal equation 
 at the head of an institution goes a long way in making 
 a success or failure of the enterprise, the same rule 
 ought to work down as well as up. 
 
 2. We want the right kind of rules regulating the 
 handling of the traffic — the fewer and simpler the 
 better. I think it was Longfellow who said : "In char- 
 acter, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme 
 excellence is simplicity;" and that saying is as true 
 about railroads and their rules as it is about everything 
 else. 
 
 3. We want some method of teaching the employees 
 what those rules are, and of explaining to* them their 
 necessity, and the result to the company, the patron, 
 and the employee if they are not observed ; and, above 
 all things, to impress on employees that, while it is 
 no crime not to know all the rules and just what they 
 ought to do under all circumstances, it ought to be a 
 crime, when they do not know, not to ask someone who 
 does, and learn before, not after, they act, as it takes 
 less time to learn to do a thing right than it does to 
 explain why you did it wrong. The present method 
 of sending out half a dozen books of rules containing 
 from 100 to 200 pages each, and expecting the employee 
 to learn and understand them without such instruction, 
 is not what it should be, and sooner or later — sooner 
 I hope, for the good of all — will be changed. And that 
 
126 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 is one of the things that the University of Chicago, by 
 this course of study, is helping to bring about, and 
 which, if carried to its legitimate end, will result in 
 great benefit both to the railroads and to their 
 employees. 
 
 4. We want more and better supervision — the kind 
 that really supervises, and which should increase in 
 quantity as well as in quality in at least the same pro- 
 portion that the traffic does. Poor Richard said that 
 "the eyes of the master will do more work than both 
 his hands;" and that saying is just as true now as 
 when Benjamin Franklin uttered it over a hundred 
 years ago. 
 
SOME NOTES ON FREIGHT RATES 
 
 The most obvious feature of railroading is that of 
 physical operation — the movement of locomotives and 
 cars, and the maintenance of equipment, roadbed, 
 structures, and buildings'. It is not to be doubted that 
 the management of these varied operations requires the 
 greatest skill and the highest ingenuity in those who 
 achieve success. The problems that have to* be faced 
 are sometimes exasperatingly difficult even to the men 
 whoi have spent a lifetime in solving them. Yet there 
 is a branch of railroading whose difficulties may well 
 be considered to outvie even those connected with the 
 direction of physical transportation, and in the conduct 
 of which there are a hundred chances of failure to one 
 of success. Its general principles, if there are any, are 
 so illusive and intangible that each problem has to> be 
 analyzed and its solution determined almost inde- 
 pendently of any other. And though this branch has 
 nothing to do with the building of the roadbed, the 
 maintenance of track, or the operation of locomotives, 
 it is in reality the essence of railroading, since upon its 
 successful handling depend the commercial success of 
 the railway and its vitality as an operating concern. 
 Probably more mistakes have been made in rate-making 
 than in all other branches of railway work combined, 
 and with greater ill effects. On the other hand, much of 
 the actual adjustment of rates has been of unparalleled 
 benefit in stimulating the economic growth of the 
 
 127 
 
128 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 country both as a producer and as a trader. That errors 
 have been and will be made in rate-making is not sur- 
 prising in view of the complexity of any trade situation 
 to which a freight rate has to be applied. A great deal 
 of intelligence has been given to the work by traffic 
 officials; and yet, with all of this, it would seem as 
 though still more is demanded. 
 
 It has been said that the term "rate-making" is in- 
 appropriate, that the railway does not possess such a 
 power, and that its work is simply that of recording 
 from time to time the conditions determining the rate. 
 In a sense this is true; but it is obvious that, in so* far 
 as the railway does not respond truly to> the economic 
 environment, its rate record will be all out of tune. 
 Everybody has more or less vaguely been aware that 
 a railway is limited in the arrangement of its tariffs 
 by considerations, first, as to securing traffic, and, 
 second, as to* moving the traffic at a profit. These 
 purely commercial considerations limit the variation of 
 rates, but within their limits there is wide possibility for 
 any rate or series of rates to be established which is 
 far from representing the ideal response to the real 
 necessities of trade and industry. In fact, the per- 
 plexing intricacy of rate relations is a powerful argu- 
 ment, with the railway rate-adjuster, to make no 
 change save that which is obvious to his own intelli- 
 gence as being in the financial (sometimes political) in- 
 terest of the railway. As a consequence, it is not im- 
 possible to find very peculiar rate relations existing at 
 competitive, and even at non-competitive, points. 
 
 I have one case in mind now where a branch line 
 
NOTES ON FREIGHT RATES 129 
 
 taps a main line and then runs through practically its 
 own territory for a distance of some 130 or more miles. 
 The local rates from Chicago are 68 cents per 100 
 pounds on first-class freight to the junction point, 80 
 cents to the next station on the branch line 11 miles 
 away, and the same to the remaining 120 or more miles' 
 terminating at another junction point, which, in com- 
 mon with other places, sets the 80 cents rate. In de- 
 termining the proportional rates from the Mississippi 
 River on traffic originating east of the Illinois-Indiana 
 state line, the proportional from the river to the first 
 junction point is 40 cents, and then increases with the 
 distance (the stations being classified into' several 
 groups) to 45, 47, 49, 55, and finally to 60 cents, this 
 being the proportional rate to the competitive junction 
 point previously referred to as the terminus of the 
 branch line. Here there are in operation over the 
 same stretch of line two rate policies which seem in- 
 consistent with each other, and hardly to be justified on 
 the ground that one system applies to through rates 
 and the other to locals. As' already stated, it is hard 
 to understand rate relations of this kind, except by at- 
 tributing them to a natural desire to avoid any rate 
 adjustments except such as competition or immediate 
 financial advantage demand. 
 
 Several interesting illustrations of the intricacy of 
 rate relations are to be found in the evidence given by 
 railway officials before the Industrial Commission. 
 For instance, the rates from the West to Mobile, Ala., 
 were determined, under the policy established by the 
 Mobile & Ohio Railroad, by the rates to New Orleans, 
 
130 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 which were necessarily fixed very low on account of 
 water competition. It was felt that the railways' 
 could not afford to put into effect at points to the north 
 of Mobile the low rates enjoyed by the latter. Hence 
 the rates to such points were on a much higher level, 
 though applying to shorter distances. In fact, the evi- 
 dence revealed that it was possible to ship certain com- 
 modities to such a point as Montgomery, Ala., through 
 to Mobile, 175 miles farther south, reshipping at that 
 city back to Montgomery, at a cheaper rate than could 
 be obtained by direct shipment. The local rate from 
 Mobile to Montgomery, it may be noticed, was kept 
 low by the competition of the Alabama River. The in- 
 consistency was allowed to exist by the railways for 
 fear that the reduction of the direct rate to Montgom- 
 ery would necessitate reduction at other trading centers 
 in the adjacent territory. The whole situation in this 
 territory well illustrates the intricacy of which I have 
 been speaking. Montgomery rates are influenced by 
 Mobile rates, Mobile rates by New Orleans rates, and 
 New Orleans rates by the river rates' to St. 
 Louis, The St. Louis-New Orleans rates neces- 
 sarily affect the Chicago rates, and, in turn, 
 a host of others. Though Galveston is 350 
 miles or more to the west of New Orleans and the 
 Mississippi River, its determination to compete with 
 the latter city adds still further to the complexity of 
 the rate situation. Obviously, the rival interests of 
 Chicago and eastern manufacturing centers have to be 
 satisfactorily balanced. Bearing this in mind, it will 
 not be difficult for the student to understand how the 
 
NOTES ON FREIGHT RATES 131 
 
 alteration of the rates effective between St. Louis and 
 New Orleans might affect literally thousands' of other 
 rates. 
 
 It is not to be wondered at that inconsistencies exist 
 under such conditions, some of them almost inex- 
 plicable. It might well puzzle even a traffic man to 
 give satisfactory explanation why grain rates from 
 southeastern Minnesota — for instance, the district be- 
 tween Albert Lea, Minn., and La Crosse, Wis. — to 
 southeastern territory should be based on a differential 
 of 6 cents in favor of St. Louis as against Chicago'. St. 
 Louis is nearer southeastern territory than Chicago, 
 but Chicago is much nearer the originating territory 
 than its sister competitor. La Crosse, by the Chicago, 
 Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway is 283 miles from Chi- 
 cago; Albert Lea, by the Minneapolis & St. Paul Rail- 
 road, the Iowa Central Railway, and the Wabash Rail- 
 road, is 478 miles from St. Louis. Under these cir- 
 cumstances it might have been presumed by the unini- 
 tiated that the differential granted to St. Louis would 
 have disappeared in this territory. Of course, the reply 
 given to the inquirer would be that the differential 
 was upheld by the direct competitive route established 
 into St. Louis. The cause of the difference is obvious, 
 its logic less so. 
 
 The methods adopted in fixing rates, by the rail- 
 ways both of this country and abroad, have subjected 
 them to much criticism, and considerable attention 
 has been given to reform schemes proposing to place 
 rate-making on a simpler basis, and incidentally to re- 
 lieve the railways of the power of discrimination. The 
 
132 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 two principal theories of rate-making advanced by the 
 reformers rely, in the one instance, on distance as the 
 only proper measure of a rate, and, in the other in- 
 stance, on cost of service. The impracticability of con- 
 structing rates on either of these bases alone is demon- 
 strable. On a traffic of 1,000 tons a day from A to 
 B the connecting railway could enjoy its normal per- 
 centage of profit, and yet charge a considerably lower 
 rate than for traffic between A and some point C, an 
 equal distance away, amounting to only 1,000 tons a 
 month. Within certain limits, railway operation, like 
 manufacturing, is subject to the law of increasing re- 
 turns — the more the freight there is to be carried, the 
 cheaper it can be carried. Physical conditions are also 
 to' be taken into' account in considering distance as the 
 only basis for railway rates. Of two railways operat- 
 ing from the same center, the lines of one may traverse 
 broken and mountainous country, while those of the 
 other may pass through a practically level region. The 
 operating expenses of the former will be seriously 
 greater than those of the latter — the same motive power 
 equipment and the same expenditure of fuel and water 
 will haul nothing near the same number of loaded 
 cars to a train — and the cost of maintenance of equip- 
 ment and track will be substantially heavier. Given a 
 similar quantity of traffic to be moved and a similar 
 distance to' be operated over, it is perfectly clear that 
 rates which would give the level road a normal profit 
 would simply spell ruin to' the hilly road. Hence, as 
 the sole basis of rate-making, distance fails. Yet it 
 it true that to transport a train-load of freight 500 
 
NOTES ON FREIGHT RATES 133 
 
 miles costs more than to< carry it but half that distance, 
 and to that extent distance must be considered to con- 
 stitute a part of the composite basis of rates. The 
 "equal mileage" theory, as generally propounded, pro- 
 poses to retain a proper classification of commodities, 
 but demands that to each commodity a uniform rate 
 of so much per ton per mile be applied. As already 
 appears, this' ignores the fact that the cost of carrying 
 the freight 250 miles will be much more than half the 
 cost of conveying it 500 miles, assuming that the physi- 
 cal formation of the country along the whole route is 
 about the same. The cost of terminal handling is a 
 very important item in the total expenses of transpor- 
 tation, and these will approximate the same whether 
 the distance hauled be long or short. Once the cars 
 are loaded and the train made up, the additional ex- 
 pense incurred in moving that train an extra 250 miles 
 forms but a small percentage of the total charges 
 against that train. 
 
 Cost of service as the sole basis of rate-making 
 recognizes the factor of distance in the sense just 
 explained, but is impossible because impracticable. 
 If one could definitely ascertain the cost of carrying 
 any proposed consignment of freight, allowing in the 
 calculation for both transportation and standing ex- 
 penditures, there would at once result an easy solution 
 of the problem of finding a rate basis that would carry 
 with it its own justification. Its application would free 
 the railways from impeachment on the grounds of 
 favoritism and discrimination. Unfortunately, our 
 limited wisdom does not enable us' to determine scien- 
 
134 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 tifically the way to distribute the cost of train-working 
 over the hundred and one things that may elbow one 
 another in the same freight-car and in the same train ; 
 nor how to> assign with exactitude the proper propor- 
 tion of administrative expenses to each package; nor 
 even how to distribute track expenses between the 
 comparatively light, fast-moving passenger trains and 
 the heavy, slow-moving freight trains. Even if ascer- 
 tainable, this cost of service would be perpetually oscil- 
 lating. In this country tonnage is generally lighter in 
 the summer than in the fall, and the consequent less 
 advantageous use of equipment — lighter train-loads, 
 and so forth — means greater cost per ton-mile. Hence, 
 to> observe strictly a cost basis', summer rates would 
 have to> be higher than fall rates. The establishment 
 of rates on such a basis would by no means' do' away 
 with the present wide differences in rates'. The 
 stream of traffic between the two> centers, Chicago and 
 New York, for instance, flows eastward. This entails 
 the returning of large numbers of cars even if empty. 
 The cost of hauling them fully or partly loaded with 
 freight will not be greatly above that of hauling them 
 empty. The cost to< the railways of hauling that freight 
 westward is something very different from the east- 
 ward cost; and if the basis of actual cost is to be 
 observed, the rate for the former service will be much 
 less than for the latter. 
 
 A third basis of railway rates has sometimes been 
 suggested — namely, that they should be fixed in uni- 
 form relation to the value of the freight to the shipper. 
 To a degree the present system of freight charges does 
 
NOTES ON FREIGHT RATES 135 
 
 this, though also taking into account other factors. An 
 unmodified value basis would carry a ton of coal 50 
 miles or 500 miles for the same charge, and would 
 resemble a tax. If it were so applied, it would estab- 
 lish the so-called "postage stamp" principle, and, with- 
 in the territorial limits of its operation, would bring 
 about the annihilation of space (though not of time), 
 regarded by some as the apotheosis of railway trans- 
 portation. There is little possibility that such a plan 
 will ever assume practical importance, notwithstanding 
 the partial application of the principle in the case of 
 "group" or "blanket" rates. 
 
 It is conceivably possible to' arrange a classification 
 of commodities so grouped that an appropriate per- 
 centage of value could be obtained from a consignment 
 of freight, whether it were a ton of coal or a bale of 
 silk, but the amount of tax incident upon any particular 
 consignment would only by accident bear any relation 
 to the extent of the service performed. Such a system 
 of rate taxation would assuredly tend to 1 concentrate 
 the trade of the country — and consequently, to no 
 small extent, its population — in the seaboard cities, 
 since dealers, receiving import shipments, could handle 
 from the seaboard to any interior point at the expense 
 of a single tax, whereas inland jobbing points would 
 have to make reshipment, and hence would be taxed 
 twice on their imported freight. The political and 
 economic results of this seaboard congestion would be 
 unfortunate. Such a tariff would stimulate extremely 
 long-distance traffic ; on the other hand, short-distance 
 traffic would be penalized with higher charges. How- 
 
136 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 ever, it is not worth our while to spend time on tracing 
 out the possible results of a merely theoretical basis of 
 railway charges. 
 
 Not one of the above theories, standing by itself, is 
 free from serious' defect. Yet each contains an ele- 
 ment which it would seem desirable to> have included 
 among the factors affecting the railway rate, and the 
 conclusion is inevitable that the correct theory of rate- 
 making is one that takes into consideration all of these 
 factors — distance, cost of service, and value of ship- 
 ment (and, to a certain extent, the value to the shipper 
 of the transportation service performed for him). No 
 fixed relative value can be attached to' any factor; the 
 importance of its influence upon the rate must accord 
 with the demands of any particular situation, and may 
 be the same as, greater than, or less than its importance 
 under any other conditions. This is really what prac- 
 tical rate-making endeavors to do, and all that is im- 
 plied in the much-misunderstood principle of "charging 
 what the traffic will bear." 
 
 Many people still regard such a basis of rates as 
 pure piracy, justifying the exaction of unreasonable 
 prices for transportation from the users of the same. 
 Even a railway with sovereign powers over its territory 
 might find it advisable to charge a really low rate for 
 its' services, A large volume of business at a low rate 
 o<f profit may be far preferable to a small volume at a 
 high rate. Monopoly, even in its most absolute form, 
 does not necessarily mean the imposition of the highest 
 charges at which any business can be done, but those 
 charges which are likely to bring in the maximum net 
 
NOTES ON FREIGHT RATES 137 
 
 profit. Like every other commercial undertaking, this 
 is what the railways are striving after; and so long 
 as a decrease of charge will stimulate and increase busi- 
 ness sufficiently to add to the net profit, so long will 
 railways continue to lower their rates, as a matter of 
 pure self-interest. This is further assured by the pres- 
 ence of rivalry among the railways themselves, and 
 by the powerful influence of water competition. 
 
 It will be understood that the statement we have 
 made is true as a general proposition and in the long 
 run ; but every rule has its' exceptions, and there can be 
 no doubt but that, at times, railways have maintained 
 some of their rates, if not at the maximum under which 
 any traffic could move, certainly at a level high enough 
 to retard the development of an industry. Traffic and 
 executive officials are human, and, accordingly, like the 
 rest of us', are liable to' misread their own interests. 
 There has been more than one case where a railway 
 has maintained a rate on a certain commodity which 
 permitted but comparatively small shipments and re- 
 tarded the development of the industry, until the intro- 
 duction of other rail competition — by the construction 
 of another line, for instance — has forced the rate down, 
 with marvelous results in the growth of that traffic, 
 and with corresponding benefit to the laggard road and 
 its' rival. But such conditions as this must be regarded 
 as more or less exceptional. Though hackneyed by 
 frequent use, it is worth recalling that "charging what 
 the traffic will bear" means' equally well "not char- 
 ging what the traffic will not bear." Its interpretation 
 as charging all that the traffic can bear irrespective of 
 
138 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 the conditions of present and future development, is 
 unjustifiable. Mr. W. M. Acworth, an English writer 
 on railway economics, says : 
 
 Translated into railway language the principle means this: 
 the total railway revenue is made up of rates which, in the case 
 of traffic unable to bear a high rate, are so low as to cover hardly 
 more than actual out-of-pocket expenses; which, in the case of 
 medium-class traffic, cover both out-of-pocket expenses and a 
 proportionate part of the unapportioned cost; and which finally, 
 in the case of high-class traffic, after covering that traffic's own 
 out-of-pocket expenses, leaves a large and disproportionate sur- 
 plus available as a contribution toward the unapportioned ex- 
 penses of the low-class traffic, which such traffic itself could not 
 afford to bear. 
 
 Of course, such a basis of rate-making removes all 
 mathematical tests as to the propriety of a rate, and 
 as a result discriminations, and so forth, are apt to 
 appear. But all discriminations are not necessarily im- 
 proper. The discrimination, however, should always 
 be one justified, both in nature and in proportion, by 
 the surrounding economic conditions'. For example, it 
 is a universally recognized practice, so far as this 
 country is concerned, to> grant a lower rate to the man 
 who can ship a carload than to the man who* ships 
 in less-than-carload consignments. It may be that the 
 difference between some existing carload and less-than- 
 carload rates is unnecessarily large; but, however that 
 may be, it is much less expensive for a railway company 
 to handle loaded cars than to have to handle every con- 
 signment of freight through its freight-houses, and the 
 convenience to the railway is often worth a consider- 
 able reduction from the less-than-carload rate. Just 
 
NOTES ON FREIGHT RATES 139 
 
 as there is a justification for the lower level of carload 
 rates, so it may easily be conceived that the shipper 
 who is prepared to ship by train-load is also 
 entitled to further consideration. One can well go 
 farther and say that a still lower charge for transporta- 
 tion might be reasonably granted to the train-load ship- 
 per if he were prepared to guarantee regular traffic to 
 the railway handling his freight — a train once a week, 
 for instance. Under each of these conditions there 
 would be a convenience to the railway, resulting in 
 economy of operation and making a lower rate equally 
 as profitable to it as a higher rate under conditions' im- 
 posing more responsibility and more work. 
 
 Of all methods of discrimination the rebate has of 
 late years' received most attention. The writer has 
 nothing to say in defense of the secret rebates to which 
 traffic men have been driven in their too eager desire to 
 secure business for their respective roads as against 
 competitive roads. But the rebate that is granted to 
 shippers on condition of consigning a certain amount 
 of freight per week or per month is harmless to* the 
 public interests so> long as it is an open proposition able 
 to be secured by all who can fulfil the conditions. 
 
 More complex than discriminations between indi- 
 viduals are discriminations between places. Every lo- 
 cality will fight to the last for advantages over its com- 
 peting rivals; and, with this problem of conflicting 
 interests before them, it would be a surprising thing, if 
 the railways could avoid errors of judgment. Injustices 
 have happened under the laissez-faire policy of 
 railway tariff-making, but many of the discriminations 
 
140 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 arising from that policy have helped industry and man- 
 ufacture to develop with a rapidity that has been 
 equaled nowhere else. If it had not been for discrimi- 
 nations in favor of the grain of the West, this country 
 could never have acquired the predominance in the 
 grain market upon which it has been able to* build so 
 much of its' manufacturing prosperity. If freight rates 
 to Chicago' had been placed in proportion to> freight 
 rates to Albany, there would have been very little Chi- 
 cago today ; if St. Louis had not received the benefits of 
 discrimination in the shape of a differential under Chi- 
 cago', it could hardly have attained its' present pros- 
 perity ; and the same may be said of a number of other 
 thriving cities in the West and South. Without the 
 development of these entrepots of trade, and centers of 
 culture and civilization, the economic and social condi- 
 tion of the interior states of this country would be 
 today half a century at least behind what it is. 
 
ORGANIZATION OF THE OPERATING DE- 
 PARTMENT OF RAILROADS 
 
 R. H. AISHTON, GENERAL MANAGER, CHICAGO & NORTH- 
 WESTERN RAILWAY 
 
 The organization of the Operating Departments 
 of railways differs in some respects, but, in the main 
 particulars, has a certain uniformity. Each organiza- 
 tion has invariably been developed by a species' of evolu- 
 tion, just as the large railway systems of today, with 
 their eight, ten, and even fifteen thousand miles of 
 road under one management, have been evolved by the 
 consolidation and amalgamation of a large number of 
 individual lines', each with its own separate organiza- 
 tion. 
 
 The line of railroad with which I am connected — the 
 Chicago & North-Western — may be taken as an exam- 
 ple. I have a little pamphlet, entitled Yesterday and To- 
 day, containing a brief history of the road, in which I 
 find that, starting in 1847, w ^ the construction of the 
 first mile of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, 
 chartered and built westward from Chicago, we read, in 
 successive order, of the following lines : The Madison & 
 Beloit ; the Rock River Valley ; the Chicago, St. Paul & 
 Fond du Lac; the Kenosha, Rockford & Rock Island; 
 the Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska; the Cedar Rapids & 
 Missouri River; the Milwaukee & Chicago Union & 
 St. Paul; the Sioux City & Pacific; the Fremont, Elk- 
 horn & Missouri Valley — all of them separate organi- 
 
 141 
 
142 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 zations, started and built originally by local capital and 
 to serve local interests, each with its' own organization 
 and set of officers. 
 
 The organization of these roads primarily consisted 
 of a principal officer, who was usually the representative 
 of the financial interests connected with the road. 
 Under him was a Manager or Superintendent, and evi- 
 dence is not wanting that he was the whole Operating 
 Department, so far as the organization was concerned. 
 He looked after the track, bridges, etc. ; purchased all 
 the supplies, audited the accounts, paid the taxes, built 
 the cars', repaired the locomotives, acted as train dis- 
 patcher when the telegraph service was first instituted ; 
 and, in general, was the "whole thing." 
 
 In October, 1864, a consolidation of the various 
 lines took place, whereby the Chicago' & North- Western 
 Railroad came into being. About that time the true 
 organization or evolution of the Operating Department 
 began, and it became necessary to have a certain au- 
 thority who should bring uniformity of practice into 
 the administration of the road. There being a num- 
 ber of superintendents for the small portions of the 
 road, the most natural thing was to create a General 
 Superintendent, responsible to the President. His duties 
 were naturally scattered over a wide ground, and this 
 led to the appointment of an expert in charge of the 
 engines, motive power, and cars, termed a Master Me- 
 chanic or Superintendent of Motive Power. The pur- 
 chases for the road having attained large proportions, 
 it next became necessary to appoint a Purchasing Agent 
 in charge of all these things. Long before this, how- 
 
THE OPERATING DEPARTMENT 143 
 
 ever, it had become necessary to take the traffic entirely 
 out of the hands of the General Superintendent, and to 
 create a special department for this, reporting directly 
 to the President. The maintenance of track and 
 bridges, and the movement of trains', by this time had 
 become so important that the General Superintendent 
 was overburdened; therefore a General Manager, 
 usually an expert in these matters, was appointed, to 
 whom heads of the various departments would report, 
 and through him to the President. So much for past 
 history. 
 
 As indicating the scope of the system and the respon- 
 sibilities that are placed with the operating men, it may 
 be of interest to note that in 1857 the old Chicago' & 
 Galena Union Railroad, which is now the Chicago' & 
 North- Western, had 260 miles of road, and that the 
 total number of men employed was 1,904. In the fall 
 of 1857 there was a panic, and in January, 1858, the 
 road had discharged all of its' force except 722 men. 
 Today there is in the employ of the Chicago & North- 
 western an army of 28,000 men, for the faithful per- 
 formance of whose duties the Operating Department 
 is responsible. The road comprises 7,408 miles of track, 
 and has 1,307 engines, 1,200 passenger-cars, and 52,- 
 500 freight-cars '•; and it is the particular province of the 
 Operating Department to see that these vast powers are 
 worked with a view to securing results for the owners. 
 
 The present organization of this vast system can 
 best be made intelligible in diagrammatic form. 
 
ORGANIZATION OF THE OPERATING DEPARTMENT OF 
 THE CHICAGO & NORTH-WESTERN RAILROAD 
 
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THE OPERATING DEPARTMENT 145 
 
 The General Manager stands at the head of the De- 
 partment. His aids' are the General Superintendent, 
 the Superintendent of Motive Power, the Superin- 
 tendent of the Car Department, the Purchasing Agent, 
 the Chief Engineer (on certain classes of work), and, 
 in succession, the heads of the Dining-Car, Telegraph, 
 Testing, Inspection, and Claim Departments; each of 
 whom reports to< his superior officer. Reporting toi the 
 General Superintendent are the Division Superintend- 
 ent, the Signal Engineer, and the Car Service. Agent. 
 Reporting to the Division Superintendent are the Train 
 Master, on all matters pertaining to employees engaged 
 in train and yard service; the Train Dispatcher, in 
 charge of the agents' and operators ; the Road Master, 
 in charge of the men employed on track and mainte- 
 nance and repairs ; and the Division Engineers, on mat- 
 ters pertaining to water supply and bridges and 
 buildings. The development of signal systems' in the 
 last few years has brought another officer into the field, 
 as an aid to the General Superintendent, namely, the 
 Signal Engineer, who has charge of all the men install- 
 ing, operating, and maintaining the signals. For the 
 proper distribution and use of the equipment of the 
 company, an officer, termed the Car Sendee Agent, is 
 injected into the organization, reporting directly to the 
 General Superintendent, and acting under his instruc- 
 tions. 
 
 Next in relative importance to the General Superin- 
 tendent, on the staff of the General Manager, is the 
 Superintendent of Motive Power. The diagram fully 
 explains the scope of his duties, and much of the effi- 
 
146 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 ciency and smoothness with which the service is' con- 
 ducted is due to the efficiency of this department. With- 
 out locomotives in first-class condition, ready for duty 
 at all times and in abundant number, the service 
 rendered by the corporation, and the results to that 
 corporation, will be disappointing. 
 
 The duties and work of the other officers are clearly 
 outlined in the diagram, and need no' explanation. 
 
 In this very brief outline I have endeavored to make 
 clear the scheme of organization, the duties of the vari- 
 ous officers and employees, the relations between them, 
 and the various channels by which the General Man- 
 ager retains his control and knowledge of the situation. 
 Lord Nelson, at the battle of Trafalgar, said to the men 
 of his navy: "England expects every man to do' his 
 duty/' The province of the Operating Department is 
 not only to say this, but also to outline definitely before- 
 hand to every man in the service just in what his duty 
 consists, and then to see that every man actually does 
 his duty, by day and night, in foul weather as well as 
 in fair. 
 
THE PURCHASING AGENT 
 
 E. V. DEXTER, PURCHASING AGENT, CHICAGO & ALTON 
 RAILROAD 
 
 In presenting the subject of the Purchasing Agent 
 and the Purchasing Department, I shall endeavor to 
 give a general and connected idea of that branch of rail- 
 way work. There is, of course, much detail, such as 
 actual figures, kinds of office forms used, and the like, 
 that cannot well be fully discussed and explained in the 
 time at my command. 
 
 The first thing to be considered is the origin of the 
 office of the Purchasing Agent — how and why it be- 
 came necessary. It may be said to* be one of the newer 
 offices, when compared with those of the Superintend- 
 ent and of the Master Mechanic. By process of evolu- 
 tion, it has grown up into a department of itself. When 
 I say "evolution," I mean that its necessity became ap- 
 parent with the same onward force that has resulted, 
 and is resulting, in the consolidating and intensifying 
 of railway business generally. 
 
 It is not so very long ago that a separate department 
 of purchases was not considered necessary in many in- 
 stances. The small roads in the early days secured 
 their supplies and distributed them through the Su- 
 perintendent's or General Manager's office. In such 
 cases there was no necessity for a Purchasing Agent. 
 This is still true today of* certain railway companies 
 of small mileage and limited business, where a trusted 
 
 147 
 
148 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 clerk in the Superintendent's or General Manager's 
 office looks after all the detail work, and places orders' 
 as he is instructed. With increasing consolidation, and 
 the forming of the present-day railway systems, these 
 purchasing duties had to> be specialized and put in 
 charge of one officer, who devotes his whole time to 
 them. 
 
 I have used the word "specialized;" and, at first 
 thought, it may appear necessary that the Purchasing 
 Agent should have, as his chief qualification, a tech- 
 nical and expert knowledge of the hundreds of classes 
 of materials which he is called upon to> buy; but this' 
 is impracticable. For instance, to' know to a nicety the 
 limits of stress on a steel bridge girder comes rather 
 within the province of the Chief Engineer. In a gen- 
 eral way, the qualifications that count of most impor- 
 tance are integrity, good business sense, sound and 
 quick judgment, and sufficient railroad experience to 
 handle the business of the office with dispatch. 
 
 The special and expert work of the Purchasing 
 Agent lies in his constant watchfulness and study of 
 markets and prices, in order to be able to take advan- 
 tage of market conditions, in a measure to forecast 
 future conditions, and to act accordingly. A good way 
 to keep informed is to read the daily papers as well as 
 the commercial periodicals. Dun's and Bradstreet's 
 commercial agencies' give reviews of business condi- 
 tions in the daily papers. The trade journals, like the 
 Iron Age, the Commercial Bulletin and various others, 
 give the trend of the markets, granting always the ex- 
 ercise of personal judgment in the reading. There 
 
THE PURCHASING AGENT 149 
 
 are certain lines' of material, like iron and steel, that 
 have a way of indicating general business conditions. 
 In fact, it seems' that other lines of business follow 
 along; and when the slump or rise comes in these par- 
 ticular materials, one may expect to> see other materials 
 affected in like manner. Another way in which the 
 Purchasing Agent cannot help absorbing much infor- 
 mation of this kind is by frequently seeing and talking 
 to the representatives of the trade. These men, many 
 of them, are as' well posted in business affairs pertain- 
 ing to railway supplies as can be found, and are most 
 willing, of course, to talk prices and to discuss the out- 
 look. The element of personal judgment comes in here 
 again, and the Purchasing Agent soon learns' to get at 
 the facts. 
 
 Previous experience in railway work, leading up to 
 the position of Purchasing Agent, is of considerable 
 advantage, and gives him much more confidence in his 
 frequent reports to, and correspondence and confer- 
 ences with, other officers of the road, and, in fact, in all 
 his negotiations. The knowledge of how freight is 
 handled assists in getting the material to its destination 
 after it is ordered — no small part of the work. A gen- 
 eral idea of railway accounts, and an understanding of 
 railway office detail, are collectively a valuable quali- 
 fication, though not the most important. 
 
 The office of the Purchasing Agent is not elective, 
 like that of the Treasurer or the Secretary, but he is 
 appointed either by the President or the General Man- 
 ager, or by the Vice-President and the General Man- 
 ager. The Purchasing Agent becomes one of the 
 
150 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 general officers of the road, and reports, and is acount- 
 able, to the officer appointing him. 
 
 The Purchasing Agent's' office is sometimes, classified 
 in the Operating Department, but more often and 
 properly becomes a department by itself, as the work is 
 distinctly different from that of other departments. 
 The Purchasing Agent does not have any direct au- 
 thority as to how the road shall be operated ; he cannot 
 say what method shall be followed in securing the traf- 
 fic of the road, either passenger or freight; he has no 
 authority in financial policies, or to' formulate methods 
 for the accounting of the road's receipts and disburse- 
 ments ; but he has authority over the material required 
 to operate the road — not how or where it is to be used 
 after he has secured it, but in seeing that his company 
 has the right standard of material for its' needs, and that 
 it is obtained at a satisfactory cost. This is really the 
 heart of the Purchasing Agent's work. His advice is 
 asked, and cost reports are called for, in the case of ex- 
 penditure for improvements and additions. He is in a 
 position to know the favorable time when the purchase 
 of material for this extra work and improvement should 
 be made, and in this way can render valuable service. 
 
 The scope of the Purchasing Department may be 
 divided into three heads : ( 1 ) procuring' supplies — in- 
 cluding the purchase and, after purchase, the delivery 
 of the material to its destination; (2) the conservation 
 of supplies, or store stock; (3) the sale of old material. 
 
 Beginning with the first head, procuring supplies, I 
 shall first give a general outline of the Purchasing 
 Agent's force. This includes the men in the office and 
 
THE PURCHASING AGENT 151 
 
 those in the field. The office force and office detail are 
 placed in charge of an assistant or chief clerk, who has 
 under him a sufficient number of order clerks, voucher 
 clerks, and invoice clerks to' turn out the work promptly 
 and satisfactorily, subject to the supervision and direc- 
 tion of the Purchasing Agent. The modern railway 
 system has its Fuel Agent, Stationer, Cross-Tie Inspec- 
 tors, and General Storekeeper — all, as a rule, within 
 the Purchasing Department and reporting to the 
 Purchasing Agent. 
 
 It may be noted here that fuel is the largest single 
 item of material expense; and, to> give some idea of 
 quantities and cost, I may mention that the railway 
 with which I am connected, operating about a thousand 
 miles of road, uses over half a million tons' of coal, at 
 an annual cost of about $600,000. While these are 
 large figures, they are comparatively small when com- 
 pared with the consumption and cost on the larger rail- 
 way systems. Hence it is not surprising that the work 
 of the Purchasing Agent is divided, and so arranged 
 that all of these important matters may receive the 
 proper attention. The Fuel Agent's duties are of no 
 small importance, as he is held responsible for the 
 proper kinds of fuel and the proper amount. His nego- 
 tiations are carried on directly with the mine-owners 
 and operators, and he is expected to keep himself in- 
 formed concerning the situation in the coal markets. 
 If there are actual or threatened strikes in the coal-fields 
 from which the railway company draws its fuel sup- 
 plies, he must take such action as will protect his road 
 in the event of a shortage. In the same general way, the 
 
152 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 Tie Inspector, the Stationer, and the Storekeeper are 
 looked to for results of economy and good service. I 
 have not named all of the officers whom I have desig- 
 nated as the men in the field : their number and duties 
 vary with the extent and business of the railway. 
 
 Now, the question may possibly be raised here : How 
 does the Purchasing Agent know how much and what 
 kind of material to> buy? Whence comes his informa- 
 tion ? The basis' on which he works is the requisition. 
 Requisitions show the quantity and kind of material, 
 what it is to' be used for, and how soon it is wanted, 
 The departments using the material, as shown on the 
 various requisitions, are the Motive Power, Mainte- 
 nance of Way, Signal, Transportation, and Commissary 
 or Dining-Car, and the requisitions are compiled under 
 the direction and approval of the heads of these depart- 
 ments. These requisitions, with few exceptions, are 
 forwarded through the office of the General Store- 
 keeper, and are then sent to the General Manager, 
 sometimes to both the General Manager and the Presi- 
 dent, for approval, before they reach the Purchasing 
 Department. 
 
 There are, however, certain exceptions to this gen- 
 eral rule. There are cases of emergency where ma- 
 terial is ordered by telegraph. In such cases the requi- 
 sitions covering the telegraphic orders are received 
 later, with a notation to* that effect. A particular in- 
 stance of this' occurred during the Missouri and Missis- 
 sippi river floods in June, 1903, when large quantities 
 of piling and timber were ordered by telegraph to> in- 
 sure the promptest possible handling of the orders. In 
 
THE PURCHASING AGENT 153 
 
 an emergency of this kind the Purchasing Agent is ex- 
 pected personally to see that the cars for the material 
 are placed promptly, and the material loaded and ship- 
 ped without delay. In the instance just cited much 
 of the material was on the way to its destination twelve 
 hours after the order to purchase it had been received. 
 Any delays in such cases are very apt to' mean addition- 
 al loss, and of necessity such emergency supplies cannot 
 wait on the regular requisition procedure. I might 
 mention that at that time a quantity of gunny sacks, 
 filled with sand, were secured and dispatched with all 
 haste to the scene of trouble, for the purpose of bolster- 
 ing up the caving embankments. 
 
 As explained above, the requisitions, after having 
 received the proper approval, next come to the Purchas- 
 ing Agent's ofhce for his action. The Purchasing 
 Agent has on hand a list of prices for practically all 
 material that he is called upon to buy, subject to con- 
 tinual market changes. Such of the material as has 
 been secured on contracts made by the Purchasing 
 Agent for a period of time may be ordered at once with- 
 out any further preliminaries. Material not contracted 
 for is listed and sent to supply concerns with the request 
 that they make their bids'. In this way, by the opera- 
 tion of competition, the lowest prices are secured con- 
 sistent with the quality and grade of material specified 
 on the request for bids. When the bids are received, 
 the Purchasing Agent is ready to> place the order; but 
 considerable judgment is required in selecting the right 
 bid. As a general proposition, the lowest price usually 
 takes the order. But, besides the price, other things 
 
154 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 must be considered, as, e. g., whether or not the bidder 
 can deliver the material within the required time, or 
 whether from his past experience the Purchasing Agent 
 may be sure that the lowest price quoted covers the 
 quality and kind oif material wanted. These negotia- 
 tions are frequently carried on verbally, as well as by 
 correspondence. At times a better arrangement can be 
 made verbally. Throughout these negotiations it is es- 
 sential that the business is handled very promptly, and 
 that no effort is spared to cover all points before the 
 order is finally placed. 
 
 After this somewhat brief explanation of how the 
 fuel supply is handled, something may now be said 
 regarding quality. The Fuel Agent may or may not 
 have one or more fuel inspectors reporting to> his office, 
 whose duties keep them out on the road and at the 
 mines. By this system of inspection the quality of the 
 fuel is maintained at standard. The method o<f in- 
 spection varies with the different railways, and is gov- 
 erned or limited by the extent of the purchases'. In 
 some cases the fuel inspector is responsible to the 
 Superintendent of Motive Power, while in other cases 
 the Fuel Agent, or the official buying the fuel, is held 
 responsible; but, in any event, the Purchasing Depart- 
 ment is finally accountable for the proper standard of 
 fuel. In much the same way, cross-ties and other tim- 
 bers are inspected, and the quality, conforming to stand- 
 ard specifications, is maintained. The cross-tie inspec- 
 tors, as' a rule, report directly to the Purchasing Agent. 
 
 Regarding the question of quality and inspection of 
 the thousand and one other materials, it may not be 
 
THE PURCHASING AGENT 155 
 
 unreasonable to suspect that the Purchasing Agent is 
 often quite at sea when it conies to> knowing whether or 
 not such materials conform to the standard of quality 
 required. It must, however, be remembered that in 
 every railway system all the employees, from the high- 
 est to the lowest, bear some relation to one another — 
 a relationship governed by what is known as "the good 
 of the service." Hence the Purchasing Agent is pro- 
 tected, as it were, by as many inspectors of material as 
 there are users of it. It is both a written and an un- 
 written rule that, where material is received that is in- 
 ferior, or does not conform to standard specifications, it 
 must be reported at once, or rejected if necessary. This 
 information always comes to the Purchasing Agent 
 very promptly, and sometimes with more than ordinary 
 emphasis. The Purchasing Agent has thus a complete 
 check on the quality of the material; and, where the 
 specifications have not been complied with, the supply- 
 ing firms, whether intentionally or unintentionally of- 
 fending, are the losers. Owing to the efficient 
 protection of this system, such occasions are, however, 
 comparatively rare. 
 
 Another means of guarding against inferior quality 
 is the system of printed specifications, referred to above. 
 For instance: The Motive Power Department uses 
 quantities of various materials, and, in order to secure 
 a standard of quality, specifications' are prepared by 
 experts in this department, defining exactly the grade 
 of material and the tests it must stand. These specifi- 
 cations, as they are prepared, are printed, the Purchas- 
 ing Agent keeping a supply in his office. In the same 
 
156 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 way the Maintenance of Way and the Transportation 
 Departments have their specifications. While these 
 do not cover everything that is bought, as far as' they 
 go they furnish a substantial foundation for the Pur- 
 chasing Agent upon which to base his purchases. 
 When these specifications are used, it is incumbent upon 
 the department needing the material to> inspect and 
 test it to see that it is in accordance with the standard 
 requirements. There are yet other means to> determine 
 the quality O'f railway supplies; in which connection 
 may be mentioned the various laboratories' operated by 
 independent companies having in their employ expert 
 engineers to> inspect, test, and analyze all material en- 
 tering into railway work. Practically all steel rail is 
 inspected, tested and analyzed by these independent 
 companies. Some of the larger railway systems have 
 found it economical to maintain their own testing lab- 
 oratories, in charge of the Engineer of Tests'. 
 
 The mere purchase of the material does not complete 
 the work. When the orders are placed and accepted, 
 they must be followed up to see that the material meets 
 with no 1 transportation or shipping delays'. What are 
 known as "tracers," both written and telegraphic, must 
 be sent out, in order to follow and hasten shipments of 
 material that has been delayed, or which is hard to 
 secure after it has been ordered. There is perhaps no 
 limit to the effort which a Purchasing Agent may 
 expend in this' direction. 
 
 As to 1 the kind of material that should be contracted 
 for, there is no rule other than the conditions of the 
 markets and the amount required of a given kind. It is 
 
THE PURCHASING AGENT 157 
 
 always safe to contract for locomotive fuel, as there 
 is no telling what may happen to set one's plans at 
 naught, unless one is protected. The supply of cross- 
 ties should likewise be looked after, as well as such 
 other materials as cement, cast-iron pipe, etc., when- 
 ever it is expected that a large quantity will be used. 
 
 To sum up, the question of contracts is one generally 
 regulated by the Purchasing Agent's judgment. 
 
 The Stores Department, or Store Stock, is usually 
 presided over by a General Storekeeper, reporting, as a 
 rule, to the Purchasing Agent, but sometimes to the 
 Superintendent of Motive Power. With few excep- 
 tions, the record of all material purchased, other than 
 that properly belonging to the Stationery and Com- 
 missary Store Stocks, as well as the record of the re- 
 quisitions discussed above, is kept by the General Store- 
 keeper. While all this material is not delivered direct 
 to the Storehouse, and much of it is consigned to points 
 on the line where it is to be used, the Storekeeper is 
 expected to have a complete record of the kind of ma- 
 terial, quantity, cost, and by what department used. 
 There are also many classes of material, such as 
 lumber, small hardware, etc., that must be kept on hand 
 to be issued to various departments — materials that 
 cannot well be bought in the small quantities called for 
 daily. This stock, which we might call "running sup- 
 plies," is replenished as often as necessary by the Pur- 
 chasing Agent, on approved requisitions received from 
 the Storekeeper. The Storekeeper in turn issues these 
 supplies from the Storehouse on requisitions known as 
 Store Stock requisitions, received by him from foremen 
 
158 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 of shop departments and agents, bearing - the approval 
 of the proper officials. With his force of clerks, the 
 Storekeeper is expected to know at all times the condi- 
 tion of his stock. Besides his' system of accounts and 
 checks to keep track of this, there is a semi-annual 
 inventory by actual count and measure. It is a test of 
 efficiency for the Storekeeper to> keep down his stock 
 to the lowest practical working point, in order not to 
 have more money than necessary tied up in material. 
 For the purpose of facilitating the issue of these stores' 
 to all points on the road, there are outlying smaller 
 stores, taken care of by local storekeepers or clerks, who 
 are accountable to> the General Storekeeper in all mat- 
 ters pertaining to> their stocks. 
 
 In addition to this General Store Stock, there is an- 
 other important stock, known as the Stationery Store 
 Stock, where a supply of all the numerous blank forms 
 and other stationery is kept, to be issued by the Sta- 
 tioner promptly on receipt in his office of the monthly 
 requisition from the General, Division, and Station 
 Agents' Offices. These requisitions, as a rule, are su- 
 pervised and approved by the Traveling Auditors. 
 The form and nature of the blanks are usually arranged 
 through a Blank Form Committee or by the General 
 Manager, and contracts are made by the Purchasing 
 Department providing for the necessary supply. There 
 is, in addition to* these blank forms, considerable print- 
 ing that is not carried in stock, such as' general office 
 orders, advertising matter, freight tariffs, and the like. 
 
 Another stock, known as the Commissary, and in 
 charge of the Superintendent of Dining-Cars, is han- 
 
THE PURCHASING AGENT 159 
 
 died in much the same way. In the case of each of 
 these three stocks there is a monthly balance taken as a 
 check on the amount of supplies. Although it is not 
 taken by actual count and measure like the semi- 
 annual inventories, yet it is very important and serves 
 to keep the book records up to date and correct. 
 
 One more matter remains to be spoken of, namely, 
 the sale of old, worn-out material. This finds a ready 
 market in nearly every part of the country. Old rails, 
 serviceable for relaying purposes, bring almost as much 
 as' new rails, and are easily disposed of. There are 
 several other kinds of salable salvage, such as empty oil 
 barrels, scrap paper, scrap linen, brass foundry ashes, 
 and many others too numerous to mention. This end 
 of the work includes also the sale of old cars, engines, 
 machinery, etc., and requires as close attention as the 
 purchase of new supplies. Scrap sales amounting to 
 $10,000 per month are not a high average for a railway 
 of moderate size. The second-hand material dealers 
 are as shrewd a business class as the Purchasing Agent 
 meets with. 
 
BALLAST 
 
 A. S. BALDWIN, CHIEF ENGINEER, ILLINOIS CENTRAL 
 RAILROAD 
 
 The term "ballast" in railroad parlance is applied to 
 any material that is used between the cross-ties, or 
 sleepers, of the track, and the surface, or subgrade, of 
 the roadbed as constructed. Its function is to' maintain 
 the track and to protect the surface of the roadbed. The 
 word "ballast" is defined in the Manual of Recommend- 
 ed Practice of the American Railway Engineering and 
 Maintenance of Way Association as "selected material 
 placed on the roadbed for the purpose of holding the 
 track in line and surface." This fitly describes it. 
 
 The primitive method of ballasting, or rather of 
 surfacing, the track was to' use the material of which 
 the roadbed was composed ; but it was soon found that 
 many materials furnished and maintained a better 
 surface than the clay or earth of which the roadbeds 
 were most generally formed. These better materials 
 were transported from their natural location and inter- 
 posed between the cross-ties and the subgrade at other 
 places, thereby becoming, and being called most appro- 
 priately, "ballast." It is still common to find tracks of 
 railroads, which have light traffic and slow speeds, 
 surfaced on dirt. Such tracks are sometimes spoken 
 of as having "dirt ballast ;" but the name is a misnomer, 
 as' the word is correctly applied only to the material 
 interposed between the cross-ties and the roadbed. 
 
 1 60 
 
BALLAST 161 
 
 It will be proper to consider, first, what the require- 
 ments of a material are in order that it may constitute 
 a perfect ballast ; and, second, the characteristics' of the 
 materials used as ballast, and their adaptability for such 
 use. 
 
 In order to meet the requirements of a perfect bal- 
 last, a material should be hard and durable, capable 
 of resisting the destructive effects of tamping and the 
 disintegrating influences of the atmosphere. 
 
 It should be easily handled and capable of ready ad- 
 justment. The roadbed is subject to settlement, and is 
 liable to be eroded, changed, and encroached upon in 
 many ways ; but the surface and line of the track must 
 be maintained at all times. Consequently, it is of great 
 importance that ballast should be capable of being easily 
 adjustable to such changed conditions, on short notice. 
 
 It should be sharp; that is, the projections from its 
 surface should be acute and capable of engaging the 
 cross-ties, so as to prevent lateral or longitudinal 
 motion. 
 
 It should be a "free" material, so that the water that 
 falls' upon it may pass off readily, since, if held, it will 
 heave the track when frozen, or soften the roadbed 
 under other conditions. 
 
 It should have no chemical properties that will cause 
 it to be destructive to the cross-ties, whether they are 
 of wood or metal. 
 
 It should be capable of being obtained in large quanti- 
 ties and at reasonable cost. 
 
 There is, of course, no material that can fulfil all of 
 these requirements; they are given only by way of 
 
1 62 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 affording a basis of comparison between the various 
 materials that are in use as ballast. Of these materials 
 the following, named approximately in the order of 
 excellence or availability, will be considered: (i) 
 broken stone; (2) gravel; (3) furnace slag; (4) cin- 
 ders; (5) burnt clay; (6) sand; (7) chert; (8) chats. 
 
 1 . Broken stone. — The material that probably most 
 nearly fulfils the requirements of a perfect ballast is 
 crushed or broken granite, gneiss, or trap rock. Fol- 
 lowing it closely is broken limestone, some limestone 
 being equal in its properties', for this purpose, to 
 granite. It is but rarely that sandstone of sufficiently 
 hard and durable quality is found to stand being broken 
 successfully into ballast. 
 
 Broken-stone ballast was originally obtained by 
 taking the rock from the quarries in stones of a size 
 that could be readily handled by one man. These stones 
 were distributed along the track, and then broken into 
 spalls by napping hammers. The hammers weighed 
 about two pounds each, and were' used with long 
 handles, so that a man in standing position could break 
 the stones, which finally were reduced to< small sizes by 
 "stone-crackers." This process made excellent ballast; 
 the cubes' were sharp, and there was but little waste. 
 The final breaking, which was done between the ties 
 and on the shoulders, made the mass solid and compact. 
 It is still claimed by many old track-men that no track 
 so well maintains its line and surface as the one put up 
 in this way — i. e., which has had the stone broken into 
 it after it was surfaced. The process was too* slow, 
 however, the quantities required too great, and labor 
 
BALLAST 163 
 
 v._ scarce, to permit of the continuance of such 
 methods ; hence, rock-crushers were introduced. These 
 have gone through various processes of evolution, and 
 are now manufactured in very large sizes, single 
 crushers being made capable of producing 2,000 tons' 
 of crushed stone per day. In some plants several large 
 crushers are sometimes mounted so as to take the stone 
 as it first comes from the quarries, deliver it into screens 
 which sort it into> various' sizes, and, by means of con- 
 veyors, return any stone of too large size that is carried 
 through, to' a smaller crusher, which in turn recrushes 
 and delivers it, 
 
 The size of stone required for ballast varies some- 
 what under different specifications. The size most gen- 
 erally required at first was a stone that would pass in 
 any direction through a two-and-a-half-inch ring. 
 Nowadays engineers are generally requiring a some- 
 what smaller stone, sizes that will pass through a two- 
 inch or one-and-three-quarter-inch ring being frequent- 
 ly specified. A beautiful and efficient ballast is formed 
 by eliminating all stones in excess of two inches and 
 under three-quarters of an inch. Where stone ballast 
 of too small size is used, it becomes readily rilled with 
 dirt, which prevents it from being "forked" clean. 
 
 A great mistake, in the writer's judgment, is fre- 
 quently made by using broken-stone ballast on a new 
 roadbed. Where the roadbed is freshly formed of 
 earth, the best and most economical results are obtained 
 by first using a material of a bonding nature, which 
 will solidify the top surface of the grade. There is, 
 of course, no bond to broken stone; as a result, when 
 
164 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 first used on a new roadbed, it sinks into' the surface, 
 particularly where the latter is composed of soft or 
 moist material, becomes filled with mud, and is ruined. 
 As, on a new road, frequent ditching and banking are 
 required, the shoulders' of the ballast are likewise liable 
 to become filled with dirt. In the writer's opinion, one 
 of the best materials for use on a new roadbed is gravel 
 of a strongly bonding nature, as: it forms a solid and 
 compact surface on top of the grade for sustaining the 
 stone ballast when used. Where this' cannot be had, 
 the screenings from rock-crushers form an excellent 
 substitute. Even free gravel, sand, or cinders, used 
 before the stone ballast, effect a great economy and 
 afford greater facility for quick manipulation. 
 
 Broken stone forms an excellent ballast where the 
 track is subject to water-wash of any kind. Where 
 stone is costly and difficult to 1 obtain, track subject to 
 wash, and surfaced on sand or free gravel, has' some- 
 times been protected from the wash by a top dressing 
 or veneer of stone. 
 
 Stone is, ordinarily, more expensive in first cost, and 
 in cost of maintenance, than other ballast, but affords 
 a more durable roadbed, and one that is freer from 
 dust — the latter feature affording a great attraction 
 toi the traveling public. The cost of tie-renewals is 
 likewise higher with stone than with other kinds of 
 ballast; but, on account of the facilities afforded for 
 drainage, the life of ties is longer, and the encroachment 
 of vegetation is resisted. 
 
 The hardest of stone ballast is gradually disin- 
 tegrated by the effects of tamping. An examination of 
 
BALLAST 165 
 
 the stone after it has been tamped under the ties shows 
 that most of the cubes have been crushed by the process. 
 It is likewise wasted from the sides in cleaning the 
 roadbed and in cutting the sod line. Consequently 
 renewals, to a greater or less extent, are always going 
 on. 
 
 2. Gravel. — Of the kinds of gravel that are used 
 for ballast it may be well said that their name is legion. 
 It is more liberally provided by nature, of a quality 
 fitted for ballast in its natural condition, than any other 
 material, and the best of it can hardly be surpassed in 
 usefulness and adaptability for the purpose. It is found 
 in many parts of the country in large beds, from which 
 it can be lifted by steam shovels in great quantities', and 
 loaded on the cars at a cost of but a few cents per cubic 
 yard. In some places it is dredged from river bottoms, 
 and in others, where mixed with earth or clay and 
 bowlders of too large size, it is made serviceable by 
 washing or crushing. 
 
 In the writer's judgment, the best gravel ballast is 
 one that is entirely free from bonding material, has 
 stones with a maximum size of about that of a walnut, 
 and has in its composition a sufficient amount of sand 
 to hold the particles together. Where gravel has 
 neither sand nor bonding material in its composition, 
 it is too loose and is easily jarred from under the track. 
 
 On some railroads in the East a very high quality of 
 track is maintained by placing upon the subgrade, 
 before any ballast is used, about twelve inches of coarse 
 spalls, an equal depth of gravel being provided on top 
 of this. This gives, so far as drainage is concerned, 
 
166 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 almost an ideal condition, as the water is drained away 
 from the ballast almost as rapidly as it falls, and the 
 base is protected by the spalls from wash. An excellent 
 feature of such an arrangement is the added length of 
 life of the cross-ties, due to the fact that water is 
 drained away from them immediately. 
 
 A most excellent ballast is' obtained in some places 
 in this country by dredging the sand and gravel from 
 the river bottoms, passing it, in the process, over 
 screens which eliminate the large stones, leaving only 
 such proportion of sand — ordinarily twenty to thirty 
 per cent. — as will afford the best results. Such a plant 
 is now working for the Yazoo 1 & Mississippi Valley 
 Railroad below Memphis, and at other points on the 
 Mississippi River. Some of them have a capacity of 
 several thousand yards per day. 
 
 At some places in the South, and probably elsewhere, 
 gravel of a very highly bonding property is found, 
 notably the "Paducah" gravel in Kentucky, the "Tisho- 
 mingo" gravel in Tennessee, what is known as' "nova- 
 culite" in Illinois and Missouri, and "chert" in Alabama 
 and other states; the last two, however, not properly 
 being included with gravel, although having the same 
 properties, so> far as adaptability for ballast is con- 
 cerned. These materials generally form a very hard, 
 compact, and inelastic roadbed. They cannot, as a 
 rule, be dressed with a shoulder, as a basin is thereby 
 formed around the tie, which becomes' filled with water 
 in rainy weather and produces churning. They pro- 
 mote the growth of vegetation, necessitating frequent 
 weeding, but form a durable roadbed and, as before 
 
BALLAST 167 
 
 stated, a most admirable foundation for stone ballast. 
 
 The objections to most gravels for ballast are that 
 they are dusty, that they are subject to being washed 
 from under the ties during heavy rains, and that they 
 promote the growth of vegetation. As an offset to 
 these disadvantages, however, it is ordinarily the most 
 economical material that can be obtained for ballast, 
 it is easily handled and transported, and it affords an 
 inelastic and smooth track. Tie-renewals' can be made 
 much more cheaply in gravel than in stone, and, when 
 it is "free," the life of the ties is as' long as with stone 
 ballast. It is probable that more track in this country is 
 surfaced with gravel than with any other one material. 
 
 The disagreeableness of dust for the traveling public 
 has been referred to, but it is objectionable also because 
 it has a marked effect on the machinery and rolling- 
 stock. The tires of locomotives, the tread of wheels', 
 and the journals are all much more rapidly worn on a 
 dusty roadbed than on one that is free from dust. 
 
 3. Furnace slag. — Slag, as is well known, is the 
 waste material from blast furnaces'. It is sometimes 
 allowed to> run out into* beds from the cinder notch; 
 water is thrown on it, and when cooled sufficiently, it is 
 loaded into cars. Ordinarily, however, it is run from 
 the furnace, in a molten condition, into' cars lined with 
 fire-brick, and allowed to run from these cars while 
 melted. The melted material forms successive strata, 
 which break up in cubes from half an inch to several 
 inches in diameter, constituting then what is known 
 as "hot pot slag" — an excellent ballast. It is extremely 
 sharp and very brittle. While generally harder than 
 
168 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 stone at first, its' brittleness causes it to crush under 
 tamping, and at times it slacks, probably on account of 
 excess of lime. It has more bonding qualities' than 
 broken stone, solidifying under traffic to a very con- 
 siderable extent, for which reason it is better for use on 
 new roadbeds'. As a first coating, it forms an admirable 
 foundation for broken stone. 
 
 There are methods of granulating the slag, or other- 
 wise preparing it especially for ballast. These are, 
 however, but little used in this country. There are 
 said to> be certain varieties of slag which cause decay to 
 set in very quickly in the cross-ties. As a general thing, 
 however, this' does not seem to be the case. Slag is 
 sometimes loaded on the cars by the furnace companies 
 in order to> get rid of it, under which circumstances it 
 can be obtained very cheaply. With a steam shovel, 
 the material can be loaded directly from piles' into the 
 cars at small expense. The cost of maintenance under 
 slag is practically the same as that of rock. 
 
 4. Cinders. — For many years the value of engine 
 cinders as ballast was not appreciated. The material 
 was wasted, used in filling and leveling off" yards, or 
 often given away in order to get rid of it. It consti- 
 tutes', however, an excellent ballast for certain purposes. 
 
 Where the roadbed is wet and muddy, many kinds 
 of ballasts rapidly sink in and are destroyed. Under 
 such conditions, cinders, on account of being light and 
 porous, will sustain the track successfully where nearly 
 all other ballasts fail. They are so* light that large 
 quantities can be carried on a car — a great advantage 
 when transported considerable distances. They are 
 
BALLAST 169 
 
 easily and quickly handled, resembling in that respect 
 a fine gravel or sand. Tie-renewals can be made in 
 cinders readily and cheaply, and they are particularly 
 advantageous for use in freezing weather, as, on ac- 
 count of their resistance to moisture, they are not apt to 
 freeze to any very considerable extent, and track sur- 
 faced on them can be worked on in cold weather. 
 
 Cinders, as ballast, have two serious effects, in that 
 they cause very rapid deterioration and decay of the 
 cross-ties, and have a corrosive effect on the rail. It 
 is not uncommon, in yards where tracks have been sur- 
 faced on cinders for a number of years, to find the base 
 of the rail greatly corroded; and the life of cross-ties 
 is much curtailed where they are used. They form, 
 however, an excellent ballast for branch lines, on which 
 traffic is light. Even a few inches of cinders under the 
 ties will make it possible to maintain a remarkably good 
 surface ; and, on account of their elasticity, they afford 
 an exceptionally smooth riding-track. 
 
 5. Burnt clay. — The use of burnt clay as ballast is 
 comparatively modern. The best of it makes a ballast 
 that is inferior to either stone, slag, or first-grade 
 gravel. It came into' use, however, on account of the 
 fact that many miles of railroad in some sections of the 
 country were so far from any natural sources of supply 
 for ballast that the cost of transportation was prohibi- 
 tive; hence, the idea was conceived of burning clay. 
 The raw clay is taken from the ground, arranged in 
 alternative layers with slack coal into large heaps, and 
 fired. After the mass becomes thoroughly burned, it is 
 
170 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 allowed to cool gradually, and is then loaded, frequently 
 with steam shovels', into cars for transportation. 
 
 Some specimens of burnt clay are found to be ex- 
 tremely hard, but as a rule it is light and unable to 
 withstand, for any great length of time, the action of 
 tamping. It supplies a long-felt want in many locali- 
 ties where there is no natural ballast, and where the 
 cost of transportation for other ballast is too great to 
 be justifiable. 
 
 6. Sand. — Sand is ordinarily used for ballast only 
 where it is not practicable to obtain any of 
 the materials hitherto discussed. In a dirt road- 
 bed, however, with a sufficient quantity of sand 
 under the ties, a much higher degree of efficiency 
 can be obtained than if the tracks are surfaced 
 on dirt. Where better materials cannot be had, it 
 affords a top dressing for a green roadbed which is a 
 decided improvement over putting a good ballast, par- 
 ticularly stone, immediately on the subgrade. 
 
 7. Chert. — Chert is decomposed hornstone or flint 
 rock. It occurs, so far as the writer's experience ex- 
 tends, in irregular beds, sometimes of considerable 
 magnitude, and in different sections of the country. 
 In being taken from the bed it breaks up into* angular 
 cubes of various sizes, and makes a ballast similar to 
 cemented or bonding gravel, giving an extremely hard 
 and inelastic roadbed. It is necessarily dressed away 
 from, the ends of the ties, as it would otherwise hold 
 the water in. It makes a firm and durable top for the 
 roadbed, and affords an excellent foundation for ballast 
 of other descriptions. Chert and novaculite, and similar 
 
BALLAST 171 
 
 materials', are much more suitable for the construction 
 of roadways than for use as ballast, except as a founda- 
 tion. 
 
 8. Chats. — Chats are waste or tailings' from the ores 
 of zinc and lead. They come in granules of about the 
 size of a pea, and are extremely heavy. They afford a 
 ballast akin to that of fine gravel of similar size, except 
 that they are not so liable to be washed, holding their 
 position in the track more firmly on account of their 
 weight and of their becoming, in a measure, solidified. 
 The use of chats is restricted to> the comparatively small 
 area of the country in which the mills' are located. By 
 reason of the fact, however, that the process necessitates 
 the use of a large amount of coal, they have been used 
 quite largely by railroad companies, as the cars, in being 
 returned home, can be loaded with chats instead of run- 
 ning empty. Chats are freer from dust than most 
 gravel, and are not favorable to the growth of vegeta- 
 tion. 
 
 Before closing, some mention should be made of the 
 screenings from rock ballast. It is' now universally cus- 
 tomary to screen the stone as it is broken by crushers in 
 the quarries, in order to' eliminate the fine material from 
 the stone ballast. These "screenings" are used for 
 various purposes, making sidewalks and fair plat- 
 forms, where not subject to< heavy usage. They are 
 also used in ballasting branch and subsidiary main lines. 
 They form, under the track, a compact and solid mass, 
 bonding to* a considerable extent. In the ballasting of 
 new roadbeds, screenings have been found to> afford an 
 excellent foundation for rock ballast; in fact, the use 
 
172 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 of any bonding material on such roadbeds has been 
 found to work an economy in both the cost and main- 
 tenance of any character of free ballast. 
 
 The following table gives the average cost per cubic 
 yard of production of ballast in various localities : 
 
 
 Material 
 
 Labor 
 
 Haul 
 
 Total 
 
 Stone 
 
 Gravel 
 
 $0.50-0.60 
 O.06-O.25 
 
 $0.25-0.35 
 O.15-0.25 
 
 $0.05-0.25 
 0.05-0.15 
 
 $0.80- 1.20 
 0.26- 0.65 
 
 The question of the transportation of ballast is one 
 of considerable importance in the maintenance of a 
 modern railroad. Where it is' to; be carried very long 
 distances', cars of great^capacity are provided and heavy 
 machinery is used, the same rules for economy in opera- 
 tion applying as in handling revenue freight. As an 
 illustration, the Illinois Central Ralroad is today trans- 
 porting stone from Kentucky, to use on extremely 
 southern lines in Louisiana and Mississippi, where no 
 good natural ballasts occur — an average distance of 
 500 miles'. 
 
 Two' kinds of cars are employed, the Roger ballast- 
 cars of 100,000 pounds' capacity being used in connec- 
 tion with side-dump cars. The Roger cars' can be un- 
 loaded with great convenience and economy, being 
 designed to unload such proportion as may be desired 
 either in the center or along the sides of the track. It is 
 customary to get the track as high as' possible on the first 
 raise, dump the Roger cars in the center of the track, 
 and follow it up with the side-dump cars. This effects a 
 great saving in the manipulation of the ballast as' it is 
 delivered to the roadbed, the side-dump cars being 
 
BALLAST 173 
 
 unloaded with Lidgerwood machines and center plow. 
 When the haul is (great, the side-dump cars' afford an 
 economy, as compared with Roger ballast-cars, on ac- 
 count of their greater carrying capacity in proportion 
 to the dead weight. The side-dump cars, when used 
 alone, however, involve the necessity of forking or 
 shoveling a portion of the ballast into> the center of the 
 track. 
 
 Ordinarily 3,000 cubic yards of ballast are required 
 for a mile of track, this providing for twelve inches of 
 ballast under the ties'. The amount varies, however, 
 with the depth required, the length of cross-ties used, 
 and the amount of shoulder outside of the ties. For 
 convenience, there is attached a table giving the number 
 of cubic yards required under varying conditions. 
 
 It will not be out of place, in closing, to- refer to* the 
 question of drainage, which is the sine qua non in the 
 maintenance of a roadbed. No- ballast of any character 
 can be maintained in good shape, nor used effectively in 
 the maintenance of the line and surface of the track, 
 unless ample facility is provided for draining the water 
 away from the track. It has been well said that "water 
 is the worst enemy of the roadbed." 
 
 The writer has had experience with what is ordi- 
 narily spoken of as "bad bottom;" that is, a roadbed 
 composed of clay or earth lacking consistency and easily 
 attacked by water. On occasions he has come across 
 both cuts and fills, on which the best stone ballast had 
 been placed and replaced for a number of years, in 
 which the stone, mixed with mud, has actually been 
 found to a depth of five to> six feet below the cross-ties. 
 
174 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 In digging into such embankments, they have been 
 found, in the driest weather, to be thoroughly saturated 
 with water. Under such conditions no- roadbed can be 
 effectively maintained with any kind of ballast, the only 
 solution being the provision of a thorough and efficient 
 system of drainage. This is' accomplished in many 
 places by subsoil drainage, such as is' used on moist farm 
 lands, tile drains being placed below the level of the 
 roadbed so as to keep it in a thoroughly dry and com- 
 pact condition. 
 
 With first-class drainage and a heavy rail, an excel- 
 lent condition of roadbed can be maintained with even 
 a poor character of ballast ; the highest efficiency being 
 reached, of course, where the best of drainage and the 
 best of ballast are combined. 
 
 ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD BALLAST TABLE 
 SHOWING CUBIC YARDS PER MILE OF TRACK 
 
 
 
 Size of Ties 
 
 Double 
 Track 
 
 Single Track 
 
 Material 
 
 Class A 
 
 Class B 
 
 Class C 
 
 Rock j 
 
 6"X8"X8'o" 
 7"Xo"X8'6" 
 7"Xo"Xo'o" 
 
 6,891 
 7,341 
 7,49 6 
 
 3,488 
 3,784 
 3,9l 6 
 
 2,692 
 2,966 
 3,081 
 
 
 Cementing gravel 
 
 6"X8"X8'o" 
 7"Xo"X8'6" 
 7"Xo"Xo'o" 
 
 
 2,747 
 2,887 
 
 2,995 
 
 2,291 
 
 2,414 
 2,506 
 
 1,868 
 
 1,975 
 2,050 
 
 Loose gravel and 
 cinders 
 
 6"x8"X8'o" 
 7"Xo"X8'6" 
 7"Xq"Xq'o" 
 
 7,325 
 7,924 
 8,061 
 
 3,825 
 4,168 
 4,302 
 
 3,Ol4 
 3,3H 
 3,428 
 
 2,287 
 2,536 
 2,635 
 
 Earth • 
 
 6"X8"X8'o" 
 7"Xo"X8'6" 
 7"Xo"Xo'o" 
 
 
 
 
 499 
 54i 
 55i 
 
RAILWAY TERMINAL FACILITIES 
 
 L. C. FRITCH, ASSISTANT TO THE GENERAL MANAGER, 
 ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD 
 
 The function of a railway corporation is the trans- 
 portation by rail of passengers or persons, and goods 
 or property. To perform, this' function with dispatch 
 and economy, facilities of various kinds are required, 
 which may be classified as follows : ( i ) permanent 
 way, embracing tracks and structures; (2) rolling- 
 stock, comprising equipment, such as locomotives, cars, 
 etc. These two classes constitute the essential elements 
 — or tools, as it were — of the work of transportation. 
 Their subdivisions would fill a volume, and will not be 
 entered into here. We shall dwell upon the former 
 class only long enough to separate from it the topic 
 assigned. 
 
 "Permanent way" may be defined as that portion of 
 the physical property of a railway which has permanent 
 location — such as rights of way, station grounds, real 
 estate or lands, tracks, bridges', buildings, docks, 
 wharves, etc. ; as distinguished from physical property 
 used in transportation, or movement of traffic — such 
 as locomotives, cars, etc. "Terminal facilities" may 
 be regarded as that subdivision of permanent way 
 which embraces' the handling of traffic at points of 
 origin and destination, and may be divided into two 
 classes: (a) passenger terminal facilities; (b) freight 
 terminal facilities. The word "terminal" literally re- 
 
 175 
 
176 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 fers to the ending or final point, and, in this sense, 
 really comprises facilities for the delivering and receiv- 
 ing of traffic at its points of origin and destination, or 
 at the ends of its movement. 
 
 There are various classes of terminal facilities, which 
 may be described as follows : ( 1 ) local terminal facili- 
 ties, or the facilities for handling traffic at a local or 
 way station, along a line of railway; (2) intermediate 
 terminal facilities, or the facilities for handling traffic 
 at an intermediate point on a line of railway, such as' a 
 division, or district terminal ; ( 3 ) final terminal facili- 
 ties, or the facilities' for handling traffic at the terminus 
 of a railway division, district, or line. The foregoing 
 are properly divided into passenger and freight terminal 
 facilities. 
 
 Local terminal facilities are so simple in their nature 
 and SO' limited in their extent as to 1 require only a brief 
 explanation. Local passenger terminal facilities' usually 
 consist of an independent building used for the purpose 
 of a passenger station, and are commonly divided into 
 three classes, as follows : Class A — a building having 
 twoi waiting rooms, one for women and one for men, 
 a ticket office serving both waiting-rooms, and a bag- 
 gage- and express-room, either jointly or separately 
 constructed, depending upon the size of the station 
 served; Class B — an independent building similar to 
 the above, having only one waiting-room, and a ware- 
 room used jointly for merchandise freight, express, 
 and baggage; Class C — an independent building of 
 large dimensions', used exclusively for passenger serv- 
 ice, with or without sheds over the tracks, and confined 
 
RAILWAY TERMINAL FACILITIES 177 
 
 to cities of large population. The latter class includes 
 stations or terminals in large cities. 
 
 PASSENGER TERMINALS 
 
 The extreme types O'f passenger terminals in this 
 country are represented by the New York Central Sta- 
 tion in New York City, the South Boston Station of 
 the New York, New Haven & Hartford in Boston, the 
 Union Station in St. Louis, the proposed new passenger 
 terminals of the Pennsylvania Company in New York 
 City, and the Union Terminal in Washington, D. C, 
 now in process of construction. To give an adequate 
 description of merely the largest passenger terminals 
 is beyond the scope of a brief paper, and, therefore, ref- 
 erence may be made only to the salient features' of some 
 of those mentioned above. Those of lesser note will be 
 left out of consideration, though many of them possess 
 interesting and novel features, and each is worthy of 
 careful study. 
 
 The architecture of modern railway passenger ter- 
 minals is in itself a field for the specialist, and many 
 noted engineers are making it their life-work. Next in 
 importance, if not of equal importance, is the track ar- 
 rangement at important terminals. There are two va- 
 rieties : ( 1 ) through-track arrangement, where trains 
 enter at one end of the train-shed and depart from the 
 opposite end; (2) pocket- or spur-track arrangement, 
 where trains enter and depart from stub- or spur-tracks. 
 The through-track arrangement is the most desirable 
 from every point of view, as it obviates the undesirable 
 feature of backing trains' into or out of a terminal sta- 
 
178 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 tion, which must be done in the case of a pocket ar- 
 rangement. Location and available space often limit 
 the design, or modify it to the extent of permitting only 
 a pocket arrangement, or a modification of it in the 
 form of a combination of a through and pocket arrange- 
 ment. 
 
 Passenger terminal accessories. — The necessary ap- 
 purtenances to> passenger terminals are : ( 1 ) baggage-, 
 express-, and mailrooms; (2) passenger-coach and 
 equipment yards; (3) passenger-locomotive house. 
 
 1. Baggage-, express-, and mailrooms at passenger 
 terminals of large cities form an important part of the 
 required facilities, and must be provided with regard 
 to economy in operation, as well as to* ease in properly 
 conducting these branches of the service. As a rule, 
 such facilities are arranged in close proximity to> the 
 entrances to the train-shed, and are provided with 
 tracks for accommodating the different kinds of goods 
 handled. 
 
 In the handling of baggage, the inbound and out- 
 bound business are usually separated, but immediately 
 adjoining each other. A further subdivision of hand 
 baggage and large baggage is made. The former is' 
 usually received from, and delivered to, passengers 
 directly, and requires a location convenient to 
 the main entrance to the station; the latter is han- 
 dled by transfer companies, and is received and 
 delivered at a more remote point, and more nearly 
 at the point of receipt from and dispatch to 
 the trains'. It is the common practice to handle bag- 
 gage of all kinds', between the baggage-rooms and 
 
RAILWAY TERMINAL FACILITIES 1 79 
 
 trains both on inbound and outbound business, by 
 means of trucks'. This is done for the purpose of ex- 
 pediting delivery as" well as for quickly handling bag- 
 gage received for shipment a short time prior to< the 
 departure of trains. In cases of large shipments, such 
 as theatrical baggage, baggage-cars' may be switched 
 into tracks at the baggage-rooms; but the custom of 
 handling baggage directly from the station platform is 
 almost universal in this country. 
 
 In the handling of express matter a somewhat dif- 
 ferent practice is followed. The express buildings are 
 usually located at a point at or near the ends of train- 
 sheds. The express matter is handled through the 
 warerooms of the express building,, where it is classified 
 and loaded directly into cars on outbound business. In 
 the case of inbound business the express-cars are usually 
 placed on tracks at the warehouse, and the freight is 
 unloaded into* the house from which distribution is 
 made. This practice is departed from in cases where 
 both express and baggage in limited quantities are han- 
 dled in one car, when the former is usually handled in 
 the same manner as baggage. 
 
 Mail matter is handled in various ways. In the case 
 of outbound mail, cars are usually placed at the mail- 
 room, or on the receiving-track convenient for receiving 
 the mail directly from the mail-wagons. A short time 
 before the scheduled departing time of the train the 
 mail-cars are switched into 1 the train-shed, and mail 
 may be received by means of trucks' until the time of 
 departure. In the case of inbound mail it is usual to 
 unload all high-class matter directly from the cars im- 
 
180 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 mediately upon the arrival of the train, and other matter 
 from the mailroom track into' wagons. 
 
 The handling of baggage, express, and mail offers 
 perplexing problems in the operation of large passenger 
 terminals. Many plans for overcoming the obstruction 
 of platforms by trucks have been devised, principal 
 among which is a system of ample and convenient sub- 
 ways, with elevators; but the problem has' not yet 
 reached a satisfactory solution, and the most modern 
 facilities still reveal the objectionable features' of inter- 
 ference with passengers on the platforms. The appli- 
 cation of overhead carriers has an advantage in keeping 
 trucks' off the platforms except at the actual points of 
 delivery and receipt, and promises an eventual elimina- 
 tion of this difficulty. In Chicago, the Illinois Tunnel 
 Company's underground system will soon be used, in 
 handling mail, communication with the train-sheds 
 being provided by means of chutes and elevators'. 
 
 2. Passenger-coach and equipment yards' are usually 
 divided into> two parts : (a) a coach storage-yard, 
 where coaches' and other passenger equipment are stored 
 ready for use, being "made up" or switched in the order 
 in which the equipment is required for use in trains; 
 (b) a cleaning-yard, where the equipment is placed 
 immediately after arrival, to be cleaned and made ready 
 for use. The storage-yard is usually a simple series of 
 parallel tracks of capacity to hold a train of maximum 
 size; the tracks being, in some instances, designed to 
 serve also as a cleaning-yard, where cars may be cleaned 
 without taking them to a separate cleaning-yard. 
 
 The cleaning-yard is a specially designed yard, with 
 
, RAILWAY TERMINAL FACILITIES 181 
 
 tracks spaced a sufficient distance apart to permit the 
 cleaning of the outside o<f cars on adjoining tracks. A 
 system of water-, air-heater, and gas-pipes extends 
 throughout the yard, with frequent connections so ar- 
 ranged that use may be made of any of these necessi- 
 ties for any car. The renovation o<f the passenger 
 equipment forms a most important part in the passen- 
 ger service of today. At the end of each trip or run it 
 is now customary thoroughly to> renovate both the inte- 
 rior and the exterior of each passenger-car, entailing a 
 large force of men and no small expense. In this 
 work the vacuum system of cleaning by means of com- 
 pressed air is now largely employed, resulting in great 
 economy and in increased facility in producing sanitary 
 results. The cost involved in the use of the compress- 
 ed-air system is about one-half of that of the old 
 method of cleaning. 
 
 3. At large terminals it is customary to provide sep- 
 arate and independent locomotive-houses for the accom- 
 modation of engines used in passenger-service. These 
 houses are of two types : (a) the conventional round or 
 circular houses, with turn-tables at the center of the 
 circle; and (b) the rectangular form, with transfer- 
 tables to shift engines from one location to another, 
 or to receive and dispatch engines; the table in some 
 cases being replaced by an arrangement of switches 
 providing access to any location in the house from 
 either end. A recent design of a rectangular house, 
 with an ultimate capacity of 40 locomotives, shows 
 an area of 80,000 square feet for the rectangular form, 
 as against 122,000 square feet for a circular house of 
 
1 82 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 the same capacity. Allowance, however, must be made 
 for a turntable, which must be added to the rectangular 
 house arrangement. 
 
 Provision must also be made for cleaning the ash- 
 pans of the engines, knocking the fires out of the fire- 
 boxes, coaling,, watering, and sanding the engines; also 
 for blowing off the steam from the engines at the end 
 of the runs, washing out the boilers, and kindling fires 
 by means of oil, gas, or wood. Facilities for making 
 running repairs to engines, with drop-pits so that the 
 driving-or track-wheels may be dropped under the en- 
 gines without raising or jacking them up, are likewise 
 necessities. 
 
 Important passenger stations. — Attention is now 
 called to a few leading passenger stations. 
 
 The new Union Station at Washington, D. C, which 
 is intended to be, it is said, the finest railway station in 
 the world, will be completed by this autumn (1906). 
 The estimated cost is about $18,000,000, shared by the 
 railways, the federal government and the District of 
 Columbia. The train-shed will be 760 feet wide and 
 705 feet long, and will contain 33 tracks, of which 13 
 will lie on a lower level than the remaining 20, the 
 former being through-tracks to> accommodate the serv- 
 ice which will use the tunnel under Capitol Hill. The 
 general waiting-room will be 130 by 220 feet, and will 
 be covered by a Roman barrel-vault 90 feet high. The 
 passenger concourse, or lobby, will be 760 feet long by 
 130 feet wide, and will be divided into an outbound 
 concourse, 80 feet wide, and an inbound concourse, 50 
 feet wide. 
 
RAILWAY TERMINAL FACILITIES 183 
 
 The Union Station at St. Louis has, perhaps, a 
 larger number of railways using it than any other sta- 
 tion in the world. This station was remodeled in 1904 
 for the traffic arising from the Louisiana Purchase Ex- 
 position, which was handled with great success. The 
 train-shed is a pocket-shed, 601 feet wide and 810 feet 
 long, and has 32 tracks. The passenger concourse is 
 120 feet wide — 70 feet wide for outgoing and 50 feet 
 wide for incoming passengers. The entrance to the 
 train-shed provides' for two three-track Y-connections 
 from each direction. The express buildings are all 
 located alongside and west of the track approaches to 
 the station, each building being provided with independ- 
 ent track connections. The baggage-room for small 
 baggage is located alongside the concourse, but the bag- 
 gage-room for wagon baggage is located under the 
 south end of the train-shed. Subways are provided for 
 handling baggage and express, and communication 
 with the platform in the train-shed is had by means of 
 elevators. 
 
 The passenger station of the Boston Terminal Com- 
 pany has the unusual feature of a substation located 
 under the main station for the purpose of handling 
 suburban traffic. The train-shed is 620 feet long and 
 620 feet wide, and has 28 train-tracks. The substation 
 has a double track, spread at the platforms. The sub- 
 station tracks are entirely below the grade of the 
 surface tracks'. The inbound baggage-room is located 
 on the east side, and the outbound baggage-room on 
 the west side, of the train-shed, with a subway for han- 
 dling both express' and baggage. The express buildings 
 are located on the west side of the tracks approaching 
 
1 84 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 the station, the buildings being provided with indepen- 
 dent tracks for express-cars. 
 
 FREIGHT TERMINALS 
 
 ' 'Freight terminals" may be defined as the facilities 
 for the handling of freight traffic, and includes two 
 classes : 
 
 i. Combination freight and passenger facilities, 
 where both freight and passengers are handled, and 
 consisting of the usual arrangement of an addition 
 to, or part of, a station building assigned to> the han- 
 dling of freight or property. These are so simple in 
 character as to require no further description, their ex- 
 tent varying with the amount of traffic to be handled. 
 
 2. Independent facilities, used exclusively for han- 
 dling freight or property, and varying in character and 
 extent from a simple structure of small dimensions, 
 serving the smaller stations, to' the extensive structures 
 and their appurtenances, serving the freight traffic of a 
 large city. Wherever separate or independent facili- 
 ties are required to handle the traffic, the general or 
 fundamental requirements' are the same. Consequently, 
 a description of the larger facilities will include those 
 of less magnitude. 
 
 The freight traffic of any railway is divided into' two 
 classes: (a) carload lots — property being handled in 
 units of a carload of some specified minimum; (b) 
 less-than-carload lots' — property being handled in small 
 units, each constituting less than a carload or lot. These 
 two classes are respectively called, in railway parlance, 
 "C. L." and "L. C. L." freight, and will be so desig- 
 nated in this paper. 
 
RAILWAY TERMINAL FACILITIES 185 
 
 The terminal facilities for any large freight station 
 or terminal must include the following : ( 1 ) Freight- 
 yards, for the purpose of receiving, classifying, storing, 
 and forwarding freight-cars; also the necessary ap- 
 purtenances, such as repair-yards, engine roundhouse, 
 and equipment to care for freight locomotives. (2) 
 Freight stations, including freight-houses, transfer- 
 houses, warehouses, elevators, platforms, etc., for re- 
 ceiving, delivering, storing, transferring, etc., freight to 
 and from cars, (3) Team-tracks, for the purpose of 
 handling freight directly to and from wagons and cars. 
 (4) Industry tracks, for the purpose of receiving and 
 forwarding freight directly from and to industrial 
 plants ; the tracks extending into such plants, thus elimi- 
 nating the necessity of drayage or transfer of freight 
 by wagons. (5) Water terminals, for the purpose of 
 interchange of freight between rail and water-craft; 
 including docks', wharves, piers, elevators, warehouses, 
 etc. These facilities will be briefly described in their 
 order. 
 
 1. Freight-yards. — The modern freight-yard of 
 large capacity is usually designed on the following 
 general lines : 
 
 First, a receiving-yard, in which the inbound trains 
 are received directly from the main line, and into which 
 they are taken by the road crews, who are relieved at 
 this point. The tracks in the receiving-yard diverge 
 from a common ladder track, a certain number of tracks 
 having a common ladder, and are of a length to accom- 
 modate a maximum train. The modern practice is to 
 provide tracks from 75 to 90 cars in length, the unit of 
 car-length being 40 feet. 
 
1 86 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 Next in order to the receiving-yard is the classifica- 
 tion-yard, reached by one or more lead-tracks so con- 
 nected that any track in the receiving-yard is directly 
 accessible to the classification-yard. The classification- 
 yard is the working-center of the freight-yard, where 
 cars are separated* classified, and assembled. Three 
 types of classification-yards are now in use : (a) a yard 
 in which the cars are classified "on the level" — by 
 which is meant the shunting process, or the pushing 
 and pulling alternately of the cars' by the switch-engine ; 
 (b) a poling-yardj or one in which the classifying is 
 done on inclined tracks — the switch-engine, with a pole, 
 running on a track parallel to the lead-track, starts the 
 cuts down the grade, whence they run by their com- 
 bined momentum, aided by gravity, into the assigned 
 track in the classification-yard; (c) the summit- or 
 hump-yard, in which the cars are run to the summit 
 of a grade, which rapidly descends into the classifica- 
 tion-yard, the cars, after being detached at the summit, 
 running down, under the action of gravity, into the as- 
 signed classification-tracks. The utility of these three 
 types of classifications is best exemplified by the follow- 
 ing record of a test made in classifying a sixty-car train 
 by each of the three methods : 
 
 
 Level 
 
 Poling 
 
 Hump 
 
 Number of cars 
 
 Number of cuts 
 
 60 
 
 50 
 
 5 
 2 hrs. 
 
 $2.44 
 
 60 
 
 SO 
 
 9 
 1 hr. 15 m. 
 
 $1-55 
 
 60 
 
 50 
 
 9 
 
 30 m. 
 
 $1.02 
 
 Number of men 
 
 
 
 
 The summit- or hump-yard has become a necessity 
 

 TYPES OF CLUSTERS 
 
RAILWAY TERMINAL FACILITIES 187 
 
 in a modern large freight-yard, where a heavy volume 
 of business is done. The classifying-yard is usually the 
 limit of the capacity of the entire system. In the design 
 of the summit- or hump-yard great care must be exer- 
 cised to adopt a gradient that will carry cars the neces- 
 sary distance into the classifying-yard. 
 
 The number of tracks required in a classifying-yard 
 depends upon the number of classifications to* be made. 
 The yard of the Chicago Union Transfer Company at 
 Chicago has 42 tracks, of 60 cars' capacity each. The 
 length of the tracks depends upon the maximum num- 
 ber of cars usually handled per train, and ranges from 
 45 to 90 cars. Track-scales' are usually located on the 
 summit or hump. 
 
 Next in order to the classification-yard comes the 
 departure-yard, directly connected with the former, so 
 that each track in the latter may be reached from any 
 track in the former. The length of tracks in the de- 
 parture-yard varies from 45 to* 90 cars, depending upon 
 the number of cars handled in trains. In some cases 
 the classification-yard, by suitable extension of its ca- 
 pacity, also serves as a departure-yard. 
 
 In close proximity to the classification-yard is usual- 
 ly located the repair-yard, consisting of tracks widely 
 spaced from 16 to' 22 feet center tx> center, and from 
 15 to 20 cars' capacity, for the purpose of repairing 
 cars in bad order. 
 
 The storage-yards are usually located alongside of 
 the classification- or forwarding-yard, and are used for 
 the purpose of holding cars for disposition. It is often 
 necessary to* reclassify such cars, and, therefore, con- 
 
1 88 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 nection must be made to permit them to be rehandled 
 through the classification-yard. 
 
 Ample leads for running track and communications 
 with all parts of the yard system are provided, so> that 
 there may be no interference with the yard operations, 
 especially the classification of cars', which is the vital 
 point in the entire business of the yard. 
 
 It is the modern practice to provide separate systems', 
 as above described — one system, for the traffic in one 
 direction and a duplicate system for the traffic in the 
 opposite direction ; the purpose being to enable traffic 
 constantly to move in the direction of its objective 
 point, avoiding false or backward movements. 
 
 2. Freight stations. — A modern freight station of 
 large dimensions includes such facilities as freight- 
 houses, transfer-houses, warehouses, elevators, plat- 
 forms, stock-pens, etc., and is used for the purpose of 
 receiving and delivering freight by the railway from 
 and to the public. Both C.L. and L.C.L. shipments 
 are handled. Certain fundamental principles have been 
 evolved, and are now generally accepted in the estab- 
 lishment of modern freight-station facilities'. 
 
 Freight-houses usually consist of inbound and out- 
 bound houses. At the inbound house incoming freight 
 is received, being unloaded directly into the house from 
 tracks along the side. Usually not more than two 
 tracks are required, the unloaded cars being pulled to be 
 replaced with loaded ones. The object of this restriction 
 of the number of tracks is to reduce the distance that 
 freight must be trucked from the cars to the house. 
 Modern practice limits the width of inbound freight- 
 
RY. USD. * M. OF W. ASSOCIATION. 
 
 J 
 
 J L 
 
 
 STfraer 
 
 
 
 
 
 in 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 A. 
 
 ^ „.„,„„ „„_„„ : ==. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . ASSOCIATION. 
 
 TYPE OF OUTBOUND FREIGHT HOUSE 
 
RAILWAY TERMINAL FACILITIES 189 
 
 houses from 60 to 70 feet, the length varying with the 
 requirements, regulated by the volume of traffic. It is 
 customary to provide a platform 8 to 10 feet wide on 
 one or both sides of the house, which permits cars to be 
 placed at any point opposite the house, and also fur- 
 nishes accommodation for the maximum number of 
 wagons on the delivery side of the house. Paved drive- 
 ways, not less than 50 feet wide, should be provided on 
 this side of the house. The doors of the house should 
 be placed uniformly 40 feet center to center, in order 
 to come approximately opposite the car doors when 
 the cars are placed at the house. The house is usually 
 posted in a systematic manner into sections numbered 
 or lettered, and when freight is unloaded, notations are 
 made on the freight-bills showing location, in order 
 that it may be readily located. 
 
 In L.C.L. freight-houses, which are used in han- 
 dling merchandise in mixed lots, only one floor, as a 
 rule, is provided. C.L. freight is not usually handled in 
 such houses^ but, when so handled, is often held for 
 storage. In this case usually a number of stories' is 
 provided, the freight being raised by means of eleva- 
 tors. The most approved type of elevator is the electric, 
 which is both economical and efficient. 
 
 The outbound house is used for the purpose of for- 
 warding shipments received from wagons delivering 
 at one side of the house. The freight is weighed as 
 received, and then trucked directly into the outbound 
 cars on tracks' along the other side of the house. The 
 modern practice is to limit the width of the outbound 
 house to 30 or 35 feet, in order to reduce the 
 
190 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 trucking distance over which the freight must be han- 
 dled. The tracks are placed alongside of the house on 
 the side opposite the driveway. They are usually spaced 
 closely together, and as many tracks are provided as the 
 number of cars' capacity for the daily loading requires. 
 It is customary to provide an outside platform on the 
 track side for convenience in longitudinal trucking ; but 
 the wagon, or receiving, side is usually provided with a 
 line of doors closely placed, so that nearly the entire 
 side of the house is open for receipt of freight. 
 
 Wherever space permits, it is good practice to> place 
 the inbound and outbound houses, opposite each other, 
 with the tracks between the houses and a transfer plat- 
 form between two> sets of tracks for the purpose of 
 transferring cars. This arrangement is a flexible one, 
 to the extent that the track arrangement can be utilized 
 for either house to 1 any desired limits ; also, the transfer 
 freight can be handled at the same time with the in- 
 bound and outbound freight. Furthermore, the freight- 
 house forces are easily interchangeable, and full ad- 
 vantage can be taken of the fact that in the morning the 
 inbound freight is heavy and the outbound freight light, 
 which conditions are reversed in the afternoons, thus 
 keeping the forces' uniformly engaged during the entire 
 day. 
 
 Transfer platforms are used for the purpose of shift- 
 ing freight from car to< car. Usually the freight from 
 one car is distributed throughout many other cars. In 
 the case of L.C.L. freight the inbound cars are placed 
 on one side, and the outbound cars on the opposite 
 side, of transfer platforms. The usual widths of trans'- 
 
TYPE OF INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT YARD 
 
 TYPE OF DIVISION TERMINAL YARD 
 
 TYPE OF CAR CLEANING YARD 
 
RAILWAY TERMINAL FACILITIES 191 
 
 fer platforms are from 12 to 20 feet. They are usually 
 provided with a canopy or roof for the protection of 
 men and freight. The transfer platform is most con- 
 veniently located when it is placed between the inbound- 
 and outbound-house tracks, as inbound cars often con- 
 tain freight both for city delivery and for outbound 
 cars, which can thus: be handled with economy. 
 
 Warehouses are usually provided for the purpose of 
 storing freight, both inbound and outbound; but the 
 regular business of warehousing is one apart from 
 transportation, and in many states the laws prohibit 
 railways from doing a warehouse business, other than 
 such as is incidental to the transporting of the goods. 
 Warehouses are therefore not essentially a part of rail- 
 way terminal facilities, when considered strictly as 
 warehouses. 
 
 Elevators are provided for handling grain for the 
 purpose of storage, cleaning, clipping, drying, sorting, 
 or transferring from cars to vessels. The usual type, 
 almost a universal one, is a system of tracks constructed 
 over pits into which the grain is unloaded, thence being 
 carried into bins by means of conveyors'. Chutes are 
 provided for loading cars' on the same tracks when 
 grain shipments are outbound. Marine conveyors are 
 provided for carrying the grain from elevators to ves- 
 sels, when the elevators are located at a point removed 
 from the vessels' landing. In case of elevators directly 
 alongside of vessels, chutes are used. 
 
 Platforms for handling large and heavy shipments, 
 which cannot be readily loaded directly from cars to 
 wagons, or vice versa, are usually provided, so* ar- 
 
192 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 ranged that cars can be placed directly at the platform. 
 A common form is a pocket track, with the floor of the 
 platform at the same elevation as the floor of the cars. 
 A derrick should be provided to handle heavy ship- 
 ments : one of the traveling type, spanning the platform, 
 two tracks, and the driveway, is the most efficient. It 
 provides the means of transferring shipments' from car 
 to car, from car to> platform, or for loading or unload- 
 ing between wagons and cars. 
 
 Stock-pens at large terminals are usually provided 
 by stock-yard companies, but separate and smaller pens 
 are also, as a rule, required at all terminals to handle 
 shipments of stock. The common type has chutes for 
 the loading and unloading, and is subdivided into 
 smaller pens, holding from one to several carloads each. 
 Watering and feeding facilities should also* be pn> 
 vided, and, in many cases a shed roof over one-half of 
 the pens is constructed for the protection of the stock 
 from bad weather. 
 
 3. Team tracks. — The handling of carload freight, 
 which is loaded or unloaded directly from or into- cars 
 and wagons, requires' "team tracks," These are usually 
 constructed in pairs, with a paved driveway between 
 each pair not less than 40 feet wide. Large quanti- 
 ties of carload freight are handled by this means. It 
 is usual to subdivide the team tracks into the various 
 classes of traffic handled on them; for example, there 
 may be "coal team tracks," "lumber team tracks," 
 "merchandise team tracks," "perishable freight team 
 tracks'," etc. 
 
 4. Industry tracks. — "Industry tracks" is the 
 
RAILWAY TERMINAL FACILITIES 193 
 
 name usually applied to tracks leading into industrial, 
 manufacturing, or commercial plants. It is becoming 
 more and more the custom for industries to> be located 
 along the line of a railway or to be connected directly 
 with such line by means of industry tracks, thus elimi- 
 nating the handling of freight by means O'f wagons — a 
 most expensive process. It often costs as much to 
 transport a ton of freight one mile by wagon as it 
 does to carry it 100 miles by railway. Industry tracks 
 also make it possible to> do away with the additional 
 double handling of freight, with its increased danger 
 of breakages, etc. 
 
 5. Rail and water terminals. — Rail and water ter- 
 minals are provided at points of interchange of traffic 
 between rail and water transportation. The facilities 
 desirable are as: follows : 
 
 Piers, either open or covered, on which freight is 
 loaded and unloaded from cars to vessels, or vice versa, 
 either directly from one to the other, or first handled 
 on the floor of the pier and then transferred to cars or 
 vessels. In the latter case double handling is required. 
 Special types of piers are provided for various classes 
 of freight — such as coal, and general export and import 
 merchandise. 
 
 The term "pier"is commonly applied to the con- 
 struction of facilities where slips are used, the piers 
 being accessible to vessels at the sides. In some in- 
 stances, however, docks or wharves are necessary which 
 lie parallel to the water; as, for example, the export 
 wharves on the Mississippi River at New Orleans. Up 
 to the present time slips and piers have not been used 
 
194 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 there, largely on account of the deposits of silt from 
 the river, making the practicability of slips doubtful. 
 
 No typical plans for water terminal facilities can be 
 suggested. Conditions of traffic and limits of available 
 space, when ocean, lake, or i iver terminals are in ques- 
 tion, so affect the problem that each individual case re- 
 quires its own design to suit local conditions. But a 
 few general recommendations as to various types of 
 piers may be mentioned. 
 
 Covered lighterage piers, where cars are loaded or 
 unloaded directly from, or into' vessels, should be about 
 600 feet in length, with two depressed tracks. The 
 width should suit the conditions of traffic, which, if 
 moved promptly, requires less' width than if stored for 
 some time. The widths should be from 125 to 160 feet. 
 The distance between piers', or the width of the slips, 
 should be about four times the width of the largest 
 vessels. Open lighterage piers, where bulk freight, 
 which does not require protection from weather, is' 
 handled, need not be more than half the width of 
 covered piers. 
 
 Export, import, and storage piers should be of suf- 
 ficient length to accommodate at least two vessels' on 
 each side of the pier, or from 1,000 to 1,400 feet long, 
 and should be from 125 to 160 feet in width. The 
 width, however, should not be so excessive as to in- 
 crease unnecessarily the cost of handling. The tracks 
 should be depressed so that cars can be readily loaded 
 and unloaded. The width of the slips should be not less 
 than four times the width of the largest vessels using 
 them. 
 
RAILWAY TERMINAL FACILITIES 195 
 
 Coal piers should be open piers, and, where possible, 
 cog 1 should be dumped from drop-bottom or side-dump 
 cars through bins and chutes directly into the vessels, 
 by gravity. Where, however, elevating machinery or 
 derricks are used, elevated dumps are not necessary. 
 
 Station piers, served by car-floats, may be from 600 
 to 800 feet in length, and from 125 to 150 feet in width, 
 with a depressed driveway through the center not less 
 than 35 feet wide. The pier should be inclosed, and 
 usually has provision made for a storage, or a second 
 floor for offices and storage-rooms. Station piers should 
 have slips from 150 to 200 feet in width. 
 
RAILROAD SIGNALING 
 
 CHARLES A. DUNHAM, SIGNAL ENGINEER, GREAT 
 NORTHERN RAILWAY 
 
 In the operation of a railroad the question of signal- 
 ing is one of growing importance, and more attention 
 is being paid to it each year. As the subject is of great 
 breadth, it will, however, be impossible here to deal 
 with more than its fundamental principles. Almost 
 from the first inception of the railroad the necessity for 
 some means of protecting trains was made evident, 
 and the present methods are developments of the 
 rudimentary expedients first used. 
 
 The subject of signaling divides itself naturally 
 into two headings: interlocking signals, used at junc- 
 tions, grade crossings, yards, or sidings; and block 
 signals, used for the spacing of trains, with the object 
 that rear-end, head-end, or other collisions may be 
 avoided. As stated, it was early found that some 
 method of protecting trains was absolutely necessary; 
 and this can the more easily be understood when it 
 is remembered that the electric telegraph was not used 
 in connection with railroad operation until about the 
 year 1840. Up to that time trains were operated and 
 meeting-points made by the time card. Under this 
 method of operation it is not difficult to see the possi- 
 bility of collisions, and, to' overcome this difficulty, sem- 
 aphore signals were installed certain distances apart, a 
 man being stationed at each signal to operate it. The 
 
 196 
 
RAILROAD SIGNALING 197 
 
 semaphore, prior to its application to railroad opera- 
 tion, had been used as far back as 1767 for the trans- 
 mission of messages at considerable distances. This 
 early type of semaphore has gone through several 
 modifications. At present it consists of a blade or 
 blades pivoted on a mast and fitted with colored 
 glasses, so that its indications may be read by night 
 as well as by day. These indications are given by a 
 horizontal position of the blade for the "stop" signal, 
 and an inclined position of the blade for the "proceed" 
 signal. Like information is given at night by the dis- 
 play of colored lights, red indicating "stop," and 
 green or white "proceed." When green is used for 
 the "clear" night signal, yellow is frequently used as 
 the "caution" signal. 
 
 As the time of the men engaged in operating these 
 signals was not very fully occupied, it became the prac- 
 tice to connect switches in the vicinity of the semaphore 
 by means of mechanical lines of connection, and these 
 switches were operated by the signal men with levers 
 from a central point. This crude method of signaling 
 led to mistakes, and very probably to accidents, as 
 trains were at times turned on to 1 the wrong tracks 
 through carelessness or oversight of the signal men. 
 
 In the year 1856 a simple lock between the levers 
 was introduced by Mr. Saxby. It was not until 1859, 
 however, that Saxby & Farmer, and Stevens & Sons, 
 took out patents; the former for the spindle locking, 
 and the latter for the tappet locking. As originally ap- 
 plied, this locking was attached directly to the lever; 
 but, on account of the severe strain that could be put 
 
198 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 upon the lever, this was not found to be satisfactory, and 
 toward the end of the same year patents were taken out 
 in which the locking was applied to the latch of the 
 lever. This is the method now in use. 
 
 Just here we will consider what an interlocking 
 plant is. It usually consists of a number of switches, 
 derails, and signals connected with levers located in a 
 tower-house building at a central point. These levers 
 are so interlocked that it is impossible for the lever- 
 man to' set clear signals for the passage of trains 
 on conflicting routes. The combinations as arranged 
 in the interlocking are such that the switches and lock- 
 ing devices must all be properly set before the signals 
 can be cleared, and when the signals are cleared, the 
 locking precludes the changing of the switches or 
 derails until the signals have been restored to their 
 normal position, which is the "stop" or "caution" 
 position, as the case may be. 
 
 One of the first interlocking plants used in this 
 country was installed at Spuyten Duyvil Junction in 
 New York City in 1874. This interlocking machine 
 was very similar to those we now have in use, and it is 
 preserved, I am informed, in the Field Columbian 
 Museum. From the small beginning made at Spuyten 
 Duyvil, signaling has grown steadily, and in later 
 years especially has developed rapidly. The demand 
 for signal devices today is such that we have several 
 large signal-manufacturing plants, capable of turning 
 out hundreds of levers per day. In speaking of levers, 
 I include all of the equipment that goes with them. All 
 of the interlocking plants installed in the earlier days 
 
RAILROAD SIGNALING 199 
 
 were of the mechanical type. During the last ten or 
 fifteen years it has been found desirable to use power 
 systems of interlocking at the larger plants. In fact, 
 today most railroads use power systems where more 
 than fifty or sixty levers are used. I know of one little 
 power interlocking machine, used in Iowa, which has 
 only two levers, and a charging plant to provide the 
 power for the two levers was installed especially for 
 that purpose. 
 
 The power systems of interlocking now in vogue 
 may be said to be three in number — namely : the "low- 
 pressure pneumatic'' system, the "electro-pneumatic" 
 system and the "all-electric" system. Under the low- 
 pressure pneumatic system the plant is purely me- 
 chanical, and the switch and signal operations are 
 accomplished by compressed air, usually at a pressure 
 of about two atmospheres. The electro-pneumatic sys- 
 tem is used extensively. It varies from the low-pres- 
 ure pneumatic system in that the control of the air- 
 valves in the operating mechanism, as also the return 
 indications, are electrical. It is necessary that the 
 lever-man know that the switch or signal has followed 
 the lever movement ; and, to accomplish this, the inter- 
 locking machine is so controlled that the locking is not 
 released until the switch or signal movement has been 
 completed. The release of the locking is necessarily 
 accomplished prior to the clearing of a signal. The 
 pneumatic system of interlocking can frequently be 
 used to great advantage. This is especially true where 
 air-pressure is available, which is often the case, as 
 compressed air is used for various purposes on a rail- 
 
200 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 road. When it is necessary to instal a power plant 
 solely for the purpose of compressing air for an inter- 
 locking plant, the cost of the power is considerable. 
 
 The third power system of interlocking is the all- 
 electric system;. Under this system each switch, derail, 
 and signal is equipped with a motor, and the motors 
 are controlled through the interlocking machine. The 
 electric power required is usually taken from a storage 
 battery. One of these storage batteries, of 150 ampere 
 hours' capacity, will, when fully charged, provide power 
 for the operation of a large and busy interlocking 
 plant for a period of seven or eight days ; and when we 
 consider the fact that the storage battery can be charged 
 in a few hours at a very small cost, the advantages of 
 the all-electric system are apparent. One of the chief 
 advantages of the power systems of interlocking over 
 the mechanical system is that the switches and signals 
 can be operated at much greater distances, while the 
 cost of operation and maintenance, if the plant is a 
 large one, is reduced. 
 
 Now, having outlined the interlocking systems as 
 applied on railroads, let us consider the block systems 
 of signaling. Practically only four systems of block 
 signaling are in use at the present time — namely, the 
 ''telegraph block," the "controlled manual block," the 
 "staff block," and the "automatic block" systems. Be- 
 fore going farther, it might be well to define what we 
 mean by a "block" as understood in railroad signaling. 
 
 A block is a section of track governed by a home 
 signal, and the object of dividing the line into sections 
 is to> prevent twoi trains from occupying a section of 
 
RAILROAD SIGNALING , 201 
 
 track at the same time. These blocks may be of any 
 length consistent with the economic operation of trains. 
 As the first division of the four systems of block signal- 
 ing we will consider the telegraph block. Under this 
 system the signals are located at given distances along 
 the railroad, usually two or three miles apart, and men 
 are provided at each block cabin to> operate the signals. 
 Means of communication between block cabins are pro- 
 vided either by telegraph or by telephone, and may be 
 accompanied by a system of bell signals, whereby the 
 block operators communicate with one another. This 
 system of block signaling is very simple and has been 
 found to> be quite effective. 
 
 As an improvement on the telegraph block system 
 we have the controlled manual block system. By this 
 is meant that, with this system in force, a block 
 operator cannot clear the signal at his own station 
 without the co-operation of the operator in advance of 
 the proposed train movement. The advantages of this 
 feature are very apparent, and they are made possible 
 by applying electric locks to* each signal. For instance, 
 let us suppose that we have three block stations of the 
 controlled manual type in use — A, B, and C. The 
 block operator at station A has a train ready te> pro- 
 ceed toward station B. The block operator at A must 
 communicate with the block operator at B, and if the 
 block is clear between A and B, the block operator at 
 B will unlock the electric lock on the signal at A, and 
 the operator at A will clear his signal and permit the 
 train to proceed toward B. The block operator at B 
 therefore has knowledge of the approach of the train 
 
202 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 "■> : I 
 from A, and he in turn will make arrangements with 
 the operator at C for the unlocking of the signal at B. 
 This method is continued for the entire distance covered 
 by the manual block system. It will be seen that by 
 this arrangement all of the block operators are check- 
 ing each other, and that each operator has full and 
 complete knowledge of all train movements being made 
 in the blocks on either side of his own station. Under 
 this arrangement train movements can be made safely 
 and expeditiously. This system is one which origi- 
 nated, I believe, in England. As to* the construction 
 cost of the controlled manual block system, I may add 
 that the locking devices are the only additional expense 
 over and above that of the telegraph block system, and 
 experience has shown that the controlled manual block 
 system is much superior to the ordinary telegraph 
 block. 
 
 Under the controlled manual system it is possible 
 materially to cut down the number of train orders 
 issued by the Train Dispatcher, and an additional 
 advantage of great importance can be provided by 
 connecting the passing-track and other main-track 
 switches, and placing them under the control of the 
 block operator. When these features are provided, 
 trains which are required to> leave the main track at 
 meeting-points are turned on to the side-tracks by the 
 block operators, the switches are reset for the main 
 track, and the train of superior right is allowed to pass. 
 During the time this movement has been under way 
 the train which took the siding may be pulled to the 
 far end of such siding, and is again allowed to pro- 
 
RAILROAD SIGNALING 203 
 
 ceed on its way by the block operator clearing the 
 advance signal. 
 
 These facilities for handling trains are of great 
 advantage ; and it is my opinion that the day will come 
 when trains may be handled with perfect safety on 
 a single track without the giving of a single train order 
 to the train crews. The dispatchers will give all orders 
 to the telegraph operators who will execute the orders 
 and control the trains by means of the signals provided 
 at their respective stations. I freely admit that this 
 would be a radical departure from established practice, 
 but I am convinced that the details can and will be 
 worked out which will make this method of railroad 
 operation entirely practicable. 
 
 The "staff" system is an English invention, and is 
 used quite extensively throughout Great Britain. As 
 installed, it consists of a staff instrument placed at the 
 beginning and end of each block, the instrument con- 
 taining staffs of metal which are held in a receiver. 
 The staff instruments at each end of the block are inter- 
 locked electrically, so that, if the staff is taken out of 
 one instrument, both instruments are locked until the 
 staff is returned to one or other of them, when another 
 staff may be taken out. In operation the engine-man 
 secures a staff at one instrument, which gives him right 
 of way to the next staff instrument, where he deposits 
 the staff belonging to the block which he has just 
 cleared. Here he secures another staff for the next 
 block ahead, and in this way makes sure that he has a 
 clear block ahead, as he is in possession of the staff 
 controlling that block. From this description it may 
 
204 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 be inferred that there is a great deal of time lost 
 through trains stopping to deposit and receive staffs. 
 In actual operation trains are not ordinarily required 
 to stop at staff offices. The engine-man throws the 
 staff covering the block which he is leaving to the block 
 operator, and in turn receives from the block operator 
 a staff controlling the block he is about to* enter. This 
 method of handling the staffs can be followed success- 
 fully at speeds up to thirty miles an hour. When trains 
 operate at speeds of over thirty miles an hour, some 
 railroads equip their locomotives with catching devices. 
 These devices, in some respects, are similar to those 
 employed on postal cars for catching mail. When 
 catching devices are employed, the staffs are placed in 
 suitable pouches, and these pouches can be picked up at 
 a speed even as great as sixty miles an hour. It is not 
 probable that the staff system will be employed exten- 
 sively where trains are operated at high speeds. The 
 system can, however, be used to very great advantage, 
 particularly on stretches of gauntlet track, or where 
 trains of several divisions, or perhaps of several rail- 
 roads, are operated for considerable distances over one 
 pair of rails. In a situation of this kind the ordinary 
 train-order system is abandoned, and all train move- 
 ments are controlled absolutely by the staff system. 
 
 The staff system is susceptible of many variations. 
 For instance, should it be desirable to hold two men 
 responsible for train movements — and this might be 
 true, we will say, at a tunnel where a pusher engine is 
 used — the divided staff is employed, half of the staff 
 being given to the engine-man in the ordinary manner, 
 
RAILROAD SIGNALING 205 
 
 and the other half to the engine-man in charge of the 
 pusher engine; the block being held until the divided 
 halves of the staff have been joined together and placed 
 in the staff instrument at the opposite end of the block. 
 If the staff system is employed through a yard where a 
 good many light engine movements or switching move- 
 ments are made, the main-track switches can be equip- 
 ped with staff locks. With this arrangement in effect 
 a light engine or switch crew is given a staff, and is 
 allowed to proceed into the block, the block being held 
 until the crew has returned or passed through the block 
 and the staff has been deposited at the staff office. Thus 
 the none too uncommon collision between the through 
 train and a switch engine or switch train in the yard 
 is avoided. A point which should not be overlooked 
 is that, under the staff system, the possession of the 
 staff gives the train full right to use the block in either 
 direction — an advantage not provided in any other 
 block signal system. A great many signal engineers 
 are now alive to' the advantage of having a pair of staff 
 instruments available for immediate use in cases of 
 emergency, such as are sometimes occasioned by the 
 necessity of turning the traffic of a double-track rail- 
 road on to a single track temporarily. The staff sys- 
 tem, in a case of this kind, can be put in effect inside 
 of a few hours ; all that is needed to handle the traffic 
 with absolute safety is the staff instruments and a pair 
 of ordinary telegraph wires between the junction 
 points, and a few cells of dry batteries. 
 
 We have now briefly considered the telegraph block 
 system, the controlled manual block system, and the 
 
206 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 staff system. In conclusion I may state that the 
 expense of installing the telegraph block is nominal. A 
 well-regulated controlled manual system can be 
 installed at a cost of about $200 per mile of railroad. 
 These figures are on the basis of installing the signal 
 equipments in established telegraph offices. Where it 
 is necessary to erect block cabins, the cost of such 
 cabins should be added. Suitable cabins can be erected 
 at about $200 each. The cost of installing the staff 
 system is about the same as the cost of installing the 
 controlled manual system. 
 
 Before proceeding to discuss the automatic block 
 signal systems, I wish to state that the manual block 
 systems already considered are .extensively applied to 
 single-track railroads, while the automatic block signal 
 system is, generally speaking, intended for use on 
 double track. The automatic block signal is today 
 installed in only two forms, namely, the semaphore and 
 the inclosed disk. Some railroads continue to use the 
 inclosed disk, because they believe it to be more efficient, 
 quite as safe, and more economical than the semaphore 
 type of signal. However, the semaphore type is more 
 generally recognized, and undoubtedly a very large per- 
 centage of all the automatic block signals now being 
 installed are of this type. 
 
 Everybody is familiar with the semaphore signals 
 as seen along our railways, and while their significance 
 may not be fully appreciated by the uninitiated, they 
 are the guiding stars to safety for the engine-men and 
 train-men. In order fully to appreciate this, I would 
 advise a trip in the engine-cab over a railroad full of 
 
RAILROAD SIGNALING 207 
 
 curves and grades, and over which a large volume of 
 important traffic is moved. The engine-man, with 
 reason, places absolute confidence in the signal indica- 
 tions, and when the signals indicate "clear," he pro- 
 ceeds with full assurance that the way is clear. When 
 a signal indicates "clear," the engine-man knows that 
 the block ahead is not only free from trains, but that 
 all the switches in that block are set for the main 
 track; and he further knows that the cars and engines 
 on the side-tracks all stand clear of the main line. 
 
 Automatic block signals may be and are erected to 
 suit the peculiar conditions of the road signaled. I 
 understand that in the underground railway in New 
 York City the block signals in some cases are only 500 
 feet apart, and that trains pass over these blocks on 
 their regular schedules a minute or less apart. On sur- 
 face roads the length o>f block varies from one-quarter 
 of a mile to four or five miles. I believe, however, I may 
 safely state that the signal engineers of the country are 
 agreed that it is not the best practice to instal extremely 
 long blocks. An admirable installation of block signals, 
 which lately came under my observation, consisted of 
 blocks slightly less than twoi miles in length. Under 
 this arrangement of signaling it was only necessary to 
 place two cuts in the track circuit between each home 
 signal. Each of these signal masts carried two> arms, 
 the upper arm in each case being the home or stop 
 signal, and the lower arm being the caution or distant 
 signal. Now, an engine-man running under these 
 signals, and receiving two clear signals at the entrance 
 to a block, knows that not only the block he is entering 
 
208 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 is clear, but that the second block ahead is also clear. 
 In other words, the engine-man receiving twoi clear 
 signals in effect is told that four miles of railroad ahead 
 of him are clear and free from trains, and that the 
 switches are all set for the main track. It might be 
 suggested that during the interval, while the train is 
 covering the four miles of track, it would be possible 
 for an engine or train to leave a passing track and 
 occupy the main track in advance of the approaching 
 train. Of this there is no doubt; but, to guard against 
 this very possibility, the main-track switches are all pro- 
 vided either with bells, which will ring when a train 
 is in the block, or with miniature signals o>f the sema- 
 phore type, which will give indication of a train in the 
 block. In other words, when the block is clear and 
 no train approaching, the little semaphore at the switch 
 will indicate safety. When a train is in the block, this 
 same little semaphore will assume the horizontal posi- 
 tion and indicate danger, and train-men are not allowed 
 to open a switch while the switch indicators stand at 
 danger. I may say that, under the automatic blocking 
 as installed today, all of the railroads are following 
 practically the same system. One of the variations is 
 that on some roads the signals stand normally in the 
 "clear" or "proceed" position, while on others they 
 stand normally in the "stop" or "danger" position. A 
 good deal may be said of the relative merits of the two 
 methods, and there is' some difference of opinion as to 
 the better plan. 
 
 When automatic signals are used, the rails in the 
 tracks are bonded and cut into track sections by means 
 
RAILROAD SIGNALING 209 
 
 of insulating the rails from each other at intervals. 
 Each track section is provided with a battery, usually 
 of the gravity type, and a relay. The relay, while a 
 section of track is not occupied by a train, is closed, 
 and is opened by a train entering the block. The 
 signals, in turn, are governed by means of contacts 
 made by the track relays. The proper care and main- 
 tenance of the track sections is one of the important 
 features which must receive very careful attention in 
 automatic-block-signal maintenance. However, neglect 
 in maintenance will not bring about dangerous condi- 
 tions. When any part of the signal apparatus fails to 
 operate properly, the signal will always give the danger 
 indication. 
 
 Ordinarily the automatic block signal is operated 
 either by compressed air or by electricity. At the pres- 
 ent time a very considerable number of signals are 
 being installed which are operated by carbonic-acid gas ; 
 and it may be of interest to know that an average of 
 200 signal operations can be obtained from each pound 
 of gas. Each signal is provided with duplicate flasks 
 of gas, and under ordinary traffic conditions, one flask 
 of gas (fifty pounds) will furnish the power to operate 
 a signal for a period of from six to* nine months. 
 When electricity is used as the power to operate the 
 signal, each signal is provided with a motor, and the 
 current is frequently taken from primary batteries. 
 These batteries have been perfected to* a very high 
 standard, which may be appreciated more fully when I 
 state that one set of cells, with practically no attention 
 and no renewals whatever, will frequently operate a 
 
210 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 signal on an average of thirty times a day for a period 
 of from fifteen to eighteen months. 
 
 When the signals are operated by compressed air, 
 it is usually on a very busy railroad, having not less 
 than four tracks. The compressed air, generally, is 
 used to operate the interlocked switches and signals, 
 and may be used for other purposes along that par- 
 ticular line. Under ordinary conditions, it probably 
 would not be advisable to use compressed air to operate 
 the signals on one or two> tracks, owing to> the expense 
 of compressing the air and piping* it along the railroad. 
 
 I believe the automatic block signal to be entirely 
 reliable, and years of experience with it by a great 
 many railroads will bear me out in this statement. 
 Quite recently Mr. Piatt, reporter for the International 
 Railway Congress, gathered exhaustive data, the result 
 of which shows that we can expect almost perfect 
 service; the actual figures showing one signal failure 
 to 22,000 signal operations. Now, on the average 
 railroad a signal will not perform over 15,000 signal 
 operations in a year; it is therefore apparent that the 
 railroad manager is not prepared to accept very many 
 excuses for block signals failing and causing unneces- 
 sary interruptions to trains. 
 
 During the last year or two> a good deal has been 
 said about the use of storage batteries in connection 
 with block signaling, and I think we are all agreed 
 that the storage battery under favorable conditions 
 can be used to' very great advantage. However, for 
 some time to come at least, the primary cell will hold its 
 own. At the present stage of development, over the 
 
RAILROAD SIGNALING 211 
 
 greater part of this country, it would not be advisable 
 to go to the expense of installing power stations and 
 distributing lines for the sole purpose of providing 
 electric current for block-signal operation. 
 
 In conclusion, it may be said that, under all ordinary 
 conditions, a railroad can be well protected by auto- 
 matic block signals' at a cost of about $800 per mile 
 of track, and, making allowance for depreciation and 
 interest on this investment, the operation and main- 
 tenance of the system will cost slightly less than 20 per 
 cent, per annum on the original investment. 
 
CLASSIFICATION AND TYPES OF LOCOMO- 
 TIVES 
 
 C. A. SELEY, MECHANICAL ENGINEER, ROCK ISLAND 
 
 SYSTEM 
 
 I. CLASSIFICATION OF LOCOMOTIVES 
 
 Boys living in seaboard towns become expert in 
 classifying seagoing vessels by their general outline 
 and sail arrangement; railroad men have to know the 
 characteristics' of their locomotives by definite terms, so 
 as clearly to> differentiate them. To the layman an 
 engine is an engine, whether there are four or four- 
 teen wheels under it; and, as it is mainly by the 
 wheel arrangement that engines are classified or named, 
 this branch of the subject may be taken up with profit. 
 
 A steam locomotive is a machine, in most cases de- 
 signed for a definite end in handling freight or pas- 
 senger equipment, and is therefore subject to> mathe- 
 matical analysis' as to< its power. This is generally ex- 
 pressed by the tractive power, the formula for which 
 will be familiar. Stationary engines are rated by their 
 horse-power ; so that, when one speaks of a fifty-horse- 
 power engine, a relative idea of the machine is con- 
 veyed to the mind. This' impression is made more 
 exact by defining the type — as to whether it is simple 
 or compound, throttling or automatic, horizontal or 
 vertical, etc. The term "horse-power" cannot be ap- 
 plied to locomotives in a comparative way, as some of 
 the heaviest and most powerful ones exert only a mod- 
 
CLASSIFICATION AND TYPES OF LOCOMOTIVES 213 
 
 erate horse-power. Locomotive horse-power is con- 
 stantly varying with changes o>f speed and the adjust- 
 ment of the valve gearing. The latter is also> true of 
 stationary engines', which are generally arranged for a 
 certain speed, and a nominal rating calculated for that 
 speed on an economical mean effective pressure; while 
 the locomotive rating is based on the tractive power. 
 
 Most railroads have a variety of locomotive equip- 
 ment, and, in order distinctly to define each lot or kind 
 for records, drawings, patterns, and repair parts, the 
 Motive Power Departments coin for themselves classi- 
 fications, using numerals or letters, or both, in a purely 
 arbitrary fashion. The Pennsylvania Railroad, for in- 
 stance, uses the letter "A" for engines having two 
 pairs' of drivers and no> trucks, "B" for three pairs, and 
 "C" for four pairs; "D" is used for two* pairs of 
 drivers, and four-wheeled truck; "E," for two pairs of 
 drivers', four-wheel leading and two-wheel trailing 
 trucks; "F" has three pairs' of drivers, and two-wheel 
 truck; "G," the same arrangement of drivers and four- 
 wheel truck; and "H" has four pairs of drivers and 
 two-wheel truck. This, it will be seen, is purely arbi- 
 trary and has to be memorized in order mentally to 
 grasp the type. Then they take each differing lot of 
 engines and give them numerical designations, adding 
 these to the type-letters. Thus' they have "A-i," 
 "A-2," "A-3," etc., to show different groups of "A" 
 engines. This is further extended by suffixing a letter 
 for subsequent additions to> any class where there are 
 relatively slight changes. For instance, "D-13" class 
 gets an addition of some engines with a slightly differ- 
 
214 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 ent diameter of wheels, but with no other important 
 change, and they would be designated "D-13-a;" the 
 suffix being changed to< "b" on the next revision. 
 Many railroads' do* not endeavor to show the type in 
 their motive-power classification symbols, but use let- 
 ters or numbers, singly or in combination. There are 
 not enough letters in the alphabet to* show all the classes 
 on some roads. 
 
 The Rock Island System uses a numerical motive- 
 power classification — 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. — adding a sub- 
 letter for modified classes— "4-A," " 4 -B," "4-Q" for 
 instance, being successive modifications of Class 4. 
 The majority of repair parts are common to all. This 
 system is also arbitrary and gives no' clue to> the uniniti- 
 ated as to' what kind or size of engine is in each class. 
 
 The so-called "Whyte classification" gives succes- 
 sively the number of wheels in the truck, drivers', and 
 trailer, as, e. g., "2-6-0," "4-4-2," etc. This system 
 is convenient in some ways, and is used by the Ameri- 
 can Locomotive Company, and others, the total weight 
 of the engine in thousands of pounds being added. 
 Thus, "4-6-0-180" expresses' a ten- wheel engine 
 weighing 180,000 pounds. 
 
 At a Master Mechanics' Association convention a 
 few years ago', it was proposed by Mr. R. P. C. San- 
 derson to- classify engines by suggestive letters — as "T" 
 for ten-wheel, "C" for consolidation, etc. — adding a 
 number to' show the thousands of pounds of tractive 
 power, or the percentage of 100,000 pounds. Thus, 
 "T-30" would be a ten- wheeler of approximately 30.- 
 000 pounds' tractive power. This system possesses 
 
CLASSIFICATION AND TYPES OF LOCOMOTIVES 215 
 
 considerable merit, the simple symbol conveying 1 a 
 definite idea as to> the type and power of the engine. 
 There are, however, about thirty-five possible wheel 
 arrangements, and it is not always feasible to pick out 
 suggestive letters. 
 
 This and the Whyte systems cannot be used as Mo- 
 tive Power Department classifications, as particular 
 groups or individual engines cannot be identified. To 
 illustrate, suppose an order is received for a back cyl- 
 inder head for a "4—4-0" engine or for a "T-30" en- 
 gine. The "4-4-0" symbol covers every eight- wheel 
 engine on the road of all sizes and makes, and the 
 "T-30" may include a number of lots on which the 
 details are not similar. It is therefore necessary to 
 have a distinctive motive-power class designation, in 
 order to make proper records, orders, and statistics'. It 
 is not likely, however, that a common system will ever 
 be used by all roads which now differ. To make such 
 a change would involve much trouble in fixing up his- 
 torical, pattern, and drawing records, and in establish- 
 ing the terms of the new classification in the minds' of 
 all concerned. 
 
 Some roads do not even have a distinctive classifica- 
 tion, but refer to> the engines by numbers or series, as 
 the "400 class," etc. This is not a good practice, as 
 the records get woefully mixed up when engine num- 
 bers are changed, which is often the case with a grow- 
 ing system. On a large railway system the number of 
 motive-power classes is necessarily large and beyond 
 the capacity of retention of any ordinary memory. In 
 the Motive Power Department of the Rock Island sys- 
 
216 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 tern we do not find this, an embarrassment, as we have 
 aids, for the memory in registers and equipment books 
 and lists. 
 
 Other departments, however, are not interested in 
 many of the minor differences between various lots of 
 engines, which may be of the same type and similar 
 hauling capacity. For these departments a classifica- 
 tion giving one symbol for all engines similar in type 
 and power is desirable, so as not to* burden them with 
 the minute details of the motive-power classification. 
 Such a classification may be called a "road" classifica- 
 tion, in distinction from the other. One having a letter 
 indicating the type, and a numeral showing the thou- 
 sands of pounds of tractive power, is convenient and 
 useful. As these symbols are sometimes used over the 
 wires, the letters' must be chosen with reference to> easy 
 telegraphing with the numbers. The letters in use on 
 the Rock Island System are as follows : simple engines' 
 —eight- wheel, "B;" ten-wheel, "D;" "Consolidation," 
 "C;" "Atlantic," "A;" "Pacific," "N;" "Mogul," "G;" 
 "Suburban," "K;" four-wheel switch, "H;" six-wheel 
 switch, "J;" compound engines — ten-wheel, "F;" "Con- 
 solidation," "Q;" "Atlantic," "W." Thus, we have 
 eight- wheel engines from 10,000 to 19,000 pounds' trac- 
 tive power, expressed as "B-10," "B-n," "B-12," etc., 
 up to "B-19;" ten-wheel engines, from "D-14" 
 "D-31 ;" "Consolidations," from "C-25" to "C-40." 
 
 When once comprehended, this symbol gives a rela- 
 tive idea of the type and power of the engines; and 
 this is mainly what the transportation people want. If 
 they want to know the size of wheels or the tank 
 
CLASSIFICATION AND TYPES OF LOCOMOTIVES 217 
 
 capacity, or to obtain other special information, it is 
 readily available from the equipment books and lists. 
 If a new engine comes on a division, its tonnage ca- 
 pacity is known at once by the road class numeral. Our 
 tonnage rating-books for each division have columns 
 headed by numbers — 10, 11, 12, etc., up to our highest 
 tractive-power symbol — and by having each engine 
 marked and recorded, tonnage ratings' can be assigned 
 without delay or calculation. 
 
 II. TYPES OF LOCOMOTIVES 
 
 Having now disposed of classification, we will con- 
 sider types of locomotives. The simplest wheel arrange- 
 ments are those of switching engines. These generally 
 have six wheels, although there are many old four- 
 wheel and a few modern eight-wheel engines. These 
 engines have to go* around sharp curvature into indus- 
 trials tracks, and modern six-wheel switchers are built 
 with a wheel base not exceeding eleven feet, while the 
 four-wheelers average about seven feet six inches. The 
 eight-wheel switchers are used only in heavy classifica- 
 tion yards, where it is advisable to have switching 
 engines heavy enough to* handle singly any train that 
 may come in or be made up to go out, for distribution, 
 weighing, or setting. 
 
 These switching engines, according to the Whyte 
 system, are 0—4-0, 0-6-0, or 0-8-0, depending on the 
 number of wheels. The entire weight of the engine is 
 available for adhesion, and six-wheel switchers run 
 generally from 90,000 to 150,000 pounds' weight. Be- 
 sides switching engines', about the only other type, used 
 
218 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 in this' country, that does not employ a leading-truck is 
 the "Forney" engine, used principally for light elevated 
 and suburban service, where an engine should run 
 equally well in either direction. The "Forneys" have 
 two or three pairs of drivers, with four or six wheels 
 carrying the tender portion of the engine, which is on 
 an extension of the main frames. The Whyte classifi- 
 cation for these is 0-4-4, o-°~4, °~4~6, or 0-6-6, and 
 they are called "four-coupled" or "six-coupled For- 
 neys," as indicated by the drivers. 
 
 Many "double-enders," as engines to run in both di- 
 rections are called, have a two-wheeled leading-truck, 
 and are named "four-" or "six-coupled double-enders," 
 as the case may be. They are expressed by the Whyte 
 symbols as 2-4-4, 2-6-4, 2-4-6, or 2-6-6. It would be 
 possible to build a 2-8-6, but that is hardly desirable. 
 The Rock Island has some 2-6-6 engines with 107,000 
 pounds' on drivers, and a total weight, in working 
 order, of 194,700 pounds'; but these are exceeded by the 
 New York Central engines of the same type, with 128,- 
 000 on drivers, and a total weight of 214,000 pounds. 
 The Illinois Central employs forty engines in its Chi- 
 cagoi suburban service, with the following wheel ar- 
 rangements: 2-4-4, 2-4-6, 2-6-4, an d 4-6-4. The 
 use of four-wheel leading-trucks on this type of engine 
 is not common, but it is possible to< make the following 
 combinations : 4-4-4, 4-6-4, 4-4-6, and 4-6-6. These 
 engines have a limited coal and water capacity. For a 
 general summary of information regarding engines of 
 this class reference may be made to> an article on "Tank 
 Locomotives," by Mr. E. E. R. Tratman in the En- 
 
CLASSIFICATION AND TYPES OF LOCOMOTIVES 219 
 
 gineering News, for February 16, 1905; also a paper, 
 with the same title, read at the last meeting O'f the 
 Western Railway Club. 
 
 Taking up the other classes having a two-wheeled 
 leading-truck, but no trailer, we have the 2-4-0, built 
 only for light service, contractors' use, etc., and called a 
 "four-coupled engine." Next is the "Mogul" type, 
 having a 2-6-0 arrangement of wheels. This' type is 
 not now so extensively built, although a great favorite 
 on many roads. It is hard on the track when very 
 heavy, and in some quarters is regarded with suspicion 
 as prone to derailment. On the other hand, the Chi- 
 cago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad is noted as a suc- 
 cessful user of the "Mogul" type in very fast service. 
 The formula of the American Locomotive Company 
 for the proper length of the radius bar of two-wheel 
 trucks may be of interest and value in investigations 
 
 of "Mogul" trucks. It is as follows: R== JX^ x - 8 5> 
 
 where A= the distance from the truck to the farthest 
 driver, B= the distance from the truck to the nearest 
 driver, and R= the radius intersecting the truck axle 
 center line on the horizontal center line of the engine. 
 The remaining types of this group are the 2-8-0 
 and the 2-10-0, named, respectively, the "Consolida- 
 tion" and the "Decapod" types. The "Consolidation" 
 is a favorite type for heavy freight service. When of 
 medium weight, it is very easy on the track, and a 
 large percentage of the weight is available for adhesion. 
 The heaviest "Consolidation" of which I have record 
 is an engine on the Pittsburg & Lake Erie Railway, 
 
220 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 with 225,000 pounds on the drivers'. The Rock Island 
 has 100 "Consolidation" engines with 180,000 pounds 
 on drivers. But I believe that for a general all-around 
 engine, for the average western track, 160,000 pounds 
 would be a better figure. The "Decapods" have an 
 additional pair of drivers, and are used mainly on heavy 
 mountain grades and in pusher service. 
 
 We will now consider the groups with four-wheel 
 leading-trucks and various driver arrangements. First 
 is the 4-4-0, the so-called "American" type or eight- 
 wheeler — the pioneer and best known of the older en- 
 gines, which has brought about the greatness of the 
 American railway systems. Old runners wish that 
 nothing else had ever been invented. One hundred 
 thousand pounds is about the limit on the drivers, and 
 the great majority run far below that. Not many are 
 now being built; but we shall have to 1 have them, and 
 light ten-wheelers, for many a day on branch-line 
 service. Next comes the 4-6-0, or ten-wheeler — a de- 
 sign very extensively built, with from 100,000 to 140,- 
 000 pounds on drivers. Many roads' do not have any 
 heavier types than this, believing it best adapted to 
 business such as we have in the Middle West, with 
 moderate gradients, a large proportion of the traffic 
 being fast freight and stock movement. If we add 
 another pair of drivers to this type, we have the 4-8-0, 
 or twelve- wheeler ; and, if still another, the 4-10-0, or 
 "Mastodon." These latter types are not common, being 
 used mainly for mountain service. 
 
 The next groups comprise various driver arrange- 
 ments with two»-wheel trucks leading and trailing. 
 
CLASSIFICATION AND TYPES OF LOCOMOTIVES 221 
 
 Trailing-trucks are comparatively new in American 
 railway practice, having been introduced to meet the 
 necessity of supporting the back end of fire-boxes wider 
 than would go between driving-wheels. The 2-4-2, or 
 "Columbia," type has been tried, but has not proved 
 very successful. The 2-6-2, or "Prairie," type origi- 
 nated in the West, as its' name indicates, and adds a 
 trailer to the "Mogul" type, permitting a shorter, 
 wider fire-box. The 2-8-2, or "Mikado," type adds a 
 trailer to> the "Consolidation;" and the 2-10-2 is the 
 "Mountaineer," for special service. 
 
 The next group employs a trailer for the same obj ect 
 as the preceding, but with a four-wheel leading-truck. 
 The first type is the 4-2-2, or "single-driver," engine. 
 Very few of these have been built in this country, but 
 they can be found abroad. The 4-4-2 is our familiar 
 friend, the eight-wheeler with a trailer, now called the 
 "Atlantic" type. The increased fire-box area makes 
 this a favorite engine for heavy, fast passenger service 
 on low-grade lines. It is the most expensive engine in 
 the proportion of total weight to 1 tractive effort, as but 
 one-half its weight is available for adhesion. If we 
 add a trailer to carry a wide fire-box of a ten-wheeler, 
 we have the 4-6-2, or "Pacific," type — a comparatively 
 new one, but finding favor in heavy, fast passenger 
 work on grades. This type has the disadvantage of re- 
 quiring very long tubes — twenty feet in some cases. 
 Length of tubes is' of no advantage for heating surface 
 in this case, and the spaces or bridges between the 
 tubes have to be increased, lessening their number. The 
 Pacific type makes up for this by the increased fire-box 
 
222 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 and grate surfaces, so that the difficulties named are 
 not vital, although more trouble is experienced in car- 
 ing for long tubes than for shorter ones. 
 
 It will be noted that most of these developments' 
 have been brought about by the demands for steam, to 
 accommodate additional boiler capacity. Years ago the 
 fire-boxes were deep, down between the frames and be- 
 tween the axles, with a grate surface about thirty-three 
 inches wide. Gradually the length was increased until 
 the side-rods got pretty long and the rigid wheel base 
 more than was desirable. Then the water legs were 
 shortened, permitting the axles to run under the fire- 
 box. Later the fire-box was put on top of the frames', 
 permitting the widening of them to> take a grate forty- 
 two inches wide. This has been very extensively prac- 
 ticed; but, even with this width, the demand for grate 
 surface has been such as to make the boxes nine and ten 
 feet long, and rather difficult to fire. This has resulted 
 in spreading the fire-boxes out over the back drivers, 
 when O'f moderate size; and in order to keep the front 
 ends down so as to have some depth below the bottom 
 rows of tubes, many engines have a hump cr break in 
 the line of the grates, which is difficult to keep covered 
 in firing. The tendency of late has been to get the fire- 
 box back of the drivers and support it with a trailing 
 truck, as noticed in the various' types mentioned. A 
 width of box of about sixty-six inches is employed, 
 which can be readily fired from one door, and the 
 length can be made to suit the capacity desired. In the 
 East, where suitable fuel is found, there are a great 
 many Wooten boilers used. These are of extreme 
 
CLASSIFICATION AND TYPES OF LOCOMOTIVES 223 
 
 width, and the construction necessitates separating the 
 runner and the fireman. They are not used to a great 
 extent in the West. 
 
 The demands on present-day locomotives for speed 
 and hauling capacity has made the question of boiler 
 development pre-eminently important; for 5 no matter 
 how fine the engine may be, it is impotent unless unfail- 
 ingly supplied with steam. There are heavy demands 
 for steam on locomotive boilers for other purposes than 
 for use in the cylinders. The length of trains has 
 increased so that much larger air-pumps are in use than 
 formerly; and the air is used, not only for brakes, but 
 for forcing water, for bell-ringers, sanders, door- 
 openers, etc. Steam is used for heating trains, and the 
 demand on long trains in sub-zero weather is very 
 heavy. Electric headlights are run by steam turbine 
 engines and on some trains the electric-light machinery 
 for car illumination is' supplied with steam from the 
 long-suffering locomotive boiler. Tender tanks must 
 be kept from freezing up; and the various leaks from 
 the multitudinous joints of the boiler and steam pas- 
 sages add their quota of demand. It is not surprising, 
 therefore, that an entire change has been accomplished 
 in boiler dimensions, and the ratios of boiler power to 
 cylinder capacity have been greatly increased in modern 
 practice. We often think that we have reached the 
 limit, only to find a new development that soon becomes 
 commonplace. 
 
 We have outstripped our brethren across the water 
 in the weight and power of locomotives, but we have 
 much to learn from them about the refinements and 
 
224 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 economies which we have sacrificed in the making and 
 using of steam, due to- the demands upon us for speed 
 and power, in such a short time for development. I 
 can remember the wood-burners with their balloon 
 stacks, pumps operated from cross-heads, lubrication of 
 cylinders from tallow cups on the steam-chests, hand- 
 brakes, and all those things that are now looked upon 
 as antiquities; and I am not looking back more than 
 forty years. Neither were there any telephones', or 
 electric lights and traction, in those days. We are 
 living in a rapid age, and who can predict the types 
 of locomotives that will be in common use forty years 
 hence? The electrical engineer began prophesying, 
 some years ago, about steam locomotives soon becom- 
 ing museum relics ; yet there is one concern, in Philadel- 
 phia, that is' turning out over fifty of these relics every 
 week, and its order-books are full for months' in ad- 
 vance. The combined weight of those fifty machines 
 would probably make a hundred engines of the types 
 of twenty years ago. Electric traction will, no doubt, 
 come more into play in the near future, in competition 
 with steam railways, where there is a dense traffic. 
 Already New York has decreed that steam locomotives 
 must not much longer enter her boundaries, and the 
 railways there are preparing for electrification. Travel 
 through the tunnels at Baltimore has been made more 
 endurable to passengers and employees by electric loco- 
 motives. The St. Clair tunnel, with its 2 per cent, 
 grade is considering the electrical proposition. 
 
 Busy electric suburban lines are teaching the steam 
 roads that frequent service increases travel, and it be- 
 
CLASSIFICATION AND TYPES OF LOCOMOTIVES 225 
 
 hooves every one in present or prospective railway- 
 service to become acquainted with electrical engineering 
 as applied to traction, power and lighting. There is no 
 mystery about it. It is nearly all mechanical, after all ; 
 we merely move into* another field of application, and 
 our opportunities are broadened. 
 
 It is the spirit of our times. The corner fruit-stores 
 of a few years ago — what was their stock compared 
 with what we see now of fruits and delicacies from air 
 over the world ? What was the product of the printing- 
 press, only a few years ago, as compared with the 
 present-day output of books, magazines, periodicals, 
 and newspapers? What of the educational opportuni- 
 ties of today, as compared with those our fathers and 
 grandfathers enjoyed? All this, it may be thought, has 
 no reference to types of locomotives ; but we are trying 
 to gain knowledge in railroading, and I wish to< impress 
 the necessity and desirability of taking the broad view, 
 of embracing the large present opportunities for gain- 
 ing knowledge in so many directions that may, some 
 day, evolve a new type or modification — perhaps only 
 a small detail. But, whether ten or five or only one 
 talent be gained, we shall have the satisfaction of know- 
 ing that our labor has not been in vain; and that 
 satisfaction is a large portion of the reward. 
 
THE COMPOUND LOCOMOTIVE 
 
 W. R. MCKEEN, JR., SUPERINTENDENT OF MOTIVE POW- 
 ER AND MACHINERY, UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD 
 
 A brief history of the early development of the steam 
 locomotive will serve as an introduction to the subject. 
 The ancients apparently were imbued with a conception 
 of the value of steam as a motive power. The philoso- 
 pher Hero is' said to have demonstrated its power about 
 130 B. C. He wrote a treatise explaining how the ex- 
 pansive force of steam might be utilized by means of 
 cylinders, valves, pistons, etc. ; and the old woodcut 
 illustrations' of Hero's engine, with its revolving globe 
 and reaction tubes, are familiar to 1 many. Hero's de- 
 vice was followed in time by others, representing more 
 or less advance in thought, but all lacking the essen- 
 tial and practical features' necessary to use in everyday 
 life. Coming down to the eighteenth century, it is said 
 that a Dr. Robinson suggested, in 1759, the use of 
 steam to propel wagons or carriages upon the public 
 highways. Following his' suggestions, models were 
 made by James Watt. In 1769 and 1771 other ma- 
 chines were made. These in turn were followed by 
 many others, of various designs. Defects in theory and 
 application, coupled with excessive cost of operation 
 and the poor roads of that day, prevented any of these 
 engines from becoming of practical use. 
 
 In the year 1800 Trevithick invented a machine 
 which, though but a toy making its first journey on the 
 
 226 
 
THE COMPOUND LOCOMOTIVE 227 
 
 kitchen table, represents the birth of the successful loco- 
 motive. Three years later Trevithick devised his first 
 practical locomotive, and built one for use on the rail- 
 road or tramway of that time. It was successful in all 
 respects save cost of operation — being more expensive 
 than the use of horse-power — and therefore was not 
 given extended use. This objection was overcome in 
 181 1 by John Blenkinsop, who built two* locomotives 
 for use in Middleton Colliery, of which he was pro- 
 prietor. 
 
 Following these inventions, George Stephenson, in 
 1 8 14, placed in operation his first locomotive, the 
 "Blucher." Thus this great man, who is reputed to be 
 the father of the locomotive, in reality only carried out 
 an idea discovered eleven years before. 
 
 The evolution of the locomotive since these early 
 days has', without exception, been the greatest mechani- 
 cal factor of our rapid growth and latter-day civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 Until within comparatively recent years, the aim of 
 designers was along the lines of increasing the general 
 efficiency of the steam locomotive by perfecting the 
 design of boiler and machinery, meeting, at the same 
 time, the increased requirements of heavier traffic. Nu- 
 merous types were designed and built, including every 
 conceivable combination and arrangement of cylinders, 
 wheel-base, method of transmitting power from the 
 cylinders to the wheels', valve motions, types of boilers, 
 manner of combustion, etc. ; out of which were grad- 
 ually evolved a few recognized standard and efficient 
 types. And it may be stated that all designers had 
 
228 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 reached practically the same uniform types, as well as' 
 the same degree of efficiency in the performance of their 
 various locomotives. It was recognized that a limit 
 of efficiency was being approached, and, outside of 
 certain refinements of details and enlargement of design 
 to suit increased traffic demands, there seemed no 
 probability of improvement. 
 
 At about the same period the benefits to be derived 
 from the use of steam of higher pressures and succes- 
 sive expansions in different cylinders — the same as in 
 marine and stationary service — began to exert their in- 
 fluence upon the minds of those interested in the prob- 
 lem of economics in locomotive operation. In marine 
 and stationary practice, engineers had been able to ef- 
 fect savings ranging from 1 5 to' as high as 40, and even 
 50 per cent., based upon the performance of their old 
 single-expansion engines; why, then, could not these 
 economies be effected, if the mechanical difficulties 
 could be surmounted, in locomotive practice? 
 
 It is true that in this, field, as in others, sporadic 
 attempts' had already been made in this direction. The 
 first designer successfully to' apply the compound prin- 
 ciple to' the locomotive was A. Mallet, a Frenchman, 
 who in 1877 built several compound engines of the two- 
 cylinder type, with starting arrangement for admitting 
 steam directly to low-pressure cylinders. It was, how- 
 ever, not until twelve years later, or in 1889, that the 
 compound principle was applied to locomotives' in this 
 country. In that year the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad 
 put into service an eight-wheel compound engine of the 
 "Vauclain" four-cylinder type. At this time there had 
 
THE COMPOUND LOCOMOTIVE 229 
 
 been one thousand compound locomotives built in 
 Europe, showing that the principle had been developed 
 to a considerable degree before the designers of this 
 country took hold of the idea. Since 1889, however, 
 the growth of the compound locomotive has been rapid, 
 numerous forms have been built and successfully oper- 
 ated, and it may be assumed that today there are five 
 thousand compound locomotives running in the United 
 States. It will be necessary here to- confine ourselves 
 to the comparatively few modern types of locomotives 
 which have been successful. 
 
 As the parent of all locomotives, credit should be 
 given to the eight-wheel American engine, which has 
 done more in the development of this country than any 
 other type. This engine was developed in 1836, and, 
 until the last decade, remained the standard type for 
 passenger service throughout the country. It has 
 practically given way, in the last ten years, to the more 
 powerful "Atlantic" type engine, w r ith its larger boiler 
 and cylinder capacity, and greater ability to reach and 
 sustain high speeds with moderately heavy trains. 
 
 The load which a locomotive can pull — that is, its 
 hauling capacity — is' approximately one-fifth of the 
 weight on the drivers. For practical reasons — such as 
 the safety of the track, bridges, etc. — it is not advisable 
 to load one pair of drivers with more than 50,000 
 pounds', although this limit is sometimes slightly 
 exceeded. It therefore follows that with any type of 
 locomotive having but two pairs of drivers — such as 
 the eight- wheel ' 'American" and "Atlantic" types — we 
 soon reach a maximum of hauling capacity, and the 
 
230 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 limit for this design of engine. We logically pass from 
 the eight-wheel type to the ten-wheel type — likewise, 
 from the "Atlantic" type to> the "Pacific" type — by the 
 addition of another pair of drivers, enabling us to 
 increase the total weight on the drivers, and, hence, the 
 hauling capacity of the engine. The demands for the 
 transportation of heavier trains led our designers to 
 the construction of these heavier types — namely, the 
 ten-wheel, "Pacific" and "Prairie" — which, with the 
 "Atlantic" type for lighter service, represent the typical 
 engines in passenger service today. 
 
 Let us now look at the other branch of transportation 
 — freight service — and examine the types which here 
 are in vogue. The remarks in regard to weight on 
 drivers necessary to pull a certain load are equally 
 applicable to> both services. 
 
 In the early days the accepted type of freight en- 
 gine was usually a six-coupled, or three-pair-drivered, 
 engine, with either a two^wheel swivel truck or a four- 
 wheel rigid truck ; the former being known as the "Mo- 
 gul" type, and the latter as the "Ten- Wheel" type. As 
 the traffic demands increased, a heavier engine became 
 necessary ; the natural result being a four-pair-drivered 
 engine with a two-wheel truck — termed a "Consolida- 
 tion" engine. Although still heavier types, such as the 
 "Decapod" and "Santa Fe" (with five pairs of drivers), 
 are built for particularly heavy service conditions, we 
 may safely say that the "Mogul," "Ten-Wheel," and 
 "Consolidation" are the three representative types of 
 freight locomotives today. 
 
 In addition to the classes already spoken of as' repre- 
 
THE COMPOUND LOCOMOTIVE 231 
 
 sentative types, there are a few recognized types of lo- 
 comotives for special service. Foremost among these 
 are the several designs of switch-engines ? with two, 
 three, and even four pairs of drivers, with all the 
 weight resting on these drivers, and without any form 
 of truck. As the service of this class of locomotives 
 is intermittent, larger cylinders in proportion to boiler 
 capacity may be used, with the attendant advantage of 
 great starting power. 
 
 For excessive grades the rack-rail engine is a recog- 
 nized type; while the "Shay" engine, with its bevel- 
 gear drive, is a type for heavy grades, and may be said 
 to be an intermediate design between the rack-rail and 
 the ordinary traction types. 
 
 As previously stated, the first type of compound en- 
 gine to appear in France, was the two cylinder machine 
 invented by Mallet in 1877. This construction neces- 
 sarily implies one high-pressure and one low-pressure 
 cylinder. The usual arrangement with two cylinders 
 consists' in placing the high-pressure cylinder on one 
 side, and the low-pressure cylinder on the other side, 
 of the engine. This is called the "Two-Cylinder" or 
 "Cross Compound" engine. The high-pressure cylin- 
 der takes its steam directly from the boiler. Through 
 the instrumentality of its valve, the steam supply is 
 cut off at about half -stroke, expands to nearly the end 
 of stroke, and exhausts into* a receiver at a consider- 
 ably lower pressure, having done a certain amount of 
 useful work in expanding against the high-pressure 
 piston (in the receiver the steam receives an additional 
 amount of heat). The steam remains but momentarily 
 
232 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 in the receiver, when another valve admits it into the 
 low-pressure cylinder, where the piston has approxi- 
 mately two and one-half times the area of the high- 
 pressure piston. Here it undergoes another expansion, 
 and thence exhausts through the stack into' the atmos- 
 phere at a low pressure, usually of from about 1 7 to 20 
 pounds., having done additional useful work. Keeping 
 in mind that steam at 200 pounds' pressure has a 
 temperature of about 387 degrees Fahrenheit, while at 
 17 to 20 pounds' pressure its temperature falls to 254 
 degrees — or a range of 133 degrees — it will be seen 
 that, by carrying the expansion out in two> different 
 stages and in two< different cylinders, the range or drop 
 in temperature in each cylinder is about half what it 
 would have been had the entire expansion taken place in 
 one cylinder. This prevents the hot steam, when enter- 
 ing the cylinders, from meeting cylinder walls of very 
 much lower temperature, caused by the outgoing cooler 
 steam; and thus the initial condensation, which is the 
 worst factor to contend with in single-expansion 
 engines, is materially decreased. Since the adoption of 
 the higher steam pressures, ranging from 200 to 220 
 pounds, with their attendant higher temperatures, this 
 factor of initial condensation has become much more 
 important than in earlier days, when such pressures did 
 not exceed 130 pounds. In other words, the use of 
 compound cylinders permits of the use of a wider range 
 of expansion, without the attendant evil of excessive 
 condensation. 
 
 Such, then, is the theory of the compound locomo- 
 tive. I have purposely described the simplest method 
 
THE COMPOUND LOCOMOTIVE 233 
 
 of compounding — namely, the cross compound — in il- 
 lustrating this theory. This type has been in successful 
 use on a number of roads in the United States, in both 
 freight and passenger service. The proportion of work 
 between the two cylinders can easily be adjusted by a 
 proper arrangement of the steam-chest valves, and the 
 number of parts is reduced to a minimum, which is an 
 important item in the cost of repairs. 
 
 The cross compound, however, has its limitations, 
 as, in attempting to increase the power of the engine 
 beyond certain limits, the diameter of the low-pressure 
 cylinder becomes so excessive that it extends beyond 
 the clearance lines of most railroads. As the locomo- 
 tive needs' its maximum power when starting, and as 
 the low-pressure cylinder must wait until the high- 
 pressure cylinder has exhausted into it before it can 
 generate its share of power, it is necessary to provide 
 some method of admitting steam from the boiler direct- 
 ly into the low-pressure cylinder of the first few revolu- 
 tions. Again, in order to augment the power of com- 
 pound locomotives, when starting heavy loads', or ap- 
 proaching the top of a heavy grade at slow speed with 
 a heavy train, it is desirable to transform the compound 
 locomotive, for the time being, into' a two-cylinder 
 simple engine. This is accomplished by introducing 
 steam from the boiler directly into' both high- and low- 
 pressure cylinders, and arranging so that both will ex- 
 haust directly into the atmosphere. These require- 
 ments are fulfilled by the "intercepting valve," which 
 controls the movement of the steam. When the engineer 
 turns the operating valve in his cab to simple position, 
 
234 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 a spring closes this valve, and the steam cannot then 
 pass from the high-pressure cylinder into the low-pres- 
 sure; the steam that has entered the former cylinder 
 exhausts directly into the atmosphere. At the same 
 time, the live steam, opens a small reducing valve and 
 finds its way through the receiver into' the low-pressure 
 cylinder. The reducing valve is so constructed that the 
 total pressure on the low-pressure piston equals that on 
 the high-pressure piston when working simple. This 
 balances the power effective on the two sides of the lo- 
 comotive, and consequently produces smoother and 
 more satisfactory running. 
 
 Another type of compound which has met with much 
 success in both passenger and freight service, and 
 which is largely used in the United States', is popularly 
 known as the "Vauclain" compound. Briefly described, 
 it consists of four cylinders, two on each side, one 
 above the other; and on each side one of the cylinders 
 is a high-pressure and the other a low-pressure cylinder, 
 this' giving a complete compound unit on each side of 
 the engine. Each high-pressure and low-pressure 
 cylinder combination is governed by a piston valve, 
 which effects the entire distribution of steam from the 
 time it enters the high-pressure cylinder until it leaves 
 the low-pressure cylinder as exhaust into' the 
 atmosphere. In order to have equal pressures on both 
 upper and lower piston rods, and to prevent undue 
 strains on the crosshead, it is necessary to have equal 
 work done in both high-pressure and low-pressure 
 cylinders, or to have the product of the mean effective 
 pressure into the area of the piston in square inches 
 
THE COMPOUND LOCOMOTIVE 235 
 
 alike for both cylinders. This is accomplished by ad- 
 justing the ratio* of the diameters of the two cylinders 
 when designing, and by arranging the piston valve to 
 give a certain cutoff for each cylinder. 
 
 Another type of compound ? and one that has met 
 with much favor in heavy freight service, is known as 
 the "Tandem Compound," from the fact that on each 
 side of the locomotive are placed two cylinders on the 
 same axis, one in front of the other, the high-pressure 
 cylinder being placed ahead of the low-pressure one, 
 and the two pistons' being mounted upon the same 
 piston rod, which extends through both cylinders. Each 
 cylinder is actuated by a separate valve, both valves 
 being driven by the same valve-stem. The peculiar 
 feature of the "Tandem Compound," is that the steam 
 exhausts) from the front end of the high-pressure 
 cylinder to> the back end of the low-pressure cylinder, 
 and vice versa. 
 
 Turning our attention to Europe, we find several 
 distinctive types' of compounds. In England the 
 "Webb" compound, employing three cylinders, one 
 high-pressure and two low-pressure, is the prevailing 
 type. In France, the "De Glehn" compound has ac- 
 quired special prominence, being the prototype of the 
 many recent designs at home and abroad of that popu- 
 lar locomotive known as the "Four-Cylinder Balanced 
 Compound." The De Glehn type has four cylinders in a 
 horizontal plane, the twoi high-pressure cylinders being 
 outside, and the two* low-pressure cylinders inside, of 
 the frames'. Four separate slide-valves are employed, 
 each with separate valve-gear (which is the Walschaert 
 
236 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 type modified), and two reverse levers are used to 
 modify the cutoffs of high- and low-pressure cylinders 
 independently. The outside, or high-pressure, cyl- 
 inders are connected with the rear drivers, while the 
 inside, or low-pressure, cylinders are attached to the 
 front axle, which is a crank axle. In Germany, von 
 Borries has developed a four-cylinder balanced com- 
 pound locomotive which has the high-pressure cylinders 
 inside and the low-pressure cylinders outside o>f the 
 frames — or the reverse of the De Glehn type; and, 
 furthermore, the two high-pressure cylinders are locat- 
 ed somewhat back of the low-pressure ones. Four 
 separate valves are used — piston valves for the high- 
 pressure, and slide valves for the low-pressure, cyl- 
 inders. The Walschaert valvengear, modified, is used. 
 In this type of balanced compound the outside, or low- 
 pressure, cylinders are connected with the front drivers, 
 and the inside, or high-pressure cylinders, are connected 
 with the same front axle, which is a crank axle. Thus' 
 all four cylinders drive the front pair of wheels, while 
 in the De Glehn type the forces are distributed between 
 two pairs of wheels. 
 
 In the United States several types of balanced com- 
 pounds have been developed. The "Vauclain" four-cyl- 
 inder balanced compound employs four cylinders in a 
 horizontal plane, with the two' high-pressure cylinders 
 inside, and the two low-pressure cylinders outside of 
 the frames, while a single piston valve is made to serve 
 both the high- and low-pressure cylinders. These 
 valves are driven by the usual Stephenson link motion 
 used on simple engines, and one reverse lever is used. 
 
THE COMPOUND LOCOMOTIVE 237 
 
 Both methods of connecting cylinders to axles are em- 
 ployed; namely, all four cylinders to the front axle; 
 or the inside cylinders to the front or crank axle, and 
 the outside cylinders to the second pair of wheels. 
 
 The "Cole," compound engine, used by the New 
 York Central Railroad, and designed by the American 
 Locomotive Company at Schenectady, employs four 
 cylinders in the same horizontal plane, but the inside, or 
 high-pressure, cylinders are ahead of the outside, or 
 low-pressure, cylinders, so> that a tandem valve-rigging 
 may be used ; and each valve-stem carries two separate 
 piston valves — the rear one for the low-pressure and 
 the front one for the high-pressure cylinder. The 
 Stephenson link is thus applicable to four separate 
 valves, and one reverse lever is used. The cylinders 
 are connected as in the De Glehn type — outside to the 
 rear driver, and inside to the front or crank axle. 
 
 One of the most interesting types of compound, and 
 one recently adopted, for the first time in this country, 
 by the Baltimore & Ohio, is the "Mallet Articulated" 
 compound for heavy freight service. In this type the 
 high-pressure cylinders work the rigid engine, while 
 the low-pressure cylinders work the flexible engine. 
 
 I have already mentioned the benefits to be derived 
 by compounding in locomotive practice, calling atten- 
 tion to' the more economical use of the steam. Each 
 pound of water in a given type of boiler requires for its 
 transmission into steam at boiler pressure a definite 
 and fixed amount of heat energy, which, with coal of a 
 given quality, means a definite amount of coal con- 
 sumed, or a definite price per unit of coal, or per pound 
 
238 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 of steam produced. This being true, it follows that 
 any arrangement at the cylinders which effects an econ- 
 omy in the use of the steam reacts directly upon the 
 earnings and profits of the road. So many comparative 
 tests' have been made throughout the country between 
 simple and compound locomotives, to ascertain the 
 economy of the latter over the former, that I hesitate 
 to choose or allude to any particular test ; but it is suffi- 
 ciently accurate to 1 state that the fair average saving of 
 the compound over the simple locomotive may be 20 per 
 cent., or one-fifth of the fuel used. Some types of 
 simple cylinders, owing to faulty design, are more 
 wasteful than others, for a similar reason ; hence, trials 
 have been made where the compound has shown an 
 economy of as high as 33 per cent., as in the case of a 
 test made in 1898, by Professor Richard Smart, M.E., 
 at Purdue University. 
 
 Not only does the compound cylinder effect a direct 
 economy of steam used, and a consequent saving of 
 coal, but, in addition to this', there is another economy 
 of coal, due to the fact that the lighter exhaust of the 
 low-pressure steam from the compound cylinders causes 
 the boiler to< generate its steam under a lighter draft; 
 hence the boiler is not forced to so high a point of 
 evaporation. 
 
 In addition to the matter of fuel and water economy 
 of an engine^ the question of the cost of repairs, or 
 maintenance, must be considered. If there is to be an 
 increase in the cost of maintenance with the compound 
 engine, it will undoubtedly come from the cylinders 
 and connected parts'; while, if there is to be a saving, 
 
THE COMPOUND LOCOMOTIVE 239 
 
 it will be in the decreased cost of maintenance of the 
 boiler. The average cost of maintenance of cylinders 
 and connected parts is about 3 per cent, of the total cost 
 of repairs, while for the boiler it amounts to about 30 
 per cent. Any small saving, therefore, on boiler repairs 
 will more than offset any increase in the cost of the 
 cylinder repairs. 
 
 By no means the least advantage of the compound 
 engine is the greater immunity from fires along the 
 right of way, with their attendant losses, which on 
 many roads aggregate thousands of dollars annually. 
 With large-sized simple engines the exhaust is made at 
 high pressure, the draft on the fire is severe, and in con- 
 sequence more or less fire is thrown from their stacks. 
 The compound exhausts at a lower pressure through a 
 larger opening, and the throwing of fire is' reduced to 
 a minimum 1 . 
 
 The weight of a freight train which an engine can 
 successfully haul over the road depends upon the num- 
 ber of cars that can be taken over the heaviest, or rul- 
 ing, grade. If it were not for this ruling grade, 
 frequently 10 or 15 per cent, more tonnage could be 
 taken over the remainder of the division. With the 
 compound locomotive, when there is a hard pull on a 
 ruling grade, the tractive power of the engine may be 
 temporarily increased by admitting a certain amount 
 of steam directly from the boiler into the low-pressure 
 cylinder, until the top of the grade is reached — an 
 advantage not attainable with simple cylinders. 
 
 The compound freight engine develops its maximum 
 efficiency and fuel economy when working under a 
 
240 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 maximum load; the single-expansion engine, on the 
 contrary, develops its minimum economy when work- 
 ing under a maximum load. On the other hand, the 
 compound engine develops its' minimum economy with 
 a minimum load, such as on a descending grade or with 
 a light train-load; whereas the simple engine develops 
 its maximum economy on a descending grade, or with a 
 light train-load. This feature is highly appreciated by 
 the locomotive fireman, whose task on a single-expan- 
 sion freight engine, under a heavy train-load or on 
 steep grades, is very severe and laborious ; and the suc- 
 cess of a locomotive in hauling a train over the summit 
 of a hill is often directly dependent on the ability of the 
 fireman to feed the requisite amount of coal into' the 
 fire-box in a given time. With the compound, on a 
 heavy grade, the fireman's task is from 30 to 40 per 
 cent, less, or easier. 
 
 The compound locomotive, beyond question, is not 
 economical on descending grades, owing to the back 
 pressure generated in the cylinders by the piston action. 
 Excessive back pressure in the cylinders develops 
 pounding of the machinery, rods, etc. ; and, to avoid 
 this, a limited amount of steam, must be worked through 
 the cylinders. This steam, of course, costs money to 
 generate, and is of no practical value in pulling the 
 train, except as a remedy for the evil of back pressure. 
 
 The success, and economy to be obtained with a 
 compound engine are often frustrated by the ill pro- 
 portion of the drivers to the service or road require- 
 ments. Other things being equal, "the slower the 
 piston speed, the greater the economy/' is true within 
 
THE COMPOUND LOCOMOTIVE 241 
 
 reasonable limits; and, roughly speaking, a compound 
 engine should have at least a twelve-inch larger driver 
 than a single-expansion engine of the same capacity 
 on similar road service. 
 
 The ease with which a heavy train can be started 
 without shock by a compound locomotive is a consider- 
 able advantage over the ordinary single-expansion 
 engine. A skilful, experienced engineer can stop a long 
 freight train, as well as a passenger train, by means of 
 the old-style three-way cock. It was the inexpert 
 engineers who> showed the necessity for the improved 
 equalizing and discharge engineer's brake-valve. This 
 improved valve enables the inexperienced engineer to 
 handle the air-brake successfully and efficiently. The 
 same principle holds with reference to the compound 
 engine versus the simple. Expert engineers, both on 
 passenger and on freight engines, are able with a 
 reasonable tonnage to utilize the expansive properties 
 of steam, and in special cases obtain some very fair 
 economical results; but the majority of engineers' de- 
 vote a very limited amount of thought and care in striv- 
 ing for economical fuel results with their locomotives. 
 Furthermore, many enginemen have been found so 
 deficient in the handling of passenger engines as to 
 necessitate their being barred out of this service. By 
 the very principle of the compound, an engineer's 
 economic efficiency is of secondary importance, after 
 the first few revolutions of the drivers. The steam, 
 by means of the valve and the machinery, is worked 
 expansively, and, as soon as the train gains normal 
 speed, the position of the reverse lever on the quadrant 
 
242 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 is almost fixed, which allows the speed of the train to 
 be governed entirely by the throttle. Many of our 
 notably unsuccessful engineers on simple engines are 
 giving as good results in handling compounds as our 
 most capable men. Engineers barred out of passenger 
 service, when simple engines were used, have been rein- 
 stated, and are successfully and efficiently handling the 
 compounds. It is noticeable that not one engineer has 
 ever been taken out of compound passenger service, 
 except for accident or on account of old age. 
 
 A broken packing-ring on a simple engine has caused 
 the engine to give up the train. The same accident 
 might happen on a compound, without the engine losing 
 a minute. A compound engine has been known to* lose 
 twenty minutes on a hard run, on account of "no 
 steam;" on examination, seven broken packing-rings 
 were found. On another occasion the piston came loose 
 on the rod, knocking cut the cylinder head and break- 
 ing a piece out of the cylinder. The engine continued 
 with ten passenger-cars, making up time on the run. 
 An accident of this nature on a simple engine would 
 necessitate the use of another engine; owing to the fact 
 that a large-wheeled passenger simple engine, on one 
 side, experiences great difficulty in starting a train, and 
 in a majority of cases cannot start it at all. 
 
 The cost of repairs to cylinders and connected parts 
 has been greatly reduced in my experience by the adop- 
 tion of an extended piston rod. 
 
CAR CONSTRUCTION 
 
 J. H. AMES, CHIEF ENGINEER, AMERICAN CAR AND 
 FOUNDRY COMPANY 
 
 The earliest form of the railway was called a "tram- 
 way," and was first used in connection with mines and 
 quarries as early as the sixteenth century. The earliest 
 form of railway car, then, was a car similar to those still 
 used in mining, being merely an open box mounted on 
 axles and wheels, and drawn by horses or mules. It 
 was not until 1734 that flanged wheels appeared; and 
 a stone-car built at that time, which was also equipped 
 with a hand-brake, may justly be considered as the pro- 
 totype of the present-day freight-car. 
 
 In 1804 the first cars were hauled by a locomotive. 
 For the transportation of long timbers and bars of 
 iron, cars such as those just mentioned were coupled 
 together by long bars or reaches, and on the center of 
 each car was mounted a bolster, secured by a king bolt, 
 on which the material was loaded. This arrangement 
 contained all the essential features of the modern long- 
 bodied car mounted on trucks, and is still in use in the 
 logging trade. On their first trip these cars carried a 
 load of ten tons o>f iron bars. This became the stand- 
 ard capacity, which was adhered to for nearly three- 
 quarters of a century, and is still the favored one in 
 England and on the continent of Europe. 
 
 While the principle of swiveling trucks was thus 
 early established, for some reason or other it was not 
 
 243 
 
244 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 generally adopted, and for many years afterward cars 
 were built with only four wheels, the housings for the 
 axles being either secured to the car frame or held in 
 pedestals. This type of car is still in universal use in 
 all countries except the United States, Canada, and 
 Mexico, where it was discarded at least forty years 
 ago. 
 
 The American roadbeds, as a rule, were not as 
 substantially constructed as the European, and the 
 conditions under which they were operated called for 
 a construction of less rigidity than the four-wheeled 
 type, leading to the development of the longer body 
 with two> trucks, which will pass more easily around 
 curves, especially those of short radius; and also to 
 the introduction of the truck with a swinging bolster, 
 which makes the car ride more easily when entering or 
 leaving a curve, and relieves the strain upon the 
 flanges of the wheels. It also reduces the tendency of 
 the wheels to climb the rails in passing around curves, 
 and the consequent derailment of the car. 
 
 Not long after the adoption of the long car, the 
 capacity was increased from ten to* twelve tons ; then to 
 fifteen tons. By 1880 the capacity had reached twenty 
 tons, and the length of the car thirty-four feet. This 
 length and capacity remained stationary for some 
 years, when cars of twenty-five tons were introduced. 
 Shortly afterward the capacity was again increased to 
 thirty tons, at which point it remained until 1895, when 
 the increase in the strength of rails and bridges had 
 progressed so that cars of forty tons' capacity could 
 be used. These were shortly followed by cars of fifty 
 
CAR CONSTRUCTION 245 
 
 tons. At the present time the majority of cars being 
 built are of these two latter capacities. 
 
 With reference to passenger-cars, the car which 
 Stephenson's first locomotive pulled in 18 14 was made 
 by taking the body of a four-in-hand stage-coach and 
 mounting it on an underframe fitted with flanged 
 wheels. This served as the model for passenger-cars for 
 many years ; in fact, the stage-coach idea is still adhered 
 to in most European countries. The first passenger- 
 coach run regularly for public use — on the Stockton & 
 Darlington road, in 1825 — had a door at each end and 
 a row of seats along each side, and therefore may be 
 considered as the prototype of the present American 
 passenger-car. This was, however, soon abandoned 
 for the stage-coach type, which represented the highest 
 development of comfort in traveling up to that time 
 attained. 
 
 The first long passenger-cars, with center aisles 
 and end-doors, were constructed in this country in 
 1833, and this type has been in constant use here ever 
 since. We now know that the present types of 
 American freight- and passenger-cars had their origin 
 in England; but it remained for American railroad 
 men to develop and perfect them, making them the 
 best types for their respective classes of traffic. The 
 early passenger-cars were thirty feet in length. During 
 their evolution into the modern type they have grown 
 to eighty feet, which is the present maximum. 
 
 The sleeping-car is a purely American invention, 
 as are also the dining- and mail-cars, all of which are 
 the logical outcome of the longer distances to be cov- 
 
246 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 ered in this country than in Europe. The first sleep- 
 ing-cars were introduced as far back as 1838. The 
 bedding and curtains had to be stowed at one end of 
 the car. Sofas along the side O'f the car formed the 
 lower berth ; a middle berth was hinged to the window- 
 casing; and an upper berth rested on cleats fastened to 
 permanent cross-partitions. It will be seen from this 
 that the arrangement was more in the nature of bunks 
 than of beds. Mr. George M. Pullman's first efforts 
 at improvement were made in 1859, but his early cars 
 were only slightly in advance of others then in use, and 
 it was not until 1863 that the present type of sleeper, 
 known as the "Pullman," was placed in service. 
 
 The details of the construction of cars of course 
 have been changed with the increases in capacities and 
 lengths, and I shall mention only a few of the most 
 prominent. 
 
 At first there was no standard for the gauge of 
 the tracks among the railroads of this country, which 
 ranged from four feet six inches to six feet. As a 
 result, there was great difficulty in the interchange of 
 cars, when the traffic had increased to the point where 
 this became desirable. As late as 1865, when the first 
 fast freight line was established between New York 
 and Chicago, there were eight railroads over which 
 the cars had to pass, with a maximum variation of one 
 inch in gauge. Hence these cars had to be equipped 
 with wheels having a specially broad tread, in order 
 to ride on the rails of either the widest or the nar- 
 rowest. Hardly any two roads used the same-sized 
 axle, form of journal-bearing, journal-box, drawbar, 
 
CAR CONSTRUCTION 247 
 
 or draft attachments; so that, if any one of these 
 parts required replacement when the car was off its 
 own line, it had been to be sidetracked until the neces- 
 sary part could be obtained from the road owning the 
 car. 
 
 These conditions led to the formation, in 1867, °f 
 the Master Car Builders' Association, whose first work 
 was the determination of dimensions for standards for 
 wheel-treads and flanges, gauging-points for pressing 
 wheels on axles, journal-boxes, journal-bearings, and 
 journal-bearing keys; and, later on, of standard con- 
 tour lines and shanks for automatic couplers, draft 
 attachments, brake-beams, etc. The adoption of these 
 standards by all roads greatly facilitated the move- 
 ment O'f cars, and has been an important factor in the 
 building-up of through traffic from one part of the 
 country to another. 
 
 The earliest form of car-coupling was a hook, 
 rigidly attached to the car body, and connected with 
 the hooks on adjoining cars by a link. Later on, these 
 hooks were formed on the end O'f long rods placed 
 below the body-framing, and connected at the center 
 with an elliptic spring, which afterward gave way to 
 a spiral spring. Then the hook was replaced by a cast- 
 iron head through which the rod passed, and was 
 secured by either a head on the rod or a key through 
 it, and the link was secured in the head by dropping a 
 pin through it. This arrangement was superseded by 
 a longer cast-iron head, with a short tail-rod passing 
 through a spiral spring, which bore against iron plates 
 called followers, which in turn bore against castings 
 
248 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 or lugs secured to the draft timbers of the car-body. 
 This is the present arrangement, except that the tail- 
 rod has been superseded by a wrought-iron yoke 
 riveted to the shank of the drawbar and passing around 
 the follower plates. The cast-iron link and pin draw- 
 bar have been superseded by the automatic vertical- 
 plane coupler made of malleable iron or steel, which 
 was first introduced for freight-cars about 1887. Prior 
 to the introduction of the automatic coupler there was 
 no standard for the height of the center of the coupler 
 from the top of the rails, making the coupling of cars 
 a difficult and dangerous task, as the variation in 
 height was often as much as four inches, in which case 
 the use of crooked or offset links was a necessity. 
 
 The first brake consisted of a wooden block pressed 
 against he tread O'f one wheel by means of a foot-lever. 
 Then came wooden beams on which wooden blocks 
 were mounted; these beams being connected by a sys- 
 tem of levers and rods, which in turn were connected 
 by a chain with a shaft at the end of the car, which 
 was turned by a hand-wheel, by means of which the 
 blocks could be pressed against all four wheels. The 
 wooden blocks gave way to cast-iron blocks with 
 detachable shoes, which could easily be replaced when 
 worn ; and later on, with the introduction of air-brakes, 
 the wooden beams were superseded by metal beams of 
 various types of construction. 
 
 The single-brake shoe- and foot-lever is still in use 
 on many freight-cars in Europe, and when beams are 
 used with shoes on all four wheels, the brake is set by 
 turning the brake-shaft, as in this country ; but, instead 
 
CAR CONSTRUCTION 249 
 
 of a chain winding on the shaft, there is a nut, with a 
 trunnion on each side, which rises on the thread cut on 
 the shaft. To the trunnions on the nut are attached 
 links, the other ends of which are connected with a 
 bell-crank, fastened under the end sill of the body, 
 which pulls on the rods and levers. This arrangement 
 is slow in operation, both in setting and in releasing the 
 brakes. 
 
 An early form of power-brake was arranged so 
 that the checking of the speed of the locomotive would 
 cause the drawbars to be pushed back, and the yokes 
 containing the drawbar springs would come in contact 
 with bell-cranks connected with the upper end of the 
 brake levers, causing them to move and thus apply the 
 brakes. This type was not used long, as the vacuum- 
 brake soon appeared, and the Westinghouse air-brake 
 was being developed, the first form having been applied 
 in 1869. It was not, however, until after the auto- 
 matic feature had been introduced, in 1873, that air- 
 brakes came into general use for passenger service; 
 and they were not applied to freight-cars to any extent 
 for more than ten years later. 
 
 Up to* 1867, when the Miller platform, coupler, and 
 buffer were first applied, the coupling devices for pas- 
 senger-cars were the same as for freight-cars, with the 
 same amount of slack between the cars ; hence in start- 
 ing and stopping there was the same jerking and bump- 
 ing that may be experienced on a freight train, to the 
 great discomfort of the passengers. The writer has a 
 very distinct recollection of his first railroad journey in 
 cars that were not equipped with either the Miller plat- 
 
250 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 form or the Westinghouse brakes, and words can hardly 
 convey the difference between that ride and one at the 
 present time. 
 
 Until 1896, cars were constructed wholly of wood; 
 iron or steel being used only for bolts, frame-rods, 
 truss-rods, and the metal parts of the trucks. Although 
 a number of freight-cars had been built wholly of iron 
 or steel, both in this country and in Europe, as early as 
 1854, the great increase in cost over wooden cars and 
 the lack of proper machinery for their manufacture 
 prevented their general use. As locomotives were 
 increased in weight and tractive power, and it became 
 possible to haul longer trains, the necessity arose for 
 stronger cars. Many attempts were made by designers 
 to introduce steel center sills in the wooden cars, but 
 these proved unsatisfactory for many reasons. This 
 led to the development of an entire steel underframe, 
 which is an arrangement now coming into> very general 
 use. The first all-steel freight-cars for regular traffic 
 were built in 1897 for the Pittsburg, Bessemer & Lake 
 Erie Railroad, being self -clearing hopper cars for the 
 transportation of ore and coal. They were of fifty 
 tons' capacity. Their success attracted the attention 
 of all railroad men and led to> their rapid introduction, 
 especially among the eastern coal-roads. 
 
 The principal advantage in steel construction, aside 
 from its superiority in strength and durability, lies in 
 the fact that it is possible to haul a greater percentage 
 of revenue-paying load in proportion to the dead weight 
 of the car, which is a non-paying load — or, in other 
 words, an item of the expense of conducting transporta- 
 
CAR CONSTRUCTION 251 
 
 tion, as may be seen from the following figures : A 
 wooden coal-car of 44,000 pounds' maximum capacity 
 has a dead weight of about 22,000 pounds, or a ratio 
 of two pounds of paying load to one pound of non- 
 paying load; while a steel coal-car of 110,000 pounds' 
 maximum capacity has a dead weight of 36,500 pounds, 
 or a ratio of three pounds of paying load to one pound 
 of non-paying — an increase of 50 per cent. It is not 
 fair to say that this increase can be obtained in all 
 classes of cars, as box- and other types of closed cars 
 are seldom loaded to their rated capacity, while coal-cars 
 usually are. Much of this increase is due to> the fact 
 that the wooden cars were not designed in a scientific 
 way, the thirty-ton car being merely a growth from 
 the ten-ton car, the parts having been increased to 
 meet the additional load and service strains according 
 to the fancy of the Master Car Builder of the road. 
 I have seen box-cars that in the twenty-four-foot-ten- 
 ton stage had but one brace between the transom-post 
 and the door-post. As the cars were lengthened and 
 the distance from transom-post to door-post was 
 increased, the brace was lengthened correspondingly, 
 and made weaker by reason of the length and change 
 in angle; instead of adding another post and brace, 
 which would have given the requisite stiffness. This 
 perhaps is an extreme case, but is cited as an instance 
 of the too frequent lack of care in car design. Another 
 instance is the case of some stock-cars which I saw 
 recently, on which the slats, which are inside of the 
 posts and subject only to pressure from the inside, 
 were each secured to the posts by two bolts. The 
 
252 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 braces, which are outside of the slats, and liable to 
 displacement by pressure from the inside, were merely 
 put in place, without cast-shoes at top or bottom, and 
 held by nails through the slats. The result was that, 
 when the nails loosened by reason of the shrinkage of 
 the wood, there was practically nothing to hold them. 
 The lurching of the cattle would push them out, and 
 they would fall oft* and be lost along the road. 
 
 Aside from the parts made standard by the 
 Master Car Builders' Association, there has been no 
 uniformity in car design, each Master Car Builder 
 following his own peculiar ideas. Consequently, as 
 Master Car Builders have changed, so have the designs, 
 with the result that any road that might be named will 
 be found to' have cars of the same length and capacity 
 differing radically from each other in details of con- 
 struction, This necessitates the carrying in stock of 
 castings, forgings, and timbers for each different type 
 O'f construction, and is a source of expense to> the roads, 
 which could have been avoided had a single standard 
 been adhered to. 
 
 With the advent of steel cars more attention has 
 been paid to scientific design, and a great improvement 
 has been made in the reduction of weight. There is, 
 however, still a lack of appreciation of the importance 
 O'f adhering to a single standard, which is more easily 
 obtained in steel than it was in wood; and many rail- 
 roads are neglecting the opportunity to standardize 
 their equipment when changing from wooden to> steel 
 construction. 
 
 The use of steel in passenger-car construction is still 
 
CAR CONSTRUCTION 253 
 
 in its infancy, being confined mainly to body-bolsters, 
 platforms, and the strengthening of end-frames; but 
 there is a movement in the direction of steel under- 
 names now making itself felt. Steel underframes are 
 being used quite extensively for electric street and inter- 
 urban cars, and the new underground roads in New 
 York and London are building cars wholly of steel, in 
 order that they may be the strongest obtainable, and 
 also absolutely fire-proof, so that in case of accident the 
 casualties may be reduced to> a minimum.. 
 
 In determining the capacity of a car, consideration 
 should be given to the traffic conditions on the road 
 over which it is to operate, as the maximum load which 
 can be put in the car is governed by the commodity to 
 be handled. For instance, refrigerator-cars cannot be 
 loaded to exceed twenty-five tons with beef or canned 
 meats; therefore it is clearly unnecessary to build a 
 car capable of carrying forty tons. Neither can stock- 
 cars be loaded with cattle to' exceed thirty tons. As 
 these two classes of cars handle their special commodi- 
 ties 90 per cent, of the time, why should they be built 
 to carry more, since the larger capacity merely entails 
 a larger first cost, and a daily expense by the cost of 
 handling the extra dead weight ? Box-cars, of course, 
 are used for general merchandise, and the average 
 annual loading rarely exceeds fifteen tons per trip. 
 However, if the business consists of handling a large 
 tonnage on short mileage, or transcontinental hauls, 
 a high-capacity car is desirable, as it can be loaded to 
 its full capacity the major part of the year; but for the 
 
254 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 middle distances, in local traffic, a car not to exceed 
 thirty tons' capacity will be found best. 
 
 In considering the design for a freight-car, two 
 cardinal principles should be observed, viz. : ease in first 
 construction, which will naturally be followed by 
 reduction in first cost; and ease in making repairs, 
 which, of course, means reduction in cost of main- 
 tenance. The freight traffic of a rairoad is the back- 
 bone of the business, and the freight-cars are the 
 means by which the traffic is handled; therefore it is 
 important that they be in running order as large a 
 proportion of the time as possible, as time lost on 
 repair tracks means not only expense in maintenance, 
 but loss of revenue. It will be found that the simplest 
 designs are the best, and great care should be taken to 
 see that the parts which are subject to shocks — such 
 as the bolsters, draft-rigging, and end- framing — are 
 amply strong, and have a safety factor of at least five. 
 
 In cars constructed wholly of wood it will be found 
 that cast steel is the best material for bolsters, permit- 
 ting them to* be made of a single piece ; whereas, when 
 built up of plates and castings, the rivets or bolts 
 become loose, permitting them to 1 deflect and come 
 down on the truck side-bearings. The result is that the 
 trucks will not pass easily around curves, producing 
 excessive wear on the flanges of the wheels and the 
 heads of the rails, and increasing the resistance to* be 
 overcome by the locomotive, thus causing a greater 
 consumption of fuel. 
 
 For wooden cars a good construction for the end- 
 framing is obtained by using steel I-beams for posts, 
 
CAR CONSTRUCTION 255 
 
 which should rest in malleable iron pockets firmly 
 secured to the end-sill and end-plate, and the side- 
 framing should be stiffened against bulging from the 
 pressure of a flowing load — such as grain, small sizes 
 of anthracite coal, etc. — by the use of steel angles of 
 Z-bars. The use of pressed-steel carlines or roof-rafters 
 is also a good feature, as there may be a gain in the 
 clear height inside, and stiffness is added to the frame 
 by the carlines acting as cross-ties, thus making it 
 possible to> dispense with the use of tie-rods, on which 
 the nuts usually become loose. 
 
 As it is an impossibility to obtain seasoned lumber 
 for freight-cars, there is always a shrinkage of the 
 wood, permitting bolts and tie-rods to become loose; 
 hence the whole frame becomes shaky, and the nails in 
 the sheathing and roofing loosen and work out. A 
 new wooden car, if taken into the shop after the first 
 six months' service and given a general tightening-up, 
 will run for several years without further repairs, bar- 
 ring accidents. Unfortunately, however, this is seldom 
 done, and I have seen cars only two to three years old 
 in a deplorable condition, simply from lack of attention. 
 Many thousands of dollars are lost to the railroads of 
 the country annually from such causes as this — a loss 
 which could be avoided by a comparatively small 
 expense. 
 
 In steel cars open-hearth steel should always be 
 employed, as Bessemer is not sufficiently homogeneous, 
 and usually contains hard spots in which cracks 
 develop, when subjected to shocks. Steel underframes 
 on freight-cars give fairly good results, but it will be 
 
256 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 found that with a wooden superstructure on a steel 
 underframe the shrinkage will permit the superstruc- 
 ture to become loosened, unless the frame-rods are 
 kept tightened ; and as the underframe does not shrink 
 Or deflect, the upper framing will tip sidewise, since the 
 bracing prevents end motion. 
 
 The best form of steel-frame car is that in which 
 there is a steel skeleton superstructure rigidly secured 
 to a steel underframe, with wooden strips bolted to 
 them, to which the wooden floor, lining, roofing, and 
 sheathing can be nailed. Such a car will retain its 
 normal shape under all ordinary conditions, and can 
 be made lighter in dead weight than a steel-underframe 
 car with wooden superstructure. 
 
 It has been a much discussed question as toi whether 
 cars made of pressed-steel shapes or those made of 
 commercial sizes of plates and structural shapes are 
 the better, and I shall quote the opinion of a pioneer 
 steel-car manufacturer as the best expression on the 
 subject that I have seen : 
 
 It is evident that from the very beginning it was recognized 
 that the ideal car would be one made throughout of standard 
 commercial shapes. As pressed steel, however, admitted of the 
 production of shapes of the exact form desired, and the early 
 development of the steel car being in the hands of those predis- 
 posed in its favor, and interested in the manufacture of pressed- 
 steel parts, it is natural that great progress was first made in the 
 perfectir^ of this latter type of construction, while the car made 
 of rolled sections remained for the time in its crude original state, 
 being clumsy and heavy when compared with the more highly 
 developed pressed-steel car. 
 
 The advantages of constructing a car from a few standard 
 commercial shapes, easily obtained in the open market, especially 
 
CAR CONSTRUCTION 257 
 
 when considering the question of repairs, rather than from 
 numerous special parts requiring expensive machinery in their 
 manufacture, were too manifest, however, to permit of being 
 long ignored; and that it is possible to build cars from standard 
 rolled sections, having all the advantages of light weight and 
 maximum strength claimed for the pressed-steel car, has been 
 fully demonstrated by the later developments of art, and is 
 amply evidenced by the numerous structural steel cars now in 
 service, which compare favorably with the pressed-steel types 
 in the matter of lightness, strength, and simplicity of construction. 
 
 As the strains of service are the same on all cars, 
 irrespective of capacity, the draft- rigging and center 
 sills should be of uniform strength on the highest- and 
 lowest-capacity cars; otherwise the weak car will suffer 
 damage. Undoubtedly some form of anti-friction 
 draft-rigging that will quickly absorb shocks, and not 
 give a heavy recoil as the springs expand, is very 
 desirable; but an entirely satisfactory device of this 
 kind has, I believe, not yet been developed. 
 
 As in body construction, so< also' in truck construc- 
 tion many changes have taken place, numerous special 
 types having been tried and found wanting. The early 
 forms were similar to> small four-wheeled cars, consist- 
 ing O'f a frame to> which pedestals for the journal-boxes 
 were attached, the springs being located between the 
 top of the journal-box and the frame. This type, how- 
 ever, was not sufficiently flexible, nor could a pair of 
 wheels be taken out without first jacking up the car- 
 body, running the truck out, and then jacking up the 
 truck-frame — all of which required time as well as 
 yard room. 
 
 About thirty years ago the present style of truck — 
 
258 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 known as the "diamond truck," from the shape of the 
 bars forming the side-trusses or frames — came into 
 use, and is now practically the standard type for all 
 American roads. It is easy to build and easy to< repair, 
 can be constructed entirely of metal, and is so> designed 
 that, if necessary, a pair of wheels can be removed 
 without jacking up either the car-body or the truck- 
 frame. The main point to> be observed in designing a 
 truck of this type is to' keep the rise of the top arch- 
 bar within the limits of one and a half and three and a 
 half inches, as, if made too> high, there is great tendency 
 to< buckling between the bolts, the bar being wholly in 
 compression; this also increases the strain on the 
 column bolts, which may be termed the keystone of the 
 side-frame, since, when they fail, the truck goes down. 
 
 An attempt was made a few years ago* to revive the 
 pedestal type of truck by making it of pressed steel or 
 of structural shapes; and for a time this was quite 
 extensively used in certain portions of the country. 
 But as this style of truck possessed all the disadvantages 
 of the older type, together with some peculiar to itself, 
 it again fell into disfavor, and but very few are now 
 applied under new equipment. 
 
 The break-beams should be hung from the truck- 
 frame and not from the body-frame, and should not 
 be suspended from the bolster, but from the column or 
 spring-plank, where they will remain stationary. 
 When hung to any part above the springs, they are 
 subjected to a vertical movement equal to that of the 
 springs, and consequently do not always bear the same 
 position relative to the tread of the wheel. If the 
 
CAR CONSTRUCTION 259 
 
 brakes are adjusted when the car is empty and the 
 springs at the highest position, the beam will have to 
 move a greater distance to meet the wheel when the 
 car is loaded and the springs compressed; and this 
 movement, being multiplied through the levers and 
 rods, often results in the maximum piston travel of the 
 brake cylinder being exceeded, rendering the brake 
 ineffective, particularly in case the brake-shoes are worn 
 thin. 
 
 Brake-beams should invariably be of metal, as 
 trussed wooden beams are subject to variation from 
 shrinkage and loose nuts on the rods, permitting the 
 beams to deflect, with the same result at the brake 
 cylinder as just mentioned. Metal beams should be of 
 as few parts as possible, those made of five- or six-inch 
 steel I-beams being the best. 
 
 Reverting to the bodies of freight-cars : Galvanized 
 iron is the best material for roofs, and is applied in 
 two ways. The first method consists in placing the 
 sheets immediately above the rafters and purlines of 
 the body- framing, and an outside course of boards over 
 the iron. According to the second method, a course of 
 boards is nailed upon the rafters and purlines, and the 
 iron sheets are laid upon these boards. These two 
 methods are known as the "inside" and "outside" 
 method, respectively. Each method has strong advo- 
 cates, and both have their good points. My personal 
 experience leads me to incline toward the outside roof, 
 because of the ease with which it can be repaired. 
 With the outside roof, however, it is essential for the 
 preservation of the roof that the car- frame be kept well 
 
260 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 tightened, as, when the frame becomes loose, its weav- 
 ing motion when running has a tendency to crack the 
 sheets, if they be too' rigidly fastened, by repeatedly 
 bending and straightening at certain points. It is 
 probable that this trouble will disappear with the use of 
 all-steel- frame cars. 
 
 Side-doors are a great source of expense and 
 danger, if they be not properly applied. In case they 
 are dislodged from their rails and hang away from the 
 side of the car, they may scratch the varnish and paint 
 from the side of an entire train of passenger-cars in 
 passing; or may catch, and be torn off and destroyed, 
 in passing other freight-cars. If caught in the right 
 way, they may even cause a derailment or wreck of a 
 passing train. Much of this trouble is caused by the 
 use of so-called anti-friction hangers, which, while 
 being easy to* operate in a freight-house or on a siding, 
 also easily shift back and forth on the rail when the 
 car is being shunted around the yards, unless the door 
 is closed and locked. This shifting allows the door 
 to hammer continually on the stops, which are loosened 
 and knocked off, permitting the door to run off its 
 rail. The door-hangers also become loosened from the 
 same cause, and eventually the door drops off and is 
 lost. Fixtures can now be obtained which overcome 
 these defects, and their use would be an important item 
 in the reduction of the cost of maintenance. 
 
 In passenger-cars safety should be the first consid- 
 eration, the dead weight being secondary. The intro- 
 duction of the wide vestibule has been an important 
 factor in the reduction of fatalities in passenger-train 
 
CAR CONSTRUCTION 261 
 
 accidents, as it is practically impossible for one car to 
 telescope another when both are equipped with this 
 device. At first, when wooden platform timbers were 
 employed, there was difficulty in carrying the extra 
 weight of the vestibule; but now, with steel I-beams, 
 or channels placed in pairs, for platform members, the 
 difficulty has been overcome. The use of cast steel for 
 body-bolsters has also permitted a more secure fasten- 
 ing for the steel platform, and has reduced the liability 
 to' breakage of the longitudinal sills at the point where 
 they cross the bolsters. 
 
 Ventilation is an important feature in passenger- 
 car design, and prior to i860, when the clear story or 
 monitor deck was first introduced in the roof, it was a 
 difficult problem. This mode of ventilation has now 
 been developed to a point where it is possible to obtain 
 a free circulation of air without much danger from 
 drafts. But there is still room for improvement, and 
 this is a subject worthy of further attention. 
 
 Heating in the early days was a source of great 
 danger, in case of accident, by the use of ordinary coal- 
 stoves ; but this danger has been practically eliminated, 
 first by the introduction of the Baker hot-water heater, 
 and later by the use of steam from the locomotive. 
 
 The problem of lighting has likewise passed through 
 several stages of development, including the periods of 
 oil lamps, gas, and electric light. The best practice at 
 present comprises electricity, generated by a dynamo 
 driven by a belt from the car-axle, with storage batteries 
 to supply current when the train comes to a stop, and 
 
262 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 with the Pintsch compressed-gas system as an auxiliary 
 in case of the failure of the electrical apparatus. 
 
 Great advance has also been made in the interior 
 finish and decoration of passenger-cars. Instead of the 
 heavy carvings and moldings formerly in vogue, which 
 collected and held dust and microbes, and the gaudily 
 painted head-linings, we now have flat surfaces wher- 
 ever possible, made of carefully selected, finely figured 
 woods, relieved only by inlaid lines or figures — an 
 arrangement allowing of easy cleaning — and head- 
 linings in a single color, preferably a light shade of 
 green, decorated only by a small line or ornamental 
 border in gilt. The entire interior should be harmo- 
 nious in color, and of such a shade as not to tire the 
 eyes, which would be the case with some colors, or 
 combination of colors, when before the eyes for several 
 hours. 
 
 For passenger-cars the pedestal type of truck is still 
 used, but has been greatly improved over the original 
 form. The use of steel-tired wheels, which do> not 
 require attention as frequently as the cast-iron wheels 
 used on freight-cars, largely overcomes the objection 
 of difficulty in their replacement. By the introduction 
 of equalizing-bars and the springs which rest on them, 
 great flexibility is obtained, and shock? and movements 
 due to inequalities in the tracks are absorbed before 
 they reach the car-body, making the car ride easily at 
 all times. The frames of these trucks are usually built 
 of wood, plated with steel for additional strength; 
 but trucks built entirely of metal are now in course of 
 development, and will no doubt be in general, use 
 
CAR CONSTRUCTION 263 
 
 before many years. Many European passenger-cars 
 are still built without trucks, and have either four or 
 six wheels, in the latter case one pair being placed 
 under the center of the car. The difference in the 
 ease of riding is quite marked, as under this system 
 there is a constant vibration of the floor, which, how- 
 ever, is felt only in the feet while they rest on it, but 
 otherwise is not especially noticeable, as the seats are 
 finely upholstered with deep springs in order to absorb 
 the vibration. 
 
 In conclusion, I would call attention to the fact that 
 railroad transportation is the greatest industry in the 
 world, and that the cars used in that industry repre- 
 sent an enormous amount of invested capital. It is 
 also true that the freight-cars are apt to receive less 
 careful attention than the passenger-cars or locomo- 
 tives, notwithstanding the fact that there is a larger 
 sum invested in them than in the others. Let me also 
 emphasize the importance of rational design, mathe- 
 matically worked out, in order that all parts may be 
 of sufficient strength to bear the shocks incident to the 
 rough service in which the cars are employed, thus 
 keeping the cost of maintenance at a minimum, and 
 enabling them to be engaged in revenue service the 
 maximum amount of time during their life. If this 
 course is pursued, it will be of great assistance to the 
 management in keeping down the ratio of operating 
 expenses to earnings. 
 
DUTIES OF A COMPTROLLER OR CHIEF 
 ACCOUNTING OFFICER 
 
 F. NAY, GENERAL AUDITOR, CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & 
 PACIFIC RAILWAY 
 
 In the early days of railroading- the accounts were 
 kept in the offices of the various traffic and operating 
 officials. For example, the freight accounts were fre- 
 quently kept in the office of the General Freight Agent ; 
 the passenger accounts, in the office of the General 
 Passenger Agent; the disbursement accounts, in the 
 office of the Superintendent; and so on. The final 
 results of the accounting in the various offices were 
 forwarded to the Secretary, Treasurer, or some other 
 designated officer, who issued the periodical statements 
 of the operations of the entire road. Under these con- 
 ditions the accounts were supervised by excellent men, 
 but not by trained accountants. The minds of the vari- 
 ous operating officials were filled with matters other 
 than those pertaining to accounting methods ; hence the 
 results were unsatisfactory, and frequently large losses' 
 of revenue occurred through the laxity of the system. 
 Aside from the loss of revenue, the history of what 
 had been accomplished was imperfectly written, be- 
 cause the statements for the different portions of the 
 railroads operated, and those made by different officers, 
 were compiled with little thought of uniformity, there- 
 by rendering comparisons misleading and o£ little prac- 
 tical value. Further than this, the various traffic and 
 
 264 
 
THE CHIEF ACCOUNTING OFFICER 265 
 
 operating officials were not always' diligent in calling 
 the attention of the executive officer to unfavorable 
 conditions in their own departments. This is an inher- 
 ent tendency in human nature, however, and not con- 
 trary to what might have been expected. Under those 
 methods', one practice, more or less demoralizing, was 
 the collection of perquisites by the various traffic and 
 operating officials. — a practice which, it is gratifying to 
 state, is now practically a thing of the past. 
 
 This should not be understood as a criticism either 
 of the officers in charge of the departments in Avhich 
 the accounts were handled, or of the clerks, working 
 under them, who compiled the accounts. In fact, those 
 men are to be commended for the degree of success 
 which they achieved under such unfavorable conditions. 
 
 Gradually the executive officers felt the need of a 
 central office where the accounts of all departments 
 could be carefully supervised, and compiled by trained 
 men, in order that the revenue of the company might 
 be surrounded with more safeguards, that statistical 
 data or history might be compiled on a uniform basis, 
 and that the attention of the executive officer might 
 be called to unfavorable as well as favorable conditions. 
 Thus it was that, in the progress of the development of 
 the railroad business, there came to be Accountants, 
 Auditors, General Auditors, Comptrollers, etc. — recog- 
 nized heads of the Accounting Department. 
 
 The President and Vice-President, Secretary, and 
 Treasurer of a railroad are always elected by the Board 
 of Directors, but the Chief Accounting Officer is usual- 
 ly appointed either by the President or by the active 
 
266 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 executive officer. This Chief Accounting Officer on 
 each road at first had his own individual methods, the 
 methods of different roads being entirely dissimilar, 
 and each man more or less jealous of his own. At the 
 outset some of the operating officers were reluctant to 
 acknowledge the authority of the Chief Accounting 
 Officer, the latter being looked upon as a sort of neces- 
 sary evil, always intermeddling with the affairs of 
 other people. It is only fair to say that the accounting 
 officers sometimes deserved all of this kind of criticism 
 which they received. At the present day, however, 
 this feeling has been practically eradicated. The up- 
 to-date Chief Accounting Officer sincerely desires to> co- 
 operate with every officer of the company, and the other 
 officers recognize the value of earnest co-operation 
 with him, and court it. 
 
 Up to< about twenty-five years' ago each railroad 
 company conducted its business entirely separate and 
 distinct from other railroad companies'. It treated other 
 companies, tendering freight traffic for shipment, prac- 
 tically the same as it treated any other shipper, requir- 
 ing a complete manifest or transcript of the shipments 
 tendered, which was retained in lieu of the shipping 
 ticket covering shipments from business houses ; and if 
 a shipment was delivered to another railroad, it required 
 the other road to pay its freight charges at the time of 
 delivery, just as if the shipment were delivered to any 
 other consignee. Passengers were interchanged more 
 freely among railroads by the use of coupon tickets, 
 but each road had its own method of settling with other 
 roads on passenger business so interchanged. 
 
THE CHIEF ACCOUNTING OFFICER 267 
 
 It was found that these methods, especially those 
 applied to freight traffic, were expensive, frequently 
 causing delays and blockades at junction points. Hence 
 through or interline billing was inaugurated — a system 
 which has grown until, at the present time, a very large 
 percentage of the freight interchanged between rail- 
 roads' is handled on single waybills reading from the 
 point of origin to the destination, no matter how many 
 roads handle the shipments. This necessitated uniform 
 accounting methods; and thus the process which 
 brought about uniformity on each individual road now 
 began to operate with regard to interline business 
 among the different roads'. This again resulted in the 
 formation of the Association of American Railway Ac- 
 counting Officers, to which practically every up-to-date 
 Chief Accounting Officer, and many of the subordinate 
 accounting officers, now belong. Through this associa- 
 tion, more than through all other agencies combined, 
 uniformity in methods of accounting for interline 
 freight and ticket business, together with uniformity in 
 many other methods, has been established, thus redu- 
 cing the expense of accounting for interline business to 
 a minimum, facilitating the ready interchange of traffic 
 among railroads, and enabling managers and executive 
 officers to compare the results of their own line with 
 those of other lines. 
 
 The interchange of traffic, which brought about the 
 interchange of ideas and formation of the Association 
 of American Railway Accounting Officers, was a very 
 strong factor in broadening the horizon of the Chief 
 
268 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 Accounting Officers, and of stimulating them to in- 
 crease their field of usefulness. 
 
 This brief historical outline is necessary to> establish 
 a proper understanding of the duties and scope of work 
 of the Chief Accounting Officer of a railroad. 
 
 It is believed that, in the ideal organization of the 
 staff of officers of a railroad, the Chief Accounting 
 Officer should be appointed by, and report directly to, 
 the President, or the active operating executive officer, 1 
 of whose office he should be considered a part. He 
 should be the President's confidential man; which im- 
 plies that he should be a man in whom the President 
 can place implicit trust. This is important, as it will 
 enable the Chief Accounting Officer to keep in close and 
 intelligent touch with all the transactions of the com- 
 pany, and will frequently result in preventing loss of 
 revenue, and other embarrassments. His authority as 
 to accounting methods should be supreme, but not arbi- 
 trary. One railroad President is known to have said 
 that he cheerfully took orders from his General Au- 
 ditor with regard to the handling of accounts ; another, 
 a Vice-President who was the active operating execu- 
 tive, said that his Auditor, as his representative, was 
 entitled to' receive all information with regard to* the 
 affairs of the company to which he himself was entitled. 
 Thus it will be seen that the Chief Accounting Officer 
 has: come to be regarded as a very important factor in 
 connection with railroad operation. 
 
 1 Sometimes it happens that a railroad president is a financier, and 
 the active operation of the property is in charge of a vice-president. To 
 avoid complications, however, for the purpose of this paper it will be 
 assumed that the active executive officer is the president. 
 
THE CHIEF ACCOUNTING OFFICER 269 
 
 The organization of the Accounting Department 
 naturally falls under three heads — receipts, disburse- 
 ments, and general accounts. These three divisions' are 
 sometimes subdivided. For example, receipts are sep- 
 arated into passenger, freight, and miscellaneous 
 revenue, and an officer is placed in charge of each sub- 
 division. The disbursements likewise are sometimes 
 subdivided, though not very often. Some roads have 
 an Auditor of Motive Power Accounts, an Auditor of 
 Maintenance Accounts, and so on ; but usually, where a 
 road is large enough to justify a separate disbursement 
 office, the Auditor of Disbursements has charge of that 
 division of the accounting work. Similarly, the gen- 
 eral accounts are sometimes subdivided. The titles of 
 the divisions mentioned will readily indicate the class 
 of accounts to be handled by each. 
 
 The duties of the Chief Accounting Officer, which 
 will now be briefly considered, may be classified under 
 three headings : ( 1 ) properly to safeguard and ac- 
 count for all of the revenue of the company; (2) to pre- 
 sent to the President and other officers a true history 
 of what has been accomplished, more or less in detail, 
 according to conditions; (3) to call the attention of 
 the President or other officers' to any unfavorable or 
 favorable conditions or circumstances which may come 
 to his knowledge. The detail of work performed by 
 the branches of the department handling receipts and 
 disbursements' will not be entered upon here, as it will 
 be treated of in detail by experts who are in daily con- 
 tact with this side of the work. 
 
270 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 I. PROPER SAFEGUARDING AND ACCOUNTING FOR ALL 
 OF THE REVENUE OF THE COMPANY 
 
 Naturally, the duty of greatest importance, and first 
 to be considered, is that of ascertaining that every pen- 
 ny of the revenue of the company is properly accounted 
 for. Other contributors to this volume will show how 
 this is done with regard to> receipts and disbursements- 
 The duty of the Chief Accounting Officer is to place 
 those departments in the hands of men who are thor- 
 oughly competent, honest, and loyal. 
 
 Under the head of receipts are classified all earnings 
 of the company from transportation of freight, pas- 
 sengers, etc. A system of reports, remittances, etc., 
 must be put into effect which, when audited, will 
 readily show whether all of the revenue that should be 
 collected by agents, .conductors, and others has been 
 actually collected and remitted to the treasurer of the 
 company. The Chief Accounting Officer should give 
 his careful and earnest attention to the details of the 
 methods employed for that purpose, and should give 
 his approval of the entire scheme. After such approval 
 has been given, no> change should be made by the sub- 
 ordinate accounting officer in charge of receipts, either 
 in instructions, form of reports, methods, or otherwise, 
 without the approval of the Chief Accounting Officer. 
 It is proper for the subordinate officer in charge of re- 
 ceipts to conduct the business of his department without 
 taking up the time of the Chief Accounting Officer, so 
 long as' no* deviations are made in methods, forms, or 
 instructions ; but he should never make any such devia- 
 
THE CHIEF ACCOUNTING OFFICER 271 
 
 tions without the approval of his superior. Under this 
 system the Chief Accounting Officer keeps in touch 
 with the methods and plans' for doing the work, but is 
 not unnecessarily annoyed with details. 
 
 All the subordinate accounting officers should make 
 a regular ( preferably ,a weekly) report, in the form of 
 a letter, or in such other form as may be prescribed, 
 to the Chief Accounting Officer, giving the condition 
 of the work, so that the latter may at all times have his 
 fingers on the pulse of the various branches of his de- 
 partment. 
 
 What has just been said in regard to receipts is 
 also true with reference to disbursements. A complete 
 and thorough plan for auditing all money paid out by 
 the company should be provided and approved by the 
 Chief Accounting Officer, under which the Auditor of 
 Disbursements will work, making no changes whatever 
 in the blanks, instructions, or methods without the 
 approval of his chief. 
 
 Leaving these two branches relating to receipts and 
 disbursements, it will be proper to proceed to* an out- 
 line of the general accounts, which usually are, and 
 always ought to be, handled by the Chief Accounting 
 Officer himself. 
 
 What is known as the "general ledger" should be 
 kept by the Chief Accounting Officer as the one book 
 in which all of the transactions of the company are 
 finally recorded. For convenience, and to* facilitate the 
 work, various sub-ledgers are kept, in which the details 
 of certain accounts are recorded, and from which the 
 
272 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 net result of the transactions for each month is trans- 
 ferred to the general ledger. In all railroad account- 
 ing, the books are closed as soon as possible after the 
 end of each month. General balance sheets, exhibiting 
 the financial status of the company at the close of the 
 month, and statements showing the income account for 
 the last month, and for the fiscal year to the close of the 
 last month, are rendered, and copies are furnished to 
 the persons designated by the president as entitled to 
 receive them. Obviously the transactions' of a large 
 railroad company are so> numerous that it would be 
 physically impossible for any one man to> transcribe 
 them all on one general ledger, and the use of sub- 
 ledgers, or auxiliary ledgers, enables a large number of 
 men to work on the accounts for one month at the same 
 time. 
 
 It must be understood that the primary object of 
 this general ledger, and of all the sub-ledgers, is to 
 provide a method for ascertaining that the revenue of 
 the company is all properly accounted for. For ex- 
 ample, the station agents must be debited, through 
 proper reports and records, with all the revenue that 
 should be collected by them, and they must be credited 
 with all of the money which they remit to the Treas- 
 urer; the balance represents money which for some 
 reason has not been collected, and which subsequently 
 must be accounted for. If an agent has been debited 
 with an erroneous item, he must make proper applica- 
 tion for credit — or "relief," as it is termed in railroad 
 parlance; and if his application is found to have merit, 
 the erroneous debit will be withdrawn ; and so on. This 
 
THE CHIEF ACCOUNTING OFFICER 273 
 
 process must be accurate, to the detail of every way- 
 bill, every ticket, every car switched, every item of ex- 
 cess baggage, storage, etc., collected; so that at any 
 time the complete details of the items due from any in- 
 dividual agent may be stated on short notice. Like- 
 wise, conductors are debited with what they collect, and 
 are credited with what they remit to the treasurer. 
 
 Other companies, firms, individuals, etc., are similarly 
 debited with what is due from them, and credited with 
 what is due to them. They are also< debited with the 
 cash paid to them, and credited with the cash received 
 from them ; so that the status of the account at the end 
 of the month shows the balance due to or from each 
 railroad company, firm, individual, etc. ; or from them 
 all as a whole. This process is followed all the way 
 through, the object being to place a debit against some 
 agent, company, firm, or individual for every penny 
 due the railway company, and to place a credit for 
 every penny received by the company, and every penny 
 due to such companies, firms, individuals, etc. In this 
 way the net result at the end of each month will show 
 the balance due to or from each company, firm, or indi- 
 vidual, or to or from all of them as a whole. 
 
 Ordinarily, the sub-ledgers that are kept in detail, 
 and the net result of the transactions for the month 
 posted in the general ledger, are as follows : 
 
 Freight-accounts ledger, kept by the Freight Accounting 
 Officer. 
 
 Passenger-accounts ledger, kept by the Passenger Accounting 
 Officer. 
 
274 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 Record of vouchers audited, kept by the Disbursements 
 Accounting Officer. 
 
 Record of bills audited, kept by the Disbursements Account- 
 ing Officer. 
 
 Material ledger, kept by the Disbursements Accounting Officer. 
 
 Freight-traffic, passenger-traffic, and car-service ledgers, either 
 three separate ledgers, or all in one — kept by the Chief Accounting 
 Officer. 
 
 Miscellaneous accounts with other companies and individuals, 
 covered by audited bills rendered — kept by the Chief Accounting 
 Officer. 
 
 Station agents' ledger, kept by the Chief Accounting Officer. 
 
 In some cases' many other sub-ledgers are kept, ac- 
 cording to 1 local conditions, the principal object being to 
 keep the general ledger free from voluminous details. 
 
 A few words about each of the ledgers mentioned 
 may be of interest. 
 
 General ledger. — The general ledger should be kept 
 by a thoroughly experienced bookkeeper, who* is' abso- 
 lutely trustworthy and loyal. No entries should be 
 permitted to be made in the general ledger without the 
 approval of the Chief Accounting Officer. The entries 
 to be made in the general ledger should be from 
 three sources only — audited vouchers payable, audited 
 bills' collectible, and journal vouchers. 
 
 In making entries in the general ledger, such expres 
 sions as "sundries," "various," etc., should be avoided, 
 but in the column provided for describing the nature 
 of the entry a comprehensive description should always 
 be written. This description should be sufficient to 
 indicate clearly the nature of the debit or credit, with- 
 out making it necessary to refer to the voucher, bill, or 
 
THE CHIEF ACCOUNTING OFFICER 275 
 
 journal voucher for such information. Formerly all 
 journal vouchers were entered in a journal, and post- 
 ings to the ledger were made from the journal. The 
 journal is superfluous, because all postings may be 
 made more accurately and economically direct from 
 vouchers, bills', and journal vouchers. 
 
 Freight-accounts ledger. — This ledger is kept by the 
 Freight Accounting Officer, and records all debits and 
 credits to station agents and other railroad companies' 
 in connection with the freight traffic of the line, except 
 cash payments and receipts. In other words, this 
 ledger is to contain a record of every penny due to and 
 from the railway company on account of freight traf- 
 fic. From this ledger, or from transcripts furnished 
 the Chief Accounting Officer monthly, debits and credits 
 are made in the freight-traffic ledger and the station- 
 accounts ledger. From the freight-accounts ledger 
 are obtained the total earnings' on freight traffic. 
 
 Passenger-accounts ledger. — This ledger is kept by 
 the Passenger Accounting Officer, and in it are re- 
 corded all debits and credits to station agents, other 
 railroad companies, etc., except cash payments and re- 
 ceipts on account of passenger business. This ledger 
 should contain a record of every cent due to or from 
 the railway company on account of passenger traffic. 
 From the ledger, or from a transcript thereof, which 
 is furnished the Chief Accounting Officer each month, 
 debits and credits are made in the passenger-traffic 
 ledger and the station agents' ledger. From the pas- 
 senger-accounts ledger is obtained the total earnings 
 on passenger traffic. 
 
276 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 Record of vouchers audited. — This record is kept 
 by the Disbursements Accounting Officer, and in it is' 
 recorded every voucher representing money to be paid 
 by the company. This record shows the name of the 
 payee, a description of the expenditure, and the account 
 to be charged with the amount of the payment. At the 
 close of each month a transcript of the footings of this 
 record is furnished to the Chief Accounting Officer in 
 the shape of a journal voucher, and such footings or 
 totals are entered in the general ledger. All vouchers 
 payable which contain debits or credits' to> general- 
 ledger accounts (accounts the details of which are 
 kept in the general ledger) should be referred to the 
 Chief Accounting Officer for posting in the general 
 ledger before the audit of the voucher is completed. 
 
 Record of bills audited. — This record is kept by the 
 Disbursements Accounting Officer, and contains a 
 record of every bill against other railroad companies, 
 individuals, firms, etc., representing money to be col- 
 lected by the company. The record shows the name of 
 the party against whom the bill is rendered, the nature 
 of the bill, and the account to be credited. All bills 
 containing debits or credits to general-ledger accounts 
 should be referred to the Chief Accounting Officer, to 
 be posted in the general ledger before the audit of the 
 bill is completed. As in the case of audited vouchers, 
 a transcript of this record, in the shape of a journal 
 voucher, is furnished the Chief Accounting Officer at 
 the close of each month, to' be posted in the general 
 ledger. 
 
 Material ledger. — This ledger is kept by the Dis- 
 
THE CHIEF ACCOUNTING OFFICER 277 
 
 bursements Accounting Officer, and contains a record 
 of all material received, used, sold, transferred from 
 one shop to another or from one operating department 
 to another, as well as the balance on hand at the close 
 of the month. A transcript showing the net result of 
 the various debits and credits in this ledger is furnished 
 the Chief Accounting Officer each month, to be posted 
 in the general ledger. 
 
 Freight-traffic, Passenger-traffic, and car-service 
 ledgers. — In these ledgers, which are kept by the Chief 
 Accounting Officer, are entered all debits and credits to 
 other railroads and transportation companies on ac- 
 count of interline freight traffic, interline passenger 
 traffic, interline car service, or per diem paid and 
 received in exchange of cars among railroad companies. 
 
 Debits and credits to interline freight accounts of 
 other railroads, except cash receipts and payments, 
 are posted from data furnished by the Freight Account- 
 ing Officer. 2 Such debits or credits represent the net 
 balance agreed upon with other companies before they 
 are posted, and are subject to sight draft on the 
 Treasurer of the debtor company. 
 
 Debits and credits to interline ticket accounts', ex- 
 cept cash receipts and payments, are posted from data 
 furnished by the Passenger Accounting Officer, 3 and 
 represent the amount of interline ticket sales reported 
 by and to other companies. The amounts of reports 
 rendered by other companies are, of course, debits, and 
 those rendered to other companies' are credits to such 
 
 3 See remarks regarding freight-accounts ledger. 
 3 See remarks under passenger-accounts ledger. 
 
278 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 companies. The balances arrived at by ascertaining the 
 difference between the reports rendered to and by other 
 companies are subject to settlement by sight draft on 
 the Treasurer of the debtor company. 
 
 The debits and credits to car-service accounts, ex- 
 cept cash receipts and payments, like those to ticket 
 accounts, represent the amounts of reports rendered to 
 and by other companies, and are based on journal 
 vouchers prepared by the officer who has charge of the 
 car-service accounts, or from journal vouchers sup- 
 ported by statements rendered by such officer. The 
 balances arrived at by ascertaining the difference be- 
 tween the reports rendered to and by other companies 
 are subject to settlement by draft on the Treasurer of 
 the debtor company. 
 
 The agreed balances due to or from other railroad 
 companies should be posted in the freight-traffic ledger 
 daily as fast as agreed upon, and drafts' should be 
 made daily for such balances when they represent 
 money due from other companies. The amounts of all 
 reports' rendered to< other companies covering ticket 
 sales, car service, or per diem should be entered when 
 the reports are rendered. Reports received from other 
 railroads should be posted daily as received, and all 
 balances due other companies should be drawn for daily. 
 If this rule is observed carefully, the revenue of the 
 company is' collected promptly and placed in the treas- 
 ury, where it belongs, without delay. 
 
 All cash receipts and payments in settlement of 
 freight, ticket, and car-service accounts represented by 
 drafts' and remittances are entered in detail in these 
 
THE CHIEF ACCOUNTING OFFICER 279 
 
 ledgers to the debit or credit of the various accounts. 
 At the close of the month the net result of the debits 
 and credits on these ledgers is transferred to the gen- 
 eral ledger through a journal voucher, so that the gen- 
 eral ledger will represent the net result of all trans- 
 actions recorded on the sub-ledgers'. 
 
 The freight, passenger, and car-service accounts are 
 sometimes kept in one ledger and sometimes in sep- 
 arate ledgers, according to the volume of business. 
 
 Miscellaneous accounts with other companies and 
 individuals, covered by audited bills rendered. — A sep- 
 arate ledger, or a series of ledgers, is kept by the Chief 
 Accounting Officer, in which are entered all charges to 
 other companies and individuals, through audited bills 
 rendered, using a separate page for each company, ex- 
 cept in the case of certain individuals against whom 
 bills are rarely rendered, which are grouped together 
 in alphabetical order, under the heading "miscellane- 
 ous." This ledger should show the number of the bill, 
 its nature, the amount, the date on which rendered or 
 sent out for collection, and to whom it is sent. The 
 cash received in settlement of bills should be posted in 
 detail in this ledger, so that at any time a detailed list 
 of unsettled bills' against any company or individual 
 may be drawn off at a moment's notice. 
 
 This' ledger should be examined very frequently by 
 a competent clerk, and statements requesting settle- 
 ment should be sent to all companies and individuals 
 when bills become overdue. 
 
 With railroads where the number of bills rendered 
 is large, the following division of three ledgers is 
 
280 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 recommended: (a) claims ledger; (b) transportation 
 companies — miscellaneous bills'; (c) other companies 
 and individuals — miscellaneous bills. Such a division 
 facilitates, by segregation, the balancing of accounts 
 at the close of the month, and has the advantage of 
 keeping in a separate ledger bills' rendered against in- 
 dividuals, and companies other than transportation 
 companies, the status of which should be watched very 
 closely, because such bills should usually be paid within 
 a few days after they are rendered. The miscellaneous 
 bills against transportation companies are not paid so 
 promptly as those against individuals, on account of 
 the routine through which they pass before they are 
 ready for payment. The settlement of bills on account 
 o<f claims is usually a little slower than that of mis- 
 cellaneous' bills; hence the above separation is recom- 
 mended. 
 
 At the close of the month the net result of the vari- 
 ous debits and credits entered in this ledger is trans- 
 ferred to the general ledger by journal voucher, so that 
 the general ledger will contain a record of the net 
 result of the transactions recorded in detail in this 
 ledger. 
 
 Station agents' ledger. — In this ledger are recorded 
 all debits and credits to station agents from data fur- 
 nished by the Freight Accounting Officer and Passen- 
 ger Accounting Officer, 4 as' well as all the cash remit- 
 tances received from station agents. At the close of 
 the month the net result of all the debits and credits 
 
 4 See remarks under freight-accounts ledger and passenger-accounts 
 ledger. 
 
THE CHIEF ACCOUNTING OFFICER 281 
 
 on this ledger is transferred to the general ledger by 
 journal voucher, in order that the general ledger may 
 contain a record of the result of all transactions 
 entered in detail on this ledger. 
 
 It is important that the station agents' ledger be 
 watched very closely, to see that agents remit the 
 amounts collected by them promptly and in accord- 
 ance with the instructions, A sufficient force of Trav- 
 eling Auditors should be employed to examine the 
 accounts of all agents at least twice each year, in order 
 to ascertain if their accounts are being kept according 
 to instructions; if they are correct and do not contain 
 any items that would not be disclosed by the monthly 
 reports te> the Accounting Department ; and if the cash 
 on hand on the date of the examination is sufficient to 
 cover the balance due the railway company on that 
 date. 
 
 In addition to the foregoing ledgers, which as a rule 
 are kept by the Chief Accounting Officer of all rail- 
 roads, others are frequently employed; but the same 
 principle governs all, viz. : the details of the various 
 transactions will be recorded in the sub-ledgers, and 
 the results of such transactions will be transferred to 
 the general ledger by journal voucher each month. 
 The fact that the final result of every transaction of the 
 railroad company should be recorded in the general 
 ledger should never be lost sight of. 
 
 Besides the Traveling Auditors, Traveling Ac- 
 countants should be employed to examine at short in- 
 tervals the accounts of the various division officers, in 
 order to ascertain if they are being handled accurately 
 
282 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 and intelligently. Occasional examinations should also 
 be made of the accounts of express companies, union 
 depot companies, and all other companies in which the 
 railroad whose books' are under consideration has an 
 interest. Such examinations should be made from the 
 original entries and books of the companies, to the 
 end that the Chief Accounting Officer may at all times 
 know that every dollar of the revenue, whether due 
 from an agent, conductor, railroad company, express 
 company, union depot company, etc., is properly 
 accounted for. This inspection of the accounts of 
 other companies is not for the purpose of examining 
 their interline freight, ticket, and car-service accounts, 
 because the company whose books are under considera- 
 tion should have at all times in its own files data with 
 which to' verify the accounts' of such companies. 
 
 The foregoing, in a general way, outlines the duties 
 of the Chief Accounting Officer under the head of 
 "proper safeguarding and accounting for all of the 
 revenue of the company." Of course, an entire paper 
 could be written on any one of these items, but space 
 will not permit of further mention here. 
 
 II. PRESENTING TO THE PRESIDENT AND OTHER OFFICERS 
 A TRUE HISTORY OF WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOM- 
 PLISHED, MORE OR LESS IN DETAIL, ACCORDING 
 TO CONDITIONS 
 
 Under this heading it is necessary to classify the 
 accounts of the company without regard to> any direct 
 payment or receipt of revenue. The two principal 
 statements used for furnishing a history of what has 
 
THE CHIEF ACCOUNTING OFFICER 283 
 
 been accomplished are the balance-sheet and the income 
 account. At the outset it should be borne in mind that 
 the figures used in the balance-sheet and income ac- 
 count must be those recorded in the general ledger. 
 No item should ever be entered in either of these reports 
 which is not recorded in the general ledger ; therefore it 
 is necessary, in preparing the headings for the accounts 
 in the general ledger, to have due regard for the 
 requirements' of the balance-sheet and income account, 
 as well as' to provide for determining that all of the 
 revenue of the company is properly accounted for. 
 
 Balance-sheet. — The balance-sheet, which is fre- 
 quently called the "general balance-sheet," contains a 
 complete statement of all the accounts on the general 
 ledger, including those shown in the income account. 
 This report requires a classification of accounts into 
 "assets" and "liabilities," The asset accounts are 
 shown on the debit, or left-hand, side of the balance- 
 sheet, and the liability accounts on the credit, or right- 
 hand, side. 
 
 The asset accounts are further divided into "proper- 
 ty accounts" and "operating current accounts." The 
 property accounts represent the cost of the plant or 
 railroad property operated, being usually divided into 
 (a) cost of railroad franchises, and (b) equipment. 
 In the early days of railroad bookkeeping equipment 
 was not always kept separately, and even today some 
 companies have not introduced this feature. Such 
 separate account is, however, very desirable. 
 
 The operating current assets represent the accounts 
 which are being realized upon from day to day and 
 
284 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 from month to' month, such as : cash on hand ; balance 
 due from station agents and conductors; balance due 
 from other railroads, transportation companies, and in- 
 dividuals; balance due from express companies; bal- 
 ance due from the United States government as com- 
 pensation for carrying mail; material and supplies on 
 hand; etc. They are the accounts which, if the opera- 
 tion of the property were discontinued and the railroad 
 abandoned, would all be disposed of by cash settle- 
 ments, barring a few which might not be collectible. 
 
 The liabilities are classified into "capital or property 
 liabilities" and "current or operating liabilities." The 
 capital or property liabilities usually represent the 
 amount of capital stock and funded debt outstanding 
 against the property. The current or operating liabili- 
 ties represent amounts due to other railroads, trans- 
 portation companies, and individuals, to* various states 
 for taxes accrued but not paid, unpaid wages not called 
 for, etc. Like the current or operating assets, they 
 are those which, if the operation of the property were 
 discontinued, would be closed out by cash settlements. 
 
 In the balance-sheet is also included, on the debit 
 or credit side as the case may be, the balance of the 
 income account. If there is' a surplus, the total assets 
 will exceed the total liabilities, in which case the bal- 
 ance of the income account is entered on the credit 
 side of the balance-sheet and forms a perfect balance 
 for the two sides. In case of a deficit, the balance of 
 liabilities will exceed the assets', and the balance of in- 
 come account will be entered on the debit side of the 
 balance-sheet, thus also forming a perfect balance. 
 
THE CHIEF ACCOUNTING OFFICER 285 
 
 The total debits on the balance-sheet should always 
 equal the total credits to a cent. 
 
 With regard to classifying expenditure, account- 
 ants of the present day appreciate more fully than their 
 predecessors the importance of charging to the property 
 account all actual additions to the plant in the shape of 
 additional track, structures, rolling-stock, etc. ; also of 
 making proper charges to the property account when 
 an existing structure or a portion of the property is 
 materially improved; as, for example, when a pile 
 bridge is replaced by a steel structure, or when a wooden 
 depot which cost $2,000 is' replaced by a stone struc- 
 ture costing $15,000. The original structures in such 
 cases are more or less temporary, and, when they are 
 replaced with more expensive and practically permanent 
 structures, an appropriate increase should be made in 
 the property account, and operating expenses under the 
 head of maintenance should be charged with approxi- 
 mately what it would cost to renew the old temporary 
 structure throughout in kind. In past years, when ac- 
 counting for the expenditures of railroads, this impor- 
 tant feature did not receive the attention given it today. 
 It is doubtless a fact that many substantial improve- 
 ments were charged to operating expenses because of 
 the failure to draw the line properly between expendi- 
 tures for additions to the property and expenditures 
 for the maintenance of existing property. It is also 
 doubtless true that many new sidetracks, and entirely 
 new and additional buildings, have been charged to 
 operating expenses of the different companies through- 
 out the United States. Subsequently some of these ex- 
 
286 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 penditures' were capitalized, as was proper, which gave 
 color to the accusation that the stock was watered. 
 Even though the directors may voluntarily decide to 
 pay for certain improvements out of the net income of 
 the company, after taxes and fixed charges have been 
 provided for, yet it is desirable and necessary to keep 
 the expenditures separate, so that the total actual cost 
 of the property is always known. 
 
 The foregoing is simply an outline of the balance- 
 sheet, which should be rendered in sufficient detail, 
 according to requirements and local conditions', to ex- 
 hibit the status of all accounts on the ledger. A com- 
 parison should also be arranged, so that the increases 
 or fluctuations of the different accounts may be seen 
 from an examination of the balance-sheet. 
 
 This report is the foundation of the whole structure 
 of the accounts of a railroad. It is deserving of very 
 careful attention by the Chief Accounting Officer, and 
 careful perusal by the executive officer. 
 
 Income account. — The statement of income account 
 shows the total gross earnings, of the railway com- 
 pany, usually classified as freight earnings, passenger 
 earnings', mail earnings, express earnings, telegraph 
 earnings, and miscellaneous earnings. From the total 
 o>f these classes of gross earnings are deducted the total 
 operating expenses, usually classified as follows' : main- 
 tenance of way and structures, maintenance of equip- 
 ment, conducting transportation, general expenses. 
 
 The amount left, after deducting the total operat- 
 ing expenses from the total gross earnings, represents 
 what is termed in railroad parlance the "net earnings" 
 
THE CHIEF ACCOUNTING OFFICER 287 
 
 of the company. To these net earnings are added in- 
 come from interest on bank balances, interest on mis- 
 cellaneous obligations due the company, dividends on 
 stocks owned, interest on bonds owned, rents of prop- 
 erty not used in the operation of the road, etc. The 
 sum of the net earnings and this miscellaneous income 
 represents the total income of the property. From that 
 amount are deducted the amount paid for taxes, the 
 fixed charges representing interest on bonds, or 
 mortgage debt outstanding, rental of property leased 
 from other companies, etc. After the total amount 
 paid for taxes and fixed charges has been deducted 
 from the total income, the balance left is applicable to 
 dividends, or may be used in the improvement of the 
 property, or in such other way as the directors of the 
 company may see fit. 
 
 The foregoing brief statement of the income account 
 is supported by other statements, more or less in detail 
 for the purpose of making intelligent comparison with 
 the previous results from operation, in order that any 
 increases or decreases may be discovered, and their 
 cause located. Such detailed statements prevail more 
 largely with regard to operating expenses than with 
 any other of the classes of items mentioned. 
 
 Sometimes the freight earnings are segregated into 
 a few classes, which is true also of passenger earnings ; 
 but great detail is observed with regard to operating 
 expenses. The Interstate Commerce Commission some 
 years ago issued a classification of operating expenses 
 required in the compilation of reports of railroads to 
 that body, and that classification has been largely 
 
288 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 adopted by railroads throughout the country. Some 
 railroad companies compile further details than are re- 
 quired by the commission, but it is usually done by 
 subdividing the different accounts of the commission 
 classification. 
 
 Any discussion of the detailed classification of oper- 
 ating expenses belongs more properly to the paper on 
 disbursements accounts; hence this will not be further 
 dealt with here. Suffice it to say that all the items 
 mentioned in the foregoing statement of income account 
 should be supported by sufficient details to> make it 
 possible to' locate and explain any appreciable increase 
 or decrease in any of the items comprising the account. 
 
 The theory of the arrangement of the items of the 
 income account, stated herein, is as follows': The 
 owners of the railway property turn it over to' an oper- 
 ating executive, who has charge of all its operations, 
 and who is expected to secure satisfactory operating 
 results. In order to show the results of his operation 
 of the property, the operating executive should include, 
 under the heads of the various classes of gross earn- 
 ings and operating expenses, every cent of receipts or 
 expenditure in direct connection with the operation of 
 the road, and, on the other hand, should not be permit- 
 ted so to include any receipts or expenditures not con- 
 nected with the direct operation. If this plan is followed 
 carefully, the item of net earnings will correctly repre- 
 sent the net return which the operating official presents 
 as the result of the operation of the property. To that 
 item may be added receipts from sources not directly 
 connected with the operation of the property ; and from 
 
THE CHIEF ACCOUNTING OFFICER 289 
 
 this total income will be paid the taxes on the property, 
 the interest on the funded debt covering the property, 
 and other items known as fixed charges'; leaving the 
 balance, or net income, to be disposed of by the direc- 
 tors. It is believed that this arrangement is logical, 
 and also that it has the advantage of fixing the respon- 
 sibility of the operating official. If the item of net 
 earnings should be arrived at by including any receipts 
 or expenditures not connected with the operation of the 
 property, the term would have little meaning. 
 
 In addition to the statement of income account, all 
 of the principal items of increase and decrease in the 
 details thereof should be investigated, and a written 
 explanation of such increases and decreases' should be 
 furnished the President or other executive official 
 monthly by the Chief Accounting Officer. 
 
 The form of income account used by some railroads 
 may be much more elaborate than here outlined, accord- 
 ing to the requirements' and local conditions, but it is 
 believed that the foregoing is a good foundation upon 
 which to build more elaborate structures. 
 
 With regard to balance-sheet and income-account 
 statement, it is recommended that the balance-sheet 
 show the total debit or credit balance in each account, 
 as of date the balance-sheet is rendered, the increase 
 or decrease during the current month, and the increase 
 or decrease during the current fiscal year. It is also 
 recommended that the income-account statement show 
 the results for the current month and for the current 
 fiscal year to date, compared with the same month of 
 
290 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 the preceding year and the corresponding period of the 
 preceding fiscal year. 
 
 In order to make proper comparisons of the monthly 
 income account, estimated charges should be made 
 monthly to taxes, interest on funded debt, and all other 
 items', entering into the composition of the income ac- 
 count, which are not paid monthly. Such monthly esti- 
 mate should represent, according to the best information 
 obtainable, the amount that would accrue for that 
 month if the settlements were actually made monthly. 
 As such estimated charges are made to> taxes, interest 
 on funded debt, etc., they should be credited to> the 
 proper accommodation accounts to which the payments 
 should be charged when actually made. Likewise, in 
 compiling operating expenses for a month, when large 
 items accrue which are chargeable or creditable to oper- 
 ating expenses', but which have not been taken into the 
 accounts through the regular channels, due to> some 
 delay in settlement, then estimates should be charged 
 or credited toi operating expenses, and taken into an 
 accommodation account, so that the statements which 
 are rendered will represent as nearly as possible, from 
 the best information obtainable, the operating expenses 
 of the month, whether the cash has actually been paid 
 or not. 
 
 The purpose of the operating-expense statements is 
 not to record the receipts and expenditures on account 
 of operating expenses, but to record the cost of operat- 
 ing the property during a definite period. They are 
 history, and as such should be accurate. 
 
THE CHIEF ACCOUNTING OFFICER 291 
 
 For example, suppose that A uses, under a long-time 
 lease, sixty miles of track belonging to B, and pays 
 therefor large sums for rental and for its proportion 
 of the operating expenses. Suppose, further, that, 
 through the failure of B to render bill for the month of 
 January, or through the failure of A to record a proper 
 voucher in favor of B covering payment for the use 
 of the line, A's operating expenses for January have 
 not been charged in the regular way with its portion of 
 the operating expenses of that part of the line. Cer- 
 tainly the operating expenses of A should not be 
 relieved of all charges on account of that sixty miles of 
 road during the month of January. A has used the 
 road, has incurred the expense, and owes the liability 
 for such expense. Therefore, by debting the operating 
 expenses with the estimated amounts due B, and credit- 
 ing B through the accommodation account, the operat- 
 ing expenses are more accurately stated, as also are 
 the liabilities of the company, than if the account had 
 been omitted entirely. In fact, omission of the account 
 would make the history wrong. Hence it is a common 
 practice among railroads to make monthly estimates of 
 items of expenditure which accrue, but which are 
 either not due or not in shape for payment at the 
 time the accounts for the month must be closed. 
 
 Of course, other statements are presented to the 
 President and to other officials, which contain a history 
 of the operation of the property, showing train mileage, 
 car mileage, tons one mile, passengers one mile, earn- 
 ings per train, earnings per car, etc., etc. These may 
 be multiplied according to requirements or local condi- 
 
292 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 tions, but the balance-sheet and income account are 
 never omitted ; they are standard. 
 
 III. TO CALL THE ATTENTION OF THE PRESIDENT OR 
 OTHER OFFICERS TO ANY FAVORABLE OR UNFAVOR- 
 ABLE CONDITIONS OR CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH 
 MAY COME TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE CHIEF 
 ACCOUNTING OFFICER 
 
 It is difficult to explain in detail just what should 
 be done under this heading ; so much depends upon cir- 
 cumstances. The Chief Accounting Officer, however, in 
 his daily contact with the accounts of the company, 
 will, through statements and comparisons, develop 
 matters of interest — sometimes favorable, sometimes 
 unfavorable — which should be promptly brought to the 
 attention of the proper officer, when it is not within the 
 jurisdiction or power of the Chief Accounting Officer 
 finally to dispose of the matter. To this end, as well as 
 with the object of promoting accuracy, it is' recommend- 
 ed that the various results be tabulated in books pro- 
 vided for the purpose, in such a manner that the results 
 from each item for the current month will be entered 
 directly under or alongside of the results for the pre- 
 vious month, and the result for the corresponding 
 month in the preceding year, together with the continu- 
 ous results throughout the year. By having the infor- 
 mation stated in this way, any unusual increases or de- 
 creases will be readily apparent, and should be investi- 
 gated. If the investigation develops any conditions 
 which cannot be finally dealt with by the Chief Account- 
 ing Officer, it should be reported to the President or 
 
THE CHIEF ACCOUNTING OFFICER 293 
 
 proper official of the company, for necessary attention. 
 
 The Accounting Officer should not confine himself 
 to simply accounting propositions, but should be 
 broad-minded and endeavor to take in all the conditions 
 of the operation of the property. Sometimes' the results 
 recorded in his office will show that the equipment 
 owned by the railway company is slipping away to 
 other lines too rapidly; or the records may show that 
 the company is holding its own remarkably well in 
 keeping the equipment on the line. Both favorable and 
 unfavorable conditions should be noted and reported. 
 The practice is too< common of reporting all unfavor- 
 able conditions, and tx> preserve silence with regard to 
 favorable conditions — a practice easy to acquire and 
 difficult to abandon. The records' may show that 
 a certain class of material — as, for example, coal — is 
 costing too much; or that it is being purchased very 
 economically ; in either case the fact should be reported 
 promptly. In fact, the Accounting Officer should have 
 his' eyes and ears open all the time, to detect matters of 
 interest to his superior officers, and should not hesi- 
 tate to report such matters without fear or favor. 
 
 This paper would be exceedingly deficient if the 
 all-important subject of providing proper help should 
 be omitted. The Chief Accounting Officer personally 
 can do practically none of the work outlined herein. He 
 must depend upon others to perform the work for him. 
 Therefore, this peculiarly important phase is left to be 
 dealt with in a few closing words. 
 
 Most people will recognize at once that for his' lieu- 
 tenants in charge of the different departments the Chief 
 
294 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 Accounting Officer must have men of undoubted loyal- 
 ty, ability, integrity, and possessed of character which 
 commands the respect of all. And it may be added 
 that precisely the same qualities should be required of 
 the office boy who starts at the bottom. The best 
 results will be obtained by following civil-service rules ; 
 filling all vacancies by promotions whenever it is possi- 
 ble to do so>. This encourages all to look forward to 
 promotion when earned and when the opportunity 
 arises. If the same care is used in hiring the office boy 
 as in hiring the Auditor, employees worthy of promo- 
 tion will be found in all intermediate positions. To do 
 this successfully requires a practical knowledge of 
 human nature as well as of accounting methods. 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 
 
 HARRY M. SLOAN, AUDITOR OF DISBURSEMENTS, CHI- 
 CAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC RAILWAY 
 
 Before looking into the methods to be pursued in 
 accounting for the expenditures of a railway property, 
 it may be well to arrive at a thorough understanding of 
 just what the word "expenditures" means. While my 
 subject has been outlined as dealing with the "Auditor 
 of Expenditures," the term selected is not now so 
 generally used in railway parlance as is the term 
 "Auditor of Disbursements." Webster's Unabridged 
 Dictionary defines the first term — viz., "expenditures" 
 — as follows: "the act of expending; a laying-out, as 
 of money; disbursements;" and the verb "expend" is 
 defined: "to lay out, apply, or employ in any way; to 
 consume by use; to use up or distribute, either in pay- 
 ments or in donations; to employ; to dissipate; to 
 waste." The term "disburse" is defined : "to pay out 
 or expend;" and "disbursement," as "the act of dis- 
 bursing or paying out." From this it will be seen that 
 it is largely a matter of personal taste whether the term 
 "disbursement" or "expenditure" is used. 
 
 Some people are unkind and unthoughtful enough 
 to apply to us the appellation "auditor of disturbances ;" 
 and, if the truth must be told, some railway employees 
 and officials are so averse to' having an account audited 
 that bears their approval that the auditor must at 
 times take such drastic steps to secure enough informa- 
 
 295 
 
296 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 tion to enable him to pass the paper for payment that 
 he becomes a disturbing element, at least to the 
 employee under investigation; hence the title "auditor 
 of disturbances." In my limited experience as an 
 auditor I have also been addressed, by one of the coal- 
 wharf foremen on the line of our road, in a Western 
 Union message regarding the whereabouts of certain 
 moneys due him as "editor of distribution." But, as 
 it has been said of" the rose that it would, under any 
 other name, smell just as sweet, so it is probably true 
 that the Auditor of Expenditures, under any other 
 title, would perform his duties just as satisfactorily or 
 unsatisfactorily. 
 
 Railway accounting resolves itself, in the end, into 
 two distinct heads, viz., receipts and disbursements. 
 
 "Receipts" must not be confounded with "revenue," 
 inasmuch as the former is a much broader term than 
 the latter; in fact, in the operation and financing of 
 some of our great railway systems the revenue is quite 
 small in comparison with the receipts. The term 
 "receipts" would include amounts received by the com- 
 pany for bonds and stock issued and sold, but such 
 receipts would in no wise be a revenue ; again, it would 
 include the total freight charges collected on a ship- 
 ment originating on one line and routed via another 
 line, while only a very small part of such collection 
 might be revenue, or earnings. 
 
 Most railways of any considerable size have an 
 organization which provides for two Auditors of 
 Receipts — viz., an Auditor of Freight Receipts and an 
 Auditor of Passenger Receipts — and one Auditor of 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 297 
 
 Disbursements. The three offices are conducted as dis- 
 tinct organizations, so far as practicable. There are, 
 however, a number of cases where the work of the 
 different offices overlaps to a great extent. For 
 instance, in the case of auditing the expenditures on 
 account of loss and damage, and overcharge claims, 
 there is a decided advantage in having such Loss and 
 Damage and Overcharge Department either a part of, 
 or very closely connected with, the office of the Auditor 
 of Freight Receipts, owing to the fact that scarcely an 
 "overcharge" or "loss and damage to- freight" claim 
 is settled that does not have to> be checked more or less 
 against the records in the office of the Auditor of 
 Freight Receipts — that is, against the abstracts of the 
 billing, or the original or copies of the bills themselves. 
 
 On the other hand, there are certain receipts that can 
 more economically be accounted for in the office of the 
 Auditor of Disbursements; namely, those which affect 
 the operating expenses of the road; or, as a matter of 
 fact, any receipts not in the nature of revenue, other 
 than those of a strictly financial character, which are 
 usually taken care of by the Chief Accounting Officer. 
 The accounting for such receipts is, in fact, simply a 
 part of the work of auditing the disbursements. For in- 
 stance, if one railway company operates a terminal 
 which is used jointly by several other companies, the 
 work of auditing the disbursements of that particular 
 portion of the line is not complete until proper bills have 
 been rendered against the tenant lines for their propor- 
 tion of such expenditures. 
 
 It might be mentioned here, in passing, that the 
 
298 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 question as to who is to see to it that such joint bills are 
 promptly paid after they are audited is one upon which 
 many roads differ. Some lines make this a part of the 
 duty of the Auditor of Disbursements, while others' 
 consider it the duty of the General Auditor's or 
 Comptroller's office, the latter class holding that the 
 duty of the Auditor of Disbursements has been per- 
 formed when he audits the bill. This is not, however, 
 a question of vital importance, the main point being to 
 insure that such collections are closely followed up by 
 whomsoever the General Auditor or Comptroller 
 designates for that duty. 
 
 Another phase of auditing on which a great many 
 roads differ is the question of auditing construction 
 expenditures. The settlement of this problem would 
 seem to> hinge on the question of how closely the execu- 
 tive management of a company desires such things 
 looked after, and on the policy of the company in finan- 
 cing such expenditures. In the opinion of the writer, 
 if it is the policy of the company to issue bonds for all 
 construction expenditures, including additions and 
 improvements, such expenditures should be audited in 
 the office of the highest accounting official : so< that he 
 may at all times be entirely conversant with just what 
 items are being charged against capital account, and 
 convince himself that no such charges, however small, 
 are made against this account without his personal 
 approval. This opinion is supported by the fact that 
 the executive officer, when seeking information as to 
 accounts, invariably calls upon the highest accounting 
 official for it, and keeps in close touch with the prog- 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 299 
 
 ress of all construction work. Hence, as a matter of 
 personal pride and of protection as well, the General 
 Accounting Officer should have the details of the con- 
 struction expenditures on the tip of his tongue; and, 
 to have them there, he must have the details under his 
 immediate surveillance. 
 
 Expenditures or disbursements are made in a number 
 of ways', but in the accounting all resolve themselves in 
 the end into either "material" or "labor." 
 
 "Material disbursements," as known in accounts, 
 must not be understood to mean actual material and 
 supplies ; for such is not the case. All payments other 
 than those made on the pay-roll are usually treated as 
 "material;" while, as a matter of fact, if such pay- 
 ments were traced back to the inception of the expense, 
 they might be found to- contain as high as 90 per cent, 
 of labor charges. For instance, take contract payments, 
 which are nearly always made by voucher and dis- 
 tributed to the proper accounts through the material 
 distribution ; probably 90 per cent, of most of these pay- 
 ments are for labor. 
 
 In accounting for "material" disbursements we have 
 to* deal with vouchers, drafts, bills, material distribu- 
 tion, and other mediums. Such claims as do> not 
 demand immediate settlement are paid by voucher; 
 e. g., payments for material, contract labor, amounts 
 due other companies for proportion of cost of operating 
 joint facilities, etc., etc. 
 
 A voucher is a paper or document which serves' to 
 vouch the truth of accounts, or confirm or establish 
 facts. In railway parlance, it is the document on which 
 
300 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 the various officials certify that certain material has 
 been received or certain labor performed ; it is' the evi- 
 dence to the Accounting Department that the expense is 
 a, proper one for the company to assume, and the 
 medium through which the expense is settled. Vouch- 
 ers usually show the name of the company paying them 
 at the top; this being immediately followed by — 
 
 To 
 
 Dr. 
 
 This is followed by a brief statement of the facts, out- 
 lining what is being paid for, and the amount; all of 
 which is then certified to by the officials whose certifica- 
 tion is necessary before the payment can be made. On 
 the bottom, of the form is provided space for the receipt 
 of the payee. 
 
 Such claims as demand immediate attention are paid 
 by draft, drawn on the Treasurer of the company, by its 
 duly accredited representatives. This class of claims 
 includes many personal-injury claims, claims for loss 
 by fire, and settlement for loss and damage of freight. 
 A draft is an order for the payment of money, and 
 usually reads somewhat as' follows : 
 
 Pay to (John Smith) or order ($500.00) on demand 
 To (Quincy Adams), Treasurer. 
 
 Payments by draft should, so> far as possible, be dis- 
 countenanced, inasmuch as it is, under usual conditions, 
 impossible to audit the claim before the payment is 
 made. If the payment be made to> an irresponsible 
 party, the company is the only loser, unless the errone- 
 ous payment is of such a nature that it can be collected 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 301 
 
 from the company employee responsible for it; that is, 
 in case the neglect or oversight of the representative 
 is so palpable that it cannot be overlooked. 
 
 Another class of settlements is made by drafts of 
 foreign lines on the Treasurer of the home company. 
 The majority of these drafts, however, represent set- 
 tlement of freight or ticket balances, and consequently 
 their correctness is verified by returns from the office 
 of the Auditor of Freight of Passenger Receipts, as 
 the case may be. 
 
 As already stated, the auditing of an expenditure is 
 not complete until all amounts due from others in con- 
 nection with such expenditure have been collected. 
 Such collections are made through the medium of bills. 
 A bill is "an account of goods sold or delivered, services 
 rendered, or work done, with the price or value annexed 
 to each article." The auditing of bills will be described 
 later. 
 
 Still other disbursements are accounted for through 
 the medium of the "material distribution," these dis- 
 bursements covering the use of material after it has 
 been purchased and charged to stock, and, under the 
 plan in vogue on most railroads (if the writer is cor- 
 rectly informed), including the distribution of the 
 vouchers and bills to the expense accounts. This class 
 of disbursements will also be more fully treated here- 
 after. 
 
 Let us now turn to the accounting in detail of dis- 
 bursements made by voucher, after which we shall 
 treat settlements by drafts, and the auditing of bills and 
 material distributions, in order. 
 
302 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 Under the method in vogue on some railroads, every 
 expenditure, of whatever nature, must be covered by an 
 approved voucher; under the method in vogue on 
 others, the payments by drafts are taken care of 
 through the cash-book without a voucher; but, under 
 either method, the payments by voucher for a road of 
 more than 5,000 miles will run from $50,000,000 to 
 $100,000,000 per annum, such payments being, in all 
 cases, heavier than those through any other medium. 
 
 Vouchers are prepared, in the first instance, by the 
 department having immediate supervision over the ex- 
 penditure. In the case of vouchers for material, they 
 are prepared by the Purchasing Agent; in the case of 
 vouchers for contract labor, they are prepared by the 
 Superintendent or Engineer in immediate charge of the 
 work ; and so on. 
 
 The vouchers of most roads are prepared by the 
 maker in such a manner that the Treasurer may, after 
 the voucher has been approved for payment, affix his 
 official stamp and make a sight draft of it, good at any 
 bank he may designate. Some roads do not prepare 
 their vouchers in this manner, but instead, after the 
 voucher has been approved for payment, draw a check 
 or warrant in payment, the only approvals on such 
 check or warrant being those affixed in the Accounting 
 Department. Each plan has its merits and its demerits ; 
 but, taken all in all, the former commends itself to the 
 writer as being the more economical and practicable. 
 Under the former method, vouchers are prepared by 
 the maker in triplicate, the original to be sent out by 
 the Treasurer for payment, the duplicate to be retained 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 303 
 
 by the maker, and the triplicate, with all supporting 
 papers attached, to be filed in the office of the Auditor 
 of Disbursements. 
 
 When a voucher has been certified by the maker, it 
 is passed to his immediate superior for certification and 
 approval ; thence to the next superior officer, and so on, 
 until it bears the approval of the head of the depart- 
 ment originating it, after which it is sent to the Auditor 
 of Disbursements to be audited. 
 
 The method of auditing a voucher varies greatly on 
 different roads. Some roads rely on the check given 
 the voucher in the outside, or division, office through 
 which it passes before it reaches the Auditor of Dis- 
 bursements ; while others take nothing for granted. An 
 Auditor of Disbursements of a road in the latter class is 
 from Missouri — "he has to be showed." 
 
 All vouchers, of whatever nature, when they reach 
 the office of the Auditor of Disbursements, are given a 
 number and entered on what is' known as the "voucher 
 abstract." This abstract shows number, payee, what 
 the voucher is for, amount, and distribution to the vari- 
 ous accounts to which vouchers are charged. Here 
 again roads differ greatly as to the method to be pur- 
 sued. Some roads charge the voucher on the abstract 
 to the person making it, or, in case of purchase vouch- 
 ers, to the person to whom the material is shipped, 
 and look to him to furnish a distribution of it to the 
 different accounts — i. e., charging the different operat- 
 ing or construction accounts, and crediting himself; 
 while other roads make the charges direct to the vari- 
 ous accounts in the general office. The former method, 
 
304 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 carefully and systematically carried out, commends 
 itself to the writer. 
 
 Material purchases' are covered by regularly approv- 
 ed requisitions; that is to say, the Purchasing Agent 
 can purchase nothing unless he has the approval of the 
 head o-f the department ordering the material. This 
 approved requisition is forwarded to the office of the 
 Auditor of Disbursements, where it is conveniently 
 filed, and any and all vouchers received from the Pur- 
 chasing Agent's office are checked against such ap- 
 proved requisitions before being paid, notation being 
 made on the requisition to the effect that the voucher 
 in payment of the same has been passed, showing there- 
 on the number of such voucher. In the case of a pur- 
 chase voucher, the only approval required is that of the 
 Purchasing Agent, who< certifies that the material has' 
 been purchased a,t the best price obtainable. It is 
 obviously unnecessary for the purchase vouchers to> be 
 certified by the head of the department ordering the 
 material, inasmuch as his certification and approval 
 appear on the original requisition for the material, 
 which, as stated above, is on file in the office of the 
 Auditor of Disbursements, and against which the 
 voucher itself is checked before it is passed for payment. 
 
 It will be apparent that it is impossible to pass a 
 duplicate payment for material on any requisition, 
 inasmuch as, when the second voucher is checked 
 against the original requisition, it will be noted that 
 the former voucher has been passed, and the second or 
 duplicate voucher will consequently be canceled and 
 returned to the maker. 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 305 
 
 In the case of recurring payments (or receipts) — 
 that is, payments that have to be made regularly once 
 each month, each quarter, or each year, as the case 
 may be — the matter is usually covered by contract or 
 agreement, and the Auditor of Disbursements is 
 furnished with a copy of each and every one of these 
 contracts or agreements, in so far as they pertain to his 
 department. These are filed in some suitable way, so 
 that they may be readily located ; and when a voucher 
 covering a payment provided for by contract reaches the 
 Auditor, it is checked against the contract to the last 
 detail, in order to see that the provisions of the contract 
 are being fulfilled. 
 
 These recurring payments are also checked against 
 a record of recurring payments when they reach the 
 Auditor's office. This record is usually kept in a loose- 
 leaf ledger, and a separate sheet is provided for each 
 contract or each recurring payment. The sheet shows 
 on its face the parties between whom the agreement is 
 made, the date when made, and the date of expiration, 
 and carries, in addition, an abstract of the agreement. 
 It shows by whom the voucher should be prepared, and 
 the date on which it should be made. On the bottom 
 of the form, space is provided for the record for that 
 particular payment monthly for five years', each 
 month's record showing the number of the voucher 
 and the amount. This record is examined once a 
 month to see that every regularly recurring payment 
 has been audited. 
 
 After purchase vouchers have been checked against 
 the requisitions, and vouchers covered by contracts 
 
306 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 have been checked against the contracts, they are given 
 to the distribution clerk, who checks' every addition, 
 extension, and, so> far as possible, price, on the voucher. 
 The distribution men — or checkers, as they might be 
 called — are supposed to* see that every item included on 
 any voucher is in the interest of the company; and if 
 the vouchers do not show sufficient information on 
 their face, or in the papers attached to them, to* satisfy 
 the checkers that the payment is being made in the 
 interest of the company, they are returned to the 
 makers for further and necessary information. This 
 information should be so full and complete that it will 
 be a permanent record of just why the payment was 
 made. 
 
 All vouchers in payment for material or fuel shipped 
 from off the line of the road must be accompanied by 
 expense bills, showing either that there has been no 
 freight paid, or how much has been paid. If the pur- 
 chase contract calls for material free on board — in rail- 
 way parlance, "f. o». b." — the line of road, there should 
 be an expense bill toi accompany the voucher in pay- 
 ment for such material. This expense bill will show 
 either that the charges were paid by the consignor, or 
 that they were advanced by the agent of the purchas- 
 ing company at the junction point. If the expense bill 
 shows the latter, it is the duty of the distribution clerk 
 to see that the amount of freight charges so advanced is 
 deducted from the invoice of the shipper and from the 
 voucher in payment of such invoice. 
 
 If the material is bought f. o. b. point of shipment, 
 and such point is located off the line of the road, an 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 307 
 
 expense bill is required in the same manner as in the 
 former example, although the road is required to pay 
 the freight. In case the road does pay the freight, 
 which it does in a great many instances, the expense 
 bill is referred to the Auditor of Freight Receipts, in 
 order that he may certify that the rate paid is correct, 
 and, if not correct, immediately take the matter up 
 with the delivering line and obtain a refund of the 
 overcharge. 
 
 The voucher, after having been thoroughly checked 
 by the distribution men, is passed to the Index Clerk, 
 whose duty it is to 1 see that the payment is properly 
 indexed. This is another branch of the work in the 
 Disbursement Department that is handled very differ- 
 ently on the various lines. Some roads index only the 
 name and number of the vouchers; others index the 
 name, number, and amount ; others, the name, number, 
 amount, and description ; while still others run a debit 
 and credit ledger account with each and every person 
 from whom they receive a bill for payment. 
 
 The use of the index is dual ; that is', it serves as a 
 guide for future reference, in case reference is ever 
 made to the voucher in question, and it serves the more 
 important purpose of providing a check against dupli- 
 cate payments'. The former use is, of course, the pri- 
 mary one, and the more general ; in fact, it is the only 
 use to> which some roads put their index. The latter 
 use, however, is not the less important. 
 
 The best method that suggests itself to* the writer, 
 taking into consideration the economy that each suc- 
 cessfully conducted department of a railway company 
 
308 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 must practice, is to index: (i) the number of the 
 voucher; (2) the name or names; (3) the date of the 
 bill; (4) the number of the bill; (5) a description, 
 short and concise; and (6) the amount. This, pro- 
 vided but one bill is' paid by each voucher. In case 
 more than one bill is paid, the date, number, and 
 amount of each should be indexed. 
 
 Indexing in this manner will, of course, permit the 
 index clerk to detect any duplicate payments that may 
 get up to him without having previously been detected. 
 He is, however, as it were, the court of last resort, and 
 if a duplicate payment is overlooked by him, the only 
 protection the company has is the honesty of the man 
 who receives the payment. Therefore, the index clerk 
 should be one of the brightest, quickest, clearest-head- 
 ed, and clearest-eyed clerks in the office. In fact, a 
 perfect index clerk should have second sight. It is, 
 however, most remarkable what a degree of second 
 sight a first-class index clerk will develop. I have 
 several times been astounded to see what the clerks will 
 pick up on the index — not errors which they are 
 expected to discover, but errors which one would not 
 expect them to find at all, and which it is nearly impos- 
 sible to explain how they did find, except to say that 
 they had a "hunch." This is equally true of the dis- 
 tribution clerks mentioned previously. They become 
 extremely valuable to the company, and every day's 
 experience teaches them some new thing to look out 
 for. 
 
 The influence exerted by a first-class Auditor of Dis- 
 bursements' office in the matter of accurate accounting 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 309 
 
 by the outside or line offices is considerable. Each 
 duplicate payment and each error that is discovered 
 make the perpetrator of the duplication or error just so 
 much more careful in the future; provided always, of 
 course, that he has the interest of the company at 
 heart ; and those employees who do not have the inter- 
 est of the company at heart should be weeded out as 
 soon as discovered. As a few weeds will soon destroy 
 a fine lawn, or one rotten apple in a barrel spoil all the 
 good ones, so- will a few "don't-care-for-the-interest- 
 of-the-company" clerks soon sow dissension and a 
 don't-care spirit in an otherwise well conducted office. 
 
 When a voucher has been carefully audited in the 
 office of the Auditor of Disbursements', it is passed 
 along to the approving officer, who approves it for pay- 
 ment, which is the final action of the Accounting De- 
 partment, so far as the voucher is concerned, until after 
 it is paid by the Treasurer. When a voucher, which 
 has been sent out for payment by the Treasurer, is 
 returned by the bank, it is transmitted by the Treasury 
 Department to the Auditor of Disbursements, who 
 checks it off against the voucher abstract and marks' the 
 record "Paid," showing the date paid. It is then 
 returned to the Treasurer for filing, it being his evi- 
 dence that he has paid the amount shown thereon, and, 
 consequently, is entitled to credit for that amount. 
 
 Let us now briefly consider the auditing of payments 
 by draft. As stated before, only such settlements should 
 be made by draft as' demand immediate payment, such 
 as personal-injury and live-stock claims, and some loss 
 and damage claims, viz., those that can be settled more 
 
310 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 advantageously by immediate payment. When such 
 drafts are paid by the Treasurer (and they should never 
 be paid by him until they have been referred to the 
 Accounting Department for approval), they are 
 charged to some appropriate suspense account, and 
 later cleared therefrom either by a "credit in account" 
 voucher or by journal entry. The reason for this is 
 apparent when it is remembered that, in a great many 
 instances, there is no< information available in the gen- 
 eral office, at the time the draft is' paid, as to what 
 account the payment is chargeable to. The details of 
 the transaction are obtained later on, and as' soon as 
 obtained are used as a basis for an entry to clear the 
 suspense account. It should not be understood, in this 
 connection, that a separate entry is made to cover each 
 such transaction. Often a blanket entry is made cov- 
 ering an entire month's settlements of this nature. 
 
 Another form of disbursement is the settlement of 
 foreign-line drafts; but, as' stated before, most of these 
 cover interline passenger or freight balances, and are 
 taken care of by the Auditors of Receipts. Conse- 
 quently, they are only mentioned here. 
 
 In some instances, foreign lines make drafts for 
 their proportion of the expenses of operating certain 
 joint facilities; i. e., roads will often agree with each 
 other, during the formulation of a contract, to make 
 such settlements by drafts in order to facilitate pay- 
 ment. These are comparatively rare, however, and 
 when such a practice is' in vogue, such drafts are 
 treated in the accounts of the paying company in 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 311 
 
 exactly the same manner as the Claim Agent's drafts, 
 above referred to. 
 
 Another form of draft settlement is the settlement 
 between railway companies of freight claims' — that is, 
 overcharge or loss and damage claims — by draft. 
 This is quite generally practiced between most lines at 
 the present time, and is a convenient and economical 
 method of settling such claims. In this case the Freight 
 Claim Department issues what are known as "freight- 
 claim authorities" to connections in settlement of such 
 claims. The freight-claim authorities are subject to 
 draft, and, when issued, are credited on the books of the 
 company to an account known as "freight-claim 
 authorities issued" and charged to the appropriate ex- 
 pense accounts. When the draft of the creditor com- 
 pany is presented for payment it is paid and charged to 
 the same account, thereby clearing it. 
 
 Let us now look into the method of handling bills. 
 As was stated above, the auditing of a disbursement is 
 not complete until all bills' against other companies and 
 individuals in connection with such disbursements have 
 been made and rendered. When any labor is performed 
 or material furnished for another company or individ- 
 ual, it should be charged forthwith to that company or 
 individual, and should not enter into the expenses of the 
 company doing the work in any way whatever. When 
 the charge to the other company or individual has been 
 made in the distribution book — which book will be 
 more fully described later on — it should be cleared by 
 rendering a bill against such individual or company 
 
312 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 covering the service performed, with a fair addition 
 thereto for superintendence, accounting, etc. 
 
 This bill is sent for approval through the same chan- 
 nel as the voucher, previously described, and when it 
 reaches the office of the Auditor of Disbursements, it is 
 as thoroughly checked as is' the voucher, being checked 
 against the contract, provided one has been made to 
 cover. Here again the alertness and clear-headedness 
 of the distribution men stand in good stead. They are 
 supposed to see that the bill is made to cover every pos- 
 sible item that can legitimately be included therein — 
 such as freight charges', percentage for supervision and 
 accounting, etc. — and that all labor bills are figured on 
 the proper basis. There is a false feeling, on the part 
 of some officials and employees, that a bill is' not of very 
 much consequence, and that their best attention should 
 be given toi the preparation of vouchers. A bill is, how- 
 ever, just as important as' a voucher. The only differ- 
 ence, if an error exists on each, is that in one case we 
 are paying out too much money, while in the other 
 case we are not including in the bill what has been 
 already paid out for the account of the company against 
 which the bill is being prepared. There is absolutely 
 no difference so* far as the ultimate effect on the finances 
 of the company is concerned. 
 
 Bills are prepared and audited in very much the 
 same manner as vouchers, receive just as much atten- 
 tion from the Accounting Department, and are con- 
 sidered just as important. As stated before, the 
 method of handling the collection of bills after they are 
 audited varies with the different roads. It is the sense 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 3*3 
 
 of the writer that all such collections should be han- 
 dled by the Auditor of Disbursements, owing to the 
 fact that the bills are audited in his office, and all of the 
 records in connection with them are kept by him. A 
 great many Chief Accounting Officers, however, pre- 
 fer to have this done in their own office, in order that 
 they may keep in closer touch with the collections. 
 
 In this connection we might consider the handling 
 of foreign-line bills against the home company. The 
 most economical and best method, from an accounting 
 standpoint, is to' have every foreign-line bill, of what- 
 ever nature, forwarded in the first instance to the 
 Auditor of Disbursements of the home line, who will 
 give it a number and take record of it in his "foreign- 
 line bill record" which shows the following information 
 for each bill : Auditor's number — that is, the number 
 given to it by the road against which it is made; date 
 received; foreign bill number — that is, the number 
 given it by the road rendering it; description; 
 amount; to whom forwarded for voucher; and the 
 number of the voucher in payment of the same. 
 
 This record is quite indispensable. While it is, in a 
 sense, an item of expense for which there is no return, 
 it is in another sense an economical measure. Even 
 when railroad companies do the best they can, there is 
 apt to' be some delay in vouchering foreign-line bills. 
 Such foreign lines frequently become impatient at the 
 delay and trace for settlement of their bills. If the 
 foreign-bill record were not kept, the auditing office 
 would have no record of the movement of the bill, and 
 considerable correspondence would ensue, which, with 
 
314 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 the foreign-line record in use, could be eliminated. 
 Again, it is only fair to handle foreign-line bills 
 promptly, even though they do not trace for payment. 
 With this record in use, the Auditor's' office can trace 
 the officials of its own line for bills' which have not 
 been vouchered promptly, and thereby hasten settle- 
 ment. Such settlements should be hastened for more 
 reasons than one. One very good reason is that some 
 railway companies have a practice of holding up pay- 
 ments due other lines until such other lines pay amounts 
 due them. While, in some cases, this may appear to 
 work a hardship, it is, in theory, only a hint to follow 
 the Golden Rule : "Do unto others as you would have 
 them doi unto* you ;" although it must be admitted that 
 it often works out as an application of the Golden 
 Rule per David Harum, viz. : "Do unto others as they 
 would do unto you, but be sure and do it first/' 
 
 The method of handling vouchers covering the pur- 
 chase of material has been described, and it will be re- 
 membered that the method provides that the voucher 
 shall be charged, in the office of the Auditor of Dis- 
 bursements', to> the official to< whom the material is 
 shipped. When it has been charged to him, it stands so 
 charged until he credits his account by charging it to an 
 appropriate operating, construction, or other account. 
 
 When material is shipped to an official of the 
 company, he is responsible for it, and it is for him to 
 see that he gets an approved order for all of such ma- 
 terial as is' disbursed or used. The approved orders, 
 each showing to just what use the material is to be put, 
 are assembled each month on some convenient form, on 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 315 
 
 which the charges to each account are segregated. At 
 the end of the month these figures are recapitulated 
 according to accounts, and forwarded to the office of 
 the Auditor of Disbursements, where entries are made 
 charging the different accounts in the books of the 
 company and crediting the different officials with the 
 amounts so charged. It will be seen, from an analysis 
 of this method, that it is to the interest of each official 
 to see that no material is used or disbursed for which he 
 has not received approved orders, inasmuch as the ma- 
 terial, when shipped to> him, is charged to him, and the 
 only way he can get credit for it is to charge it out to 
 an appropriate account; and he can make no 1 charges 
 to> the accounts except from an approved order. 
 
 At least once each year an inventory is taken of all 
 available material and supplies on hand ; this inventory 
 being taken by actual count, weight, or measurement. 
 When the inventory of material in charge of a certain 
 official is taken, the total is compared with the amount 
 charged to* such official in the general books of the 
 company. If his inventory falls short of the amount 
 so charged to> him, it is evidence that he has been lax 
 in the discharge of his duties', and that he has allowed 
 considerable material to be used (or stolen) for which 
 he has never received an approved authority, and for 
 which, consequently, he has never been credited in the 
 books of the company. This leaves the official open to 
 criticism and, in some cases, reprimand, in addition to 
 making large adjustments necessary in the accounts of 
 the company, inasmuch as any surplus or shortage 
 revealed by the inventory has' to be adjusted in order 
 
316 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 to bring the book balance of the material account into 
 accord with the actual material on hand as shown by 
 the inventory. 
 
 Railway companies provide classifications for their 
 employees to follow in making material and labor 
 charges, both against "operating expenses" and against 
 "construction accounts." These classifications differ 
 according to the needs of the different roads, but, as a 
 general proposition, all roads follow as closely as pos- 
 sible the classification provided by the Interstate Com- 
 merce Commission, which provides for the subdivision 
 of "operating expenses" under the following four 
 heads : "maintenance of way and structures," "main- 
 tenance o>f equipment," "conducting transportation," 
 and "general expenses." It also provides for a further 
 subdivision of these four headings' — the first into* ten 
 accounts, the second into' nine, the third into twenty- 
 seven, and the last into seven, 
 
 Some railway companies, owing to the vast territory 
 covered by them,, feel the need of a further subdivision 
 than is provided by the Interstate Commerce Commis- 
 sion classification, but such further division is usually 
 made so that the accounts, when necessity demands 
 (which it does at least once each year), may be consoli- 
 dated under the commission classification. It is pre- 
 scribed by law that each and every railway company 
 doing interstate business shall render returns to the 
 Interstate Commerce Commission, covering the opera- 
 tion of its property for the year ending June 30, these 
 returns to* be made on forms prescribed by the com- 
 mision. It is largely owing to this fact that the dif- 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 317 
 
 ferent companies follow as closely as possible the com- 
 mission's classification. 
 
 The Accounting Departments of the different rail- 
 way companies are gradually coming more into' accord 
 on their classifications through the efforts and influence 
 of the Association of American Railway Accounting 
 Officers — an organization formed by the accounting 
 officers of the various lines — which meets once a year 
 to discuss ways and means of bettering present account- 
 ing methods. In this way the association obtains the 
 best thought of all the accounting officers of America. 
 
 In the classification of the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission are laid down definitions of every account, 
 and rules and regulations governing the method of 
 making charges to each. It is the duty of the employees' 
 of the road to make exhaustive study of the rules and 
 regulations as laid down in the classification, as in no 
 other way can the distribution among the different 
 accounts be made with any degree of accuracy. While, 
 of course, these distributions are checked by the Ac- 
 counting Department, their correctness nevertheless 
 depends in a great measure on the original distribution 
 made by the timekeepers, shop clerks, etc., owing to 
 the fact that there is a great deal of the detail that can- 
 not be checked in the Accounting Department. There 
 is' only one way in which the timekeepers and distri- 
 bution clerks, as well as' the officials themselves, can 
 become thoroughly conversant with the rules and regu- 
 lations as laid down in the classification, and that is 
 by making a study of them. 
 
318 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 As previously stated, disbursements segregate them- 
 selves into "material" and "labor" disbursements. The 
 different phases of accounting for "material" disburse- 
 ments' have at least been mentioned in passing. The 
 "labor" disbursements cover only such expenditures as 
 are paid through the medium of the pay-roll, and, conse- 
 quently, but two 1 items will be treated in this' connec- 
 tion, viz., the "pay-roll" and the "labor distribution." 
 
 Claims for wages earned in the employ of the 
 company are paid, through the medium of the pay-roll, 
 by check — either pay-check, time-check, or unclaimed 
 wage-check. These wage-checks, while being in reality 
 a draft on the Treasurer of the company, are not in the 
 same category as the drafts spoken of above, inasmuch 
 as the expenditures covered by the wage-checks are 
 audited before the payment is made, except in the case 
 of time-checks, which will be more fully discussed a 
 little later on. 
 
 We will now take up the question of auditing the 
 pay-roll. But first it might be well, for the benefit of 
 those who have never had experience in such matters, 
 to describe a pay-roll. A pay-roll is' a statement of 
 amounts due employees for services performed, and 
 usually shows : name ; occupation ; time worked ; rate 
 per hour, mile, day, etc.; amount earned; deductions 
 (if any) ; and amount due. This' information is all 
 embodied in the pay-roll by the official preparing it. 
 There is also space left to show the number of the 
 check drawn to> pay such wages, and, in some cases, for 
 the signature of the employee and a witness. How- 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 319 
 
 ever, when rolls are paid by check, this, in the opinion 
 of the writer, is unnecessary. 
 
 The pay-roll is certified to very much in the same 
 manner as a voucher. Pay-rolls are made up from 
 time-rolls, or time-books, and these time-rolls or time- 
 books are usually made up from, daily or other time- 
 slips. The preparation of pay-rolls is something that 
 cannot have too* much attention. When an official 
 makes and certifies to a pay-roll, he is practically draw- 
 ing a check on the Treasurer of his company, and he 
 should be just as careful in making the one as the 
 other. There is no* better motto for a young railroad 
 man — or, as a matter of fact, any young man — than 
 this: "Be as careful in handling the interests of your 
 employer as you would be in handling your own." And 
 when it comes to a question of paying out money, one 
 should be even more careful, inasmuch as there are a 
 great many ways in which a man may legitimately 
 spend his own money, which, if applied to company 
 funds, would be anything but legitimate. 
 
 The base of most pay-rolls is the time-slip or 
 other report of work performed. This is filled out by 
 the employee, and is a brief description of what he has 
 done during the day, showing the time he commenced 
 work, the time he quit, and what work he has been 
 engaged upon during the period of time covered by the 
 slip — this last in order that the timekeeper may make 
 the proper distribution of his time. These time-slips 
 are entered daily by the timekeeper in the time-book, 
 and at the end of the month the time-book is footed, 
 the total hours worked extended into' money at the rate 
 
320 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 of pay for the different classes of labor, and, after being 
 proved, the time and wages are transferred to the pay- 
 roll. 
 
 In many cases — such, for instance, as those of sec- 
 tion men — the foreman of the gang keeps a time-book 
 in which is entered the daily performance of each man. 
 The average section man is entirely too' ignorant to be 
 asked to> prepare time-slips, but the foreman, being at 
 all times' with his men, is virtually a timekeeper, and 
 can keep an accurate record of each man's performance 
 without any daily slips. 
 
 All of the employees in each department of each 
 division are entered on one roll for convenience, and 
 this roll is certified by the official in charge, and passed 
 to his immediate superior for further approval and 
 transmission. When it bears the approval of the high- 
 est officer in the department in which it originates, it is 
 sent to the office of the Auditor of Disbursements to be 
 audited. In the office of the Auditor of Disbursements, 
 the pay-rolls are checked just as thoroughly as it is pos- 
 sible with the information at hand. All monthly rates 
 are checked against the previous month's roll, and if 
 any increases appear, they must be covered by a regu- 
 larly approved authority. In the case of hourly rates, 
 they are checked against the schedule covering such 
 rates, and no deviation from the schedule is allowed 
 without proper authority. 
 
 The correctness of the number of regular monthly 
 men is also ascertained by check against the previous 
 month's roll — this to prevent (in a measure) straw- 
 men being carried on the pay-roll. All extensions, 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 321 
 
 footings, or calculations, of whatever nature, are thor- 
 oughly checked, after which record is taken of the total 
 amount, which is credited to the unpaid wage account 
 and charged to the official making the same. It is then 
 forwarded to the highest accounting officer for ap- 
 proval for payment after which it goes to the Pay- 
 master, in whose office the checks are usually drawn. 
 
 It used to be a somewhat general practice to pay 
 employees in cash from pay-cars, but most lines have 
 given up that dangerous and expensive method for the 
 much safer and cheaper one of paying by check. As 
 soon as the checks can be drawn by the Paymaster, 
 they are sent out to the different division points for dis- 
 tribution to the employees. 
 
 There are a great many people — in fact, a great 
 many employees — who think that the railway company 
 pays two or three weeks after the end of the month in 
 order to get the use of the money for that period. This 
 is a fallacy that is born of ignorance, and is as far from 
 the facts as anything could be. Railway companies pay 
 at the time they do simply because it is impossible to 
 pay any sooner. Anyone holding such an idea will 
 probably quickly disabuse himself of it when it is 
 learned that an average trunk-line railway of from 
 5,000 to 10,000 miles will draw from 25,000 to 50,000 
 pay-checks per month, and in doing so pay out from 
 one to two or more millions of dollars. Anyone can 
 see that payments aggregating such figures, and having 
 to be made in such small amounts, cannot be made in 
 one day, two days, or three days, but that it takes time 
 to do it and do it rightly. Again, no one should deny 
 
322 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 the railway company the privilege of making a thor- 
 ough check of its pay-rolls before paying them. This' 
 work is given preference over everything else, when it 
 reaches the audit office, and the railway company should 
 be praised for the facility with which it handles its 
 pay-rolls, rather than censured for what seems to be 
 delay, but which, as a matter of fact, is far from being 
 such. 
 
 When employees leave the service before the pay- 
 rolls are made up, they are paid by time-check. The 
 amount of the time-check is taken up on the pay-roll 
 as a matter of record, but is taken up only in the 
 "amount" and "deduction" columns, showing the time- 
 check number on the roll and leaving nothing due the 
 employee. The pay-checks are, of course, drawn for 
 only the items appearing in the "amount due" column. 
 When pay-checks or time-checks have been held for a 
 certain period, say three months, and the company is' 
 unable to deliver and pay them, they are, for con- 
 venience in accounting, canceled and transferred to 
 what is usually termed an "unclaimed wage" roll. Here 
 they are carried for an indefinite period, or until paid. 
 This action greatly facilitates the handling of the unpaid 
 pay and time-check accounts', inasmuch as it leaves 
 very little therein more than ninety days old. 
 
 The question of labor distribution should also be 
 taken up in this connection. The time-books', in which 
 are entered the daily time-slips, provide space for the 
 distribution of such time. Immediately after the pay- 
 rolls have been compiled and forwarded, the distribu- 
 tion of each employee's' time is drawn off on forms suit- 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 323 
 
 able for the purpose, and recapitulated in the same man- 
 ner as the material distributions — i. e., by accounts. 
 This distribution is sent to the office of the Auditor of 
 Disbursements and ; after being checked, is charged on 
 the books of the company to the appropriate operating 
 construction, or other account, and credited to the 
 official preparing the roll which the distribution is made 
 to> cover, to whom the pay-rcll was charged when it 
 was audited. The piocess of auditing the labor distri- 
 bution is so similar to< that of auditing the material 
 distribution that further description is unnecessary. 
 
 Another phase of the work in the office of the 
 Auditor of Disbursements is' that handled in the Statis- 
 tical Department, which is one of the most important 
 divisions. It is through the statistics furnished that the 
 executives' of the company judge the work of their 
 subordinates. An Accounting Department of a railway 
 company may be likened to the reflector of a lamp. 
 Each globe of the lamp is represented by an official of 
 the company. The globes' do the work; the reflector 
 shows what they do. The Statistical Department of 
 the Accounting Department is really the reflector; it 
 brings all results together, and reduces them to a point 
 where they may be made to show any information 
 desired by the executives. 
 
 The question of what statistics shall be furnished is 
 one for executive decision, and on the executive's 
 decision hinges entirely the size of the department. 
 There is probably no other branch of accounting that 
 differs more on the various roads than this. Some 
 executives think that it pays to divide the expenses of 
 
324 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 the line, as well as the earnings, into what are known 
 as "accounting divisions," while others feel that any- 
 thing beyond a division between operating divisions is 
 false economy. Nearly all of the trunk lines' are keep- 
 ing their accounts separate by operating divisions. An 
 "operating division" is that portion of the road under 
 the jurisdiction of a set O'f division officials, while an 
 "accounting division" is such further subdivision of an 
 operating division as, in the opinion of the executive 
 or the chief accounting officer, is necessary. In general 
 practice, all branch lines are designated as accounting 
 divisions, and, in a great many instances, the main 
 line of an operating division will be split up into three 
 accounting divisions — sometimes, including branch 
 lines, into as many as ten. 
 
 As before suggested, there is a question as to the 
 value of figures showing the results' of the operation of 
 an accounting division, owing both to< the fact that there 
 is considerable expense attendant upon the compilation, 
 and to the further fact that the bases used for dividing 
 some of the expenses are, at best, but arbitrary. 
 There is some doubt as to whether the figures arrived at 
 for the accounting divisions, on the arbitrary bases 
 used, are worth what it costs to compile them. It is the 
 opinion of the writer that division of expenses between 
 accounting divisions is impracticable, and that the re- 
 sults obtained do not justify the expenses' incurred. 
 However, as stated before, the question of whether 
 statistics shall be kept for accounting or operating 
 divisions is one that should be decided by the executive 
 of the company, inasmuch as he is the only man who 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 325 
 
 knows just what he wants, and it is the duty of the 
 Accounting Department to give him just what he 
 wants. 
 
 Most railroads get from their Statistical Department 
 what is generally known as an "operating sheet," on 
 which are embodied all of the operating results. These 
 results are usually shown by divisions and districts — a 
 district being that portion of the line over which a gen- 
 eral superintendent has jurisdiction, and comprising 
 from two or three to five or six, or more, operating 
 divisions. These sheets show the division of the 
 operating expenses among the different accounts, as 
 provided in the classification, and also certain other 
 statistical information for each division and district, 
 such as : number of passengers moved one mile ; number 
 of tons of freight, both company and revenue, moved 
 one mile; freight and passenger-train mileage; pas- 
 senger-car mileage ; loaded and empty freight-car mile- 
 age; caboose-car mileage; miles of road operated; etc., 
 etc. These are what are known as "factors." By the 
 use of these factors we are enabled to obtain units of 
 cost for any given part of the expenses, or any other 
 units we may desire. The units most commonly used 
 in railway statistics', in ascertaining costs, are the train- 
 mile, the ton-mile, and the passenger-mile. 
 
 To get the unit of cost per freight-train mile, for in- 
 stance, we first have to* divide the operating expenses 
 between passenger and freight. This is done on an 
 actual basis, so far as possible ; where it is impossible to 
 ascertain the actual passenger or freight cost, it is ob- 
 tained on some arbitrary basis', the one most generally 
 
326 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 in use being the passenger- and freight-train mile basis. 
 After the expense incident to freight has been ascer- 
 tained, and it is desired to arrive at the unit of cost, say, 
 per freight-train mile, the expense so arrived at is' di- 
 vided by the number of freight-train miles, the quotient 
 being the unit of cost per freight-train mile. 
 
 The expenses' may be divided into as many subdi- 
 visions as are thought necessary before figuring the 
 units. For instance, in "conducting transportation" 
 expense it is usually considered practicable to figure 
 units of cost per train-, ton-, or passenger-mile for sta- 
 tion service, yard service, engine service, train service, 
 and other conducting transportation expenses. On the 
 operating sheet are usually shown three months' figures 
 — i. e., this month, last month, and the same month last 
 year — in order to show the comparisons. 
 
 Some of the units that are usually figured, aside 
 from the units of cost, are : tons per train, tons per car, 
 number of loaded freight-cars per train, number of 
 empty freight-cars per train, freight-train miles' per 
 mile of road, tons one mile per mile of road, passengers 
 per train, passengers per car, passenger-train miles per 
 mile of road, passengers one mile per mile of road, etc. 
 There, can of course, be shown, on this so-called operat- 
 ing sheet, any units that may be thought of value. 
 Probably no two* roads figure exactly the same units' 
 of cost ; however, all roads, rendering a regular monthly 
 operating sheet, will figure most of the units cited. 
 These units of cost will come nearer reflecting just 
 what a division official is doing than any other figures, 
 and are a great aid to the chief operating officials as 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 327 
 
 well as to the executives. It should be remembered 
 that all of these units are figured for each division. 
 
 If, on a certain division, the unit of cost per freight- 
 train mile for train service this month is 35.3 cents, 
 and last month was 2> 2 -7 cents, the division superin- 
 tendent in charge of that division is quite likely to be 
 called upon for an explanation of the increased cost of 
 2.6 cents per train-mile. If this explanation is hard to 
 give, it stands' to reason that the division official inter- 
 ested will do all he can to reduce the expenses in the 
 subsequent months. It will be seen from this example 
 that units' of cost are an excellent measure of an 
 official's ability. 
 
 To make these units of cost of any value, however, 
 it is absolutely essential that a full month's expenses, 
 no more and no less, be included in each month's 
 figures. In order to do this, it is often necessary for 
 the division officials to take up certain items of expense 
 in their monthly returns on an estimated basis. This 
 point can be more clearly explained by an example: 
 Let A represent the road preparing the operating sheet. 
 On a certain division of this road it is obliged, for some 
 good reason, to use permanently the track of another 
 company, B, for a distance of twenty miles, paying 
 for the use thereof one-half of the cost of maintaining 
 and operating it, aside from the cost of running its 
 trains ; such joint expense to be borne by A aggregat- 
 ing $10,000 per month. There will be times when, in all 
 probability, it will be impossible for B to render its bill, 
 covering the operation and maintenance of this joint 
 line, promptly, and there may be two or three months 
 
328 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 at a time when it will be found impossible to render 
 such bills. Now, if A (the line making the operating 
 sheet) should take B's bills into account just as they 
 are rendered, it will be seen that the units of cost for 
 the division of A on which the joint track is operated 
 would be valueless; in fact, they would be worse than 
 valueless in that they would be misleading. In one 
 month they would have no expenses for the joint line, 
 while in the next month they might have two> or more 
 months' expenses. 
 
 In order to obviate this difficulty and to make the 
 units of cost of some value, the only method suggesting 
 itself is to take such items into the operating expenses 
 on an estimated basis, provided the foreign-line bill is 
 not received in time to take it in on an actual basis. A 
 great many roads do not follow this practice, but it is 
 indispensable to a road that prepares statistics showing 
 units of cost ; and it is certainly good accounting. 
 
 This department's duties also include the tabulation 
 of joint facility bills and different associations' bills, 
 such as car service, passenger assocations, rate bureaus, 
 etc. These bills are tabulated in detail. This is done 
 to make sure that no additional expense is included 
 without adequate authority, and also for the detection 
 of other errors. It is a great help to an Auditing De- 
 partment, and is practically the only way to obtain a 
 complete check on such bills. 
 
 Another of its duties is to make comparisons of units 
 of cost between different joint facilities. For instance, 
 if on one division we use jointly with another company 
 a few miles of its track, and on another division we 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 329 
 
 use jointly with another company a few miles of its 
 track, there are certain items that we pay each line, 
 although the prices charged by each may be vastly dif- 
 ferent. Take, for example, the cost of icing passenger- 
 cars. One company may be charging us, on an average, 
 10 cents per car for icing, and the other company, 20 
 cents per car. The two facilities being on different 
 divisions, the division officials would not be in a posi- 
 tion to know of the vast difference in cost, and it is quite 
 safe to assume that the heads of the operating depart- 
 ments' at headquarters will not notice it; therefore, the 
 only place to discover such discrepancies is in the Ac- 
 counting Department, and the only method that sug- 
 gests itself is that of tabulating the different items of 
 cost. The saving to< be effected through this may look 
 small to one not in a position to know, but it should not 
 be forgotten that such a saving, when once effected, 
 is a saving for the entire period during which the prop- 
 erty is' operated jointly. Taking this into considera- 
 tion, it will be seen that the saving is no small one, 
 especially when it is' known that some leases run for 
 999 years. 
 
 Still another duty of the Statistical Department is 
 the preparation of the locomotive and car performance 
 sheet. This shows in detail the results of operation of 
 each locomotive : how many miles it made, how many 
 tons of coal, cords of wood, or pints of oil it used, and 
 the different units per engine-mile; that is, how many 
 miles were run to the ton of coal, pint of oil, etc., used. 
 Similar information is sometimes worked up for indi- 
 
33° RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 vidual engineers, and it is a most excellent measure of 
 their ability. 
 
 The foregoing are only a few of the more important 
 duties of the Statistical Department. There are many 
 others, which limitations of time forbid me to mention. 
 A Statistical Department must at all times hold itself 
 in readiness to furnish any statistical information de- 
 sired by the various officials. 
 
 An important factor in the auditing of the disburse- 
 ments' of a railway company is the work of the Travel- 
 ing Accountants. While an attempt is made in the gen- 
 eral offices to check, as far as possible, all details of 
 the accounting, the correctness of the distribution 
 d spends in a great measure on the original distribution 
 made by the timekeeper, shop clerks, or other division 
 accountants. In many cases, the only way in which it 
 is possible to check certain distributions' thoroughly is 
 to be on the ground and in touch with local conditions. 
 No man can be in two places at once; i. e., he cannot 
 be in the general office checking accounts and also 
 on the road looking into local conditions' at different 
 points. Hence the necessity for Traveling Account- 
 ants, 
 
 While the Auditor of Disbursements can outline 
 definitions of accounts' and methods to be pursued in the 
 accounting for different propositions on the road, the 
 only way in which he can know that his instructions are 
 being fully carried out is through the use of Traveling 
 Accountants, who, being on the road all the time, can 
 keep him advised as to every particular. The Traveling 
 Accountants should thus enjoy the entire confidence of 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 331 
 
 the Auditor of Disbursements, and should at all times 
 be very closely in touch with him. 
 
 The number and duties' of Traveling Accountants on 
 different railroads vary with the system of accounting 
 in vogue. For instance, on a road where the system 
 calls for the transmission to the general office of all of 
 the details of the accounts, regardless' of their character 
 — whether material or labor — the need for Traveling 
 Accountants is much less than on a road the system of 
 which does not demand the forwarding to the general 
 office of the entire mass of detail which accumulates 
 each month in the accounting for all disbursements. 
 Regardless of the system in vogue, however, there is 
 always need for one or more Traveling Accountants 
 on any road. 
 
 One of the duties of the Traveling Accountant, and 
 perhaps the most important one, is the checking of 
 time. There are certain details of timekeeping which 
 it is impracticable, and often impossible, to check in the 
 general office, regardless of what system is employed, 
 and the only way in which a check on these details may 
 be had is to have a Traveling Accountant on the road 
 for that purpose. For instance, take the checking of 
 engine-men's and train-men's time. The sole way in 
 which this can be done correctly is to check it against 
 the train sheets covering the movement of the men in 
 question, and to check it against the time-table or other 
 approved mileage table, in order to see that the dis- 
 tances allowed are proper. In my opinion, this can 
 best be done through Traveling Accountants. The 
 Traveling Accountants on the line of the road checking 
 
332 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 time can, as a rule, save a great deal more for the 
 company than their salaries and expenses. This' may 
 seem unreasonable, but when it is remembered that the 
 disbursements of the average trunk-line, through pay- 
 rolls alone, average from ten to twenty million dollars 
 a year, it will be seen that this saving is a very small 
 percentage of the total pay-roll. 
 
 It is absolutely essential to have somebody on the 
 road checking this time, inasmuch as employees, while 
 prone to. criticise the company and the timekeepers in 
 case their time has been under-allowed, are very slow 
 to> report any over-payment. I do> not say this in order 
 to convey the impression that the employees, as a whole, 
 are dishonest ; but some employees, who are not scrupu- 
 lously honest, if overpaid two 1 or three dollars, will say 
 nothing about it, thinking that the railroad company 
 had not paid them as much as it should at some other 
 time. While this excuse may ease their pangs of con- 
 science, two> wrongs do not make a right, and every 
 such dishonest action is a nail in the coffin in which 
 the guilty person's' career will finally be buried. 
 
 The Traveling Accountants are also able to suggest 
 many economies on the line. For instance, take shop 
 economies. On one of the lines with which I have been 
 connected it was the practice, in paying the men on 
 pay-day, to blow a shop whistle at a certain hour, and 
 have all the employees quit work and go* to' a centrally 
 located point to receive their wage-checks. Through 
 the suggestion of a Traveling Accountant, this prac- 
 tice was changed, and the timekeeper delivered the pay- 
 checks to the employees separately in each department. 
 
THE AUDITOR OF EXPENDITURES 333 
 
 This one suggestion undoubtedly was the means of sav- 
 ing the company at least $1,000 per month on its pay- 
 roll; that is, the company would derive $1,000 more of 
 labor performed from its employees, with the same 
 amount of money expended, as' under the other scheme, 
 inasmuch as it would not, under the last-named scheme, 
 waste fifteen minutes or a half-hour of the time of each 
 employee in paying him. This is not the only case I 
 could mention in which different economies have been 
 suggested by the Traveling Accountants, with the same 
 effect. I should like to* add that there is no other 
 method in which these things can be discovered by the 
 Accounting Department, and corrected. 
 
 The Traveling Accountant is' one of the most impor- 
 tant personages' in the Disbursements Department, and 
 in consequence he should be a man fully versed in all 
 of the workings of this' department. Among his other 
 duties is the teaching of the classification to the em- 
 ployees — that is, the timekeepers, shop clerks, and other 
 distribution men along the line. He is, as it were, an 
 interpreter of the classification; and while we try at 
 headquarters' to make the classification as clear as possi- 
 ble, there are always certain employees who do not 
 interpret it as they should. 
 
 Another field in which the Traveling Accountants are 
 very valuable is the following: As you all know, in 
 this day of labor unions, the different classes of labor 
 are paid according to certain schedules, and these 
 schedules are some times quite complicated, this' being 
 especially true in the case of engineers and firemen. 
 It is not to be wondered at that some of the timekeepers, 
 
334 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 who are, at the best, not overpaid, stumble and fall in 
 the interpretation of these schedules. However, it is 
 impressed upon the Traveling Accountants that they 
 must see that the schedule is being properly interpreted 
 at each point they visit ; and in this way great good is 
 accomplished. 
 
 It has been my endeavor, in the foregoing, to* give a 
 general outline of the working of the office of the Au- 
 ditor of Disbursements, lack of time compelling the 
 omission of many details of interest to> the specialist, 
 though likely enough dry reading for the average 
 layman. 
 
THE WORK OF THE FREIGHT AUDITOR 
 
 W. F. DUDLEY, ASSISTANT GENERAL AUDITOR, CHICAGO, 
 MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL RAILWAY 
 
 What the arteries and veins are to the life, health, 
 comfort, and development of the human body, the 
 means of transportation are to* the development and 
 prosperity, the intellectual, social, and material welfare, 
 of the people of this country, and therefore to the power 
 and influence of our government. By reason of trans- 
 portation facilities the people of each section enjoy 
 what they need of the surplus products of nearly every 
 other section — whether it be the product of the soil, of 
 the factory, or of the press. 
 
 The Chicago^ business man, resident of another state 
 — and there are many such — awakened by the rays of 
 the morning sun shining into his room through win- 
 dow-glass made in Pennsylvania, raises his head from 
 the pillow made in North Carolina, and consults 
 the clock made in Massachusetts, In leaving the 
 bed made in Michigan, he steps upon the rug made in 
 New York — or perhaps upon the tack made in Pitts- 
 burg. He doffs his night garment made at home, but 
 from cloth made in New England from cotton produced 
 in Mississippi ; he dons his business suit made in Illinois 
 from cloth made in Ohio from wool produced in Wy- 
 oming, and, entering the breakfast room on a floor made 
 from boards produced in Georgia, is seated at a table 
 made in Missouri., covered by linen made in Connecti- 
 
 335 
 
S3 6 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 cut. As he partakes of the fresh, ripe oranges produced 
 in California or Florida, or of the prime fresh meats 
 dressed, perhaps, in Nebraska from cattle produced in 
 Texas and afterward fattened in Montana, or of the 
 cakes from flour made in Minnesota from wheat pro- 
 duced in Dakota,, with alleged maple syrup said to> have 
 been produced in Vermont, he reads the Chicago morn- 
 ing papers, as fresh from the press as though just 
 printed in his own town. 
 
 Two hours later he sits at his desk in Chicago, perus- 
 ing orders transported to him in the morning mail for 
 merchandise from his store, or factory, or warehouse. 
 This mail may have been carried to> him from the At- 
 lantic coast or from the Pacific coast, from the northern 
 or the southern boundaries of the country, or from be- 
 yond the confines of the United States — in fact, from 
 any place favored with good transportation facilities; 
 and to such places, whether they be miles, hundreds of 
 miles, or thousands of miles away, he can forward the 
 desired merchandise called for. These places in turn 
 satisfy his needs, and the needs of his community, by 
 shipping back other goods' not produced in his locality, 
 but of which they have a superabundance. 
 
 Good transportation facilities have rendered it pos- 
 sible to produce and distribute papers and books — the 
 embodiment of thought and learning — at a cost which 
 renders them accessible to everyone. Congresses and 
 conventions, where able minds can meet to discuss im- 
 portant matters of common interest — whether in the 
 field of art or of science, of religion or of government — 
 to give and take, if necessary, hard knocks in the inter- 
 
THE FREIGHT AUDITOR 337 
 
 est of truth and progress, are made possible by trans- 
 portation facilities. How can a man better serve his 
 country or his fellow-men than by devoting his time 
 and thought and energies to the interests of this great, 
 but not half-appreciated, matter of transportation — by 
 actively engaging with others in the good work of dis- 
 tributing the good things of this earth, so that, instead 
 of being wasted, they may be utilized and enjoyed? 
 
 With us there are steamboats and sailboats, trollies 
 and cables, stages and drays — all useful and helpful in 
 a great many ways. But the great transportation utili- 
 ty, in comparison with which every other and all others 
 fade into insignificance, and which has done more than 
 almost any other agency for the development of our 
 country, and for the material welfare, comfort, and 
 enlightenment of its people, is the American railway, 
 constructed and operated by the great railway com- 
 panies, and the great and glorious army of American 
 railway employees, with which no man need feel 
 ashamed to be identified. 
 
 The variety, extent, and intricacy of important mat- 
 ters, requiring intelligent, punctual, and continuous 
 attention, that are involved in conducting the affairs of 
 a railway company, like the bewildering but beautiful 
 variety of form, color, and detail in vegetable life round 
 about us, are almost incomprehensible, and can be given 
 such attention only by a division and specialization of 
 the work. Good results from the railway companies — 
 which, like the refreshing rains of summer, some, but 
 not all, of the people are too apt to accept as a matter 
 of course and without proper appreciation — do not, like 
 
33 8 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 summer showers, come without human thought or ef- 
 fort, but are the direct result and manifestation o<f such 
 intelligent, punctual, and continuous attention and 
 action — planned, systematized, and provided for by the 
 central figure of the system, to whom all report, directly 
 or indirectly, and by his representatives, each in his' own 
 proper sphere and in proper relation with every other, 
 all working in perfect harmony and with perfect dis- 
 cipline — from the President, the General Manager, the 
 General Superintendent, the General Auditor, the 
 Comptroller, the Treasurer, the Tax Commissioner, 
 the General Freight Agent, the General Passenger 
 Agent, the General Baggage Agent, the Claim Agent, 
 the Fuel Agent, the Stationery Supply Agent, the Chief 
 Engineer, the Superintendent O'f Transportation, the 
 Superintendent of Motive Power, the General Road 
 Master, the Master Car Builder, the Purchasing Agent, 
 the Superintendent of Bridges and Buildings, the Gen- 
 eral Storekeeper, the Superintendent of Telegraph, 
 the Train Dispatcher, and the heads of other depart- 
 ments and departmental bureaus or divisions, down to 
 the man whose only subordinates are his own two 
 strong and willing hands. 
 
 Upon this occasion we are to> consider in a general 
 way one of the branches of the Auditing or Account- 
 ing Department — the work of the Freight Auditor, or 
 Auditor of Freight Accounts. Much of the work of the 
 Freight Auditor is based upon, and is a verification (or 
 correction) and continuation of, the work done or 
 started by that man of many superiors, the station 
 agent. In discussing the duties of the Freight Auditor, 
 
THE FREIGHT AUDITOR 339 
 
 we must start at the billing station. A consignor, hav- 
 ing delivered freight for shipment to the railway 
 company, together with a shipping-bill in due form, 
 properly describing the freight, and showing to whom 
 it is' consigned and at what destination, is given in ex- 
 change a bill of lading, or freight receipt, by the station 
 agent. The agent thereupon makes a waybill showing, 
 in accordance with the shipping-bill, the consignor, the 
 consignee and destination, a description of the freight 
 or list of articles, the weight, rate, freight charges, ad- 
 vances, and prepaid. The waybill is dated, bears a 
 designating number, and shows the initials and num- 
 ber of the car in which the freight is to be transported. 
 If the shipment is to< be stopped en route to be weighed, 
 to' be re-iced, or for any other purpose, the fact is noted 
 on the waybill. 
 
 The waybill, to the Freight Auditor, is a document 
 of first importance. It should accompany the freight 
 from the point of origin to> the billing destination, and 
 should then be sent by the receiving agent to the Freight 
 Auditor — a correct and complete statement of the 
 service rendered and of the incidents connected there- 
 with. It should bear the notations of each conductor 
 moving the freight, showing his name, the number of 
 his train, and the date of each movement. If the 
 freight is weighed on track scales at the point of origin, 
 en route or at the destination, the waybill must show 
 where and by whom weighed, and the gross, tare, and 
 net weight. If the freight has been transferred en 
 route to another car, the waybill must bear a notation 
 accordingly. If the freight is found at the destination 
 
340 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 to be damaged or short or over, the fact should be noted 
 on the waybill. Any question which may arise with 
 reference to a shipment should, so far as possible, be 
 anticipated by the agents, weighmasters, inspectors, 
 and conductors handling the freight, and answered in 
 advance by notation on the waybill before this is sent 
 to the Freight Auditor. 
 
 In certain cases, under special conditions and limita- 
 tions, for the purpose of avoiding delay freight may, by 
 special authority, be moved on "slip-bills" or "card 
 bills," the regular waybills being sent by train or 
 United States mail to the agent at the destination ; the 
 slip-bill being attached to the regular waybill by the 
 agent at the destination, and returned with it to the 
 Freight Auditor. The movement of freight on a 
 "memorandum waybill," or without a waybill, is re- 
 garded by Freight Auditors generally almost in the 
 light of a crime; and to> move freight without a way- 
 bill, or to suppress from the records and reports a way- 
 bill on which freight has been moved, is, in the eyes of 
 the Freight Auditor, about the limit of depravity. If 
 freight is underbilled as to weight, commodity, or class, 
 and is reported, there still remains a chance for detec- 
 tion and correction of the error. But what would be 
 the possibility of fraud and uncertainty were it not for 
 the rigid enforcement of the rules under which for- 
 warding agents are required to waybill all freight — 
 every shipment — and conductors are forbidden to take 
 any freight from a billing station without a waybill, 
 and which require that all waybills on which freight 
 is moved, either with or without charges, shall be duly 
 
THE FREIGHT AUDITOR 341 
 
 recorded, reported, and returned to the Freight Auditor 
 for scrutiny and correction — at the expense of the party 
 at fault, in case any error is found to have been made ! 
 
 All waybills received, local and interline, must be 
 returned (on most roads' daily) by the receiving agents 
 to the Freight Auditor. Interline waybills forwarded 
 of course go with the freight through to the billing 
 destination on a foreign line, and finally rest with the 
 Freight Auditor of such foreign line ; therefore the for- 
 warding agent making the interline waybill sends an 
 impression or carbon copy thereof to his Freight Au- 
 ditor, and (usually) to the Freight Auditor of any in- 
 termediate line over which the freight is to' pass en 
 route to its billing destination. 
 
 The agent at each station renders to his Freight 
 Auditor monthly (or as his instructions may require) 
 reports of freight forwarded and received at his station ; 
 also, separate reports of freight forwarded and received 
 at any "prepaid station" 1 over which he has supervision. 
 The agent's "freight forwarded report" includes all 
 waybills made by him during the month, and groups 
 the business to each billing destination, showing the 
 waybill number and date, the weight, freight charges, 
 advances, and prepaid on each waybill; these items 
 being footed in the report to show the total of weight, 
 freight charges, advances, and prepaid, by stations. 
 These totals in turn are carried to a recapitulation sheet, 
 and made a part of the report showing the names of the 
 
 1 A " prepaid station " is one at which no station agency is main- 
 tained, and to which, therefore, only prepaid shipments can be way- 
 billed. 
 
342 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 stations to which the freight has been waybilled during 
 the month, and the total of weight, freight charges, ad- 
 vances, and prepaid on the billing to each station ; these 
 items being footed to show the grand total to all stations 
 during the month. The "freight received report" is 
 made in the same way — to show, grouped by billing 
 stations, the date and number of each waybill, with the 
 weight, freight charges, advances, and prepaid on each 
 waybill received; the total received from each billing 
 station; and, in the recapitulation, the grand total of 
 weight, freight charges, advances, and prepaid on all 
 waybills received from all stations during the month. 
 In addition to this, the Freight Auditor will require 
 from the agent at each junction station where freight 
 is interchanged on interline billing, "junction reports," 
 forwarded and received, of such freight as passes 
 across from one foreign road to another foreign road, 
 on which his line is intermediate. There are other re- 
 ports and statements required by the Freight Auditor, 
 mostly ficm station agents, some of which will be 
 mentioned later. 
 
 While, as has been intimated, the Freight Auditor 
 is a specialist, his duties being confined to one of the 
 many branches of one of the numerous' departments of 
 the railroad, the work of his office is sometimes still 
 further subdivided and specialized ; as, for example : 
 Division i, revising waybills; Division 2, checking and 
 balancing freight reports; Division 3, interline freight 
 settlements ; Division 4, apportionment of earnings by 
 states and divisions; Division 5, statistics — the number 
 of tons of freight moved one mile, the rate per ton per 
 
THE FREIGHT AUDITOR 343 
 
 mile earned for such movement, tonnage of the several 
 commodities transported, the compilation of regular and 
 special statements as called for from time to time; Di- 
 vision 6, checking of claims; Division 7, milling and 
 cleaning in transit accounts, etc. Each of these divi- 
 sions, under the supervision of a chief, is again subdi- 
 vided, so that, instead of all clerks tackling haphazardly 
 all of the work, each clerk understands just what is' 
 required of him. He thus has an opportunity to merit 
 and receive commendation of his efforts in successfully 
 accomplishing his' own task, and to earn promotion by 
 demonstrating his ability and readiness to do> more than 
 that; or to merit and receive less gratifying attention by 
 a failure to keep abreast with his work. 
 
 It is sometimes necessary for the billing agent to 
 make waybills hurriedly. The freight may be brought 
 by a consignor, or be transferred from a connecting 
 line to 1 the forwarding station, only a short time before 
 the departure of the train on which it is desired to 
 make shipment; or the weight of the freight must be 
 ascertained or verified after the shipment leaves the for- 
 warding station. For this and other reasons, the receiv- 
 ing agent, rather than the forwarding agent, generally 
 is held responsible for the correctness of freight 
 charges (but not for the correctness of billed advances, 
 or prepaid) shown in the waybill as returned to the 
 Freight Auditor. 
 
 It is' the duty of the receiving agent, before making 
 delivery, and thereby losing lien on the freight, care- 
 fully to revise the waybill, and correct any error in com- 
 modity, classification, rate, extension, or footing of 
 
344 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 freight charges; and to communicate, if necessary, by 
 mail or telegraph with the General Freight Department 
 as to the rate applicable. To the amount of freight 
 charges so determined he must add the amount shown 
 by the billing agent on the waybill as advances (being 
 perhaps the amount paid by the billing agent to* the 
 agent of the connecting line for transportation of the 
 freight to< the retailing station) ; and from the amount 
 of freight charges and advances he must deduct the 
 amount shown by the billing agent on the waybill as 
 prepaid, this being an amount collected at the point of 
 origin from the shipper to cover or apply on the cost of 
 transporting the shipment to> its final destination. The 
 waybill may disclose by notation some further charge 
 against the shipment — e. g., for transferring freight 
 to another car on account of overloading, for recooper- 
 age, for restaking, for feeding in transit, for re-icing, 
 etc. All charges against the shipment in excess of the 
 amount shown on the waybill as having been prepaid 
 must be collected by the receiving agent upon delivery 
 of the freight. In case the amount prepaid exceeds the 
 accumulated charges against the shipment, such ex- 
 cess, if there is any chance for question as to the con- 
 signee being entitled to receive it, will, in the absence of 
 any special instruction, be added to the freight charges 
 — thrown into' freight earnings, subject to' claim. 
 
 The receiving agent each day sends to the Freight 
 Auditor such waybills as have been revised, corrected 
 and recorded. Such waybills are, as soon as possible 
 thereafter, scrutinized by the Freight Auditor, checked 
 against the classifications and tariffs, and revised as to 
 
THE FREIGHT AUDITOR 345 
 
 weight, rate, extensions, and footings; and notice is 
 sent to< the receiving agent of any errors so> discovered. 
 The Freight Auditor's correction notices' are numbered 
 and recorded. If the correction notice proposes a re- 
 duction in the charges, and the agent accordingly 
 accounts for less than was shown in the waybill as 
 returned by him, the record can be satisfied only by 
 a satisfactory showing that only the corrected amount 
 has been collected, or that proper disposition has been 
 made of the excess. If the notice shows the freight 
 to have been undercharged, the record can be satisfied 
 only by an accounting for the waybill in the current 
 month's "received report" at corrected figures, or 
 for the amount of undercharge in a subsequent month's 
 account under the head of "miscellaneous collections," 
 "storage, switching, etc.," or some such heading 
 which may be provided. On inter-line waybilling 
 the receiving railway company by which freight is 
 delivered to< the consignee at the destination is held 
 responsible, like the receiving agent on local bill- 
 ing, for the correctness of the freight charges it so 
 collects; and it is to* insure against loss of revenue re- 
 sulting from possible failure on the part of a receiving 
 road properly to revise interline waybills received by it, 
 that the impression or carbon copy of such interline 
 billing is required by the Freight Auditor from the for- 
 warding agent for the purpose of revision and check 
 against returns' from the receiving railway company. 
 
 The waybills, as revision is completed, are ready to 
 be passed on from what we have here designated as 
 "Division i — revising waybills," for use by "Division 
 
346 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 2 — checking and balancing freight reports," and "Di- 
 vision 3 — interline freight settlements." After those 
 divisions are through with them they are passed on 
 for file and custody to "Division 6 — checking claims," 
 where they are systematically filed, ready for quick ref- 
 erence, by months, alphabetically by receiving stations, 
 or otherwise. 
 
 What a vehicle is the modern freight-car! Load 
 into- it the entire furnishings of an ordinary dwelling- 
 house, and it still calls for more. Its capacity, to the 
 uninitiated, is astonishing. The average citizen, halted 
 at the crossing by a passing freight train, sees car after 
 car, and car after car, pass before his tired eyes, until 
 at last, before the caboose appears to relieve the tension, 
 his patience is almost exhausted. Some of these cars, 
 he can but notice, are loaded with coal; others with 
 farm machinery, poles, structural iron, building-stone, 
 etc. ; others, with contents concealed by closed doors — 
 in almost endless procession. He regards this gigantic 
 aggregation of rolling-stock, and valuable merchandise 
 in great variety, as a unit — simply as a noisy, dusty, 
 rather disagreeable nuisance o>f a freight train; and if 
 by chance it should momentarily halt before the caboose 
 has fully cleared the street, thus further impeding his 
 progress for a minute or two, he is liable to entertain a 
 senseless feeling of resentment, and too often foolishly 
 to> condole with himself as being one of the many vic- 
 tims of a great corporation. He knows, but does not 
 stop to consider, that each individual one of the 
 thousands of useful articles being moved as freight in 
 that train has been ordered and is needed, expected, and 
 
THE FREIGHT AUDITOR 347 
 
 waited for by someone like himself. But this train is' 
 only one of hundreds of trains simultaneously running 
 in all directions, perhaps in seven or eight states, over 
 the railway company's thousands of miles of track. Try 
 to imagine for a moment the number of hundreds of 
 thousands of consignments of freight — the number of 
 needed articles so- ordered, expected, and waited for. 
 which at this instant are being transported in all of the 
 trains of the great railway company! While they are 
 not quite as the sands of the sea, or the stars of the 
 firmament, they are very suggestive of them. 
 
 Nevertheless, the records of the Freight Auditor 
 must be and are complete as to each and every one of 
 these articles. Raise a question with him, giving way- 
 bill reference, as to any individual consignment — a c? r- 
 load of grain, or a small box of soap, or anything else, 
 shipped anywhere in any of these trains on his line at 
 any time during the past six or eight years — and he 
 will, without hesitation, while you wait, locate and 
 show you his record of this particular item about which 
 the question is' raised. His files of freight reports and 
 waybills cover each and every shipment. 
 
 In what we here refer to as Division 2 the "freight 
 forwarded" and "freight received" reports are checked 
 against each other, and all errors in them are corrected. 
 After all items have been harmonized (most of the 
 errors for correction as to weight and freight charges 
 occur in the "forwarded" reports), the reports are re- 
 footed, and the corrected totals are entered on sheets 
 provided for that purpose. These sheets, which for 
 the purpose of description we will designate as "divi- 
 
348 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 sion balances," have printed, perhaps down the center, 
 the names of all stations on the division, with appro- 
 priately headed columns in which to enter on one side 
 the weight, the freight charges, the advances, and the 
 prepaid on freight received at each station on the divi- 
 sion, and on the opposite side the corresponding infor- 
 mation for freight forwarded from each station on the 
 division; also* the amount for charge against each 
 station on account of miscellaneous collections — for 
 storage, switching, car service, supplemental under- 
 charge collections called for in the undercharge correc- 
 tion notices issued by freight auditor's waybill revisers, 
 etc. These division balances thus congregate from the 
 several reports the items of debit and credit to each 
 station agent, and when completed and balanced, the 
 debit and credit items so 1 shown are reported by the 
 Freight Auditor to' the General Auditor for entry on 
 the "stations" ledger. 
 
 The "freight received" report will, of course, include 
 some waybills dated the previous month, covering 
 shipments which started from the forwarding station 
 during that month, and which were therefore included 
 in its "forwarded" report ; obviously, such bills do not 
 appear in the "forwarded" report of the current month. 
 The "forwarded" report of the current month, especial- 
 ly in the case of long hauls, will, of course, include way- 
 bills for some shipments which will not reach their des- 
 tination until some time during the succeeding month, 
 and which are therefore not included in the current 
 month's "received" report. All of these waybills which 
 lap over in the account from one month to another are 
 
THE FREIGHT AUDITOR 349 
 
 listed by the Freight Auditor in detail on so-called 
 "transit sheets." The "transit" at the close of the 
 previous month is used practically as a supplement to 
 the current month's "forwarded" report, and the "tran- 
 sit" of the current month (that is;, the itemized list 
 of waybills in transit at the close of current month) 
 will next month be used practically as a supplement to 
 next month's "freight forwarded" report. In making 
 the "division balances" for the purpose of verifying the 
 month's check of freight reports, etc., the footing of 
 the previous month's "transit" is entered on the "for- 
 warded" side, and the footing of the current month's 
 "transit" on the "received" side of the division balance 
 sheet ; that is, the balance is effected on the theory that 
 the total amount of freight charges, advances, and pre- 
 paid (each of these three classes of charges is entered 
 and balanced separately) on freight forwarded during 
 the current month, plus the amount on waybills in tran- 
 sit at the close of the previous month, equals the total 
 amount of freight charges, advances, and prepaid on 
 freight received at destination during the current 
 month, plus the amount on waybills in transit at the 
 close of the current month. In other words, the total 
 received, and the total not received, equal the total 
 forwarded, and the figures are grouped accordingly. 
 
 One of the advantages of this transit sheet is its ex- 
 position of waybills not accounted for by the agent at 
 the destination. Any unusual or apparently unneces- 
 sary delay on the part of the agent at the billing desti- 
 nation in accounting for a waybill arouses the inquisi- 
 tiveness or suspicion of the Freight Auditor, who at 
 
35o RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 once applies toi the car accountant (in the case of car- 
 load shipments) for information, obtainable from con- 
 ductors' reports to the latter, as to* the movement of 
 the car. Such investigation may disclose that the car 
 containing the shipment was promptly hauled through 
 to and received at its destination ; that the waybill and 
 shipment were received in time to have been included in 
 the "received" report from which the waybill was 
 omitted — that the load was discharged and the car sent 
 away empty from the destination station, or loaded with 
 other freight, before the time for closing the "received" 
 report. This" suggests the possibility of something 
 wrong, and further investigation may show that the 
 agent has delivered the freight, collected the charges, 
 and for some improper reason withheld or suppressed 
 the waybill. The early detection and speedy straighten- 
 ing out of any such irregularity as this may save dis- 
 charge and disgrace to someone in the agent's office, 
 and perhaps loss to the agent or his bondsmen. 
 
 The items of debit and credit find their way, in 
 regular course, to' the division balances above referred 
 to, and from there to the General Auditor's "stations" 
 ledger. For example: A man in Cleveland, Ohio, 
 wishes toi send a box of merchandise to his son in 
 Denver, Colo. He does not wish to* have his son called 
 upon to' pay any charges on the box. For transporta- 
 tion of the box, at the weight stated, each of the three 
 roads over which it is to pass is entitled to, say, $2, 
 making a total of $6. This $6 the man pays to the 
 Lake Shore & Michigan Southern agent at Cleveland. 
 The Cleveland agent of that railway forwards the box 
 
THE FREIGHT AUDITOR 351 
 
 on a Cleveland-to-Chicago waybill, entering in the way- 
 bill $2 as freight charges, and $6 as prepaid. The 
 Chicago agent of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern 
 turns the box over to* the Chicago agent of one of the 
 lines running between Chicago; and the Missouri River 
 — say, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul. With the 
 box he sends a transfer slip, or transfer bill, giving all 
 necessary information about the box — who shipped it, 
 where it is to go<, whom it is for, etc., and showing the 
 charges as $2 freight, $6 prepaid. There is, of course, 
 nothing to be collected by the Chicago^ agent of the 
 Lake Shore & Michigan Southern ; but, on the contrary, 
 that company has collected its own charge from the 
 shipper, and $4 additional which is intended to be ap- 
 plied on the billing west of Chicago. The $4 is accord- 
 ingly paid by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern 
 agent to the Chicago agent of the Chicago, Milwaukee 
 & St. Paul in junction settlement. The Chicago, Mil- 
 waukee & St. Paul agent then forwards the box, in ac- 
 cordance with the transfer slip, on a Chicagc-to- 
 Ccuncil Bluffs waybill, showing $2 as freight charges 
 (Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul earnings) $2 advances 
 (the amount retained by the Lake Shore & Michigan 
 Southern from the amount paid by the shipper), and 
 $6 as prepaid. The Council Bluffs agent of the Chi- 
 cago, Milwaukee & St. Paul turns the box over to the 
 Council Bluffs agent of the Union Pacific Railway 
 Company, accompanied by a transfer bill giving in- 
 formation as shown in the Chicago waybill, and show- 
 ing the charges as $2 freight, $2 advances, and $6 pre- 
 paid. No collection is to be made by the Chicago, Mil- 
 
35 2 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 waukee & St. Paul agent from the Union Pacific agent, 
 but, on the contrary, he must pay the latter the $6 which 
 was paid by the shipper at the point of origin less $4 
 — the amount of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern 
 and Chicago,. Milwaukee & St. Paul charges. Pay- 
 ment to the Union Pacific agent is made, accordingly, in 
 junction settlement. The Council Bluffs agent of the 
 Union Pacific then forwards the box, in accordance 
 with the transfer bill, on a Council Bluffs-to-Denver 
 waybill, entering in the waybill $2 freight charges 
 (Union Pacific earnings), $4 advances: (charges ac- 
 cumulated to the Missouri River), and $6 prepaid (the 
 total amount paid by the shipper). The Denver agent 
 makes delivery of the box, collecting no charges, and 
 takes the son's receipt for it; and the father in Cleve- 
 land, perhaps in an almost incredibly short time, con- 
 sidering the distance from Cleveland to Denver and re- 
 turn (for it should be remembered that letters, as well 
 as boxes, have to be transferred), receives' a letter of 
 thanks from the son. The Chicago-to-Council Bluffs 
 waybill will in due course reach, and be revised and be 
 found correct, or otherwise, by the Freight Auditor, 
 and will appear in the Chicago "forwarded" report and 
 in the Council Bluffs "received" report. 
 
 Freight charges are a debit to the account of the re- 
 ceiving agent, but do not affect the account of the for- 
 warding agent; advances are a credit to the account 
 of the forwarding agent, and a debit to the account of 
 the receiving agent ; prepaid is a debit to the account of 
 the forwarding agent, and a credit to the account of the 
 receiving agent. On the Chicago-to-Council Bluffs 
 
THE FREIGHT AUDITOR 353 
 
 waybill, here referred to, the Chicago, Milwaukee & 
 St. Paul Chicago agent will be debited with $6 way- 
 billed as prepaid (he collected the amount in settlement 
 with the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern), and will 
 be credited with $2, waybilled as advances (he paid the 
 amount in settlement with the Lake Shore & Michigan 
 Southern). The receiving agent at Council Bluffs will 
 be debited $2 freight charges and $2 advances, and will 
 be credited with $6 prepaid, in accordance with the 
 waybill, and he is by reason of this credit enabled to pay 
 $2 over to the Union Pacific. If nothing had been 
 prepaid, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern would 
 have collected its earnings' in junction settlement at 
 Chicago; the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul would 
 have collected its earnings, and the amount ad- 
 vanced to the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern from 
 the Union Pacific in junction settlement at Council 
 Bluffs ; and the Union Pacific would have collected its 
 earnings, and the amount advanced by it at Council 
 Bluffs, from the consignee upon delivery of the freight. 
 If, under a through-billing arrangement, the Lake 
 Shore & Michigan Southern had waybilled this same 
 shipment through from Cleveland to Denver, the neces- 
 sity for rebilling, and junction settlements, at Chicago 
 and Council Bluffs would have been avoided ; one way- 
 bill instead of three would have carried the freight from 
 the point of origin to> its final destination, and the distri- 
 bution and adjustment of charges between the three 
 railway companies would have been effected through 
 the Freight Auditors' monthly interline freight settle- 
 ment. 
 
354 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 On a railway operated by divisions, on which, for 
 statistical or other purposes', the earnings and expenses 
 are ascertained by divisions, the Freight Auditor makes 
 a separate division balance-sheet for each one of Such 
 divisions of the road, on which sheet only the forward- 
 ing and receiving stations of that division appear. The 
 "received" reports of these stations will include, not 
 only freight from other stations on the same division, 
 but freight from stations on other divisions', and 
 freight received on interline waybilling from stations 
 on foreign roads. Therefore, to effect a balance, the 
 charges on freight so received from points off the divi- 
 sion must be provided for on the "forwarded" side of 
 the division balance-sheet. This is done by means of 
 what are sometimes called "made-up sheets," on which 
 are drawn off from the "received" reports all items 
 from each of the other divisions, or foreign roads, and 
 the footings' of these "made-up sheets" are entered on 
 the "forwarded" side of the division balance-sheet, thus 
 indicating the amount of charges on freight received 
 from each outside division, and from each foreign road. 
 In the same way, the "forwarded" reports will include, 
 not only freight which has been received at other 
 stations on the same division, but also freight which 
 has been received at stations on other divisions, as well 
 as that which has been received on interline waybills 
 at stations on foreign roads. To effect a balance, this is 
 offset by entering on the "received" side of the division 
 balance-sheet the footings of "made-up sheets" cover- 
 ing such items, which indicate the amount of charges 
 on such freight received by each outside division and 
 
THE FREIGHT AUDITOR 355 
 
 by each foreign road. These "made-up sheets" include 
 all the interline and interdivision earnings — earnings 
 to be divided among the several divisions, or with other 
 railway companies, en a mileage or ozher agreed basis 
 — and therefore, after being used by "Division 2" 
 (checking and balancing freight reports), are of 
 service to the forces in "Division 3" (interline freight 
 settlements) and "Division 4" (apportionment of earn- 
 ings by states and divisions), to whom they are trans- 
 ferred. 
 
 Up to' about the time of the passage of the Interstate 
 Commerce Law, freight originating on one road and 
 destined to a point on another road was handled very 
 generally on local waybilling. The initial line way- 
 billed the freight to the connecting-line junction, collect- 
 ing its charges in junction account; the connecting-line 
 agent rebilling the freight, and the agent at the destina- 
 tion making collection of freight charges and advances 
 from the consignee, unless the shipment happened to be 
 prepaid. Freight settlements between railway compa- 
 nies were thus confined to the station agents' at the 
 junction stations, and the Freight Auditor, in his busi- 
 ness, had about as much occasion for intercourse with 
 other Freight Auditors a,s a shoe-cobbler has need of 
 business intercourse with other shoe-cobblers. The 
 steady growth of interline waybilling — the waybilling 
 through from point of origin to destination; all roads 
 ignoring party lines, so to speak, in their efforts to rush 
 freight through to its destination, and so better to 
 serve the people — has radically changed all this, "Fast 
 freight-line" cars are no' longer required to obviate the 
 
356 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 necessity of transferring interline freight en route. 
 While not very long ago the Freight Auditor received 
 his own local waybills only, or practically so, he now 
 receives regularly the original waybills of perhaps' one 
 hundred and fifty or two hundred through-billing for- 
 eign roads for settlement by him in interline freight 
 account. 
 
 The pressing need, the absolute necessity, for some 
 agreement or common understanding (of which there 
 was none), as to how settlement of interline freight 
 accounts should be made, resulted in a meeting, on 
 December 7, 1887, of interested auditors', mostly 
 strangers to each other, at the old Grand Pacific Hotel 
 in Chicago. That meeting was the nucleus, and is 
 sometimes referred to> as the initial meeting, of what is 
 now the Association of American Railway Accounting 
 Officers, at whose annual meetings practically all of 
 the railways on this continent are represented, and 
 which, through its standing and special committees, 
 and at its' annual conventions, has discussed, digested, 
 and arrived at definite and clearly stated conclusions 
 on hundreds O'f problems in railroad accounts, to the 
 great advantage of all concerned; and which has, 
 among other things, formulated a plan for interline 
 freight settlements which is clear and adequate, and a 
 recognized standard. The Association in 1889 pub- 
 lished conclusions, based upon its' experience, to the 
 effect that interline billing of freight between remote 
 points — between points on the Atlantic and points on 
 the Pacific — "is practicable and desirable;" and that 
 "neither the direction, the distance, nor the number of 
 
THE FREIGHT AUDITOR 357 
 
 intermediate roads is any hindrance to interline billing 
 on the association plan." It is to be hoped that our 
 friends of the Traffic Departments, between whom 
 agreements are made as to what portion of the joint 
 earnings shall be allotted in interline freight settlements 
 to each of the railway companies in the line, will not 
 misconstrue this, and, instead of providing for division 
 on a percentage or some other simple basis, swamp the 
 Freight Auditor, or build up a great industry in his 
 office, by providing for indiscriminate interline billing, 
 with divisions on a classification or some other compli- 
 cated basis. 
 
 The association plan contemplates the rendering, by 
 the Freight Auditor of the receiving road to the Freight 
 Auditor of the forwarding road and of each inter- 
 mediate road, of monthly "abstracts'" (Association 
 Form No. 104) of all interline waybills received, dated 
 in or prior to the month for which settlement is to be 
 made; to be rendered in time to reach them by the 
 eighteenth day of the succeeding month. The busi- 
 ness from each station to each station, and via each 
 junction, is' to be shown separately. The abstracts are 
 to be accompanied by "division statements" (Associa- 
 tion Form No. 105), summarizing the abstracts, and 
 showing also the division of revenue among the roads 
 interested. The Freight Auditor of the receiving road 
 may also render a "summary" (Association Form No. 
 no), being a recapitulation of the debit and credit 
 items, and showing the balance of his (received) side 
 of the account. If he receives from his correspondent a 
 similar summary, covering* the freight moved in the op- 
 
358 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 posite direction, the balance arrived at by combining the 
 two summaries will be the net balance for settlement; 
 or, if the Freight Auditors prefer not to render the 
 summary, they may, after interchange of abstracts 
 and division statements, make up and render an "ac- 
 count current" (Association Form No. 106), being a 
 recapitulation of all debit and credit items on freight 
 forwarded, freight received, "intermediate haul," "cor- 
 rection accounts," etc., and showing the balance subject 
 to draft. Such monthly balances, under the recommen- 
 dation of the association, are generally considered as 
 subject to sight draft on or before the twenty-fifth day 
 of the succeeding month. In order to facilitate settle- 
 ments, the abstracts and division statements are in the 
 first instance accepted by forwarding and intermediate 
 roads, as rendered by the Freight Auditor of the receiv- 
 ing road ; but the Freight Auditors' of the forwarding 
 and intermediate roads will not be content to pass such 
 abstracts and division statements without investigation, 
 and any discrepancies that may be discovered therein 
 are to be brought to the attention of the Freight Au- 
 ditor of the receiving road in a "statement of differ- 
 ences" (Association Form, No. 108). The items shown 
 in this statement will be reviewed by the receiving road, 
 and if the Freight Auditor of this road concedes that 
 the original settlement was in error, he will adjust the 
 error in a "correction account" (Association Form No. 
 107), to be included in a subsequent monthly settle- 
 ment. 
 
 Each intermediate road collects its own proportion 
 of the joint earnings from the receiving road, regard- 
 
THE FREIGHT AUDITOR 359 
 
 less of any question as to> whether such earnings were 
 paid by the consignee at the destination, or prepaid by 
 the consignor at the point of origin. Advances, and 
 prepaid items, on interline waybills are included by the 
 receiving road in its settlement with the forwarding 
 road, and do not enter into the account of intermediate 
 roads. Payments of interline freight balances are made 
 usually only once a month; but in exceptional cases, 
 especially where the traffic moves only or largely in one 
 direction, payments of approximate balances are made 
 weekly, such interim payments being taken into consid- 
 eration in arriving at the amount for final payment 
 about the twenty-fifth of the succeeding month, to 
 close the monthly account. 
 
 The apportionment between roads, by Freight Au- 
 ditors, each month, of hundreds of thousands of dollars 
 of joint freight earnings on interline waybills is not, 
 like the transcribing of a lawyer's brief, a mere matter 
 of clerical labor ; it involves great responsibility. Integ- 
 rity, ability, reliability, untiring vigilance and inquisi- 
 tiveness, and conscientious combativeness, are qualities 
 which should not be lacking in the Freight Auditor, 
 and his assistants engaged on this work. 
 
 The apportionment of earnings by states (and by di- 
 visions, usually, when required) is made on the basis 
 of a mileage prorate. For example : Freight originat- 
 ing at St. Paul, Minn., and waybilled from that station 
 to La Crescent, Minn., would not cross a state line, and 
 the transportation charges ( ioo per cent.) would there- 
 fore be apportioned to earnings in Minnesota; while 
 freight originating at St. Paul, Minn., and waybilled 
 
360 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 from that station to> Chicago, 111., would move in three 
 states, and the transportation charges would accord- 
 ingly be apportioned to Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illi- 
 nois', at the ratio which the movement in each state 
 bears to the total movement. As in the case of other 
 computations made by the Freight Auditor, it is impor- 
 tant that this apportionment should be correct; the 
 figures serve not simply as' interesting statistical infor- 
 mation, but as the basis for taxation in states where the 
 railway companies are taxed on basis of gross earnings. 
 Statistics showing the number of tons of freight 
 carried one mile can be compiled by the Freight Auditor 
 from several sources of information. They can be 
 made from the monthly freight-received reports. For 
 example : Taking a vertically ruled sheet, with columns 
 of appropriate width, enter in the several columns 
 across' the top of the sheet, as captions, "1 mile, 2, 3, 4, 
 5, 10 miles; 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 100, 200, 300, 400, 
 500 miles." The first item on the freight-report recapi- 
 tulation is perhaps 150,000 pounds, moved 85 miles to 
 Chicago from Milwaukee; this item would be entered 
 on the sheet: 150,000 pounds in the column headed 60 
 miles, 150,000 pounds in the column headed 20 miles, 
 and 150,000 pounds in the column headed 5 miles. 
 The next item on the recapitulation being, say, 68,000 
 pounds, moved from a point 326 miles distant, the entry 
 on the sheet would be: 68,000 pounds in the column 
 headed 300 miles, 68,000 pounds in the column headed 
 20 miles, 68,000 pounds in the column headed 5 miles, 
 and 68,000 pounds in the column headed 1 mile; and 
 so on, dividing the total pounds by 2,000 to reduce to 
 
THE FREIGHT AUDITOR 3 6 i 
 
 tons. Having determined from such computations the 
 number of tons of freight hauled one mile, the rate per 
 ton per mile realized for the movement of the freight 
 can be arrived at by dividing the total amount o<f freight 
 earnings by the number of ton-miles. 
 
 Notwithstanding the facilities provided for inspect- 
 ing, weighing and handling freight, and the issuance to 
 that most useful and indispensable employee, the station 
 agent, of tariffs, classifications, books of rules, circulars, 
 orders, bulletins, instructions, and cautions printed on 
 blank forms, and the almost constant flow of special 
 and general written, telegraphed, telephoned, and verbal 
 instructions, explanations, mild criticisms, commenda- 
 tions, and pointed questions', sent to* the station agent, 
 not only by the Freight Auditor, pertaining to freight 
 and freight accounts, but also by almost every other offi- 
 cial, of every department on the system, having any in- 
 terest in anything at or about the station — notwith- 
 standing this', many claims are presented to> the railway 
 company by shippers for overcharges on freight, and 
 for loss of, or damage to, freight. For much of this the 
 station agent, of course, is not responsible; although like 
 Shylock, he is hampered, and is required to take nothing 
 less and nothing more than the exact amount named in 
 the tariffs. It is well for the Freight Auditor, or the 
 Freight Claim Agent, to settle overcharge claims 
 promptly; but it is far better for them to avoid the 
 overcharge in the first instance, by collecting, through 
 the station agent, only what the railway company is en- 
 titled to under the tariffs for the service rendered. It 
 is well to set a broken bone promptly, but better still to 
 
362 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 prevent the fracture. The station agents', who, as a 
 class, have won and enjoy the confidence and respect 
 of their superior officers, are the railway company's 
 representatives with whom the shipping public come in 
 contact, and much of interest to the companies is con- 
 tingent upon what they do, or fail to> do*. Hence, the 
 host of typewriting machines of the Freight Auditor 
 and others, ever ready to hammer out letters' to the 
 agents, of "Do," "Do not," "Why did you?" "Why did 
 you not?" And such admonitions are harmoniously 
 accepted and acted upon, without friction or irritation 
 — like the crescendos, fortissimos, and diminuendos 
 signaled by the baton of the autocratic leader of an 
 orchestra. 
 
 Some years ago there appeared in print an extended 
 humorous narrative, in verse, credited to Mr. S. A. L. 
 Maginn, entitled "The Station Agent's Woes," the 
 concluding lines' of which are as follows : 
 
 When death o'ertakes, and beyond he wakes, 
 
 And knocks upon the door, 
 
 And Old Peter looks upon the books, 
 
 To figure up his score, 
 
 He trembling asks if "Among the tasks, 
 
 In this beautiful land of gold, 
 
 Is there no escape from hustling for freight? 
 
 Must I do this, as of old? 
 
 Have you Superintendents, and General Freight Agents, 
 
 Claim Agents, and Auditors, here? 
 
 If this be so, I will go below." 
 
 Old Peter the while looks down with a smile, 
 
 And takes him by the hand, 
 
 Saying: "Never fear; there are none of them here. 
 
 Come in and join the band!" 
 
THE FREIGHT AUDITOR 363 
 
 As a matter of fact, however, there exists between 
 the Freight Auditor and the station agent the most 
 cordial relations, and the most pleasant intercourse 
 consistent with a strict enforcement of the rules. 
 
 "Loss and damage" claims are usually handled by 
 the Freight Claim Agent. The claimant for overcharge 
 will be expected to produce evidence of payment — 
 ordinarily the receipted freight bill bearing the signa- 
 ture of the station agent to whom payment was made. 
 The claim will be given a designating number, and 
 made a matter of record. The Freight Auditor will 
 refer to the waybill, or to his record of it, to see whether 
 it bears a reference to any previous claim and whether 
 the agent has accounted for the full amount shown to 
 have been collected; and will note thereon a reference 
 to the number of the present claim. In case of a car- 
 lot shipment, the waybill for which will cover no other 
 consignment, it may be thought advisable to make the 
 claim reference notation on the "received" report, or 
 the "abstract;" but in the case of less-than-carload 
 freight, the waybill for which may cover several con- 
 signments besides the overcharged one in question, the 
 claim reference notation will be made on the waybill, 
 opposite the particular consignment on account of 
 which the claim is made. On some roads the claim 
 would be vouchered or declined by the Freight Claim 
 Agent; on other roads it would be not only checked, 
 but also vouchered, or declined, by the Freight Auditor. 
 
 Grain, as it leaves the farm, is frequently not in good 
 condition for the market, requiring cleaning to make 
 it salable to the best advantage. The operator of an 
 
364 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 interior mill with capacity to produce more flour, etc., 
 than is required for local consumption, may wish to 
 place his products on the market in the larger cities, 
 in competition with the products of the city mills. This 
 he might be unable to do successfully if required to pay 
 a local rate on wheat from the point of origin to his mill, 
 and another local rate on the flour forwarded from his 
 mill ; the city millers being in a position, to have wheat 
 for grinding at their mills shipped to- them directly from 
 the same points of origin, passing en route through the 
 interior milling town, at the one direct through rate, 
 usually less than the sum of the two local rates', to and 
 from the interior milling point. The establishment 
 of cleaning and milling in transit rates by the railway 
 companies tends to relieve any such handicap on the 
 producers and interior millers of grain. The collection 
 of such transit rates necessitates the opening of "transit 
 accounts" at the intermediate or "transit" stations, by 
 the station agents, under the supervision of the Freight 
 Auditor, in which the miller is credited with the weight 
 of wheat, or other grain, on which he pays transit rates, 
 and is debited with the weight of flour, or other 
 product of wheats as forwarded to its destination with- 
 out additional charge — "free on transit account;" or 
 the "cleaner," in the same way, is credited with the 
 weight received on which he pays transit rate, and 
 debited with the weight of cleaned grain forwarded 
 "free on transit account." For example: A miller 
 located at a transit station 200 miles from Chicago may 
 receive, say, 500,000 pounds of wheat from a point 250 
 miles from Chicago, to be milled in transit for Chicago, 
 
THE FREIGHT AUDITOR 365 
 
 on which he pays the agent at the transit station the 
 Chicago milling in transit rate, covering the entire dis- 
 tance — 250 miles — although at the time of payment 
 there has been a movement of only 50 miles, from the 
 point of origin to the mill. The agent credits to him 
 the 500,000 pounds, entering it in his transit account 
 under the head of "grain received;" and some time 
 afterward, when the wheat has been converted into 
 flour, bran, shorts, etc., and such products have been 
 returned by the miller to the agent for shipment to 
 Chicago, their weight will be debited by the latter to 
 the miller in the "milling in transit account," under 
 the head of "product shipped;" and the flour, etc., so 
 charged in the transit account will be waybilled from 
 the transit station to Chicago without charges — "free on 
 transit account." Usually a separate transit account 
 is kept of each kind of grain — the product of one kind 
 of grain not being permitted to be shipped against 
 transit rates paid on another kind of grain — and a sep- 
 arate transit account for each transit destination. Great 
 care must be exercised to prevent "overshipments" — 
 that is, the forwarding of any products as "free on tran- 
 sit account" in excess of existing transit credits created 
 by payment of transit rates on grain received ; as in the 
 case of the banker, who accepts the money you deposit 
 with him, and permits you to draw from the bank as 
 much as; but no more than, has been deposited. 
 
 Among Freight Auditors of the several railway 
 companies, there is still, in matters of detail, much dif- 
 ference of practice; and the assignment to them of 
 duties is not uniform on all roads. This paper, how- 
 
366 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 ever, is intended to convey, in a general way, some idea 
 of the work and methods of the Freight Auditor, or 
 Auditor of Freight Accounts, 
 
VITALIZED STATISTICS 
 
 JAMES PEAB0DY, STATISTICIAN, ATCHISON, TOPEKA & 
 SANTA FE RAILWAY SYSTEM 
 
 A wise king of olden times said : "Of the making 
 of books there is no end." Had he lived today and 
 known as much of our present civilization as he did of 
 his own times, he would have been justified in including 
 statistics in his averment. Had he chosen to> enlarge 
 upon the subject, he might have added that, of the 
 books which are written, few are put to good use ; and 
 in this respect the inclusion of statistics would be 
 particularly appropriate. 
 
 As generally understood, statistics are the statement 
 of results when expressed in figures ; and commonly all 
 tabulations of figures, regardless of their character, are 
 so designated. Such a definition is much too narrow, 
 and, were I making a dictionary, I should rather say 
 that a statistic is the concrete expression of the joint 
 result of the interaction of any group of concurrent 
 forces. I am aware that this definition needs defining, 
 and I hope that I may be able to do this as I proceed. 
 
 In this day and generation there is no room for lag- 
 gards. The honored president of the United States is 
 the best possible expression of this truth. In other 
 words, he is a "statistic, 1 ' representing in himself the 
 result of the progress made by the American people 
 and the character developed thereunder. His favorite 
 adjective, "strenuous," fitly characterizes one of the 
 
 367 
 
368 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 most important elements which make for success under 
 existing conditions. We need on our part so completely 
 to engross and identify ourselves with our work as to 
 constitute ourselves the manifestation of that for which 
 we stand. In other words, we too* should aim to be the 
 ''statistic" of the thing in which we are engaged; and, 
 to do' this, we must represent results. 
 
 It will be readily apprehended from what I have 
 said that I have little regard for mere facts which can 
 be made of no service, either because they are without 
 value on the one hand, or because they are out of place 
 on the other. Only when statistics can be employed 
 progressively are they of positive consequence. They 
 may, as serving to satisfy curiosity or furnish data for 
 learned disquisitions, possess' a sort of negative value; 
 but for the practical purposes of commercial or other 
 life they must be of a character to indicate the proper 
 direction of future effort. We do not so much want to 
 know that our former conclusions are established by 
 our statistics, as to- be able to make correct deductions 
 for the future by means of them; and it is only when 
 taking on this latter character that they may be said 
 to be vitalized. 
 
 The extent to which railroad transportation enters 
 into the life of every individual is little realized, even 
 by those directly identified therewith. Some idea of 
 it may be gathered from a few comparisons. We have 
 had it impressed upon us that one of the great burdens 
 we have to bear is the large import tax that we pay 
 upon goods brought to this country, and which in the 
 year 1903 amounted to $284,479,582. The correspond- 
 
VITALIZED STATISTICS 3 6 9 
 
 ent taxes collected on account of internal revenue, such 
 as spirits, tobacco, etc., amounted to $230,810,124. The 
 total receipts from our postal service (and everybody 
 uses postage stamps) during the same year was $134,- 
 224,443. All other receipts from miscellaneous sources 
 were $45,106,969; so that the grand total of the 
 receipts of the United States for that year was $694,- 
 621,118 — an enormous sum, but only a little more 
 than one-third of the amount paid for the service of 
 transportation in the United States during the same 
 year. The total value of all the goods imported into 
 the United States was only a little more than one-half 
 of the amount of the railroad revenues. To bring the 
 comparison closer home, it may be mentioned that the 
 value of the entire wheat crop of the United States, on 
 the basis of one dollar per bushel — and it must be 
 remembered that a very large percentage of that valua- 
 tion is the cost of carrying the wheat to the market — 
 amounted, in the year 1902, to $1,522,519,891, or con- 
 siderably less than the railroad earnings of the country 
 for the year in which that crop would be transported. 
 These earnings, for the year ending June 30, 1903, 
 aggregated $1,908,857,826 — a sum which, even in 
 these days when millions form the ordinary measure of 
 a man's fortune, one can scarcely comprehend. It is. 
 therefore, no wonder that, in order properly to collect 
 and expend this vast sum, the most careful analysis of 
 ways, means, and methods concerning both income and 
 outgo shall be made; and it is to some suggestions in 
 this line that I now wish to turn. 
 
 Railroad statistics fall naturally under two principal 
 
37o RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 divisions : the one relating to traffic, and the other to 
 operation. So diverse are these, as to> both their 
 source and their application, that they are almost wholly 
 unrelated to each other. The more complex, as well 
 as perhaps the more important, of these two* branches 
 is that of traffic, although hitherto it has received the 
 less statistical attention. We have spent a great deal 
 of time and money in the analysis of our operating 
 expenses, but we have done very little of that work in 
 connection with our earnings. To' be successful, the 
 modern merchant must know exactly what he is 
 making or losing on each class of merchandise handled 
 by him; but until recently there were no railroads — and 
 even now there are very few — that have any accurate 
 idea as to the results of handling any particular traffic. 
 If only the volume of earnings during the present year 
 showed an increase over the corresponding period of 
 the previous year, the result was considered as reflect- 
 ing credit on the department, and was therefore satis- 
 factory. In former days net revenue was not the con- 
 cern of the Traffic Department. Gross earnings was the 
 shibboleth of the traffic official; and little wonder, for 
 he was neither charged with the responsibility, nor had 
 he any means of knowing or controlling the profitable 
 relations of receipts and expenditures. It is only within 
 the past two or three years that objection was made by 
 the railroads to> the request of the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission for the furnishing of commodity statistics, 
 on the ground that the cost of prq^aring such data was 
 so excessive as to make it impracticable. This, 
 although erroneous, so far as any necessary expendi- 
 
VITALIZED STATISTICS 37 1 
 
 ture is concerned, affords perhaps the actual, although 
 by no means an adequate, reason why this important 
 branch of railroading should have been so long 
 neglected. 
 
 The more progressive of our railroad managers are 
 beginning to see the error of this view, and to realize 
 that information which will enable the Traffic Depart- 
 ment to earn an additional dollar is just as valuable as 
 that which shows the Operating Department how to 
 save one. The problem is how this can best be accom- 
 plished. The origin of traffic is so widespread, the 
 volume of traffic is so large, and the conditions of 
 traffic are so diverse as to make it manifestly impossi- 
 ble for any general statement to be made, within com- 
 prehensible limits, which will afford the directing head 
 of that department the information he needs; and yet 
 it is absolutely essential that he shall have at hand, or 
 within easy reach, whatever it may be necessary for 
 him to know respecting his business. While it is the 
 grand total that he views with chief concern, it is not 
 with the mass that he deals. What may be designated 
 the units of traffic are the things which command his 
 immediate attention, and it is concerning such of these 
 as are of present moment that he needs to be advised. 
 The problem, therefore, is not so much that of accumu- 
 lation as of segregation ; not the gathering together of 
 the millions of transactions which enter into> the han- 
 dling of traffic, but the keeping of them apart, so that, 
 when called for in any form, the necessary combination 
 can be readily made. 
 
 Each separate shipment on a railroad is carried on 
 
372 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 a waybill, and an abstract is made which recites the 
 essential facts of these waybills, embracing the total of 
 the daily or weekly business of every station on both 
 the forwarded and received side. On the road with 
 which I am connected these abstracts are, by the carbon 
 process, made in duplicate, and a copy is sent by every 
 station to the Statistical Department, thereby giving 
 to it the record of all traffic movements. In this depart- 
 ment is prepared, from these abstracts, what is known 
 as a "monthly commodity unit," which represents in a 
 single item the movement of every separate commodity 
 between any twoi stations on the line, showing origin, 
 destination, weight, ton-miles, and earnings. The 
 abstracts are then filed in calendar order by stations; 
 the monthly units, after being aggregated in certain 
 general ways, being filed by commodities. We thus 
 have at hand in statistical form not only the informa- 
 tion ordinarily wanted, but are prepared to furnish 
 almost immediately upon call any information that may 
 be desired. 
 
 One or two actual illustrations may serve to make 
 this plain. A certain large firm in a jobbing town in 
 the West, where competition is keen, made application 
 for a reduction of rates from that point into a defined 
 local territory to which, from that point, the existing 
 tariff was prohibitive, and which was therefore supplied 
 from elsewhere. The compensation offered, in event 
 the desired rates were made, was to give to the road 
 from which the concession was asked all the incoming 
 business, which was then being divided among several 
 roads. The problem thus presented was : Will the 
 
VITALIZED STATISTICS 373 
 
 additional revenue to be derived from the incoming 
 traffic which the road will then get more than offset the 
 loss caused by the reduction in revenue on the traffic it 
 is now getting? This involved the consideration of a 
 large volume of traffic, moving from many points, at 
 higher rates than would apply if the demand were sup- 
 plied from the new point of distribution. The Statis- 
 tical Department was called upon, and, having at hand 
 the information, easily prepared a statement which 
 effectually disposed of the proposition, it being shown 
 that the effect would be, not only to reduce the revenues 
 of the railroad, but also to> increase the cost to the 
 consumer. 
 
 In another case a stock-raiser wished to make a large 
 immediate movement of a certain commodity, which, 
 because of the long- and short-haul clause of the law, 
 would interfere with existing rates on the same com- 
 modity toi intermediate points. It was necessary to 
 know at once to what extent revenues would be affected, 
 if the required rate was made. The Statistical Depart- 
 ment, through its unit system, was able to give the 
 information in three hours which, under the ordinary 
 method of obtaining such data, would have required 
 three weeks, with the result that a profitable business, 
 which would otherwise have been lost, was secured. 
 
 Again, arrangements are being constantly made by 
 the Traffic Department covering large movements of 
 freight; but it frequently happens that shippers for 
 various reasons divert their shipments before the speci- 
 fied amount has moved. It is the business of the 
 Statistical Department to keep watch of such traffic, 
 
374 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 which is easily done through the medium of the 
 monthly units of the commodity movements. It is also 
 frequently necessary for the Traffic Department to 
 know the extent of the business of particular shippers ; 
 this the Statistical Department furnishes on short 
 notice, through the use o<f the abstracts which are so 
 filed as toi have the record all together. The number 
 of these calls are so great, and their nature so diverse, 
 as to render impossible any compilation in advance 
 which will serve the purpose; but it is found that, 
 through the medium of the commodity units on the 
 one hand, and the segregated abstracts on the other, 
 almost any question regarding the movement of traffic 
 is easily and quickly answered. 
 
 It is also valuable to> know just what each different 
 class of traffic earns. There is widespread ignorance 
 in this regard, and no little injustice has been done to 
 railroads because of it. In the early days of railroad- 
 ing some man conceived the idea of working out the 
 average earnings per ton-mile — a factor not only use- 
 less as conveying any information, but absolutely 
 harmful because of the wrong impression thereby 
 created. During the past twenty years, which embraces 
 the period of governmental railroad regulation, this 
 average ton-mile rate has done yeoman service in the 
 reduction of railway charges. No less an authority 
 than the Interstate Commerce Commission employed 
 it in an opinion wherein a rate prescribed by it was 
 held to be certainly justified, for the reason that it was 
 more than double that of the average rate per ton-mile 
 received by the same road as shown in its annual report. 
 
VITALIZED STATISTICS 375 
 
 although, as a matter of fact, it was, from any trans- 
 portation standpoint, altogether below the standard of 
 reasonable compensation. While, therefore, the state- 
 ment of average earnings per ton-mile may be positively 
 declared to be not only useless, but harmful, a report 
 of the actual earnings per ton-mile on each separate 
 commodity is a positive benefit. This, when taken in 
 connection with the average distance each commodity 
 is hauled, the average loading of each commodity per 
 car, and the total ton-miles of each commodity moved, 
 furnishes the traffic man with a comprehensive basis on 
 which to formulate his plans for securing traffic. 
 
 It will be observed that no mention has been made 
 of passenger traffic. As already stated, we are using 
 statistics not so much as a record of past events as an 
 indication of future possibilities. So far as I have been 
 able to determine, the results of past passenger traffic 
 furnish no prophecy of future business. That is to say, 
 there is nothing which we can get out of the business 
 already carried which will tell us how to get a single 
 additional passenger in the future. We are required 
 by law to furnish certain information to both the state 
 and the national authorities concerning the movement 
 of passengers, and our figures in this connection go 
 far enough only to meet this requirement. Occasion- 
 ally information is desired by our officials regarding 
 a certain movement; but that is easily furnished from 
 the data we keep for the purposes already referred to, 
 and requires no special treatment. 
 
 Operating statistics deal with an entirely different 
 proposition; they relate to expenditure and perform- 
 
37 6 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 ance. The problem which confronts that department 
 of railroad is to handle the business with the greatest 
 practicable facility at the lowest possible cost consist- 
 ent with economical results. This is a very different 
 proposition from that which confronts the Traffic 
 Department. There transportation is dealt with on 
 the basis of its entire movement from origin to destina- 
 tion. Here consideration is taken of each separate 
 movement en route. Also, the Traffic Department is 
 concerned only with such tonnage as produces revenue, 
 while the Operating Department must take account of 
 all the tonnage moved, which includes not only revenue 
 freight, but what is known as company freight, together 
 with the weight of the cars in which the commodities 
 are transported. 
 
 To illustrate : On a dozen shipments from Chicago 
 to San Francisco the Traffic Department takes account 
 of the rate-paying qualifications of each of the articles 
 transported and deals with them, separately as to each 
 commodity, but, for the entire distance, as a single item. 
 This is because of the different rates charged on the 
 various commodities. The Operating Department, 
 however, consolidates all of these shipments into a 
 single item and reduces them, together with the cars in 
 which they are carried, to one common factor. It then 
 takes account by record of each movement; and there 
 are as many items to be considered as there are engines 
 hauling the freight, conductors in charge of it, operat- 
 ing divisions of the road over which it passes, and sub- 
 divisions into districts of main line and branches. It 
 is readily apparent, therefore, that two entirely differ- 
 
I VITALIZED STATISTICS 377 
 
 ent theories of statistics must obtain in the treatment 
 of problems which are so diverse. And just here is 
 the explanation why railroad statistics, as ordinarily 
 compiled, are wholly inadequate for any purpose. It is 
 manifestly impossible to make the data necessary for 
 the intelligent apprehension of the operation of either 
 one department apply to the other; for, so- far as the 
 character of the information required is concerned, 
 there is little in common. 
 
 It may be well here to point out a serious, as well 
 as a very costly, error which has crept into railroading 
 because of the misuse of inadequate statistics. Those 
 of us who have been connected with, or have studied, 
 railroad operation have heard of late years a good deal 
 of the "operating ratio," which means the proportion 
 of the total receipts of the road paid out for what are 
 known as operating expenses. Men have been em- 
 ployed at high salaries to take charge of operations, 
 because the statistics of the road on which they were 
 previously engaged showed a small operating ratio. 
 No more misleading, as well as unfortunate, idea was 
 ever conceived than that the operating ratio expresses 
 the measure of transporting efficiency. The final 
 test of all railroad operation is the balance-sheet, and 
 it is very possible for a railroad with an operating ratio 
 of 75 per cent., which is not considered commendable, 
 to show a larger balance than would have been the case 
 had its operating ratio been reduced to* 60 per cent., 
 which is thought creditable; although, in the first 
 instance, Wall Street would stand aghast, and, in the 
 second, owners of other properties would indulge in a 
 
37 8 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 race to see which could secure the services of the man 
 who had succeeded in reducing his ratio to such a sup- 
 posedly favorable basis. 
 
 To measure the capacity of a transportation official 
 by the operating ratio can easily be shown to* be both 
 illogical and unfair. One of the principal factors' in 
 the determination of this ratio is gross earnings — some- 
 thing with which the man in charge of operation now- 
 adays has nothing whatever to; do. Another im- 
 portant factor is made up of what is' known as operat- 
 ing expenses, one of the main items of which is 
 maintenance of way. The amount to> be expended on 
 this account each year is determined, not by the 
 transportation official — although he is consulted — but 
 by the Board of Directors, or at least by the Executive 
 Committee, and the official is expected to use the desig- 
 nated amount to the best advantage. Still another 
 important item is maintenance of equipment, and here 
 too the amount is largely determined in the same way ; 
 for maintenance includes not only repairs, but also 
 renewals'. The general expenses — under which term 
 are included the salaries of the general officers together 
 with their office expenses, and also insurance and the 
 law — are also matters wholly beyond the purview of 
 the transportation official. Thus we have left only 
 those expenditures which come under the head of con- 
 ducting transportation, over which he has immediate 
 control ; and of these a very large proportion are beyond 
 his' ken. Such items as superintendence of traffic, 
 advertising, outside agencies, commissions, and to 
 some extent car mileage and loss and damage, amount- 
 
VITALIZED STATISTICS 379 
 
 ing perhaps to from 10 to 15 per cent, of the total out- 
 lay under this head, are not within his province. It is 
 perfectly plain, therefore, that to make the operating 
 ratio the measure of an official's capacity is doing him 
 an injustice on the one hand, or giving him undue 
 credit on the other. As constituting a standard, it is 
 altogether valueless. 
 
 Not only is this the case, but it operates to injure 
 railroad revenues'. Any man worth having on a rail- 
 road is striving all the while to< improve his position, 
 and he will naturally shape his conduct to meet the 
 requirements of promotion. So long as the operating 
 ratio is the standard, regard for his advancement 
 demands that every engine when moved shall always 
 be loaded to its full capacity, and that such capacity 
 shall consist, as far as possible, of loaded cars. Traf- 
 fic, on the other hand, frequently requires rapid han- 
 dling, and very often large movement, of empty cars at 
 short notice, in order that business which would other- 
 wise be lost may be secured. It is easy to see that just 
 here is projected a conflict. Lightly loaded trains and 
 fast movement, or the hauling of empty cars under 
 quick orders and for long distances, means an increased 
 operating ratio; and although the result of such move- 
 ment may serve to increase the net balance at the end 
 of the year, the man's reputation suffers. The trouble 
 is that the revenue which is lost because of failure to 
 perform a service which unfavorably affects the oper- 
 ating ratio does not in any way appear in the accounts. 
 If such lost revenue could be charged up as an item 
 of expense, there would be a very great change in the 
 
380 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 method of operation on many roads. This is one of 
 the problems which it is the duty of the Statistical 
 Department to solve. 
 
 For many years there have been divergent views 
 as to the best unit toi employ in this department for 
 purposes of comparison. The commercial ton-mile, 
 which includes only revenue freight; the net ton-mile, 
 which embraces all freight both commercial and com- 
 pany; the gross ton-mile, which includes the weight 
 of both the car and contents; the car-mile, which con- 
 siders each individual car as a unit ; and the train-mile, 
 which treats as a single item the entire number of cars 
 in each train, have all had their advocates. While it is 
 conceded that nc one of them constitutes a perfect unit, 
 it is' now generally admitted that the gross ton-mile 
 forms the nearest approach to^ it. 
 
 Selecting, then, the gross ton-mile as the unit of 
 work performed, it is necessary to> provide a correlative 
 unit as the measure of the performance of the work. 
 Here, again, variant views' are held, and we have the 
 engine-mile, which is the unit of miles run per locomo- 
 tive ; the tractive force, which expresses the theoretical 
 hauling power of the locomotive; and the trac- 
 tion ton-mile, which is the weight on the locomo- 
 tive drivers multiplied by the miles run. The first, 
 because of the varying size of the locomotives, is mani- 
 festly incompetent ; the second, because of the extreme 
 divergence of views as to' the factors to be considered 
 in its determinations, is of little value; leaving the 
 third, which, although indefinite as to the 
 amount, is, nevertheless, absolutely comparative as 
 
VITALIZED STATISTICS 381 
 
 to performance, and therefore the best unit thus far 
 ascertained. Using these two units' — to wit, the gross 
 ton-miles as the measure of the work performed and 
 the traction ton-mile as the measure of the force per- 
 forming it — we have the ratio of both efficiency and 
 economy. If we can increase our gross ton-miles per 
 traction ton-mile, we are adding to our efficiency ; if we 
 can do it at less cost, we are progressing in economy. 
 
 The most convenient means for obtaining the record 
 of gross ton-miles is from what is technically known 
 as the "conductors' wheel report." This furnishes all 
 the necessary data required for keeping account of car 
 movement, train movement, gross ton movement, and 
 net ton movement, all of which enter into> the statistical 
 result. In connection with these movements are kept 
 the records of wages of the train crew, amount of fuel 
 consumed, and other items entering into the train 
 expenses; so that it is easy to determine the work per- 
 formed by each unit of power, and the relative direct 
 cost of doing it. Into this computation also come the 
 repairs of each locomotive, making it possible to deter- 
 mine in a general way the type of engine best fitted for 
 a given service. In order to> encourage fuel economy 
 in the running of locomotives, an individual record is 
 kept of the gross ton-miles hauled per ton of coal used 
 by each engineer, this being posted at the end of each 
 month for comparison and inspection. 
 
 In addition to the methods already enumerated, all 
 expenditures on account of operation are summarized 
 under four general heads, namely : maintenance of way, 
 maintenance of equipment, conducting transportation, 
 
382 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 and general expenses; which are in turn analyzed and 
 subdivided under fifty-three designations. This distri- 
 bution is first made as to location: — that is to say, the 
 particular part of the line upon which each expenditure 
 is made. Those outlays which, by reason of their 
 general character — such as superintendence, repairs o>f 
 equipment, etc. — cannot be definitely assigned as to 
 location, are apportioned on the basis of car-mileage 
 or locomotive-mileage on each portion of the road, as 
 may be most appropriate. This distribution is made, 
 not only by divisions of the road, but by main line and 
 branches, so that each portion of the road bears its own 
 proper burden. Having thus ascertained the amounts 
 chargeable against each portion of the road, they are 
 again subdivided as between freight and passenger 
 service on a basis of train-mileage. Against this final 
 subdivision is put the number of engine-miles, car- 
 miles, ton-miles both gross and net, and train-miles, 
 permitting us to compare, in each particular, the work 
 of one month with that of another on each division of 
 the road, as well as on the entire system. By this means 
 is shown the average cost of operation on each separate 
 portion of the road. 
 
 It will be readily understood that, having on the one 
 hand the average cost of transportation by divisions, 
 and on the other the actual revenue earned by com- 
 modities, we are able to> determine, not what it costs us 
 to> haul each separate commodity, but whether we are 
 receiving, on any particular commodity, the average 
 cost of transportation over the particular portion of the 
 road on which it moves, I think it will not be disputed 
 
VITALIZED STATISTICS 383 
 
 that any equitable adjustment of transportation charges 
 should assign to each principal article of commerce a 
 rate which will at least pay the average cost of trans- 
 portation; otherwise some commodity is compelled to 
 bear a burden which properly belongs to another. 
 
 The value of statistics of this character was 
 recently demonstrated in what is known as the Texas 
 Cattle-Raisers' Case, in which complaint was made 
 to the Interstate Commerce Commission that the rates 
 on cattle from Texas to> the markets were too high. To 
 disprove this statement, the movement of a car of cattle 
 was followed from representative points in each of 
 forty-two rate groups in Texas and Indian Territory, 
 both to Kansas' City and to Chicago. The average cost 
 of movement over each separate division traveled was 
 computed on the gross ton-mile basis, and it was found 
 that the actual revenue received for such haul averaged 
 nearly $8 per car less than the average cost to Kansas 
 City, and $19.52 per car less than the average cost to 
 Chicago. It was thus conclusively shown, not only 
 that the rates were not too high, but that they were 
 still too low, and that the recent advance of which 
 complaint was made was' more than justified. 
 
 I do not know that I have succeeded in making 
 plain what I mean by the term "vitalized statistics;" 
 but if I have impressed the idea that statistics, to be 
 valuable, should possess a vital relation to the future, 
 rather than present a mere exposition of the past, I 
 shall feel more than satisfied. If also I have so pre- 
 sented the subject as to prove that, for the proper mak- 
 ing and application of statistics in connection with 
 
384 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 railroading, a knowledge of all branches is essential — 
 and the more extensive the better — I shall feel that I 
 have more than justified the attempt which is being 
 made by the University of Chicago to provide, by 
 means of this and similar courses, a way by which some 
 portion of that education may be had. I would not 
 encourage the noticn that the most thoroughgoing 
 course that can be conceived will give all that is neces- 
 sary to know for the proper performance of the duties 
 attaching to the statistical or any other department of 
 railroading. Practical experience is the only school 
 which can supply the necessary training in this regard ; 
 but it is just such opportunities as are afforded by these 
 courses which will indicate the lines of investigation 
 which ought to be followed. It is probably true that 
 the "Jack of all trades" has had his day, and in his 
 place has come the specialist who seeks to know one 
 thing better and mere completely than anyone else; 
 and yet I believe it is true that, specialize as closely as 
 we will, the wider our knowledge in all departments, 
 the better shall we be fitted to attain success in our own 
 particular field of work. 
 
RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT IN CANADA 
 
 WILLIAM MCNAB, ASSISTANT ENGINEER, GRAND TRUNK 
 RAILWAY SYSTEM 
 
 If a country enjoys the natural advantages of agri- 
 cultural richness, mineral wealth, forest abundance, and 
 extensive water power, many words will not be needed 
 to demonstrate that its material progress and future 
 prosperity lies largely in its means of communication. 
 This' statement is especially applicable to that land 
 which at the present day has the eyes of the world 
 directed toward it — viz., the Dominion of Canada. 
 
 Railways, more than all the projects of the arts and 
 sciences, have, in the few years of their existence, com- 
 pletely revolutionized every department of business and 
 social life. With this knowledge, does it not seem 
 almost incredible that there are actually men and wo- 
 men in our respective communities who* were living at 
 a time when there was not a single locomotive, not a 
 solitary car, nor yet one mile of railway in the whole of 
 the world? The steel rails over which our great pas- 
 senger and freight traffic rushes, from one year's end 
 to another, are really bands that bind our whole country 
 together in common facilities of intercourse and trans- 
 portation. 
 
 In the early days of the settlement of Canada (by 
 which I mean the early days' of the more modern 
 period) vast sections of the country had to be cleared of 
 bush, and there was an almost wanton destruction of 
 
 385 
 
386 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 valuable timber, because facilities for reaching a market 
 were lacking. Of course, such has, more or less, been 
 the experience of all sparsely populated, forest-clad dis- 
 tricts. The hardy pioneers, by the tyranny of circum- 
 stances, had no option but to fell the great trees, and 
 light what they called their "logging fires," in order to 
 get rid of wood which, if available for the markets of 
 today, would bring untold wealth. 
 
 Viewed in the light of today, the isolation in which 
 people lived, in all sections of the country, in these early 
 days, is almost inconceivable. I recently saw a letter 
 which had been written at the Pacific coast in 1843. ft 
 was' dated Fort McLoughlin, northwest coast of British 
 America, April 24, 1843, an d it was exactly one year 
 and six months in reaching its destination — a point 
 fifty miles west of the city of Toronto! Nothing in- 
 tensifies a truth so much as setting it in the shadow of 
 its opposite; consider, therefore, the mail facilities that 
 are enjoyed today, and the dispatch afforded over 19,- 
 000 miles' of railway in actual operation within the 
 Dominion — as well as the hundreds more in course of 
 construction, and the thousands projected and about to 
 be built. Of these it is my purpose to speak a little 
 later on. 
 
 Railways, it will be admitted, are a potent factor in 
 every movement and operation of national life and ex- 
 pansion; but it is only in such cases as a tie-up for a 
 short time — on account of a gigantic strike, or by reason 
 of extraordinary forces of the elements — that we have 
 our eyes opened to the extent to which the wheels of 
 trade depend for their movement upon the motion of 
 
RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT IN CANADA 387 
 
 car wheels. If instances were to be quoted of the cost 
 of conveying freight in the early days, before the great 
 water and rail facilities came to- be used, they would be 
 looked upon as almost fictitious. 
 
 Although charters for several railway lines in Cana- 
 da had been obtained as early as 1832, the first attempt 
 at construction was made in 1836, from Laprairie, on 
 the south side of the St. Lawrence River, opposite Mon- 
 treal, to the town of St. Johns, on the Richelieu 
 River — a distance of eighteen miles'. It was called the 
 "St. Lawrence & Champlain," and was intended to be 
 an important link in the chain of communication, then 
 partly existing, between Montreal and New York, by 
 the water route of Lake Champlain and the Hudson 
 river. This date, 1836, was fairly early as far as Cana- 
 da was concerned, for it should be understood that 
 up to that time only 1,100 miles of railroad were in 
 operation in the whole of the United States. The rails 
 of this' pioneer road were of wood, with flat iron spiked 
 to them, which afforded a degree of smooth conveyance 
 scarcely compatible with twentieth-century require- 
 ments. 
 
 The real epoch, however, during which railway con- 
 struction in Canada had its serious beginning was' be- 
 tween 1853 and 1856. What gave the enterprise 
 a substantial stimulus at that time was an act of Par- 
 liament, known as the Guarantee Act, passed in 1849. 
 By this act the government undertook to aid any rail- 
 way not less than seventy miles in length by guarantee- 
 ing the payment of 6 per cent, on a sum not exceeding 
 half the total cost of the road. 
 
388 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 A railway, known as the "Atlantic & St. Lawrence," 
 had been projected and was under construction from 
 the city of Portland, Maine, to the boundary line be- 
 tween Vermont and Canada; and in order to> connect 
 with this road, and give Montreal direct railway com- 
 munication with the seaboard, a line, called the "St. 
 Lawrence & Atlantic," was constructed from Long- 
 ueuil, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, opposite 
 Montreal, to join the former line by way of St. 
 Hyacinthe, Richmond, and Sherbrooke. It should be 
 borne in mind that the great Victoria Tubular Bridge 
 across the St. Lawrence at Montreal, which was des- 
 tined to play a most important part in through traffic, 
 had not then been constructed. 
 
 In the year 1854 another railway, called the "Quebec 
 & Richmond," was constructed from Point Levi, on the 
 south side of the St. Lawrence, opposite the city of 
 Quebec, to Richmond, on the St. Lawrence & Atlantic 
 line. This was to give Quebec and the East connection 
 with Portland, Montreal, and the West. Sections west 
 of Montreal, such as Montreal to Kingston and Toron- 
 to' to' Kingston (which were originally incorporated 
 under separate charters), as well as the Toronto & 
 Guelph Railway, from Toronto' westward and heading 
 off in the direction of Sarina on the St. Clair River, 
 were also being actively pushed forward at about this 
 period. 
 
 All of these lines, together with several other sec- 
 tions, were devised with the ultimate object of union, 
 and in due time they were incorporated as one. They 
 virtually formed the backbone, or trunk, of the country; 
 
RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT IN CANADA 389 
 
 hence the united roads were called the Grand Trunk 
 Railway of Canada. This portion of the present Grand 
 Trunk became the parent stem of the vast system which 
 is today one of the greatest carriers of the commerce of 
 the continent. 
 
 The manner of entering into contracts for the sur- 
 veys and construction of some of these lines was dif- 
 ferent from that in vogue nowadays. Some substan- 
 tial contractors, who had engaged in extensive railway 
 construction in England and other European countries, 
 were free just about that time. Their ability and ca- 
 pacity for such work were generally recognized, not 
 only in regard to their engineering qualifications, but 
 also in respect of their financial standing and ability to 
 float the stock. As everything then was only in a sort 
 of experimental stage, it was deemed expedient to make 
 a contract with one firm to make the surveys, acquire 
 the land, and lay out and construct a very large portion 
 of this railway at a rate which would, by their own 
 estimate give them the same profit that they had made 
 in England and on the continent of Europe. 
 
 About the same time another great enterprise was in 
 progress — a railway from the Niagara frontier to the 
 Detroit River. This line stretched out to, and was in- 
 tended to serve, the southern portions of what may have 
 been looked upon at that period as the great West of 
 Canada — viz., that portion of the Peninsula of Ontario, 
 which lay west of the city of London. It was called 
 the "Great Western." It subsequently built a number 
 of smaller lines as feeders, absorbed others, and be- 
 came a very important system, as a large share of the 
 
390 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 New York-Chicago passenger and freight traffic passed 
 over it. 
 
 Still another large enterprise was the Ontario, Sim- 
 coe & Huron Railway, afterward called the "Northern 
 Railway of Canada," running from Toronto north- 
 ward. Like that of many other railways, the original 
 name of this road was changed several times; and 
 it also constructed, as well as eventually absorbed, a 
 number of smaller lines in its particular district, in 
 order to avoid competition and to> secure economy in 
 operation. 
 
 A number of local lines, occupying the territory 
 northward from Lake Ontario, and stretching norther- 
 ly and northwesterly toward the Georgian Bay, were 
 chartered and built as separate concerns, but afterward 
 became merged in one undertaking under the name of 
 the "Midland Railway of Canada." 
 
 Eventually all of these consolidated enterprises (the 
 Great Western, the Northern and the Midland) disap- 
 peared as separate concerns, as one by one they amalga- 
 mated with the Grand Trunk, and became permanently 
 incorporated in that extensive system. 
 
 The year 1876 saw the completion of the railway 
 from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and St. John, New Bruns- 
 wick, to what was then the eastern extremity of the 
 Grand Trunk in Canada, namely, Riviere du Loup. 
 This road was intended to unite by rail the maritime 
 provinces or colonies with the rest of Canada, and 
 was on that account called the "Intercolonial." It 
 was built and operated by the government of Canada ; 
 in fact, its construction was made obligatory upon the 
 
RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT IN CANADA 391 
 
 Parliament of Canada at the time of the confederation 
 of the provinces, now forming the Dominion, in 1867. 
 It has since been extended to Montreal. 
 
 Of the 108 railways in the Dominion of Canada 
 some are of considerable magnitude and importance, 
 such as the Canadian Pacific, the Canada Southern, the 
 Canada Atlantic (now part of the Grand Trunk sys- 
 tem), the Canadian Northern, and the Quebec Central; 
 but as their inception and construction are of compara- 
 tively recent date, their history need not be specially 
 commented upon. Neither need the individual smaller 
 but older railways' be accorded special attention in this 
 connection. 
 
 The main line of that truly great transcontinental 
 railway, the Canadian Pacific, was completed in 1887, 
 and at once put a large portion of Canada's western 
 wheat-producing area into connection with the seaports 
 of both the Atlantic and the Pacific. It is' interesting to 
 note that of all the railways which make up the several 
 systems actually crossing the continent, this Canadian 
 Pacific — the aggregate mileage of all the lines of which 
 is 8,500 — is the only one that is' at present truly trans- 
 continental. It alone, of all the number, stretches from 
 ocean to ocean under one management. The so-called 
 transcontinental routes in the United States, as is well 
 known, cover several railways, which form, as it were, 
 but links in the long chain. 
 
 The great pioneer lines of Canada, from the early 
 days down to the present time, have gone steadily 
 through a process of evolution — in the matter of loca- 
 tion, in the method of construction, in the manner of 
 
392 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 operation, as well as in the System of maintenance — by 
 which they have reached the state of efficiency in which 
 they are found today, not simply in regard to the terri- 
 tory which obtains facilities in transportation, but in 
 reference to all conditions under which these facilities 
 are secured. The experience acquired by this evolu- 
 tionary process has, in some instances, been bought at 
 high figures; but it has been experience by which the 
 lines of more modern times., and especially those of the 
 present day, have largely profited — not only by the suc- 
 cesses, but also by the failures. 
 
 Rails have gone through every conceivable change in 
 shape, weight, length, material, joint, and process of 
 manufacture— from the crude, rule-of-thumb design 
 in iron to the scientifically proportioned shape of the 
 American Society of Civil Engineers' Standard, which 
 is now in use on our larger railways, as well as on 
 many of the smaller ones'. At first, after the intro- 
 duction of steel, that material was very expensive, and 
 the Grand Trunk, as a pioneer road, with little money 
 after its first construction, but with plenty of ambition, 
 experimented with some steel-topped rails — i. e., a top 
 or head of steel formed to fit on to the iron web. But 
 the head frequently cracked, and the scheme proved a 
 failure through the lack of knowledge of a process by 
 which a homogeneous rail could be made by welding a 
 hard head to a soft body. 
 
 As the business of the country traversed by the rail- 
 ways increased, cars of greater capacity were needed, 
 and they, in turn, involved the use of larger and more 
 powerful motive power. It is fortunate that the engi- 
 
RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT IN CANADA 393 
 
 neers and promoters of the early Canadian roads were 
 liberal in their ideas' as to the dimensions and cross- 
 sections of the ordinary roadbed, for up to the present 
 it has been found ample in these points to meet the 
 heavy weights of the present-day rolling-stock. The 
 great, and ever-increasing, weight of the rolling-stock 
 and the loads carried did, however, necessitate the re- 
 newal, from time to time with improved design, and on 
 a stronger basis, of the bridge structures. At the pres- 
 ent time, on some portions of our Canadian lines, the 
 fourth renewal of spans of 150 feet or thereabout, since 
 the first construction fifty years ago, and due entirely 
 to the greater loads passing over them, is under way. 
 This is another instance of the advantages that lines 
 being built today enjoy from the experience of their 
 predecessors. Each time these renewals were made 
 those in authority no doubt considered they had reached 
 the limit. 
 
 When the casual observer is admiring the majestic 
 size, power, and symmetry of one of the largest locomo- 
 tives of today, there is one feature that may never ap- 
 peal to him, viz., the far-reaching effects consequent 
 upon using such a machine, beyond the simple fact of 
 its being able to haul the heaviest train. But these 
 effects are a source of much concern to' the railway 
 manager, and the question of what size of locomotives 
 is the most economical in connection with the physical 
 condition of the road, as well as its traffic considera- 
 tions, is one which is' now forcing attention in a scien- 
 tific manner upon the great railway systems. In other 
 words, if a line has certain physical features, and a 
 
394 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 certain amount of traffic, having certain definite re- 
 quirements as' to speed, etc., under what conditions 
 does increase of the size of motive power cease to< be 
 economical ? 
 
 It would be a mistake if, when new power is to< be 
 procured, the only thing taken into account in deter- 
 mining the size of such power were the greater weight 
 of train such power would haul, and the reduction of 
 the cost of the ton-mile from a transportation point of 
 view exclusively; that is, if the physical fitness of the 
 roadbed for such greater loads were not taken into 
 account, with all that such conditions might imply in 
 regard to so> fitting it, as well as the cost of its future 
 maintenance. Traffic in different parts of the country 
 may be varied and fluctuating, and while there can be 
 no doubt of the economy in the use of large power when 
 the traffic is heavy and constant, it may be question- 
 able when such conditions do not wholly exist. 
 
 As' instance of this, and as illustrative of some of 
 the points which the railway manager must analyze, 
 there are some roads and branches of roads which have 
 a traffic that fluctuates greatly. During certain por- 
 tions of the year there is' all the business that the power 
 can handle; at other times the trains run light. The 
 character of the traffic may be such that a certain 
 number of trains are required, even if the business is 
 light. It will thus be seen that with the use of very 
 heavy engines the cost of roadway maintenance will 
 keep up, even when the traffic is light. 
 
 Again, some of these branches were originally in- 
 feriorly ballasted, and, in any case, only with such ma- 
 
RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT IN CANADA 395 
 
 terial as could be obtained cheaply in the districts 
 through which they passed. In reality, much of it 
 could hardly be classed as ballasting material at all. 
 
 Taking all these features into' account, these roads 
 get on very well with light engines, which keep the cost 
 of maintenance down to a reasonable figure; but with 
 the use of the heavy power it becomes a necessity to 
 ballast the track with expensive material, and to use 
 heavier rails and fastenings, heavier bridge structures, 
 larger turntables, and larger roundhouses. It therefore 
 becomes a matter for very careful consideration 
 whether, from a financial or earning standpoint, the use 
 of very heavy power is not proving, on some lines, an 
 expensive matter. 
 
 Of the bridge structures in Canada which have been 
 rebuilt in recent years, two at least are universally 
 known — the one across the St. Lawrence at Montreal, 
 and the other across the Niagara gorge below the falls. 
 
 The predecessor of the former was the famous Vic- 
 toria Tubular Bridge, erected between 1854 and 1859, 
 and which at the time of its completion was classed as 
 one of the wonders of the world. When it is considered 
 that there were few precedents for the engineers to 
 work upon in regard to important points connected 
 with the construction of this' bridge, and that many 
 difficulties had to> be contended with for the first time — 
 such as the force of the ice breaking up in the spring, 
 the extremes of temperature, the rapidity of the current 
 and depth of the river — one is bound, even now, to 
 acknowledge the foresight and skill of its designers and 
 builders, especially in regard to the construction of the 
 
396 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 piers. It was a single-track structure, and the most 
 sanguine of its promoters' never realized that, within 
 thirty-eight years after its completion, traffic conditions 
 and the demands of modern rolling-stock would make 
 a. complete new bridge necessary. 
 
 The old Tubular Bridge was designed for a rolling 
 load of one ton per lineal foot. In the report made by 
 the engineer at the time of its completion the following 
 significant paragraph occurs: 
 
 It is worthy of remark that it was difficult to make up a train 
 weighing the enormous weight of one ton per foot run; and it 
 was just as much as three large engines could do to propel it. 
 Such a load surely never can pass through the bridge in the 
 ordinary way of traffic. 
 
 The present structure is a through pin truss, and was 
 designed for a moving load, in either direction, on each 
 O'f the two tracks, of two consolidation engines, fol- 
 lowed by a uniformly distributed load of 4,000 pounds 
 per lineal foot ; also for a moving load, in either direc- 
 tion, on each of the vehicular roadways (which are 
 formed by extensions of the enormous floor beam), of 
 1,300 pounds per lineal foot. 
 
 It may be interesting to> recall the fact that the early 
 Canadian railways were originally constructed of broad 
 gauge — i. e., 5 feet 6 inches — while the systems of the 
 United States were mainly standard or 4 feet &y 2 
 inches. It is not necessary to enter into the reasons 
 advanced by the early promoters for the broad gauge ; 
 suffice it to say that the difference of gauges caused a 
 great deal of inconvenience to passengers to and from 
 the United States, and hampered the movement of in- 
 
RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT IN CANADA 397 
 
 ternational traffic, through the necessity of tranship- 
 ment at frontier points. As a partial remedy, a third rail 
 was laid on some parts of the lines, notably from 
 Sarnia, opposite Port Huron, Mich'., to Buffalo, N. Y. ; 
 from Windsor, opposite Detroit, to Suspension Bridge, 
 N. Y. ; and from Montreal to Rouses Point, N. Y. ; so 
 that both broad- and standard-gauge engines and cars 
 could use the same tracks. 
 
 However, in 1872 it was' resolved to change the 
 whole of the Grand Trunk Railway to standard gauge. 
 This was done in three sections, each section being 
 changed during one season. But so complete were the 
 arrangements for carrying out the work that the actual 
 narrowing of the track itself caused a delay to 1 traffic 
 of only a few hours on each section. In the intervals 
 between the changing of these several sections, the ex- 
 pedient was adopted, at the point of break of gauge, of 
 lifting the bodies of passenger-cars off their broad 
 trucks, and replacing them on standard ones, and vice 
 versa. The trucks, also, of many of the freight-cars 
 were so constructed that the wheels were adjustable to 
 the two gauges. 
 
 This method, however, frequently proved uncertain 
 and insecure, and, indeed, all of the devices led to more 
 or less confusion as well as accident. It was, therefore, 
 a most important event when the lines and their equip- 
 ment became all standard gauge. The other broad- 
 gauge railways' soon followed the example of the Grand 
 Trunk. The present Owen Sound Line of the Canadian 
 Pacific (formerly the Toronto', Grey & Bruce Railway) 
 and the Coboconk Branch of the Grand Trunk ( former- 
 
398 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 ly the Toronto & Nipissing Railway) were originally 
 built of a gauge 3 feet 6 inches. 
 
 Among the greatest concerns to a railway, in the 
 matter of economical train service and cost of trans- 
 portation, are its' limiting gradients, as well as its curva- 
 ture, and in these the forethought of even the most far- 
 sighted of the engineers who> located these early rail- 
 ways has proved, in recent years, to have been insuf- 
 ficient to cope with the economic principles of modern 
 methods of transportation. This statement, however, 
 is by no means intended to belittle the knowledge of the 
 great masters of early railroad-building. As compared 
 with the engineers of today, they had meager advan- 
 tages for scientific training, and had comparatively 
 scant opportunity for working from precedent. It is 
 nevertheless a fact that much of what is in practice now 
 in modern railroading was known in principle to these 
 men. 
 
 The greater railway systems of Canada are at present 
 investing large sums of money in the revision and bet- 
 tering of the physical condition of many portions of 
 their lines, in regard to* both alignment and gradients. 
 The amount of business, present and prospective, is 
 carefully analyzed, and, after practical ideas have been 
 formed in regard to future growth and expansion, 
 methods of improvement are devised that will best put 
 the roads in shape to handle economically and expe- 
 ditiously both present and future business. The value 
 of such improvements to our railways is not so much in 
 what can be saved with the present business, as' in the 
 
RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT IN CANADA 399 
 
 capacity afforded for economically and properly taking 
 care of future traffic. 
 
 As a typical example of such revision, the section 
 of the Grand Trunk between Port Hope and Port 
 Union, Ontario — a distance of forty-six miles — may 
 be cited, as it is quite apparent to the eye of the ordinary 
 traveler. Here, within the last three years, the limiting 
 gradients have been considerably lowered, and, by 
 means of certain deviations in places from the ordinary 
 alignment, a large amount of curvature has been elimi- 
 nated. The result is that the same motive power can 
 haul over this part of the road about double the ton- 
 nage that it could before. 
 
 Double-tracking is being pushed on where necessity 
 immediately demands it, and it is worthy of remark 
 that by the summer of 1905 one railway system (the 
 Grand Trunk) will, with the exception of the portion in 
 the St. Clair tunnel, have a double track the whole way 
 from Montreal to Chicago — 841 miles — and under one 
 management. 
 
 Activity in railway construction is at present being 
 manifested in Canada, especially in the Northwest. 
 Both the Canadian Pacific and the Canadian Northern 
 are extending their systems. Besides, one new enter- 
 prise of great magnitude is about to be undertaken. I 
 refer to the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway — a line with 
 an aggregate length of 3,500 miles that is to' connect 
 the Atlantic with the Pacific. The surveys over the 
 whole of the territory to be traversed by it are now 
 well under way, and active work of construction will 
 be commenced the coming summer [1905]. 
 
400 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 This railway will be built according to the most im- 
 proved modern methods. In this instance the experi- 
 ence of present transcontinental lines will be of help in 
 guarding against conditions which, although they could 
 not be called engineering errors at the time they were 
 put into' effect, yet, as has been shown, have since proved 
 to be insufficient to meet the requirements, of today, as 
 far as the economics of railway location is concerned. 
 It is seldom that there has been such a gigantic under- 
 taking under one management, and it may be a long 
 time, perhaps, before another such enormous single 
 railway venture will be exploited. The study of the 
 records of construction from time to time, with the 
 many features' of engineering interest which will be 
 met with, will be of inestimable value to every engineer- 
 ing student, as well as of special benefit to everyone 
 engaged in the administration of a railway. 
 
 The new line will be considerably the shortest route 
 from New York, Montreal, and Chicago to the Orient, 
 and as a commercial and country-developing enterprise 
 it will open up to< the markets vast stretches of Canada's' 
 grain-producing area; for the line will pass through 
 some of the most productive agricultural lands, as' well 
 as some of the finest mining districts, in the world. 
 
 It will also 1 present to us new vistas of the pic- 
 turesque and awe-inspiring; for it is scarcely necessary 
 to be reminded of the fact that Canada, like the United 
 States, is a country of magnificent distances, and that 
 it abounds with every conceivable type of physical fea- 
 ture and natural attraction. Towering mountains and 
 gentle slopes, majestic lakes and picturesque tiny lochs, 
 
RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT IN CANADA 401 
 
 mighty rivers and limpid streams, gigantic waterfalls' 
 and gurgling brooks, boundless prairies and fertile val- 
 leys — nowhere else can these be found in such 
 profusion. 
 
RAILWAY EDUCATION 1 
 
 One of the features of the educational history of 
 the past half-century has been the specialization of 
 education with the object of providing a direct route, 
 not only into the older professions, but also into' those 
 newer arts and industries to which the economic and 
 social development of modern times has given birth. 
 So far as our universities are concerned, this utilitarian 
 aim is, after all, in accord with their earliest policy; 
 for the three great faculties of the mediaeval institution 
 were law, theology, and medicine — the learned profes- 
 sions par excellence. Latin, the foundation study, 
 was, in all probability, rarely pursued for its own 
 sake so 1 much as for the access it gave to the written 
 material of the time, and for its convenience as a 
 means of spoken intercourse between men of different 
 mother-tongues; it was studied, in other words, for 
 much the same reasons that German is studied now- 
 adays. The utilitarian aspect which the higher educa- 
 tion of modern days is more and more assuming has 
 therefore a historic justification. Even if this had not 
 been the case, there would have been every reason to 
 suppose that the modern trend of higher education is 
 in accord with the spirit of the times and with the 
 logic of events. The daily activities of mankind have 
 long since become too important to' be neglected in the 
 educational world ; and it is now realized that the uni- 
 versities may shape their curricula with direct reference 
 
 x Read before the St. Louis Railway Club, January 12, 1906. 
 
 402 
 
RAILWAY EDUCATION 403 
 
 to these, and yet lose little, if any, of the mental 
 development so long considered a monopoly of the 
 humanistic studies. The four years devoted to pro- 
 fessional preparation for medicine or for the law are 
 not commonly supposed to have any particularly injuri- 
 ous or warping effect upon the mind of the student; 
 in fact, are conceived to be mentally stimulating and 
 invigorating. Equally harmless and equally beneficial 
 is the mental preparation for other practical pursuits 
 of life ; in either case, the chief essential in the arrange- 
 ment of the educational pabulum is that the various 
 studies shall be handled in a broad and scientific way, 
 compelling, on the part of the student, both analytical 
 and synthetical modes of thought. Thus, in existing 
 universities, we find not only the traditional schools of 
 law, medicine, and theology, but also the modern 
 schools of engineering, architecture, education, jour- 
 nalism, commerce, and the like. In turn, the engineer- 
 ing school divides out into its civil, mechanical, and 
 electrical branches ; and so right along the line is to be 
 seen greater and greater indication of the influence of 
 the spirit of specialization, which, after all, is but a 
 response to the demand that education shall adapt itself 
 to the necessities of life. 
 
 The number of persons engaged in engineering, 
 in architecture, or in educational work falls far below 
 the number at work in the transportation industry ; and 
 yet there has been but little effort to provide technical 
 training for the latter. As a part result of this, the 
 railways are finding themselves today in lack of a 
 sufficient number of men qualified to occupy with digni- 
 
404 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 ty and with success the positions of initial responsibility 
 — men who know how to do the right thing at the 
 right time; who show initiative and originality when 
 thrown back upon their own resources; whoi possess, 
 not merely physical or brute obstinacy, but especially 
 that inflexible mental determination and persistency 
 arising from the realization of the trained mind as to 
 the relation of the individual worker to the collective 
 working. It may be that careful professional training 
 will be of considerable benefit to those destined to* attain 
 to the seats of power in the transportation industry; I 
 am inclined to think that it will. The conducting of 
 modern transportation is becoming constantly more 
 and more complex ; the day of happy-go-lucky, rule-of- 
 thumb railroading, while not entirely gone, will soon 
 be but a shadow of the past. There is no industry at 
 the moment which demands keener intellect, shrewder 
 wit, and better-trained comprehension; no industry in 
 which the failure of these qualities in its officers and, 
 to no 1 small extent, in its men would be more disastrous 
 to the general interests of the country. The necessity 
 for, and demand for, an adequate supply of these 
 qualities is increasing with the extension of the 
 industry. In sheer self-defense, even from a dividend 
 point of view, the railways of this country will have 
 to pay more attention than they have ever done before 
 to> the improvement of the quality of the men they take 
 into their employment. For their own interests, they 
 must stimulate a steady flow of the brightest minds of 
 each rising generation into their service, so that they 
 may have ample choice of selection in filling up the 
 
RAILWAY EDUCATION 405 
 
 lieutenancies and corporalships, some of those 
 appointed to which, in turn, will qualify for responsi- 
 bility as captains and colonels, and, maybe, even as 
 generals of the railway army. There are all varieties 
 of transportation problems; but, without doubt, the 
 most difficult one of all is that of securing competent 
 and trustworthy service. 
 
 Let us now address ourselves to' the consideration of 
 a remedy for the situation. It seems to me that two 
 kinds of work need to be carried on; the first and the 
 one of primary importance being the development of 
 facilities for technical training in transportation, grant- 
 ing to the various studies included in the same all the 
 dignity of university teaching, and making the trans- 
 portation school as direct and natural an opening into 
 transportation as the medical and law schools into 
 medicine and law. The second is the more systematic 
 provision of technical education for the men already in 
 the service, the great majority of whom, for many 
 years to come, must necessarily be without the initial 
 training referred to in the earlier part of this para- 
 graph. Much may be said in praise of the work accom- 
 plished for employees through the railway clubs and 
 the educational branches of the Railroad Young Men's 
 Christian Association, and in other ways; but more 
 needs to be done, with greater system, and with more 
 pronounced educational results. 
 
 I shall give first attention to the former of these two 
 varieties of work. 
 
 In connection with this, my proposal is that the rail- 
 ways should directly encourage the extension of trans- 
 
4o6 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 portat ion-teach ing at all of the larger universities. Even 
 in our engineering schools the attention given to the 
 special equipment of the civil and mechanical engineer 
 intending to enter railroad work has been but limited, 
 and, so far as the commercial and operating sides of 
 railroading have been concerned, their portion has been 
 utter neglect. The courses in railway transportation, 
 offered by so many of the universities, have been mere 
 academic exercises, frequently taught by men without 
 any living interest in, or understanding of, the railway 
 organism, in no* way affording the requisite technical 
 preparation for a railway career. Such places as New 
 York, St. Louis, San Francisco, New Orleans, and 
 many other university towns ought to have their own 
 schemes; but the development should be greater in 
 Chicago than elsewhere, on account of the unique 
 facilities it affords as the foremost railway center of 
 the country. 
 
 The railway companies, as a first and great step, 
 should co-operate in founding in that city a Railway 
 College. The task of establishing the College should 
 not be left to the railways centering on Chicago. The 
 companies of the North, East, South, and West will 
 secure no less benefit from the realization of the project 
 than the first-named. I believe that the College should 
 be placed in academic relation with the University of 
 Chicago, or, if practicable, with all the universities 
 specially interested in the teaching of transportation, 
 because the broadening influence of such association 
 would be a good thing to have environing its students. 
 A mind running in narrow grooves is the worst posses- 
 
RAILWAY EDUCATION 407 
 
 sion a practical man can have, for it prevents him from 
 appreciating the scope of his own duties. 
 
 One distinctive feature of this College should be the 
 arrangement of the work of its members. The stu- 
 dents should follow their classes from the beginning of 
 October until the middle of June, and from that time 
 until the middle of September should be placed out on 
 the railroads, at a small salary, to learn the practical 
 details of the business. They could be used to fill in 
 the odd vacancies which occur during every part of 
 the year, and, even if they did not accomplish much, 
 they would probably earn the small salary assigned. 
 The combination in each year of college life of the 
 theory of the class with the practice of the road would 
 be beneficial, both mentally and morally, to the student. 
 Any inclination to the "swelled head," acquired in the 
 classroom, would be knocked out of him most effectu- 
 ally by his associates in employment. During the 
 whole period of the three months he would be required 
 to submit weekly reports as to the work he was doing, 
 with descriptions of, and observations upon, the same. 
 
 Admission to the College should be granted only 
 to youths who have already proved the possession of a 
 certain amount of ability and perseverance by gradu- 
 ating from the four-year course of a high school. 
 Nowadays, with the spread of educational facilities, 
 there is no reason why this requirement should not be 
 enforced. I know of at least one town with barely 
 fifteen hundred population that posssesses a high school 
 offering as strong a four-year course as many places of 
 twenty times the population. In the high school is, or 
 
408 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 should be, laid the foundation of a broad culture, upon 
 which the superstructure of railway technology could 
 be raised with confidence. Though not necessary in 
 some branches of the service, it might yet be advisable 
 to add to the educational admission requirements a 
 physical test, which should cover eyesight, hearing, and 
 general condition. Through these requirements there 
 would be some assurance of obtaining the sound mind 
 in a sound body, so essential to the production of the 
 highest results. 
 
 The courses of the Railway College should provide 
 training on five different sides — mechanical engineer- 
 ing, civil engineering, electrical engineering, commer- 
 cial, and operating; all with distinct reference, of 
 course, to railroad work. To> effect this, the College 
 should be in close touch with the Engineering Depart- 
 ment of the University, so that courses common to 
 railroad and general engineering should not need to be 
 handled in the Railway College, only those courses 
 coming under its direct charge which bear a distinctly 
 railroad aspect; for instance, railway construction, 
 maintenance of way, locomotive construction, locomo- 
 tive tests, and so forth. The independent establish- 
 ment of a railway college would necessitate the pro- 
 vision of an entire engineering equipment, and this 
 enormous expense would be largely saved by the co- 
 operation suggested. The students of the engineering 
 side of the Railway College would not only obtain a 
 more comprehensive preparation for this special work 
 of their future employment than would be given in any 
 ordinary school of engineering, but they would also 
 
RAILWAY EDUCATION 409 
 
 secure a knowledge of general railway organization 
 and operation through the non-engineering courses, a 
 certain number of these being included in their cur- 
 ricula, which would enable the novice railroad 
 engineers to understand better than they often do, 
 under the present systems of training, the relationships 
 of their respective departments to the general work 
 of the railway. The mechanical man would have some 
 knowledge of track — a necessity, not an accomplish- 
 ment, in these days, when the problem of high speed 
 and weight of motive power and car equipment is so 
 interlinked with that of track capacity; he would have 
 some knowledge of accounting — sufficient, at any rate, 
 to realize the relation borne by the expenses of his 
 department to those of the whole railway; a thorough 
 understanding of the working necessities of the operat- 
 ing department would form part of his mental equip- 
 ment; and many other matters that, aside from his 
 work though they may appear to be, would neverthe- 
 less be of real advantage to him in the performance of 
 his daily duties. 
 
 It has also been suggested that it would be an 
 advantage if railway students, not specializing in 
 engineering, were required to take a certain amount 
 of work in this branch. In fact, the Canadian railways, 
 in the Transportation Department which they have 
 provided at McGill University, Montreal, have 
 arranged for something of this kind to be done. Per- 
 sonally I am inclined to agree in part with this policy, 
 provided it be carried out in moderation, because (1) 
 the training may be of practical value to the future 
 
41 o RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 railroad man, and (2) it insures that each student 
 shall have the benefit of the accurate and scientific 
 training arising out of the study of engineering and 
 correlated subjects. 
 
 To turn now to the subjects of the curriculum — 
 and, in doing so, by reason of the limits of my paper, 
 I shall confine my attention chiefly to< the railway 
 subjects proper. What railway subjects should be 
 taught in the suggested College? The following tech- 
 nical courses could be given, and should be : Railway 
 Construction, Maintenance of Way, Economic Theory 
 of Railway Location, Railway Terminals, Plans and 
 Specifications of Railway Structures of all kinds, Rail- 
 way Accounting, Station Returns, Construction and 
 Use of Railway Statistics, Organization, Handling of 
 Traffic — Freight and Passengers, Signaling and 
 Train Service, Motive Power Equipment, Car Equip- 
 ment, Rate-Making, Government Control of Railways, 
 Passenger Department, Freight Department, Railway 
 Finance, Telegraphy, Corporation Law in its Relation 
 to Railways, Railway Liabilities, Law of Carriers. 
 
 The names of the subjects will largely indicate to 
 railway men what would be the work of the classes 
 held therein. For instance, the "Handling of Traffic" 
 course, on its freight side, would deal with the methods 
 of disposing of freight in the out- and in-freight houses 
 and at transfer stations, the work of the yards, way- 
 building and expensing, supervision of fast freight, 
 car service, per diem, and so forth; in each section of 
 the work starting with a general type, then proceeding 
 to description of other methods in use both in this 
 
RAILWAY EDUCATION 411 
 
 country and abroad, and finally winding up with such 
 critical work as may be desirable. Accompanying the 
 classroom work would be the actual observation of 
 working methods on railways at points within reach of 
 class visits. 
 
 Under the head o>f "Freight Department" would be 
 handled the organization of the department, duties of 
 officers, solicitation of freight, the industrial agent or 
 commissioner, freight claims, clearing systems, and so 
 forth; the whole course giving a compact survey of 
 the actual work of the department, with due regard to 
 differences of organization, policy, and methods. 
 Classification and rates, it may be added, would be 
 handled in the course on Rate-Making. 
 
 In a similarly practical manner each of the other 
 railway subjects would be treated, and, in the hands 
 of competent professional instructors, would both 
 inform and train the minds of the students. 
 
 Associated with these railway subjects would be the 
 more general ones of Mathematics, Surveying, Me- 
 chanical Drawing, Shop Work, Chemistry, Physics, 
 Economics, and English in all full courses, leading to 
 the degree of "Bachelor of Science in Transportation." 
 Students specializing in one branch or other of rail- 
 way engineering would not be able to take all of the 
 subjects named in the preceding paragraphs, but such 
 selection would be made as seemed practicable and 
 desirable. 
 
 Throughout the whole four years every effort would 
 be made to exclude the incompetent and the idle. What 
 would be the position at the end of the fourth and 
 
412 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 succeeding years from the foundation of the College? 
 Each year there would be issuing from the College, 
 at the service of the railways, a picked body of young 
 men, sound in body and in mind, not lacking in either 
 culture or practical knowledge directly in line with 
 their future work — young men possessing already, by 
 reason of several summer seasons of actual railroading, 
 a useful acquaintance with their future duties; men 
 capable of thinking and working; men ready to bring 
 to their duties the accuracy and swiftness of scientific 
 methods, and the discretion and wisdom of the 
 accumulated experience of railroaders of past and pres- 
 ent, of both East and West. 
 
 My remarks have so far referred to students of the 
 Railway College able to put in the regular four-year 
 undergraduate period. Though it is to be hoped that 
 these would form by far the largest constituency of the 
 College, there are others to 1 be provided for, who possess 
 equal mental qualifications, but, for various reasons, 
 must limit their education to one or two' years from the 
 date of graduation at high school. For these the 
 College should present a special arrangement of 
 courses, emphasizing the railroad subjects, and yet 
 giving general training, so that a youth compelled to 
 leave at the end of one or two years' work would be 
 competent to' discharge with success the duties of, say, 
 a station agent — a branch of the service in which the 
 railways are particularly weak at present — or of any 
 other suitable position. There are a great many young 
 men drifting into< the mind-restraining curricula of the 
 shorthand and business school who, with the oppor- 
 
RAILWAY EDUCATION 413 
 
 tunity of a much more broadening kind of education 
 before them, offering a direct opening into the branches 
 of a profession where men, and not machines, are the 
 great need, would be glad to' take a one- or two-year 
 course in the suggested College. If there were asso- 
 ciated with the College a department of correspondence 
 tuition, these short-course men would continue their 
 technical education after they had entered the service, 
 with advantage to themselves and profit to their em- 
 ploying companies. The ambitious boy, with plenty 
 of determination, but little money in his pocket, could 
 probably find many opportunities of temporary employ- 
 ment — the close relationship existing between the insti- 
 tution and the railways would doubtless secure not a 
 few advantages for such students. 
 
 The Railway College, financed by the railways, 
 would place at the disposal of the roads a number of 
 scholarships. It is not difficult to see how the companies 
 might well use these scholarships as one factor in 
 cementing to' their service the loyalty of the better class 
 of their employees. Such scholarships could be offered 
 in open competition to' the sons of employees fulfilling 
 the necessary educational and physical requirements 
 for admission. 
 
 The companies would benefit by the leavening 
 influence exerted by the steady influx of able and 
 broad-minded young men, whose training would enable 
 them to see far above and beyond the petty aims and 
 strifes of unregulated unionism, and who would 
 become natural leaders of thought among their asso- 
 ciates. Their influence would strengthen good disci- 
 
414 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 pline, encourage amiable relations between men and 
 officers, because there would be a better understanding 
 of one another's duties and responsibilities. The work 
 of the school would have a direct bearing upon the 
 labor problem, as it faces the railway companies today. 
 
 A further thought presents itself — namely, that the 
 specialized education of the Railway College would 
 induce in the mind of the future railway man a greater 
 appreciation of his work, a stronger desire to' remain 
 in an employment in which his training would be more 
 likely to bring ultimate success than in any other. The 
 greater reliance with which railway officials could 
 depend upon the service of the members of their vari- 
 ous departments would be entirely beneficial to the 
 companies. To some railway men, particularly un- 
 fortunate in the unsettled temperament of their 
 subordinates, the change would seem almost Utopian. 
 
 Leaving this attractive picture, allow me to recall 
 to your memory the second kind of work which needs 
 to be carried on under the head of railway-training — 
 namely, as previously stated, the more systematic 
 provision of technical education for the men already in 
 the service. 
 
 The organization of this side of railway education 
 must fall under three heads: (a) evening schools, (b) 
 correspondence tuition, and (c) traveling teachers. 
 
 Our evening railway classes at Chicago', which are 
 now in their second year, have had considerable success. 
 A number of railways with interests in that city have 
 met the expenses between them, sending, in return, 
 employees toi the school on free scholarships. Our 
 
RAILWAY EDUCATION 415 
 
 initial difficulties lie to a considerable extent in getting 
 hold of the right kind of material. A considerable 
 portion of the men sent to us reveal no* sign of any 
 real desire to better themselves by hard work. Lacking 
 in energy, determination, and foresight, they are soon 
 found among the backsliders. This class of men we 
 do not want; they are not the kind out of which real 
 "railroad" men are to be made — though, no doubt, 
 they ape the title. As experience lends wisdom to the 
 administration of the work, we are hoping to be able 
 to devise some method of selection which w T ill enable 
 the companies to fill up the classes with workers and 
 "stickers." Of course, the conditions to which railway 
 employees are subject render regular attendance at 
 evening classes, with the due performance of home 
 work in connection therewith, a task of difficulty 
 and demanding great perseverance. The company's 
 service, sickness, or other unavoidable cause may com- 
 pel a man's absence for two or three nights. He loses 
 the connection, his back work has accumulated consider- 
 ably, and, unless he is gritty, he is apt to become dis- 
 couraged. But it is the gritty men we want to train, 
 and not the weak-backed ones ; so that, if out of every 
 two or three men sent us, under present conditions, w r e 
 discover one "worth while," the result is encouraging. 
 Our school affords also a temporary abiding-place for 
 another type of man, not without grit or brain capacity, 
 but yet an unreliable student. I refer to the man who 
 measures his education on a strictly cash basis — poorly 
 calculated at that; he does not want to waste his 
 valuable time over any of the broader problems of 
 
416 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 railway management and policy,, is indifferent to the 
 manner in which the company's business is carried on 
 outside of his own immediate work ; with a metaphori- 
 cal pistol at your head, he (i. e., his attitude, not his 
 words) demands that you prove ten him the possession 
 of goods that can be transferred to him in the mini- 
 mum time and at the maximum advantage of dol- 
 lars per month to himself. He can see ten dollars 
 per month increase in salary at the end of three months 
 with a very appreciative eye, but is absolutely blind to 
 a hundred dollars per month increase three years hence. 
 Here is a man that wilfully narrows his capacity, and, 
 until something happens to reveal to> himself what a 
 fool he is, neither school nor company can hope to do 
 anything with him. 
 
 In conducting the evening classes, our plan has been 
 so far to> compel every man in his first year to> take simi- 
 lar work — traffic man, accounting man, operating man. 
 motive-power man, roadway man, all alike have had 
 tot pass through the same course, which gives a general 
 survey o>f the more important features of the whole 
 organization, work, and policy of the railways. The 
 following is the syllabus of the class as described in 
 one of our circulars : 
 
 General Relations and Organisation. — Organization : varying 
 types with explanation of the same; work of the different depart- 
 ments ; duties of officers in each department ; nature of work 
 and responsibility. The relationship of railway corporations to 
 labor, particularly in its organized form. Railroads and govern- 
 ment control ; tendencies manifested in the policies of various 
 states as to powers conferred upon local commissions ; experi- 
 ences of other countries. Railway taxation. 
 
RAILWAY EDUCATION 417 
 
 Passenger Service. — Essentials of the service ; passenger rates 
 and facilities of various countries compared with those of the 
 United States ; passenger associations. The securing of business ; 
 advertising methods; passage tickets, varieties and use; ticket- 
 scalping ; returns of agents and conductors. Baggage systems ; 
 express service; railway mail service. Problems attaching to the 
 dining-car service, sleeping-car service, suburban and branch-line 
 traffic. 
 
 Freight Service. — The in- and out-freight houses ; loading 
 and unloading ; "through" and "way" cars ; C. L. and L. C. L. 
 traffic; cost of handling; use of mechanical aids; transfer houses 
 and their relation to economical train-loading. Classification 
 yards. The billing of freight; record of freight from consignor 
 to consignee; shipper's receipt; bill of lading; way bills, local 
 and interline; freight billi monthly abstracts and summaries, etc. 
 Supervision of fast freight. Freight claims : origin, treatment, 
 and avoidance. Per diem rules : car service associations ; private 
 cars. Freight classification; freight associations and the making 
 of rates. Special traffic. Clearing-house system. 
 
 Accounting, Statistics, and Rates. — General methods of 
 accounting ; daily and monthly returns ; auditing of freight and 
 passenger returns ; classification and apportionment of operating 
 expenses. Ton-mile figures; analysis of railroad reports; statis- 
 tics, methods of collecting and utility ; graphic records ; statistical 
 reports of Interstate Commerce Commission. Rates : theoretical 
 and actual bases of rates; equal-mileage and cost-of-service 
 theories ; the development of rates ; group rates ; through and 
 local rates ; "what the traffic will bear," the basis of rate-making, 
 its meaning; use of arbitraries and differentials; comparison of 
 rates ; who shall fix the rate ? the question of federal and state 
 regulation of rates. 
 
 Track. — Location and construction ; embankments, cuts, 
 bridges, and tunnels; ballasting; gauge; ties; tie preservation; 
 concrete and metal ties. Rails : standard varieties ; chairs, spikes, 
 and bolts; fish plates; tie plates; supported and suspended joints; 
 broken joints; superelevation; renewal of rails. Stub and split 
 
41 8 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 switches ; frogs ; switch stands ; interlocking switches ; double- 
 tracking, advantages and cost; maintenance-of-way staff. 
 
 The Locomotive. — Earlier types of steam locomotives and 
 subsequent development; varieties of modern locomotives; their 
 uses ; parts of a locomotive ; the cylinders ; simple and compound 
 locomotives ; comparative efficiency of the compound ; convertible 
 compounds ; the cross compound, four-cylinder compound, tandem 
 compound, balanced compound; the air-brake; various locomotive 
 appliances. 
 
 Electric Traction. — Application of electricity to railroads; 
 trolley, conduit, and third-rail systems of power transmissions ; 
 the electric locomotive; general considerations. 
 
 Car Equipment. — Attention will be given to the development 
 of various types of cars in passenger and freight service, 
 increase in size, and capacity; steel cars. The heating, lighting, 
 and ventilation of cars. 
 
 Terminal Facilities. — Description of important passenger and 
 freight terminals ; transhipping houses ; roundhouses ; car-repair 
 shops; sorting-yards; water-tanks; coal-supply stations, etc. 
 
 Signaling and Train-Working. — Old methods of train-signal- 
 ing; transition to mechanical signaling; interlocking and signal- 
 ing apparatus ; power-working of switches and semaphores ; block 
 system ; telegraphic staff, controlled manual, automatic ; the 
 merits and limits of the block system. The work of the train 
 dispatcher; the rules of train-working. 
 
 Of course, the treatment of each subject has to be 
 more or less brief, but we have arranged our syllabus 
 so that upon this class a number of more specialized 
 courses can be built. However, it is probable that 
 after the current year our evening syllabus will be 
 modified by dividing up this general course into its 
 component parts, and treating both the elementary and 
 more advanced stages of each part in one continuous 
 
RAILWAY EDUCATION 419 
 
 class. 2 This will probably induce the men who are not 
 willing to devote their time to the study of departments 
 of the road other than their own, to put in solid work 
 with the classes; and we are hoping that a year's experi- 
 ence in classes relating to< their particular departments 
 will have so broadened them, and have so whet their 
 appetites for more, that they will desire to enter classes 
 dealing with other parts of the railway organization. 
 At least, if this does not happen, the conclusion will 
 then have to be reached that such persons are educa- 
 tionally incorrigible. Under the new plan, if put into 
 effect, the following would be our scheme of courses 
 for the academic year beginning October 1, 1906 : 
 
 1. The Passenger Department — Two hours (one evening) 
 weekly, nine months. 
 
 2. The Freight Department — Two hours (one evening) weekly, 
 nine months. 
 
 3. The Accounting Department — Two hours (one evening) 
 weekly, nine months. 
 
 4. The Operating Department, I (Handling of Freight and 
 Passengers) — Two hours (one evening) weekly, nine months. 
 
 5. The Operating Department, II (Signaling and Train Service) 
 — Two hours (one evening) weekly, nine months. 
 
 6. The Mechanical Department — Two hours (one evening) 
 weekly, nine months. 
 
 7. The Engineering Department — Two hours (one evening) 
 weekly, nine months. 
 
 8. Theory of Railway Location (not open to elementary stu- 
 dents) — Two hours (one evening) weekly, nine months. 
 
 9. Terminal Facilities (not open to elementary students) — 
 Two hours (one evening) weekly, six months. 
 
 2 A general course, much more elementary in character, will form part 
 of the curriculum, however. It will cater to the needs of young men 
 just entering the service. 
 
420 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 10. Railway Law (Law of Carriage) — Two hours (one evening) 
 
 weekly, three months. 
 ii. Corporation Law — Two hours (one evening) weekly, three 
 
 months. 
 
 12. Railway Finance (not open to elementary students) — Two 
 hours (one evening) weekly, three months. 
 
 13. Rate Regulation and Government Control (not open to ele- 
 
 mentary students) — Two hours (one evening) weekly, three 
 months. 
 
 14. Railway Statistics — Two hours (one evening) weekly, three 
 months. 
 
 15. Railway Labor — Two hours (one evening) weekly, three 
 months. 
 
 16. Railway Conditions (an elementary outline of the whole 
 railway organization) — Two hours (one evening) weekly, 
 nine months. 
 
 In time it is quite likely that there will be added to 
 these more general classes a number of special courses 
 treating, in much detail, certain portions of the former. 
 Students will be assisted in the arrangement of their 
 courses, so that they may obtain the greatest advan- 
 tage from their attendance. In some cases a man 
 would be well advised to attempt but one class at a 
 time, and in hardly any case could more than two 
 classes be carried. The value of each course depends 
 largely upon the amount of outside reading, written 
 reports, and so forth, performed in connection with it, 
 and one evening's class work would usually demand 
 two evenings' individual study. It will be noticed that 
 the work is, to all intents and purposes, purely tech- 
 nical ; but facilities are in existence with us at Chicago 
 by which railway students can register in University 
 evening courses in English, French, German, political 
 
RAILWAY EDUCATION 421 
 
 economy, political science, history, mathematics, geol- 
 ogy, and so on. 
 
 Another side of the Chicago railway-education 
 scheme, so far as it affects present employees, is that of 
 correspondence tuition — a department which will prob- 
 ably open next October. This will give the oppor- 
 tunity of the higher training in railway transportation 
 to the young man located, it may be, a hundred miles 
 from "anywhere," and so improve the chance of bet- 
 tering his position. It is the intention to' reproduce 
 some or all of the courses previously named as closely 
 as possible in this correspondence department. The 
 sentimental and material advantages to the correspond- 
 ence student of membership in and work with a uni- 
 versity of international standing are obvious. 
 
 At certain points, where classes of forty or fifty em- 
 ployees can be formed, we are hoping to be able to 
 handle some of the courses by the direct instruction of 
 a traveling lecturer. Such a lecturer would have 
 several centers established within accessible distance of 
 one another, and would hold "school" at each one even- 
 ing a week during, say, six months of the year. He 
 would thus be able to handle ten or twelve centers 
 during the year. With half a dozen energetic and 
 capable young men, of trained ability and with special- 
 ized knowledge o<f their subjects, a wide field could be 
 effectively covered in this way. 
 
 In addition to this work of instruction, the Railway 
 College should become a world-famous center of re- 
 search work. As its testing-plants, appliances, and 
 libraries develop, its faculty and advanced students, in 
 
422 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 association with practical railway men, could be con- 
 stantly devoting attention to> the consideration of the 
 improvement of railway facilities in all departments. I 
 should like to* see its libraries associated with a bureau 
 of information, which should collect, classify, and make 
 readily accessible the results of the investigations of 
 all countries and all investigators on railway subjects. 
 Thus, if a railway wished to have at its disposal a 
 complete record of past and present experiments and 
 experiences of other railways in the matter of treated 
 ties, it would be able to have drawn up for it by the 
 bureau a succinct account of the same, or could send 
 its representative to the bureau to investigate on the 
 spot, with the help of the officers of the bureau and of 
 the College specialists in that field. Or, if a railway 
 wished to> review the methods of handling L. C. L. 
 freight in various parts of the country or abroad, 
 similar facilities would be at its disposal; and so* on. 
 The value of the bureau, as administered by a scientific 
 college in this way, and situated in the most accessible 
 city in America., would be immense. 
 
 I should like to> say much more in explanation 
 of the undertaking which the railways centering on 
 Chicago and the University of Chicago are endeavor- 
 ing to carry out. There are some difficulties in the 
 way. The least serious one is that of finance. The 
 work proposed to be done is so entirely in the interests 
 of the railway companies, and will contribute so much 
 to< their more economical working, that there can be 
 little doubt of their willingness to extend their financial 
 aid to whatever amount is necessary. The an- 
 
RAILWAY EDUCATION 423 
 
 nual income required is not really very large — 
 probably never exceeding $100,000 per annum. At 
 present but a fourth of that income is neces- 
 sary. In fact, it should not be a difficult task 
 within the next five years to secure a permanent 
 endowment for the institution and its work that would 
 provide adequate buildings and equipment, as well as 
 a sufficient annual income for current expenses, thus 
 relieving the companies from annual contributions. 
 But even if the latter were to continue, the co-operation 
 of twenty-five to thirty roads would reduce the quota 
 of each to the insignificant sum of $3,000 to $4,000 a 
 year. With hundreds of trained men graduating each 
 year from the College; with thousands of railway em- 
 ployees enjoying the benefits through evening classes, 
 divisional schools, and correspondence tuition; with 
 the further advantages available in the Bureau of In- 
 formation and in the experiment of its various plants, 
 each road could depend upon getting good value for its 
 money, even if its individual appropriation were twenty 
 times as much. 
 
 A difficulty of more importance than the financial 
 one, though still but temporary, is that of securing 
 suitable instructors. We need men of the highest and 
 broadest mental training, keen in investigation, sympa- 
 thetic in teaching — men who 1 possess the most desirable 
 academic qualities and qualifications, and at the same 
 time have the practical instinct. We see no other op- 
 portunity but to train our own instructors, and this we 
 are proposing to' do- by taking able university graduates 
 of suitable preparation, placing them for twelve 
 
424 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 months or so on the road — a month here, three months 
 there, and so on — engaging in the practical side of the 
 subjects in which they are specializing, studying the 
 different methods in use and their relative values, con- 
 sulting with, and being advised by, railway men of all 
 grades and all opinions. Furthermore, not only will 
 they do this before engaging in teaching, but, as in- 
 structors of the College, they will be expected to keep 
 in touch with movements, in their respective depart- 
 ments, on the railways, making investigation trips on 
 all possible occasions. It has been suggested that the 
 Railway College should be largely staffed by railroad 
 men. Where suitable men of actual road or office ex- 
 perience, efficient teachers and capable oif real research 
 work — in short, likely to do credit to' the College — 
 could be obtained, such could be maa'e good use of. 
 But the ex- railway man who has "resigned" because of 
 incapacity we do not want; the ex- railway man who 
 has been worked out we do not want; the ex-railway 
 man who is looking for a kind of a retiring allowance in 
 the shape of a nice easy job we do not want. The rail- 
 way man of trained mind, high capacity, and wide 
 experience, possessing undoubted powers of discipline 
 and exposition, associated with a strong personality, we 
 do want; but we could not get him, for the railways 
 need this type of man for their own service, and are 
 able to pay him anywhere from three to ten times as 
 much salary as we could give him. A careful study of 
 the question has convinced me that the policy of training 
 our own instructors, securing them before they have 
 the opportunity of making high salaries — men who 
 
RAILWAY EDUCATION 425 
 
 combine the practical instinct with power of exposition, 
 who possess love for research and are disposed toward 
 teaching — is not merely the only feasible plan, but, 
 except in special instances, the most desirable one. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 The following papers are a few of the ones worked 
 by students of the University of Chicago railway classes 
 during the session of 1905-6. They are descriptive of 
 certain points connected with the freight service, and 
 will be found to present much interesting information. 
 The papers were prepared in the order they appear, by 
 L. B. Burford, W. R. Owen, W. Haywood, M. H. Mc- 
 Ewen, R. H Carleton, and A. G. Beaman, respectively. 
 They are reproduced in the form in which they were 
 orignially submitted to the instructor. 
 
 THE DIFFERENTIATION OF DUTIES OF THE 
 OFFICIALS OF THE FREIGHT TRAFFIC 
 DEPARTMENT 
 
 The duties of the officers of the Freight Traffic De- 
 partment are so closely allied that one cannot entirely 
 differentiate them — that is to say, pick out certain duties 
 belonging to one officer alone and not to others. This 
 for the reason that the chief duties of all freight traffic 
 officials are practically all directed toward the same end 
 — the solicitation and maintenance of traffic. The greatest 
 differences lie in extent of authority and in detail work. 
 From the Vice-President in charge of traffic downward, 
 the jurisdiction and duties of the various officials become, 
 as they get lower, more restricted and more detailed. 
 
 The duties of the Vice-President and General Traffic 
 Manager (on some roads these two offices are held by 
 separate individuals) are general as well as political in 
 
 429 
 
430 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 nature. Details are reduced to a minimum. His chief 
 duty is the direction of the business policy of the road 
 as determined by existing commercial conditions. He 
 keeps a strict supervision of such conditions along the 
 road, as well as away from it, in other parts of the country 
 and abroad — conditions which, if not directly influencing 
 the company's business, are likely to affect it. He is 
 responsible to the President for the maintenance of the 
 company's business at a healthy level, and if there are 
 any adverse conditions working against its interest, it is 
 his duty to find, and to recommend or apply, the remedy. 
 He passes on exceptional conditions which may arise — 
 conditions contrary to, or not within, the established 
 lines laid down for the guidance of his subordinates. He 
 maintains general supervision of rates, local and interline, 
 freight and passenger, as well as percentage allowances 
 of the same to the roads affected. He also passes on 
 claims along policy lines, authorizes issuance of passes, 
 and, in aggravated cases, even handles tracers. His de- 
 cision and instructions are carried out directly by the 
 Assistant General Traffic Manager, who takes care of the 
 necessary details, and whose position, as his title indicates, 
 is in the nature of a general assistant to the Vice-Presi- 
 dent. 
 
 The Freight Traffic Manager is the official directly 
 in charge of the Freight Department. His authority ex- 
 tends over the entire road and it is his duty to carry into 
 effect the general policy and general rules governing the 
 Freight Department. He must keep in touch with com- 
 mercial interests along the road and conditions affecting 
 the same, and must endeavor to maintain cordial rela- 
 tions with other roads as well as with large shipping in- 
 terests. He establishes the interline rate basis with other 
 
APPENDIX 431 
 
 roads and percentage allowances on the same. It is part 
 of his duty to pass on policy claims and others of excep- 
 tional nature, not sufficiently important to require per- 
 sonal attention by the Vice-President. He also handles 
 tracers in aggravated cases. His recommendation or de- 
 cision on traffic questions in general is necessary. He 
 reports to the Vice-President through the Assistant Gen- 
 eral Traffic Manager or directly. 
 
 The General Freight Agent is, in the opinion of the 
 writer, the pivotal official of the Freight Department, be- 
 cause he is the officer most directly concerned with the 
 actual workings of the department. He is directly 
 responsible for the proper execution of orders, and his 
 authority or recommendation is required on all freight- 
 traffic questions affecting the part of the road under his 
 jurisdiction. There may be one or two of these officials 
 on a road. The division of duties in the latter case will 
 be, of course, a territorial one. Each has entire charge 
 of solicitation and maintenance of traffic in his territory; 
 makes or cancels rates, local and interline, to and from 
 points in his territory ; passes on overcharge claims, also 
 on most loss and damage claims, and his recommendation 
 is generally required too on policy claims. He publishes 
 rate tariffs, circulars, special notices, etc., quotes rates, 
 and handles tracers, refused and unclaimed freight, and 
 the routing of unconsigned freight. He reports to the 
 Freight Traffic Manager. 
 
 He has as assistants, in the solicitation and mainte- 
 nance of traffic, the following regular officers : Assistant 
 General Freight Agents, Division Freight Agents, Gen- 
 eral Agents, Commercial Agents, and Traveling Agents, 
 generally located at important commercial centers or cov- 
 ering territory with large shipping interests, the business 
 
43 2 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 of which is competitive with other lines. Their duties 
 are purely local to the territory they cover and are chiefly 
 exercised in securing traffic. He has also especially ap- 
 pointed officers made necessary by conditions of especial 
 importance peculiar to certain localities. For example, 
 the Erie Railroad has an Assistant General Freight Agent 
 in charge of coal and coke traffic, whose duties are en- 
 tirely in connection with these two commodities. The Lake 
 Shore & Michigan Southern has a General Ore and Coal 
 Agent, handling the immense amount of coal shipped 
 west over its lines, and the vast ore shipments east from 
 the Northwest to the iron- and steel-manufacturing points 
 in Pennsylvania and Ohio. The Pennsylvania Railroad 
 has a General Coal Freight Agent, handling the same 
 business ; and other roads, tapping the large coal fields, 
 have similar officers. 
 
 Railroads having terminals at seaboard points have 
 Foreign Freight Agents there to take care of their foreign 
 trade, whose duty it is to keep in touch with trade situa- 
 tions in foreign countries, and with ocean freight rates, 
 and to facilitate the transfer of freight at seaboard. 
 These officers report to the General Freight Agent. There 
 are many other officers of equal importance, appointed 
 by the railroads especially to take care of some traffic or 
 district of especial importance to them, but the examples 
 mentioned serve to illustrate the extensive authority of 
 the General Freight Agent. 
 
 In conclusion, it may be added that the Erie Railroad 
 has been taken as the basis of this paper, and that there 
 are undoubtedly points mentioned which are at variance 
 with conditions on other roads. 
 
APPENDIX 433 
 
 RETURNS FROM LOCAL FREIGHT STATIONS 
 
 The returns from a local freight station may well be 
 divided into two classes — regular and irregular. The 
 regular reports cover such transactions at the station as 
 are strictly in accordance with the company's rules and 
 regulations, and are necessary for the proper accounting 
 of earnings ; the irregular reports cover such special con- 
 ditions or happenings as are not anticipated in the general 
 rules, and which have or are likely to have a bearing on 
 the business of the company. Under this head of irregu- 
 lar returns might also be placed those reports which are 
 only too regular in the frequency with which they occur, 
 but which would not be necessary under ideal conditions. 
 I refer to "bad order" reports and the like. 
 
 REGULAR REPORTS 
 
 To the General Auditor. — Agents are required to bal- 
 ance their cash-books which show all cash transactions 
 of their respective stations, and to send cash not needed 
 to make change to the Treasurer daily. These remit- 
 tances are reported to the General Auditor for the credit 
 of the stations from which they are received. 
 
 The station accounts are balanced weekly, and a bal- 
 ance-sheet, together with a detailed statement of all 
 amounts taken into the week's account under the head of 
 "storage, switching, etc.," is sent to the General Auditor. 
 Any corrections which the agent has found it necessary to 
 make in his accounts must be shown on the balance- 
 sheets, so that only the net balance chargeable to the 
 station will show in the totals. A monthly balance-sheet 
 and statement of "storage, switching, etc.," is also sent 
 to the General Auditor. "Storage, switching, etc.," in- 
 cludes switching, storage, car service, icing charges, rents, 
 
434 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 and other miscellaneous charges remitted to the Treas- 
 urer for credit to the station. 
 
 When an agent is duly authorized, on account of 
 freights having been overcharged, taken for company 
 use, etc., to make delivery upon collection of less than 
 the full amount carried in his accounts against it, the bal- 
 ance must be carried on the balance-sheets as "awaiting 
 voucher," and a statement made on the back of the 
 balance-sheet showing from whom, for what amounts, 
 and for what accounts vouchers are so claimed. 
 
 Such part of the balance against an agent as is uncol- 
 lected because freight is short or on hand is carried on the 
 balance-sheets as "uncollected bills for charges on 
 freight," and details of this amount are shown on the 
 back of the balance-sheet. 
 
 Freight to be transported for the United States govern- 
 ment is not accepted unless accompanied by original and 
 duplicate bills of lading issued by the government ; and as 
 collection of charges on this freight is generally made 
 through the office of the General Auditor instead of at 
 destination, the bills of lading are handled with the same 
 care as so much cash. The duplicate bill of lading must 
 be surrendered to the government consignor, and the 
 original sent by express to the receiving agent, who, upon 
 delivery of the goods, sends to the General Auditor the 
 receipted expense bills, bills of lading, and a recapitula- 
 tion showing the amount of charges on each, the total 
 of all, and the date of balance-sheet upon which he will 
 take credit. These receipted expense bills are received 
 by the General Auditor in lieu of remittances in favor of 
 the credit of the station delivering the goods. 
 
 To the Freight Auditor. — The first rule to agents, in 
 regard to their returns to the Freight Auditor, usually 
 reads : "Under no circumstances must an agent forward 
 
APPENDIX 435 
 
 freight of any kind without making out and reporting to 
 the Freight Auditor a regular waybill covering it." The 
 waybill constitutes the most important return to the 
 Freight Auditor, and nearly all reports made to him are 
 based upon it. 
 
 Copies of all waybills, both local and interline, are 
 sent daily to the Freight Auditor by the billing agent, 
 and the receiving agent sends to the same official all 
 original waybills on hand at his station which have been 
 checked and found to be correct. The original waybill is 
 invaluable to the Auditor of Freight Accounts, as these 
 documents form a veritable history of the shipments 
 which they cover during the time of transportation, and 
 by examination of the bill the Auditor can tell whether 
 or not the company has performed its duty to the ship- 
 ment and received its rightful compensation for the 
 service. 
 
 When baggage is carried on freight trains, it moves 
 on a freight waybill, the regular free allowance being 
 made in the weight and the balance charged for at the 
 rates shown in the baggage tariff. If the charges are paid 
 in cash either at the billing or at the receiving station, 
 notation to that effect is made on the waybill ; but if paid 
 by excess-baggage coupons, the receiving agent makes 
 a copy of the waybill and forwards the same, with 
 coupons attached, to the Freight Auditor at the close of 
 the month. 
 
 The agent makes a weekly report to the Freight 
 Auditor as follows : 
 
 i. A report showing the total amount of freight 
 charges on all waybills received during the week: (a) 
 from stations on his own line, (fr)from stations on 
 foreign lines, and (c) total received freight charges per 
 
43 6 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 weekly balance-sheet; also, total forwarded freight 
 charges on waybills made to stations on foreign lines. 
 
 2. A report of all interline waybills received from 
 points on foreign lines, and of all interline waybills made 
 to points on foreign lines. 
 
 3. From junction stations only, a junction freight re- 
 port of all interline waybills from stations on a foreign 
 line over his line to stations on another foreign line, his 
 line being intermediate. 
 
 4. From junction stations only, a junction freight 
 report of all interline waybills to and from stations on 
 his line, received from or delivered to connecting lines. 
 
 5. Junction agents are also required to make reports 
 of any miscellaneous charges made in waybills delivered 
 to connecting lines, if those charges were made after the 
 bill left the forwarding station. 
 
 6. A report, from milling and cleaning in transit sta- 
 tions, of all waybills on which milling or cleaning in 
 transit charges have been collected. Original waybills 
 on which transit rates have been collected must be re- 
 turned weekly to the Freight Auditor with the transit 
 reports in which they are included. Transit reports are 
 made separately for each miller or cleaner and for each 
 kind of grain. They show the amount of each kind of 
 grain received at the station, and the amount of product 
 of each kind forwarded on free billing account of transit 
 rates. 
 
 The agent makes a monthly report to the Freight 
 Auditor as follows : 
 
 I. Separate reports of all local waybills received from 
 and made to stations on his line and not included in a 
 previous monthly statement. All errors discovered and 
 corrected before the monthly received report is rendered 
 are taken into account in making this report. The fact 
 
APPENDIX 437 
 
 that a waybill has been sent to the Freight Auditor or in- 
 cluded in a weekly received report does not render it too 
 late to make a correction, provided the waybill has not 
 been included in a previous monthly report. Waybills 
 must be included in freight reports at the corrected 
 figures. 
 
 2. Separate statements of interline waybills received 
 from and made to stations on foreign lines during the 
 month. 
 
 3. Separate recapitulations of stations from which 
 bills have been received and of stations to which bills 
 have been made showing totals of tonnage, freight 
 charges, advanced charges, and prepaid charges. 
 
 4. A report showing the weight and freight charges 
 on the several commodities forwarded and received. 
 
 5. Switching and car-service charges are accounted for 
 in the report for the week in which they accrue. The re- 
 port of switching charges collected must show the date 
 of switching, car numbers and initials, points between 
 which switching is done, commodity, name of party from 
 whom collection is made, date collected, and the amount 
 of charges on each car. 
 
 The report of car-service charges collected must shew 
 the date of detention, name of party from whom collec- 
 tion is made, car number and initials, whether car is 
 loaded or empty, rate per day, and the amount collected 
 on each car ; also state of weather, a matter affecting the 
 charges. 
 
 The report of storage charges collected must show 
 date of collection, name of party from whom collection 
 is made, reference to the waybill on which the material 
 was received, basis of charge, and the amount collected. 
 
 The agent at a junction station, where foreign lines 
 
43 8 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 perform switching for his line, forwards monthly to the 
 Division Freight Agent a statement showing in detail 
 the service performed by each line, and opposite each car 
 number must make reference to his report, covering 
 "storage, switching, etc.," to the Freight Auditor. At 
 junction stations where switching is performed for other 
 lines in accordance with agreements between the roads 
 and orders received from the connecting line, a report of 
 the service is made to the Superintendent, who prepares 
 bill to cover. A copy of this report is sent to the Division 
 Freight Agent. 
 
 To the Fuel Accountant. — Agents at coaling stations 
 make reports weekly to the Fuel Accountant of coal 
 received, coal delivered to engines, and cars rebilled. 
 Monthly they forward an inventory of coal on hand, cars 
 on track, and a balance-sheet. Where coal is delivered to 
 engines working on two or more divisions, a separate 
 report must be made for each division. 
 
 To the Car Accountant. — The agent makes a daily re- 
 port of all cars received at or forwarded from his station 
 and on hand. Cars on hand must include all cars regard- 
 less of what service they may be in, and must be carried 
 on the reports every day while at the station. Junction 
 agents, in addition to the above, must report daily all 
 cars interchanged with connecting lines, whether for 
 switching purposes or otherwise. The car number and 
 initials, also the final destination and route of each car, 
 must be given. 
 
 IRREGULAR REPORTS 
 
 Attention will now be given briefly to an agent's duty 
 under a few special conditions. 
 
 In case of loss or damage by fire to property of the 
 company or in its possession, the agent must notify the 
 
APPENDIX 439 
 
 General Manager by wire and confirm, giving kind of 
 property, whether partial or total loss, location, date, and 
 cause of fire. 
 
 When shippers refuse to ship goods under the terms 
 and conditions of classification, tariff, or rules of the 
 company, the freight must be refused, and the Division 
 Freight Agent or the General Freight Agent should be 
 notified. 
 
 When freight is receipted for as being in bad order, 
 report should be made to the Freight Claim Agent. 
 
 When stock dies or is crippled in transit, the agent 
 should call a veterinary surgeon to make an examination 
 of the animal. The surgeon's report and bill should be 
 sent to the Freight Claim Agent. 
 
 The Freight Claim Agent should also receive reports 
 as follows : (a) when perishable freight is received and 
 refused — the report should give the value, why refused 
 and the consignee's whereabouts; (b) when unable to 
 find a consignee after communicating with the billing 
 agent; (c) when freight has the appearance of having 
 been tampered with; (d) when, after sealing and sending 
 forward, cars are discovered unsealed and destined be- 
 yond ; (e) when a connecting line refuses a shipment on 
 account of improper billing, correction should be obtained 
 from the billing agent, but if refused for any other 
 reason, both the billing agent and the Freight Claim 
 Agent should be notified. 
 
 Changes in advanced charges or prepaid charges 
 should be authorized by the billing agent or the Freight 
 Auditor, and the Freight Auditor notified when the 
 change has been made. 
 
 When stock is shipped on contract, the original con- 
 tract is sent to the Freight Auditor, the duplicate de- 
 
440 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 livered to the shipper, and the triplicate kept for the 
 agent's file. 
 
 When waste pipes on refrigerator-cars are unclean, 
 clogged, or otherwise in bad condition, report must be 
 made to the Superintendent. 
 
 When freight is received on a slip-bill, the agent should 
 notify the General Superintendent if the regular waybill 
 is not rceived before the shipment. 
 
 An agent should report to the General Solicitor, by 
 telegraph, a summary of. any summons, complaint, notice, 
 or other legal paper served on him, and should forward 
 by mail the paper and a statement of the date of service, 
 what the suit is for (unless disclosed by the paper), and 
 any facts within his knowledge. 
 
 A garnishee summons should be reported to the Legal 
 Department or to the Superintendent, giving the name 
 of the employee garnished, where employed, the person 
 under whom employed, and where he receives his pay. 
 
 THE HANDLING OF OUT-FREIGHT AT THE 
 ILLINOIS CENTRAL OUT-FREIGHT HOUSE, 
 FOOT OF SOUTH WATER STREET, CHI- 
 CAGO 
 In considering the methods of handling freight em- 
 ployed at this particular freight house, it will be proper 
 to take up first such physical matters as the design of 
 the building, driveway, track arrangements, etc. 
 
 The house proper is a brick structure, approximately 
 1,000 feet in length and 48 feet wide, at the south end 
 of which is a covered platform 25 feet wide and 600 feet 
 long, this giving practically 1,600 feet for the handling 
 of out-freight. The house is located about 400 feet east 
 of the entrance to the yards at the foot of South Water 
 
APPENDIX 441 
 
 Street. It has forty-three receiving-doors, in front of 
 each of which is located a five-ton capacity scale for the 
 weighing of freight after being unloaded from the wagon. 
 The offices occupied by the receiving clerks are located 
 so that each office takes care of two doors, one-half of 
 each office being assigned to every door. A noticeable 
 feature about the floor of the house is that on the track 
 side of the house the floor is hardwood and laid longi- 
 tudinally, this greatly facilitating trucking and conse- 
 quently effecting economy in expense of handling. 
 
 The driveway, extending the entire length of the 
 building, is about 75 feet wide, and is situated on the 
 east side of the house. It is paved with heavy granite 
 blocks — undoubtedly a great aid to teaming during wet 
 weather. 
 
 The house tracks, numbering seven, have a total ca- 
 pacity of 238 cars, this including the platform above 
 referred to, although this space cannot be fully utilized 
 because of the fact that the cars have to be ' 'spotted" 
 when set, there being a considerable blank space of wall 
 between the doors on the track side of the house. 
 
 For the purpose of operation, the house is divided into 
 three sections, each about 500 feet long, the point of 
 division of each section being called a "relay." One man 
 in charge, with three or four helpers, is stationed at this 
 point to take care of the loaded trucks moving between the 
 sections. The object of this division is to keep truckers 
 as near as possible to their receiving-doors, as otherwise 
 a trucker stationed at Door 3, having a lot destined to a 
 car at the other end of the house, would have to walk 
 about half a mile before he returned to his door, which 
 would consume a great deal of time. The trucker brings 
 his truck-loads to this relay, leaves the loaded trucks 
 
442 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 there, and picks up another truck destined to a car in his 
 section, which he delivers to the car ; then returns to his 
 door. It is an important duty of the foremen to see that 
 truckers are always handling a truck and not returning 
 to their doors empty-handed. Of course, in the handling 
 of trucks from Section I to Section 3, the truckers of 
 Section 2 also handle trucks between those two sections. 
 
 The force of the house, and their duties, are as fol- 
 lows : (a) One General Foreman, who supervises, not 
 only the handling of out-freight but all other loading and 
 unloading of freight at the Chicago station at South Water 
 Street. Although he is compelled, as a result of this gen- 
 eral supervision, to divide his time between the various 
 houses, most of his time is spent in the out-house, as he 
 finds it can be used more profitably there than elsewhere. 
 He is responsible for employing all help, (b) One Out- 
 bound Foreman, who has charge of the force and general 
 working of the outbound house, reporting to the General 
 Foreman, (c) One Assistant Foreman, who assists the 
 foreman in the operation of the house, (d) Two Relay- 
 Men, who have charge of the handling of the freight at 
 the points of division of the three sections of the house. 
 (e) Thirty- four Receiving Clerks, one at each door, (f) 
 Thirty-four Scalemen, one located at each door, (g) One 
 Revising or Routing Clerk, whose duty it is to aid the 
 receiving clerks in the proper routing of freight, and to 
 correct any errors which they may make in this regard. 
 (h) Thirty Stowmen, one for each run of seven cars, 
 whose first duty in the morning is to open cars, sweep 
 them out, and place across his run the various bridges. 
 His special duty in the evening, just before close of busi- 
 ness, is to take up the bridges, and close and fasten the 
 doors of the cars. {1) About 140 Truckers, the number 
 
APPENDIX 443 
 
 varying, of course, with the amount of business, the fall 
 being considered the busiest season of the year. They are 
 divided into gangs of three and distributed among the 
 various doors open for business. When, however, busi- 
 ness is light in the out-freight house, and in the opinion 
 of the General Foreman they can be utilized to better 
 advantage at the in-freight house, they are sent there. 
 (/) Two Messenger Boys, whose duty includes the car- 
 rying of the shipping tickets from the receiving clerks to 
 the billing office, and other work of a similar nature. 
 (k) Two Carders and Sealers, whose duty it is properly 
 to card all cars on the house tracks, and also to see that 
 the cars are properly sealed at the close of business, the 
 actual sealing at night being done by a force of about 
 fifteen men picked from the floor of the house, the sealers 
 simply inspecting seals and keeping records. (/) One 
 Special Policeman, who is stationed at the entrance of the 
 driveway, and whose duty it is to keep a lookout for 
 wagons containing a large consignment for one point, 
 in which case he directs the same to the door nearest the 
 location of the car into which it will be loaded. 
 
 The actual handling of freight is as follows : The 
 package is unloaded and received at the door of the 
 house by the scaleman, who either loads it directly on a 
 truck, many of which are readily accessible for that pur- 
 pose, or places it on the floor of the house, as best suits 
 his convenience. The shipping-ticket, showing the list of 
 packages, marks, etc., is delivered by the teamster to the 
 receiving clerk. The scaleman then weighs the package, 
 after which he calls out to the receiving clerk the mark- 
 ings on the same, the town, state, etc. He also gives to 
 the receiving clerk the weight of the package as found 
 by him. The receiving clerk compares the markings, 
 
444 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 called out to him by the scaleman, with the shipping-ticket, 
 and if they correspond, he marks on the same the weight 
 given by the scaleman. He then calls out to the scaleman 
 the box number, and inserts on the shipping-ticket the car 
 number and initial, the latter information being before 
 him on the daily loading-sheet. The scaleman marks with 
 chalk on the package the box number given to him, and 
 also the letter of the door at which the freight is received, 
 the latter being done in order to keep a check on the door 
 at which the package is handled. The receiving clerk 
 routes the shipment, when destined to a point on a foreign 
 line, in accordance with instructions from the General 
 Freight Department. One copy of the shipping-ticket, 
 which is in duplicate, is returned receipted to the team- 
 ster, the other copy being sent to the billing office. If the 
 shipper provides his own ticket, which is generally the 
 case, the receiving clerk duly receipts for the freight by 
 use of a rubber stamp. For shippers who do not have 
 their own tickets the railroad company has a form of 
 receipt for that purpose. The scaleman then loads the 
 freight of the trucks, if he has not already done so, and 
 wheels the same to the center of the floor of the house, 
 convenient for the trucker. The trucker trucks the 
 freight from his receiving-door to the box number shown 
 on the package, if it is in his section; but if not in his 
 section, he trucks it to the first relay point, as previously 
 explained. The stowman receives the freight from the 
 truckers at the car, sees that it is loaded in the proper car, 
 and packs it in station order (if loaded in a way car). 
 He must take particular care to arrange the freight so as 
 to eliminate, as far as possible, all probability of damage 
 while en route. He also inspects markings on the pack- 
 ages and compares the same with the destination of the 
 
APPENDIX 445 
 
 car. Under this system there is no check kept on the 
 trucker delivering the freight into the car, as in the case 
 of the vericheck system. 
 
 The handling of lots containing but one or two small 
 packages is accomplished in this way. The scaleman, 
 after marking, places the package near the center of the 
 floor, it being the sole duty of one trucker in each section, 
 provided with a four-wheel truck, to gather up each of 
 these small packages and, if in his section, to place them 
 in front of the run in which the car is located to which the 
 package is destined. The stowman of that run carries the 
 package from that point and stows it in the car. The 
 reason for such handling is obviously that of economizing 
 on labor. 
 
 Setting of cars on house tracks. — The cars are set on 
 the house tracks, not only in station, but also train order, 
 they being made up by a switching crew at Welden 
 Island (Fourteenth Street) and placed at the house dur- 
 ing the night ready for the next day's business. After 
 they are placed, the yard clerks prepare the loading-sheet 
 for the day, copies of which are placed in the hands of 
 the receiving clerks and others concerned. 
 
 Perishable freight. — For the expeditious handling of 
 perishable freight, there are ten doors at the south end 
 of the building which receive nothing but that class of 
 trafBc after 2 p. m. ; this for the purpose of arranging for 
 the loading of all such stuff before closing hours, so as 
 not to hold it over until the next day. For perishable 
 freight which cannot be loaded out on the day received, a 
 cooler is provided, this being built inside the house. 
 
 Special receiving-doors. — A special arrangement is 
 maintained in the out-freight house, which provides one 
 door each for the exclusive use of the following shippers : 
 
446 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 Montgomery Ward ; Sears, Roebuck & Company ; and 
 Butler Brothers. This evidently has been established for 
 policy reasons, as it greatly aids the shippers in question 
 to bring down to a minimum delay to their teams, and 
 thereby to reduce teaming expense. However, this is a 
 very expensive method of handling, so far as the railroad 
 company is concerned, by reason of the increased 
 trucking. 
 
 Transfer outbound freight. — Transfer outbound 
 freight is generally handled early in the morning, during 
 which time all the receiving clerks, weighmen, etc., whose 
 doors have not been opened for the day, take a hand in 
 the proper disposition of this freight. However, this busi- 
 ness has lately been transferred to Fordham (104th 
 Street). 
 
 A fair average of the amount of business handled 
 daily is given as 2,000,000 pounds of out-freight, the 
 transfer freight handled amounting to about 1,400,000 
 pounds daily. The cost of handling at the Illinois Central 
 is high per ton as compared with other roads, undoubtedly 
 due to the extreme length of the house. The remedy for 
 this would be to shorten the house and to provide more 
 tracks. The loading covers about 220 cars daily. The 
 above figures include Big Four out-freight, this being 
 handled through the same house. 
 
 The system used at the present time, and as described 
 in the foregoing, was perfected by the present General 
 Foreman. While one might think more or less confusion 
 would result at the relay points of the house in the way of 
 congestion of trucks, my observation was that everything 
 pertaining to the handling of freight worked very 
 smoothly, and, under conditions as shown, it would prob- 
 ably be difficult to improve upon the system used. 
 
APPENDIX 447 
 
 COST OF HANDLING FREIGHT 
 
 One of the greatest problems of today in connection 
 with the freight service of a railroad, especially in large 
 centers where ground rent is very high, land very valu- 
 able, and space limited, is to keep the cost of handling 
 freight down to the lowest possible figure, and at the same 
 time to do the work effectively and with dispatch. 
 
 As regards the workings of a local freight-house, con- 
 gestion is always expensive, not only in itself, as it causes 
 confusion, interference, conflict, delays, complaints, etc., 
 but also in its after-effects which are experienced in the 
 shape of claims for loss and damage, complaints and pos- 
 sibly loss of business from shippers, etc. Although con- 
 gestion might be avoided by increasing the facilities for 
 receiving and handling freight, by employing more clerks, 
 truckers, storers, yardmen etc., the cost of handling would 
 by such steps be enormously increased, and as the railway 
 companies are in the business for the money there is in 
 it, the problem is to find the minimum amount of room, 
 facilities, and men that are necessary for the proper and 
 efficient handling of the business, and the proper arrange- 
 ment of these different factors. Obviously, the considera- 
 tion of expense eliminated, doubling your force, your 
 room, your depot, your freight-houses, and your yards 
 would double your efficiency and ability to take care of 
 the business, but the additional expense involved would 
 not always justify such measures. The commercial 
 weelth of the country would have to be considerably in- 
 creased, or the operating expenses and fixed charges of 
 the railroads in some way materially decreased ; or, as an 
 alternative, railway rates for the hauling of freight would 
 necessarily have to be increased. As railroads must earn 
 sufficient revenue to defray the expenses of operation, 
 
448 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 and also meet their fixed charges — such as taxes, 
 rentals, interest on bonds, dividends, insurance, etc. — it 
 will readily be seen that the handling of goods in the 
 freight-houses in all large and congested centers is an 
 item demanding close economy and surveillance. 
 
 This economy is not always obtainable by employing 
 a few men, but in having the necessary number of men 
 with adequate depot room and adjoining track facilities 
 for loading and unloading cars. The problem of the 
 present day is to find the least possible expense necessary 
 to handle the business with promptness and dispatch. It 
 goes without saying that the expense will vary by compari- 
 son of one freight-house with another, on the same road 
 and in the same city, or on different roads in the same 
 city, due to the local conditions at each depot, the differ- 
 ent kinds of freight handled, and the variability of ton- 
 nage handled at each depot, as well as the volume of the 
 tonnage. 
 
 Eliminating the labor, or personal, element, we find 
 that the arrangement and manner in which a freight- 
 house is built affects to a large extent the cost of handling 
 freight, I believe that the in-freight and the out-freight 
 should be handled in separate houses — that is to say, under 
 normal conditions, and in large centers. My idea is that, 
 where ground space will permit, the freight-houses should 
 have some uniform proportion of length as to width, 
 according to the business being done ; and, where possi- 
 ble, the loading and unloading tracks should be between 
 the in- and out-houses, with a platform between. This 
 would permit greater freedom of movement to the freight- 
 handlers, and would be invaluable in the case of trans- 
 ferring freight, and, I believe, would result in economy, 
 as they could perform their labor more satisfactorily than 
 
APPENDIX 449 
 
 under other conditions. The two tracks on either side of 
 the platform in the middle could be so utilized that one 
 could contain the inbound cars to be transferred, and the 
 other the outbound cars to receive the transferred goods. 
 
 Of course, natural conditions would affect such an 
 arrangement to a great extent, but the principal factors 
 involved in dealing with the handling of freight are the 
 expense incurred and the volume of outbound freight as 
 compared with the volume of inbound freight. Under 
 the above arrangement the freight office might be situated 
 very advantageously at one end of, and connecting, the 
 two houses, in and out, and the close arrangement of 
 these three principal factors — the in-house, out-house, 
 and freight office — would, I think, work out more 
 economically, on account of their continuity with each 
 other, than if they were all three separate, although with- 
 in close proximity to each other. 
 
 In smaller cities and in country towns the in- and out- 
 freight can be handled satisfactorily in one building, or 
 under one roof ; but in large and important commercial 
 centers, like Chicago, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Cleveland, 
 St. Louis, etc. — I think it will be found less expensive to 
 handle the two kinds of freight separately as there is, 
 by virtue of the enormous volume of traffic involved, 
 more risk of shipments becoming mixed, more confusion, 
 more interference, and I dare say more claims arising 
 from the joint handling of in- and out-shipments, than 
 from the separate handling of the two. 
 
 However, the handling of in- and out-freight in the 
 same house may be employed advantageously where the 
 principle of two levels can be utilized, such as is the 
 case with the Local Freight House of the Wisconsin 
 Central Railway at Chicago, where there is a viaduct on 
 
45° RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 a level with the second story of the freight-house, by 
 means of which the in-freight is handled on the second 
 floor and the out-freight on the ground floor, both of 
 which are handled to and from the cars through the same 
 doors on the first floor, the in-freight being elevated to the 
 second or viaduct floor by means of large and powerful 
 elevators. Under such conditions a car can be unloaded 
 and loaded at the same time. 
 
 The length and width of a freight-house, in or out, 
 also affects the cost of handling freight. Obviously, on 
 account of the greater trucking space involved, an out- 
 freight house should be as narrow in width as the volume 
 of the business handled will warrant, and in most cases 
 should average about thirty feet wide. An in-freight 
 house, on the other hand, should be as wide and as square 
 as possible, as goods are received from cars in a steadier 
 and more constant manner than is the case with out- 
 freight, which is loaded somewhat spasmodically, and at 
 the will of the shipper, while trains carrying in-freight 
 arrive on certain specified schedules, enabling the freight- 
 handlers to transact their business of unloading in an 
 even and methodical manner. Then again, the in-freight 
 house should be very wide on account of the fact that 
 goods are generally stored in it for several days before 
 delivery is actually taken by consignees, and some goods 
 are not infrequently held over a somewhat lengthy period. 
 Out-freight, on the other hand, is generally, or should be, 
 put in cars and forwarded the day that it is delivered to 
 the railway company. Hence all the width that is neces- 
 sary in an out-freight house is that which will actually 
 contain shipments in process of being put into the cars. 
 The actual length of the two houses will be determined, 
 of course, by the amount of traffic handled through each. 
 
APPENDIX 451 
 
 Another thing that affects the cost of handling freight 
 is the system of "spotting" cars. At a station where 
 business is very heavy in volume, and it is necessary to 
 have six, seven, or eight parallel rows of cars, the process 
 of "spotting" these cars so that they come opposite to 
 each other, door to door, is quite an undertaking, and 
 necessitates an immense amount of switching, as on ac- 
 count of the difference in the length of the various cars 
 they all have to be placed uncoupled. This switching 
 raises the cost of handling freight, but in some cases may 
 be avoided by the adoption of a system of island platforms 
 — i. e., platforms about eight feet wide between each row 
 cf cars. Under the latter arrangement, the cars can be 
 set in their rows without uncoupling and there would 
 be practically no switching; but the question that is in- 
 volved is whether the benefit obtained from the decreased 
 switching are greater than and adequately offset the dis- 
 advantages of the increased trucking space and the addi- 
 tional ground area required by the platforms. Six plat- 
 forms, each eight feet wide, would mean an increased 
 trucking space of from twenty-five to thirty feet, 1 and 
 would compel the company to purchase that many addi- 
 tional feet of right of way. Hence, under some circum- 
 stances, the system of "spotting" cars might be the more 
 economical, under other conditions, the island platform 
 arrangement might be the most advantageous. In the 
 case of small cities, where there is only one loading track, 
 the system of continuous sliding-doors would, I think, 
 be more economical than any other, and would do away 
 with the "spotting" of cars. 
 
 In large centers, where the out-freight of a railroad is 
 
 1 Twenty-five to thirty feet and not forty-five feet, since without 
 platforms, three or four feet or so must be left between every pair 
 of cars. 
 
45 2 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 of great volume, the manner in which the freight is de- 
 livered on the floor of the freight-house affects the cost 
 of its handling. For instance, in the case of an out- 
 freight house, 30 feet wide and 500 feet long, with sixteen 
 receiving-doors on the yard or dray side, and twelve doors 
 on the track side, a teamster comes up to door No. 1 at 
 one end of the house and drops down a box of mer- 
 chandise on the freight-house floor which is destined, 
 perhaps, to be carried into one of the cars on a run at the 
 other end of the building, say in the run opposite door 
 No. 10. This necessitates the trucker hauling this box the 
 whole length of the freight-house, or nearly 500 feet, 
 which, while he might do so with all possible haste, would 
 still result in his consuming as much time as it would 
 take him to make three trips to runway No. 5, or per- 
 chance five or six trips to runway No. 3. Hence this hap- 
 hazard and random delivery of freight on the floor of the 
 freight-house is a more expensive proposition than if 
 the freight should happen to be delivered at the right 
 door — i. e., the one opposite, or nearly opposite, the run in 
 which the car, that is ultimately to carry the freight, is 
 located. 
 
 Now, this could easily be arranged for by stationing 
 a man at the entrance to the receiving-yard, whose duty 
 it would be to stop and inquire of each teamster the desti- 
 nation of the goods he intended delivering to the railway 
 company. This person, who might be termed a "direct- 
 ing clerk," would, upon receipt of such information from 
 the teamster, direct him to the door opposite the run of 
 cars into which his freight would ultimately be carried. 
 In the case of a teamster having a number of different 
 packages for a number of different destinations, two or 
 more doors in the center of the house might be arranged to 
 
APPENDIX 453 
 
 take care of these miscellaneous consignments, the object 
 being, of course, to decrease the amount and length of 
 trucking. If there were some other wagons or teamsters 
 at any particular door, each one could take his turn, and 
 the yard could be arranged so that all teams would enter 
 at one end and depart from the other. 
 
 In this way, besides the advantages above mentioned, 
 there would be more order and less confusion in the 
 receiving-yard, and the draymen and teamsters would be 
 enabled to transact their business in a quicker manner, 
 and could leave the yard more promptly than under 
 the system of permitting them to drive up to whatever 
 door they see unused. The results that would be derived 
 from the establishment of such a system as this would 
 seem to me to more than offset the trifling expense of the 
 directing clerk's salary. This system would also tend to 
 reduce the number of mistakes occasioned by putting 
 freight in the wrong cars, as freight for a certain run of 
 cars would be placed right in front of that run, and the 
 receiving clerks and checkers, having to familiarize them- 
 selves with only certain portions of the geography of 
 their road, would make fewer mistakes, and would be 
 more likely to detect mistakes, if any, on the part of the 
 directing clerk, in case he directed a teamster to the 
 wrong door. Truckers would also be able to accomplish 
 a greater amount of work by reason of having to truck 
 a shorter distance; and the storers would be enabled to 
 do their work more quickly and with less interference 
 from the truckers, especially in the gangways and in the 
 cars, than under the present system, as, on account of the 
 smaller distance involved, the truckers could truck the 
 freight directly to the car intended to contain it, instead 
 of leaving the trucks at the entrance of the run for the 
 
454 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 storer to handle. Of course, in arriving at the above con- 
 clusions, I have taken into consideration the operation of 
 the out-freight house as a separate proposition, and under 
 the system of "spotting" cars on a track schedule. 
 
 As regards the cost of operating long out-freight 
 houses, as against short ones, without the employment 
 of a directing clerk as afore mentioned — in the case, say, 
 of a freight-house 500 feet long — if such a freight-house 
 were to be doubled in length — i. e., to 1,000 feet — it could 
 without doubt handle double the amount of traffic ; and if 
 the expense of operation were just doubled, it would cost 
 just as much per ton to handle the freight as before ; but 
 the expense would be more than doubled, for the simple 
 reason that the trucking would be more lengthy, more 
 promiscuous, and hence more costly, than for the 500-foot 
 house. It might easily be a common occurrence for a 
 trucker to pick up a truck at door No. 1, push it to door 
 No. 20, some 1,000 feet away, and then pick up a truck 
 at door No. 20 loaded for door No. 2, and so on. 
 
 It seems to me a better plan, where a railroad has 
 several divisions entering a city, to have small freight- 
 houses for each division, keeping the in-freight separate 
 from the out-freight, and to have such freight-houses 
 located in different parts of the city ; or they might even 
 be quite near each other, within four or five blocks prox- 
 imity, which, of course, would be determined by the 
 local conditions in any particular city. Take the case of 
 the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul's Chicago local freight 
 station, for example, where the ratio of tonnage of the 
 in-freight to the out-freight is as 5 to 7. Such a road 
 might be very profitably operating two in-freight houses 
 and three out-freight houses, each smaller in size than 
 the in-freight house and out-freight house it now pos- 
 
APPENDIX 455 
 
 sesses, and situated within four or five blocks of each 
 other. This would give the railway an in-freight house 
 for each of its divisions entering the city, and the three 
 out-freight houses could easily be assigned to Southwest, 
 West, and Northwest traffic respectively: the shipping 
 public could be very easily educated as to which was the 
 proper one to transact business with. By the adoption 
 of bills of lading, freight notices, and the like, of a differ- 
 ent color for each of the different freight-houses, such 
 a system could be made to work very smoothly with all 
 concerned. A directing clerk could be employed at each 
 station, and he could instruct the teamsters as to the 
 proper freight-house to go to, in case they went to the 
 wrong one. As regards the in-freight, the addresses of 
 the different in-freight houses could be printed on the 
 different freight notices, and expense bills of different 
 colors could be used, so that the public would not experi- 
 ence much difficulty in getting familiar with the arrange- 
 ment. 
 
 In regard to the vericheck system, I believe a slight 
 modification — i. e., the substitution of "box" numbers for 
 car numbers — is more satisfactory, accomplishes better 
 results, and causes fewer mistakes, than the absolute car 
 number system. Actual experience has verified this. As 
 the car numbers change from day to day, and are generally 
 long (five figures in length), and as there is a possibility 
 of having two cars of the same number with different 
 initials on the same day, there are naturally more chances 
 for error than in the case of "box" numbers, which are 
 never more than three figures in length, and which would 
 never change, and could for that reason be easily learned 
 and memorized by the receiving clerks and checkers. 
 
 The in-freight in larger cities being handled prin- 
 
45 6 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 cipally in the forenoon, and the out-freight in the after- 
 noon, and the out-freight being generally of greater 
 volume than the in-freight, the forces of employees oper- 
 ating the two houses can in some instances be so arranged 
 that they will be employed in greater numbers at the 
 house where they are needed the most during the differ- 
 ent periods of the day. For instance, a greater number 
 of men could be employed in the in-freight house in the 
 forenoon ; and as the rush in the inbound freight subsided, 
 and the rush in the outbound freight increased, a portion 
 of them could be transferred as the occasion required. 
 But the establishment of such a method of joint working 
 must be done in as flexible a manner as possible, for the 
 reason that there are periods when both the in- and out- 
 freight houses experience an overflow of business at the 
 same time, which might result in congestion. Hence 
 the successful working of such a plan would depend to 
 a large extent upon the general character and physical 
 condition of the in- and out- freight house forces ; but 
 under intelligent and competent foremanship I think 
 such an arrangement might be profitably employed, 
 especially where the two houses are in close proximity to 
 ecch other. 
 
 In order to get the best results from the services of 
 freight-handlers, a great deal depends upon the foremen 
 in charge, who should be men of trained experience in 
 handling other men, and who must be familiar with the 
 geographical conditions of their road, and see that freight 
 is loaded in station and division order, and for the right 
 division or junction points. 
 
 With reference to the question of wages, care should 
 be used in the selection of men, and they should receive 
 a fair remuneration for their services. This would result 
 
APPENDIX 457 
 
 in a better understanding between employer and em- 
 ployee, and there would be fewer vacancies to fill, thus 
 assuring a working force of experienced men. This alone 
 would count for much in point of economy, and the rail- 
 roads would be the gainer in the greater efficiency of the 
 men. 
 
 If it is necessary for the office men of a local freight- 
 house to work all hours of the day and night, as appar- 
 ently a great many of them do, it seems to me that it 
 would be a good plan to organize the force into three 
 shifts, each working eight hours each. There would not 
 necessarily have to be the same number of men in each 
 shift ; the night shift could be much smaller than the two 
 day shifts. The railroad company would be the gainer, 
 in that the men would do better work than under the over- 
 time system. This system of shifts would possibly have 
 a tendency to raise the cost of handling freight, but, on 
 the other hand, would prove of value and economy in the 
 long run by averting losses and preventing claims for 
 damages and overcharges, and prevent much public 
 clamor. If you work your force overtime and do not pay 
 them for it, you may by such means keep the cost of han- 
 dling freight down to a relatively small figure, but not 
 by proper means ; and the men become discouraged and 
 demoralized, and their work is liable to be a little below 
 the standard. 
 
 In cases where team track tonnage is used in estimating 
 the cost of handling freight at a station, it necessarily 
 has a decreasing tendency, as there is practically no ex- 
 pense attached to the loading and unloading of team- 
 track business, as compared with the handling of LCL 
 shipments through a freight-house. In only a small per- 
 centage of cases does the railway company furnish any 
 
45 8 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 help in the loading and unloading of cars on team track, 
 and necessarily, as far as the railway company is con- 
 cerned, the cost is but trifling. 
 
 In the case of one important freight station with which 
 I am familiar, the cost of handling the in-freight aver- 
 ages about 40.03 cents per ton, and the out-freight about 
 34.90 cents per ton ; which, at the ratio of 7 tons of out- 
 freight to 5 tons of in-freight, would make an average 
 cost of 37.04 cents per ton ; while team-track tonnage costs 
 only 3.34 cents per ton. 
 
 THE RED BALL SYSTEM OF HANDLING FAST 
 FREIGHT 
 
 The intention of the writer of this paper is to illustrate 
 the working of the Red Ball system of fast freight by 
 reference to a particular railway, the Rock Island System 
 being chosen for the purpose. 
 
 This fast freight service is designed for carload ship- 
 ments falling under the following general classifications : 
 all Asiatic freight, or freight destined to or from the 
 Pacific coast, El Paso, or south of El Paso ; all perishable 
 freight ; all freight in refrigerator-cars under ice ; all 
 freight in bond ; mixed lots of general merchandise, 
 whether in carloads or less, included in the list of Red Ball 
 commodities. Cars containing freight other than the 
 specified commodities must not be Red-Balled without 
 permission of the Freight Traffic Manager, General 
 Freight Agent, or General Superintendent through the 
 Assistant to Second Vice-President. 
 
 About seventy stations have been named as Red Ball 
 billing stations ; each being designated by letter or letters, 
 and assigned a series of numbers to be used in numbering 
 the envelopes carrying the waybills for the cars. On each 
 
APPENDIX 459 
 
 side of every car is attached a card (in size 7 by 9 inches) 
 with a circle filled in with red, on which is set in white 
 the number of the train in which the car is to travel. 
 These cards are of course removed at destination. 
 
 A special envelope, also* red in color, must accompany 
 each car of Red Ball freight, and every empty car that 
 may be handled as such. The envelope covering the car 
 for the nearest destination is given the opening symbol 
 number, and the envelope for each succeeding destination 
 is given succeeding numbers consecutively in the same 
 order. For example, Chicago forwards Red Ball freight 
 on a train as follows : 1 car for Davenport, 2 for Des 
 Moines, 2 for Council Bluffs, 2 for Denver, etc. The 
 opening number 1 should be given the car for Daven- 
 port, 2 for Des Moines, and so on, and the opening num- 
 ber for the next envelope for Red Ball freight from Chi- 
 cago would be 8. The envelope would of course bear the 
 Chicago symbol FM. 
 
 Before the train leaves a Red Ball station, the agent 
 compiles a "consist report" from the information shown 
 on the Red Ball envelopes, and this report must be wired 
 to the General Superintendent within an hour after the 
 departure of the train. This report gives the symbol 
 letter and number, car number and initial, contents, con- 
 signee and destination, and, in case the latter is beyond 
 the company's line, the junction point where the car 
 leaves and the routing beyond. 
 
 Each agent, at the close of each day, must file with the 
 operator for transmission, forwarding a copy by first pas- 
 senger train, a report of all Red-Balled cars on hand 
 that were ready to go forward prior to the departure of 
 the Red Ball train upon which they should have moved. 
 This report, besides car numbers, initials, contents, and 
 
460 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 destination, gives the hour received and the cause of 
 delay; a supplementary report gives the date and train 
 forwarded. 
 
 Whenever a loaded Red-Balled car is set out, a form 
 known as "set-out car" is made out and attached to the 
 face of the red envelope traveling with the car. This 
 form is of a green color and mucilaged for convenience 
 in attaching to the envelope. It is left, with the envelope 
 attached, by the conductor with the telegraph operator 
 at the point where the car is set out, and the information 
 is at once wired to the General Superintendent. If the car 
 is set out at a blind siding, the report will be left at the 
 next telegraph station, and the agent at that point must 
 immediately inform the proper officials. A car once set 
 out for any cause and held for another train must not 
 again be set out except on account of being in bad order. 
 If the freight is transferred to another car, the necessary 
 information is entered on the red envelope, but no change 
 is permitted in the original symbol letter and number, 
 which must identify the shipment to its destination. 
 
 Reports previously alluded to have provided for com- 
 plete information in regard to the shipments — i. e., con- 
 signee, commodity, etc. ; but the "set-out car" report pro- 
 vides only for train and car symbols and numbers. This 
 is true also of any new reports hereinafter alluded to, as 
 a car, after once having left the billing point, is known 
 by symbols only. 
 
 When a delayed car is forwarded, agents or yard- 
 masters advise the General Superintendent by wire, stat- 
 ing the symbol number of the car and the new train num- 
 ber. A report is not required if a car, set out, is for- 
 warded on the same train and date on which it arrived at 
 a station. 
 
APPENDIX 461 
 
 Agents or yard-masters at district terminals and other 
 designated stations must wire the General Superintendent 
 of the passing of trains and cars bearing the Red Ball 
 freight. This report states only the lowest and highest 
 symbol numbers of the letter on the Red Ball envelopes. 
 When a break occurs in a series, two series are used in the 
 report, the first terminating with the number preceding 
 the missing symbol. 
 
 A similar report is used in reporting arrival at destina- 
 tion, or at junction points where cars leave the company's 
 rails, or at company junctions, with the exception that 
 freight destinated to local and branch-line points is fol- 
 lowed only to the district terminal or branch-line junc- 
 tion point. It then becomes the duty of the Division Su- 
 perintendent and agent to see that such cars are forwarded 
 to their destination on the first proper train, and that this 
 arrives at destination as nearly on time as possible. 
 
 Red Ball freight at intermediate stations — i. e., stations 
 between district terminals — is forwarded to the first dis- 
 trict terminal by local train to be switched at that point 
 into proper Red Ball trains. Agents at non-Red Ball 
 billing stations, having cars entitled to such billing, wire 
 the agent at the first Red Ball billing station on the route 
 of the car, and upon its arrival at such station the car is 
 handled in the same manner as if originating at that point. 
 Local merchandise-cars traveling as Red Ball freight are 
 Red-Balled to the last district terminal reached before 
 distribution begins. Agents at such terminals must then 
 see that the car is promptly forwarded. Agents at dis- 
 trict terminals are required to scrutinize all waybills, to 
 discover whether or not any shipments are entitled to 
 Red Ball service. 
 
462 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 The movement of Red Ball trains, as has been sug- 
 gested, is under the direction of the General Superin- 
 tendents, but each superintendent is required to notify 
 connecting divisions of the movement of all such trains 
 or cars destined for such divisions. Diversion of loaded 
 cars in transit is handled by the Freight Claim Agent, 
 the station agent who makes the diversion wiring the 
 General Superintendent of his district the new consignee, 
 destination, and routing. 
 
 As the entire movement of these trains is reported by 
 wire, it is necessary to prohibit the tracing of shipments 
 by wire except in cases of very urgent importance, on 
 the theory that the tracing has no effect upon the move- 
 ment of this class of freight, tracers being regarded 
 merely as requests for information as to location, move- 
 ment, or arrival. All such tracing is handled through 
 the Assistant to the Second Vice-President. All tele- 
 graphic tracing is done by code, the inquiry being made 
 of the General Superintendent most likely to have the 
 car. If he does not have the car, he passes the inquiry 
 to the General Superintendent to whom it has gone, word- 
 ing his message in such form as to make it clear who it 
 is that wants the information, and answer is made directly 
 to the person making the initial inquiry. 
 
 Where the destination of the freight is beyond the 
 company's rails, delivery to connection is reported, fol- 
 lowed by a report of the arrival at its ultimate destination, 
 if desired, by mail. Trains are given a symbol letter, 
 according to their points of origin and the dates on which 
 they depart, and are known through to their destination 
 by these symbol letters. 
 
APPENDIX 463 
 
 PER DIEM AND CAR SERVICE RULES : THEIR 
 MEANING AND APPLICATION 
 
 "Per diem," generally speaking, is car service charged 
 one railroad by another for the use of its cars ; "car 
 service" is per diem charged the public by the railroad 
 for the use of cars. While to a certain extent inter- 
 related, per diem and car service must, for the sake of 
 clearness, be treated separately. 
 
 From the beginning of railroads in America up to 
 1902 the only compensation a railroad received for the 
 use of its cars by another railroad was upon a mileage 
 basis, except in a few isolated instances where a per-diem 
 rate was tried as an experiment by one railroad with an- 
 other. The rate generally charged in the beginning was 
 one and a half cents per mile, with no allowance for emp- 
 ties. There was, however, no uniformity, railroads char- 
 ging one another what they pleased. Later on, in the sev- 
 enties, this rate was lowered to one cent per mile, loaded or 
 empty ; then to three-quarters of a cent ; then to six mills ; 
 and, finally, in 1892, by agreement of the roads forming 
 the American Railway Association, it was fixed at three- 
 quarters of a cent per mile. Under this arrangement, 
 however, when a car was not being hauled no charges 
 were accruing against it. There was, therefore, every 
 incentive to keep foreign cars from moving, even to haul 
 them back to their home tracks. They made excellent 
 warehouses and could be stored away on sidings indefi- 
 nitely. It also rested entirely with the company using the 
 car as to how many or how few miles it should report on 
 any car. Although it was considered a matter of honor 
 to report mileage accurately and honestly, it has been 
 proved in many instances that railroads did cut their 
 mileage reports. One railroad in New England, it has 
 
464 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 been shown, held out $80,000 per year in mileage. No 
 railroad permitted another to inspect its books to see 
 whether or not accurate reports were being turned in; 
 there was therefore no remedy; and the excuse for re- 
 porting short mileage was that "the others do* it too." 
 
 Once a car got off its home line it might be years be- 
 fore it was returned. Many cars were reported on the 
 books "lost." Railroads had men doing nothing else but 
 going up and down different lines searching for cars. In 
 time of car scarcity this practice was a hardship on all 
 lines, as well as upon the public. While with a small 
 road having few cars it was cheaper to pay mileage on 
 cars than to own them, on a large road this was not true. 
 The object of per diem was primarily to encourage the 
 movement of cars. In 1900 the average run of a freight- 
 car was only about twenty-four miles per day. This 
 made the revenue from each car but 18 cents per day, 
 and the total revenue from each car on a foreign line 
 $65.70 per annum. The average cost of repairs per car 
 of twenty-seven different railroads at that time was 
 $43.53 per annum. Master Car Builders' rules allow 6 
 per cent, per annum for depreciation. On a car costing 
 $800 this meant a charge of $48 per year, making the 
 cost of ownership of a car $91.53 per annum. This left a 
 deficit of $25.83 to be made up from equipment fund or 
 otherwise. Clearly, with an average mileage of twenty- 
 four miles per day, at a cost of three-quarters of a cent 
 per mile, the result was not remunerative to the railroad 
 companies. There was no means of forcing the cars to 
 greater mileage. 
 
 In 1876 Mr. J. T. Rigney, the car record officer of the 
 Baltimore & Ohio, first advocated a per-diem plan, but 
 his proposition was not taken seriously, being considered 
 
APPENDIX 465 
 
 impracticable. The per-diem method was tried subse- 
 quently by different railroads among themselves, at vary- 
 ing rates, simply as an experiment. Though generally 
 denied that the per-diem charge is in any sense a "rental," 
 it was argued that a car, like a house, represents money 
 invested, and the fact remained, whether the car was in 
 use or not, that the owner was deprived of its use when 
 it was on a foreign line. The mileage basis is analogous 
 to a case where a man rents a house, but declines to pay 
 rent when he is not actually using it. A thousand cars 
 represent an investment of at least $800,000, and a rail- 
 road company which has upon foreign lines one thousand 
 of its cars (and this is not at all unusual) has the same 
 as loaned $800,000. What railroad would loan this 
 amount in cash without adequate security and without 
 assured interest? It is true that it was and is today the 
 practice to keep as many foreign cars on the home lines 
 as there are home cars on foreign lines, but this is only 
 a means of getting around the question and was not in 
 any sense a solution of it. 
 
 In 1900, through the influence of Mr. J. W. Midgley 
 and a number of large railroads, the Bureau of Car Per- 
 formances and Statistics was organized to investigate 
 this question of per diem and mileage, and, if possible, 
 to arrive at a solution of the problem. After overcoming 
 many difficulties in the way of prejudices, jealousies, and 
 so forth, the per-diem rate of 20 cents per car per day, 
 with a penalty charge of 80 cents, described more in 
 detail below, was evolved, and was adopted April 24, 
 1902, by the railways comprising the American Railway 
 Association. 
 
 Briefly, the per-diem rules are as follows: Twenty 
 cents per car per day must be paid for every calendar 
 
466 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 day a car is in the hands of a foreign line, the day of 
 receipt of car being disregarded, but payment being made 
 for the day of delivery. A road has the right to demand 
 the return of its car after it has been twenty days con- 
 secutively on any road. If the car is held by such road 
 more than ten days after the date of the penalty notice 
 (thirty days in all), thereafter a penalty rate of 80 cents 
 per day in addition to the per-diem rate of 20 cents must 
 be paid for the further use of such car. All railroads and 
 ferry lines are responsible to the car-owner for amounts 
 accruing for the use of such car, whether in road or 
 switching service, until the car has been delivered to the 
 owner or to> another road ; but an arbitrary amount for 
 each car in switching service may be reclaimed by the 
 switching line from the road for which the service was 
 performed, such amount to be fixed for each local terri- 
 tory by agreement between the roads interested. (For 
 instance: A Baltimore & Ohio car is delivered to the 
 Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe by the Missouri Pacific at 
 Newton, Kan., to be switched to a mill for loading and 
 returned. The Missouri Pacific reports to the Baltimore 
 & Ohio delivery of the car to the Atchison, Topeka & 
 Santa Fe, and per-diem charges against the Missouri 
 Pacific for such car cease and begin against the Atchison. 
 The car being delivered within the yard at Newton, the 
 Atchison gets no division of freight earnings, but simply 
 an arbitrary switching charge from which have to be 
 subtracted the per-diem charges accruing daily which the 
 Atchison must pay. This is manifestly unfair, and the 
 Atchison is allowed to make reclaim against the Missouri 
 Pacific of, say, 40 cents, the average time required for 
 such switching service having been determined and fixed 
 at two days.) 
 
APPENDIX 467 
 
 A road is responsible to the owner for an amount 
 equal to the per diem accruing on any empty car delivered 
 without the consent of the owner to a road which does 
 not pay per diem ; this is also the case where a road per- 
 mits the loading or reconsigning of a foreign car without 
 the consent of the owner. Reclaim is usually allowed 
 on account of defective cars, and, when a car is detained 
 awaiting receipt of necessary repair material from its 
 owner, per diem ceases from the date such material was 
 ordered until the date received by the road holding the 
 car. When a car has been destroyed, or so damaged as 
 to require an appraisement, or a home route card has been 
 requested under the Master Car Builders' rules, the per- 
 diem charge ceases from the date of notice to the owner. 
 Under these last two rules it is necessary that the Car 
 Accountant should be immediately advised of all cars 
 delayed, and the advice should show whether the cars are 
 destroyed or damaged, and should contain such other 
 information as will enable prompt and accurate reports 
 to be made to the owners. 
 
 The "interchange report" closes daily at midnight and 
 includes a list of all cars exchanged upon the date named, 
 unless otherwise noted : reports are required to< be made 
 to the car record office on each day, whether cars are 
 exchanged or not. Where there are different standards of 
 time at junction points, the earlier time must be used. 
 These reports shall be upon the prescribed form, giving 
 station, date, car numbers, and initials, marked with a 
 "x" or " — " to indicate whether loaded or empty and 
 must be signed by the agents, or other authorized repre- 
 sentative or representatives of both roads. The time 
 of delivery of cars upon interchange tracks of connecting 
 lines shall be the time given by the delivering road. Four 
 
468 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 copies are made of this report. Agents of both lines 
 sign, and two copies are then delivered with the cars, one 
 copy is retained for the agent's file, and one is sent to the 
 car record office. For cars received the report will be 
 made by the agent of the delivering road and the two 
 copies received with the cars handled in the same manner 
 ■ — one copy for the file and one for the Car Accountant. 
 Report of delivery to each road is made separately. The 
 junction report for each day is made by the Car Account- 
 ant of one road to the Car Accountant of another as soon 
 as possible after the receipt of the interchange report, and 
 shows receipts and deliveries. 
 
 Within thirty days after the end of each calendar 
 month car-owners must be furnished with a per-diem 
 report for that month on the prescribed form, showing 
 the number of days each car has been in service upon 
 the road making the report. This report is made by the 
 Car Accountant to the officer designated in the Equip- 
 ment Register as the proper person to whom such reports 
 should be sent. Remittance is made to such officer, and 
 is usually by balance instead of by exchange of drafts. 
 The penalty notice, which is printed in red, is served by 
 one Car Accountant on another. It is sent in duplicate, 
 one copy being retained, the other signed and returned. 
 The notice states that the cars therein mentioned have 
 been on the line of the road served twenty consecutive 
 days, and that, if not disposed of within ten days, penalty 
 of 80 cents per day per car will be charged. Car numbers 
 and initials are given with dates and places of delivery, 
 and provision is made for reply, showing disposition and 
 date, opposite each car enumerated, in case the report is 
 disagreed with. 
 
 In case a road fails to receive promptly from a connec- 
 
APPENDIX 469 
 
 tion cars upon which it has laid no embargo, it is re- 
 sponsible to the connection for the per-diem charges on 
 such cars so held for delivery, including the home cars 
 of such connection. If such failure continues for more 
 than three days, the delinquent line is thereafter in addi- 
 tion responsible for the per-diem charges on all cars, 
 wherever in transit, which are thus Held back for delivery, 
 reports of which, giving initials and numbers when de- 
 sired, are to be made daily. In case notice of an embargo 
 is given by any road, cars already loaded with such traffic 
 at the time such notice is issued are to be received. In 
 case of refusal the road is responsible for per-diem 
 charges for the number of days such cars are held, not 
 exceeding the duration of the embargo. After the date 
 of the notice a road must not load or reconsign cars in 
 such traffic to the road issuing the notice. All such 
 notices are to be given by wire to immediate connections, 
 and by them transmitted as may be necessary. Provision 
 is made for an arbitration committee of five members of 
 the American Railway Association, to whom disputes 
 are to be submitted. These rules do not apply to private 
 cars. 
 
 "Breaking penalty" constitutes getting a penalty car 
 off one's own line. This is sometimes accomplished by 
 delivering to a subsidiary line and reporting to the home 
 line, such subsidiary company redelivering the car the 
 next day perhaps. When penalty is broken, the 20-cent 
 rate only applies, for penalty cannot follow a car to 
 another line. This practice of escaping penalty is dis- 
 couraged by the American Railway Association, which 
 has endeavored to provide against it by ruling that certain 
 named railroads shall be considered portions of one rail- 
 
47° RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 road, and that delivery to or from any part thereof to 
 another shall not constitute delivery to another line. 
 
 Under this head also may properly come charges 
 for exchange of passenger equipment According to the 
 American Railway Association code of rules, adopted 
 October 24, 1900, and as in effect January 1, 1906, "the 
 following rates for the use of passenger equipment shall 
 be in force, unless otherwise arranged between the roads 
 concerned" : (a) The rate for coaches, dining-cars, chair- 
 cars, parlor-cars, combined passenger-cars and postal-cars, 
 shall be three cents per mile of actual distance ; and for 
 baggage-, express-, mail-storage, combined baggage-ex- 
 press, baggage-mail, and baggage-mail-express cars, one 
 and a half cents per mile for actual distance. These rates 
 shall apply when owners of cars participate in the busi- 
 ness, and not when cars are hired to other lines, (b) The 
 per-diem rate for coaches, dining-cars, chair-cars, etc., 
 hired at other than mileage rates shall be $5 per day ; 
 and for baggage-, express-, mail-storage, etc., cars, $3 
 per day, subject, however, to agreement between the 
 parties interested. Fractions of a day are counted as one 
 day. When necessary to haul cars empty over the roads 
 owning them, or intermediate roads, for delivery to the 
 borrowing road, the tariff rates for such cars shall be 
 charged the borrowing road for hauling cars from the 
 points where they left service to the points of con- 
 nection with the borrowing road and return, the charge 
 for the empty haul being named to the borrowing road 
 at the time the agreement to loan is made. 
 
 At the last meeting of the American Railway Associa- 
 tion it was agreed to raise the charge per diem from 20 
 to 25 cents, the penalty charge being reduced to 75 cents. 
 This rate is at present being ratified by the various roads 
 
 V 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 comprising the association and will go into effect when 
 this has been completed. I am also informed that it is 
 expected that the rate will in the near future be raised to 
 30 cents, the penalty rate being lowered to 70 cents, the 
 opinion being that this is nearer an equitable charge for 
 the use of a car and one which will tend to promote greater 
 activity. At the time of going into effect of the present 
 per-diem charge the increase in the activity of freight- 
 cars was remarkable. The charge touched the pocket- 
 books of the various roads, and cars which had been 
 struck off the books as lost appeared from the most 
 unlikely places and were rushed home. The saving to the 
 railroads was enormous. Instead of having to buy new 
 equipment, the railroads found that they already owned 
 enough — in some cases too much. In 1902 there were 
 approximately a million and a half freight-cars in use in 
 the United States. If the activity of these cars was in- 
 creased 10 per cent., it would be equivalent to having 10 
 per cent, more cars. This alone would save an expendi- 
 ture of approximately $1,500,000. The average freight 
 earnings per car per day at that time were about $2 
 (though in some cases they rose as high as $7) ; and this 
 would mean, at $2 per day, $1,095,000 per year in addi- 
 tion. At the time of the adoption of the per-diem rate 
 there was and had been for some time a severe car famine, 
 and the resulting car "plenty" made the advantages of its 
 adoption, if possible, more prominent. 
 
 It may be pertinent to suggest that it seems hardly 
 fair for a railroad to be charged the same rate for a car 
 of 30,000 pounds' capacity as for an 80,000 pound- 
 capacity car. One cent per ton capacity per day would 
 seem equitable. 
 
 Another thing which may be here brought up is the 
 
47 2 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 question of equipment pools, or of a clearing-house of 
 freight equipment, or of freight and passenger equip- 
 ment. There are in the United States today about two 
 million freight-cars — sufficient to provide for all require- 
 ments of traffic conditions for some time to come, if 
 properly distributed and handled. While per diem works 
 very well as a general rule, and is in any event far superior 
 to the mileage method, it is true that for roads near large 
 commercial centers in times of car shortage it is much 
 more profitable to pay per diem than to own cars, and 
 the result is that the smaller roads suffer — in fact, all roads 
 get a taste of the same thing at different times. There is 
 an American Railway Association rule which requires the 
 reloading and reconsigning of a foreign car in the direc- 
 tion of home ; but this is frequently violated, however, in 
 case of car shortages. The only thing that can be done is 
 to "kick," and this is done vigorously. The car-pool 
 scheme would obviate this ; but it has the objection of 
 placing the control of all the equipment in the country 
 into the hands of one man or perhaps a committee. Jeal- 
 ousies and dissentions among the roads would make it a 
 constant source of complaint. It seems really too large a 
 scheme and puts too much power into the hands of one 
 man, though it might be practicable if the country were 
 divided into districts, similar to the various passenger 
 associations, and handled by district distributors under a 
 general manager. 
 
 Per diem has done much to unite the railroads of the 
 country and to show them the advantages accruing from 
 co-operation, and it may be that ultimately such a bureau 
 will be put into operation. The Union Pacific, Southern 
 Pacific, Oregon Short Line, and Oregon Railroad & Navi- 
 gation Company have done so among themselves, pooling 
 
APPENDIX 473 
 
 all their equipment, and the results have been found to 
 be excellent, showing an enormous saving in empty-car 
 mileage and a considerable increase in loaded-car mileage. 
 An example of what can be done in the distribution of 
 equipment from a "pool" is given by the Pullman 
 Company and the Armour Car Lines. 
 
 It will be noted that private cars are exempt from the 
 payment of per-diem charges, this being for the reason 
 that they have refused to enter the per-diem agreement 
 because their remuneration under such would not be suf- 
 ficient. A private car travels for the most part in trains 
 that run on almost passenger schedules, covering 350 to 
 400 miles per day. Private car lines charged one cent 
 per mile west of Chicago and three-quarters of a cent east 
 of Chicago, at the time of the adoption of per diem. It 
 was agreed among the railways to reduce this payment 
 to a half cent per mile. The result was that the car 
 lines, which are the largest shippers themselves in the 
 country, declared that they would pick out the smallest 
 and weakest lines wherever possible and route everything 
 over them; and this they did. The larger roads could 
 not stand the loss of revenue, and one by one they all 
 came to terms. At present the rate is regulated by private 
 agreement, but is for the most part three-quarters of a 
 cent per car per mile east of Ogden, Utah, and one cent 
 west thereof, loaded or empty. 
 
 "Car service" — or "demurrage," as it is popularly 
 known — is the charge made by a railroad company to a 
 consignee for the use of a car in excess of a reasonable 
 time — usually forty-eight hours, though in some states 
 different lengths of free time are required by statute. 
 
 Car-service associations are formed by mutual agree- 
 ment among railroad companies operating in a stated 
 
474 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 territory. They owe their existence to the growth of the 
 business interests of the country, the enormous increase 
 of through-freight handled, and the consequent extension 
 of the railroad systems handling the same. The continu- 
 ing increase in the volume of the freight brought into any 
 section from distant markets, hauled without unloading 
 over the tracks of connecting systems of the same gauge, 
 made it more difficult for each carrier to keep track of its 
 own cars. As the cars of each system were handled in- 
 discriminately by every other system, they soon drifted 
 to every quarter, as the current of traffic ebbed or flowed, 
 and their whereabouts were often unknown to the car- 
 rier owning them. To correct this evil, car-service asso- 
 ciations were formed, so that each system might receive 
 compensation for the use of its rolling-stock and no un- 
 fair advantage taken by one system over another in the 
 collection of such compensation, and to prevent cars 
 standing idle at one place when needed to meet the traffic 
 demands of another section of the country. 
 
 These organizations had a beneficial effect in preventing 
 congestion of empty and idle cars at one point, while a 
 car famine prevailed at another. But it soon became ap- 
 parent that the remedy was not complete. Carriers earn 
 money by the moving of freight, and the idle car produces 
 no revenue. The associations found that, while it was 
 possible under the then existing rules to keep the unloaded 
 cars moving from place to place as necessity might re- 
 quire, they were without power to have the freight 
 promptly unloaded by the consignee, thus securing the 
 car for further service. The merchant was ordinarily 
 anxious to get his goods from the car upon his shelves ; 
 but the broker and commission merchant, who do large 
 business with limited or no storage facilities, found it 
 
APPENDIX 475 
 
 very convenient to use the cars in which their goods came 
 as warehouses, and thus await the possibility of a favorable 
 fluctuation in prices, when the commodity could be dis- 
 posed of to advantage, and the car either unloaded or 
 rebilled. To meet this contingency, the demurrage rules 
 were formulated and promulgated, and the demurrage 
 charge was agreed upon. 
 
 The purpose of the car-service associations is not to 
 make money themselves ; they make money for the roads 
 only incidentally by keeping every car in active service. 
 Their prime object was to conserve and promote the 
 mutual interests of the carriers and the public by im- 
 proving the service of the Traffic Department and insur- 
 ing the prompt handling of freight. Different parts of 
 the country and different commercial centers are covered 
 by different car-service associations (thirty-seven in num- 
 ber) , and it is their duty to see that no favoritism is shown 
 in the assessment of demurrage charges ; that collection 
 of all charges is made; that relief from charges is given 
 under certain circumstances, such as heavy storms, 
 bunching of cars in transit, etc. These associations re- 
 ceive daily reports from all stations in their jurisdictions 
 of all cars upon which demurrage is accruing ; and, to see 
 that this is done without subterfuge, they have inspectors 
 traveling about, noting car numbers, and then comparing 
 with the agents' reports the results of their own observa- 
 tions. 
 
 The rules of the Chicago Car Service Association, 
 which is composed of the roads entering Chicago and 
 which contains about four hundred stations, is repre- 
 sentative of car-service association rules as a general 
 class, for, with some exceptions which I shall mention, 
 
47 6 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 and others which grow out of local conditions, they are 
 all about the same. Briefly, these rules are as follows : 
 
 Freight in carload lots is allowed 48 hours' free time 
 for loading or unloading, or, when the same car is re- 
 loaded, 96 hours are allowed, after which $1 per day is 
 assessed for the holding of the car. Forty-eight hours 
 are allowed for the reconsignment or switching orders, 
 but this does not apply when cars are moved from one 
 delivery track to another for the accommodation of con- 
 signees. Freight in bond is allowed 48 hours' free time 
 for removal from the first 7 a. m. after permit to receive 
 the goods is issued by the collector of customs. Freight 
 held for billing, milling, shelling, etc., or for change of 
 load by the owner or his agent, is allowed 48 hours' free 
 time, and if transferred to other cars the charge will con- 
 tinue and must be collected or billed as advances. On 
 cars billed to order, demurrage charges must be collected 
 before delivery of the freight. Time is computed from 
 the first 7 a. m. after notice of arrival is given ; if delivered 
 to private tracks, after the cars have been placed. There 
 are practically 300 car-service days in the year, certain 
 holidays and Sundays being excluded. 
 
 Grain in bulk is allowed 48 hours' free time, from 12 
 o'clock noon of the day of arrival, if it is inspected before 
 10 a. m. of the same day; if not, from 12 o'clock noon 
 of the next day. Grain ordered to elevators will be held for 
 5 days from the first 7 a. m. after orders are filed with 
 agent. I am also informed that an allowance of 5 days 
 is made after inspection for the filing of orders. Grain 
 from connecting lines will be held 48 hours free from the 
 first 7 a. m. after receipt of cars by the secondary line for 
 the placing of final billing directions. Cars for loading 
 at elevators are allowed 48 hours' free time. The reason 
 
APPENDIX 477 
 
 given for the allowance of 5 days after the filing of orders 
 on grain for elevators is that an elevator is devoted to 
 public service — that is, it cannot regulate shipments to it, 
 it must take everything that comes — and that it would be 
 a hardship to force it to pay demurrage when a rise in the 
 market had filled the elevator's tracks with cars loaded 
 with grain. Then the elevator must load cars too, and 
 there is, of course, a limit to its capacity. 
 
 On baled hay and straw 48 hours' free time is allowed 
 after being placed on the track in the delivery-yard for the 
 placing of orders, and 48 hours' additional time is allowed 
 for unloading after the order is filed at the local office for 
 disposition. This is for the purpose of allowing inspec- 
 tion of the contents of the cars ; for the tendency of ship- 
 pers is to put the best hay and straw, as the case may be, 
 nearest the door. A passageway is cleared out lengthwise 
 through the middle of the car for the purpose of such 
 inspection by the agents of the Hay Receivers' Association, 
 who are the wholesale commission men in this line. This 
 operation is called "plugging" and cannot be done in an 
 outside yard, so the car must be brought to the team 
 tracks. 
 
 Cars loaded with coal or coke may be held on the 
 storage tracks of the railroads for 5 days, but must be 
 unloaded within 48 hours after being placed on the team 
 track. The reason for this is that, in large centers, it is 
 necessary for coal dealers to keep a certain quantity of 
 coal in reserve stock ; coal, too, is very low-grade freight 
 and, on account of the low rate at which it is hauled, is 
 subjected to many delays by railroads, which results in 
 bunching in transit. In order to offset these things, the 
 allowance of 5 days is made. 
 
 When cars are held for payment of freight charges, 
 
47 8 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 demurrage is assessed after 48 hours from the notice of 
 arrival. Cars are not exempted from payment of demur- 
 rage by reason of the consignee not being able to receive 
 them, and only in cases of especial hardship are these 
 charges canceled by the manager of the association. If a 
 consignee is unable to receive the freight or to unload 
 the cars, and for that reason the delivering line refuses 
 to receive cars from a connecting line consigned to such 
 consignee, the agent of such connecting line holding cars 
 for such consignee must immediately notify either the 
 consignor or the consignee of inability to deliver such 
 cars, and demurrage shall be charged if delivery cannot 
 be effected within the time allowed for reconsignment. 
 When both cars and tracks on which cars are held are 
 owned by the same party (not a railway company), no 
 charge is made; but when private cars are detained on 
 tracks operated by a member of the association, the car- 
 service charges apply. 
 
 Storage is charged when freight is unloaded at rail- 
 road warehouses or platforms and is not removed within 
 48 hours after the first 7 a. m. after notice. Freight in 
 cars placed on delivery tracks, and subject to demurrage 
 charges while on such tracks, if subsequently unloaded 
 and sent to railroad warehouse or platforms, is then sub- 
 ject to storage charges. Freight received for shipment, 
 and held for directions or to complete a shipment, will be 
 charged storage after the first 48 hours from the first 7 
 a. m. after receipt. The storage charges in use in the 
 Chicago Association are, on less-than-carload freight, 
 5 cents per ton per day after the first 48 hours, and this 
 applies whether the freight is in a warehouse or in a car. 
 On carload freight in a warehouse the same rate applies, 
 but only when in the warehouse. Some kinds of freight, 
 
APPENDIX 479 
 
 such as glass and glassware, do not under any considera- 
 tion take the carload rate, their lightness and bulkiness 
 making it impossible to load a car to its full capacity. 
 Such goods are charged storage rates under all circum- 
 stances, whether in a car or a warehouse. 
 
 Car-service charges must be collected regardless of 
 weather conditions, unless exemption is authorized by 
 the manager of the association. Live-stock and company 
 material are exempt from car-service rules. Live stock 
 is always unloaded immediately at destination and can- 
 not by law be held over 28 hours without unloading. 
 Hence, any regulation by the association would be inef- 
 fective. Demurrage and storage charges are to be col- 
 lected in the same manner as transportation or switching 
 charges, and freight upon which car service has accrued 
 is not allowed to be removed until charges have been 
 paid. When payment is refused, the agent must hold the 
 freight and assess regular charges until removed, or he 
 may send the freight to a public warehouse or yard, where 
 it will be held subject to storage charges. When cars are 
 detained on private tracks beyond the free time, and pay- 
 ment of demurrage is refused, the agent of the company 
 delivering such cars, after giving five days' notice, can 
 decline to switch the cars to the private tracks of such 
 parties, and will thereafter tender freight from public 
 team tracks and collect freight charges before delivery, 
 as well as any demurrage which may have accrued on such 
 shipment. Notice of the arrival of the car or shipment is 
 given, but not of the commencement of demurrage 
 charges. The average detention of cars is not recognized. 
 
 Notable variations from these regulations may be noted 
 as follows : By statute the roads comprising the New 
 England Car Service Association are required to allow 
 
4$o RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 96 hours for unloading and loading each car. In Missouri 
 and Kansas 3 days' free time is fixed by statute. The 
 Terminal Dispatch Association of Minneapolis allows 
 but 24 hours for loading or unloading. Only one other 
 association (the New England Association) allows 96 
 hours for sampling hay and straw. Out of thirty-seven 
 associations, four allow 72 hours for storage of coal and 
 coke, one allows 96 hours, and one (the Chicago associa- 
 tion) 5 days. Five allow seventy-two hours on "furnace 
 materials." Three allow seventy-two hours on paving 
 material. Two allow 72 hours on lumber. One allows 72 
 hours on lime. The Texas Car Service Association has 
 no limit on elevator grain. One association allows 72 
 hours on fruit and vegetables ; one, 96 hours, and one, 
 120 hours. 
 
 In the "Rules Relating to Storage, Demurrage, and 
 Car Service of the State Corporation Commission of 
 Virginia" provision is made for the payment by the rail- 
 road company of $1 per day for failure to supply cars 
 when requested, excepting for coal and coke shipments ; 
 also that shipments must be received immediately by 
 agents when presented, and carried forward at a rate of 
 not less than fifty miles per day. For failure to do so 
 $1 per day shall be charged against the railroad by the 
 shipper, or 1 cent per 100 pounds per day, with a mini- 
 mum charge of 5 cents per day, "upon demand in writing 
 by the shipper or other party whose interest is affected 
 by such delay." A period of 24 hours is allowed for re- 
 handling or transfer. Companies are liable to a charge 
 of $1 per day for failure to give notice of the arrival of a 
 shipment. The railroad company must place cars in "ac- 
 cessible" places for unloading, under the same penalty. 
 Provision is made for payment of demurrage to the rail- 
 
APPENDIX 481 
 
 road company when cars, ready for loading, are held on 
 the loading-track more than 48 hours, but the railroad 
 company must consider cars released if held in excess of 
 48 hours over the 48 hours' free time — thus limiting de- 
 murrage chargeable for loading cars to $2. Railroad 
 companies cannot be required to furnish cars to parties in 
 default of demurrage charges. Provision is also made 
 for allowance in case of irregularity or bunching in the 
 furnishing and delivery of cars. It is also provided that 
 a consignor or consignee five miles or more from a depot 
 shall not be held liable for storage or demurrage charges 
 until "sufficient time" has elapsed after notice to remove 
 or unload the goods, such time limit not to exceed five 
 days, however. Ten days' free time is granted to coal. 
 Private cars on private tracks are exempted from the 
 rules. 
 
 These rules are given simply to show the present prac- 
 tice in different parts of the country, and are continually 
 being changed in one respect or another. 
 
 The history of the demurrage charge and the car- 
 service association is interesting. Previous to 1888 no 
 systematic method of applying car-service charges was em- 
 ployed. The railroads had so-called "demurrage rules," 
 which they applied usually to the small shippers. The 
 charge was from $1 to $5 per car per day. In the early 
 seventies a suit against the Chicago & North-Western on 
 account of excessive demurrage was decided against the 
 railway company. On November 1, 1888, in Chicago, 
 the first car-service association was organized to bring 
 about uniformity in practice. This was the result of a 
 meeting of the General Time Convention, the predecessor 
 of the American Railway Association. A charge of $1 
 per car per day was agreed upon, irrespective of the ca- 
 
482 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 pacity of the car. At that time $1 per car per day was an 
 equitable charge, but now, with the increased capacity 
 of cars and with their increased earning power, $1 per 
 day has ceased to be a sufficient charge, if remuneration 
 of the company for the use of the car is desired. The 
 average earning power of a car is about $2.75 per day. On 
 account of repairs, depreciation, and interest charges, it 
 costs about. 50 cents per day simply to own a car. In ad- 
 dition to the loss to the company of this $3.25 per day 
 for each day a car is kept out of service, there is the 
 loss to the public of the advantage gained by the use of 
 the car. A car is a public utility, and anyone using up or 
 monopolizing such should pay a penalty. Especially in 
 a large terminal, where the land is worth many hundreds 
 of dollars a foot, is it true that $1 per day is not a sufficient 
 charge. 
 
 Demurrage charges have been the subject of much 
 litigation, and there have been a number of attempts to 
 have the charge made statutory. However, it is so well 
 recognized as being a proper charge that the right to 
 make such a charge is now never questioned. There have 
 been some attempts to enforce and to provide by statute 
 a reciprocal demurrage — something similar to that prac- 
 ticed in Virginia, referred to above ; and there have been 
 a great many arguments advanced for and against ; but it 
 does not appear that there is any real reciprocity in an 
 arrangement whereby shippers would receive pay for all 
 delays above what may be predetermined as a reasonable 
 amount, incident to the as yet unperfected business of rail- 
 roading, and as an offset to the charge levied by railroads 
 for the use of their equipment by shippers beyond the rea- 
 sonable time for loading or unloading. In one decision 
 the demurrage charge is defined as "in its essential char- 
 
APPENDIX 483 
 
 acter a charge for storage." A charge levied on the rail- 
 roads would be a penalty for delays, in the nature of a 
 fine, and would pay for no service. On the other hand, a 
 shipper always has the option of a recourse to the courts 
 for damages suffered on account of delays to shipments 
 due to negligence, etc., of the railroad. 
 
 Cases bearing on different aspects of car service and 
 the demurrage charge may be mentioned : 
 
 In the case of Kehoe & Co. vs. the Charleston & West- 
 ern Carolina Railway Co., before the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission, objection was made to the amount of de- 
 murrage charged. It was contended that the cars in 
 which the shipment in question was transported, were 
 owned by a railroad company other than the one assess- 
 ing the demurrage charges ; also that the railway 
 delivering was charging $1 per day on a car for which 
 it paid only 20 cents per day. The defendants answered 
 that the 20 cents per day was not supposed to be a 
 rental, but was "an arbitrary sum agreed upon among 
 the various railroads for the purpose of settling car 
 accounts with each other," and showed that the rental 
 value of a car was much greater than $1 per day — that its 
 earning power was approximately $2.25 per day. It was 
 argued by the plaintiff that the former price paid for 
 foreign cars was three-quarters of a cent per mile, which 
 price was subsequently reduced to six mills per mile, and 
 that, if railroads had been operated upon a compensatory 
 basis up to three years prior to that time, why had they 
 fixed a sum which was not supposed to be a compensa- 
 tion ; that the fact that private cars were paid mileage 
 rates led to the same conclusion ; that cattle-cars were paid 
 for at the rate of three-quarters of a cent per mile, and this 
 was found remunerative because "railroad companies 
 
484 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 would pay shippers a premium out of the wheelage 
 charges for the use of their cars ;" at six mills per mile it 
 was not extremely profitable. In the decision it was 
 stated that it was to be noted that while a car is in service 
 it is depreciating in value; that the question was not 
 whether the charge was a reasonable sum; that it was 
 the duty of the carrier to transport freight to its destina- 
 tion and to deliver it to the consignee, and the duty of the 
 consignee to receive the freight within a reasonable time ; 
 that, if he neglected to do so, the railroad company's 
 liability as a carrier ceased and it became simply a ware- 
 houseman and might insist upon the consignee receiving 
 and removing the freight ; that it would be not only em- 
 barrassing but impossible for railroads to handle freight 
 if terminals were congested by cars which were awaiting 
 unloading ; that the demurrage charge was a penalty, but 
 that it was not a hardship and was sufficient for the pur- 
 pose intended. 
 
 It was held in Pennsylvania, in the Millers' State As- 
 sociation vs. the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Co. (8 
 /. C. C. Rep. 531), that forty-eight hours was a reason- 
 able time for unloading. 
 
 In the Blackman cases (10 /. C. C. Rep. 353) it was 
 held that the Southern Railway might apply for interstate 
 business the same storage rates as those prescribed for 
 state business, and that such rates were reasonable, al- 
 though much higher than those charged by warehouses 
 for the service of storage. 
 
 The cases of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad vs. Gray's 
 Ferry Abattoir Co., appellant, in the Superior Court of 
 Pennsylvania, and of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. vs. 
 the Midvale Steel Co. (201 Pa. 624), are authorities that 
 establish the right of a carrier by rail to enforce a rule fix- 
 
APPENDIX 485 
 
 ing a reasonable charge for unloading without special 
 notice to shipper or consignee. The court in its opinion 
 says : "The plaintiff has an unquestionable right as a 
 common carrier to make reasonable rules to speed the un- 
 loading of its cars. Cars are for the transportation of 
 freight — not for storage ;" and that "the rule is mani- 
 festly a reasonable one both as to time and charge." 
 
 The Railroad and Warehouse Commission of the State 
 of Minnesota states, in its opinion in the case of the Board 
 of Trade of St. Paul vs. The Terminal Dispatch (Car 
 Service) Association, that "neither railroad companies 
 nor shippers have the right to use railroad cars for store- 
 houses." 
 
 Baldwin's American Railway Law (1904, p. 357) says 
 that 
 
 a rule imposing a demurrage charge of a reasonable sum, such 
 as a dollar a day for loaded cars which the consignee fails to un- 
 load within forty-eight hours after arrival, is a reasonable one. 
 Cars are designed for vehicles — not storehouses. Such a rule 
 enters into the contract for shipment, and, if it has properly 
 been made public, binds all consignees, though without actual 
 notice of it. 
 
 In the case of a shipment of armor plate to the Union 
 Iron Works at San Francisco, the Atchison, Topeka & 
 Santa Fe Railway Co. billed against the government for 
 $12 demurrage for failure to unload. The payment was 
 refused on the ground that the Iron Works were at fault 
 in not unloading. The Comptroller of the Treasury in 
 his opinion states that 
 
 the armor plate with which the cars were loaded was the 
 property of the government and continued all the time in its 
 ownership; the contract for carriage was between the United 
 States and the railway; the Union Iron Works was not known 
 
486 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 in the transaction, and there was no privity of contract whatever 
 between it and the railway company. For these reasons I am 
 of the opinion that the United States is liable for the demurrage 
 
 charged I am of the opinion, further, that as it was the 
 
 duty of the Union Iron Works to unload the cars at its own 
 expense, and as it was without fault of the government, but was 
 caused by the congested condition of the Iron Works yard, it is 
 liable to the United States for the damages caused by the delay. 
 
 In the case of the Thomas Phillips Co. vs. the Erie 
 Railroad Co., in the Circuit Court of Summit County, 
 Ohio, the railroad company was sued for damages accru- 
 ing because of failure to deliver cars to the plaintiff on its 
 private track. The defendant, it seems, had delivered a 
 number of cars on such private siding, and payment of 
 demurrage charges accruing on some of them was 
 refused. The defendant, according to the rules of the 
 Cleveland Car Service Association, notified the Phillips 
 Company that until such demurrage was paid it would 
 deliver only on public team tracks. It was held by the 
 court that such rule was "just and fair in order to secure 
 the speedy unloading and return of cars, and to avoid 
 detention thereof by shippers and consignees." 
 
 In the cases of the Kentucky Wagon Manufacturing 
 Co. vs. the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. (98 Ky. 
 152), and of Bowen & Schumacher vs. the Chicago & 
 North- Western Railroad Co., in Illinois, this conclusion 
 is also borne out: that the failure on the part of a con- 
 signee to unload a car within a certain time works an 
 injury to the railroad, for its car is thereby for the time 
 being put out of use ; it works an injury to the consignors 
 for the time being, for the reason that it loses the benefit 
 of such car when there is a congestion of traffic; that it 
 requires very strict rules to keep cars moving, for the 
 tendency on the part of shippers or consignees is to forget 
 
APPENDIX 487 
 
 about the car that is awaiting loading or unloading ; that 
 it is well founded in law that the lien for storage charges 
 is a right to retain possession of the goods until the satis- 
 faction of the charges imposed. 
 
 In the Supreme Court of Mississippi, in the case of the 
 New Orleans & North-Eastern Railroad Co. vs. A. H. 
 George & Co. (35 So. Rep. 193), in 1903, the right of 
 the railway company to hold goods from delivery on 
 private track until demurrage charges were paid, and 
 even to sell all or part of the shipment to pay such 
 charges after a considerable time has elapsed, is held. 
 
 It is also held that, even though a party may be un- 
 reasonable in refusing to deliver goods upon which he 
 has a lien, and even though he charges more than he is 
 entitled to, the lien is not defeated unless the owner or 
 party desiring the possession of the goods makes a tender 
 of either the amount due or what he deems a reasonable 
 amount. (William A. Russell vs. Balthaeser Koehler, 66 
 111. 459 ; Lowenberg vs. Arkansas & Louisiana Railway 
 Co., 19 S. W. Rep. 105 1 ; and others.) 
 
 The right of the railroad company to recover charges 
 for the detention of cars by consignees after a reasonable 
 period after they are placed for unloading is established 
 by the following cases: Worden vs. Remis (32 Conn. 
 268) ; Kentucky Wagon Co. vs. Louisville & Nashville 
 Railroad Co. (11 Ry. and Corp. Jour. 49) ; etc., etc. ; and 
 in many other states in the eastern, south central, and 
 western parts of the country. 
 
 The lien of the railway company for unreasonable de- 
 tention and use of cars is established by Norfolk & 
 Western Railway vs. Adams et al. (90 Va. 393) ; Ellcott 
 on Railroads, sees. 1567, 1568; Miller vs. Mansfield (112 
 Mass. 260). 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 Accounting : see Auditing. 
 
 Acworth, W. M., 138. 
 
 Addressograph machines, 24. 
 
 Advertising, 23 ; agents of con- 
 necting lines. 24 ; agents, local, 
 25 ; appropriations, 35 ; book- 
 lets, 32 > coupon advertising, 
 31 ; employees, 35 ; follow-up 
 methods, 26 ; immigration, 
 35 ; lands, new, 35 ; lectures, 
 33 ; mail-order publications, 
 29 ; newspapers, 28. 
 
 Advertising bureau of passenger 
 service, 79. 
 
 Agents, distribution of adver- 
 tising matter to, 26. 
 
 American type of locomotives, 
 220. 
 
 Analytical methods of working 
 statistics, 369. 
 
 Armour Car Lines, 188. 
 
 Armour, J. Ogden, 109. 
 
 Arrangement of freight-houses, 
 449. 
 
 Association of American Rail- 
 way Accounting Officers, 267, 
 356. 
 
 Atlantic type of locomotive, 221. 
 
 Auditing : General Auditor's 
 office, 204 ; advisory capacity 
 to President, 289 ; balance- 
 sheet, 283 ; classification of 
 expenditures, 288 ; duties of 
 General Auditor, 264, 269 ; 
 general ledger, 270 ; historical 
 development, 264 ; income ac- 
 count, 286 ; organization of de- 
 partment, 268 ; other com- 
 panies' and individuals' ledger, 
 279 ; station agents' ledger, 
 280 ; sub-ledgers, 273 ; traffic 
 
 ledgers, 277 ; uniformity of 
 accounting methods, 266. 
 
 Auditing: expenditures, 295; 
 bills, 301 ; classifications, 316 ; 
 connection with other offices, 
 297 ; construction expendi- 
 tures, 298 ; distribution clerks, 
 306 ; drafts, 300 ; freight- 
 claim authorities, 311 ; inven- 
 tories, 315; joint bills, 297; 
 labor, 318 ; material disburse- 
 ments, 299 ; material distribu- 
 tion, 301 ; payment of vouch- 
 ers, 309; pay-rolls, 318; re- 
 curring prymerts, 305 ; requi- 
 sitions, 301 ; Statistical De- 
 partment, 323 ; time-checks, 
 322; time-slips, 319; traveling 
 accountants, 330 ; vouchers, 
 299 ; voucher abstract, 303. 
 
 Auditing — freight : card waybills, 
 340 ; checking freight reports, 
 347 ; division earnings, 354 ; 
 division of interline freight 
 revenue, 351 ; division of 
 office work, 342 ; Freight 
 Claim Agent, 363 ; freight- 
 forwarded report, 342 ; freight- 
 received report, 340 ; milling 
 in transit, 364 ; revision of 
 waybills, 344 ; station agents, 
 361; statistics, 360; waybills, 
 339- 
 
 Auditor of Freight Accounts, 
 338. 
 
 Automatic block, 206. 
 
 Baggage Department, 20 ; han- 
 dling at terminals, 178. 
 
 Balance-sheet, 283. 
 
 Ballast, 160; cost, 173; defini- 
 tion, 160; handling, 173; 
 
 491 
 
49 2 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 quantities per mile of track, 
 
 174; requisites, 161; varieties, 
 
 162. 
 Basis of rates, 127. 
 Bills, 301, 312. 
 Bills of lading, 118. 
 Block signaling systems, 200. 
 Boston Terminal Company, 183. 
 Bureau of railroad employment, 
 
 124; of railway information, 
 
 422. 
 By-laws, 3. 
 
 Canadian bridges, 395. 
 
 Canadian Pacific Railway, 391. 
 
 Canadian railway development, 
 387 ; effect of heavy engines, 
 394 ; famous bridges, 395 ; 
 Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, 
 399 ; Guarantee Act of 1849, 
 387 ; introduction of uniform 
 gauge, 397 ; railway system, 
 388 ; St. Lawrence & Cham- 
 plain 387. 
 
 Car Accountant, station reports 
 to, 461. 
 
 Car capacities, 253. 
 
 Car construction, 243 ; capaci- 
 ties, 253 ; draft rigging, 247 ; 
 frame construction, 250 ; gov- 
 erning factors, 258 ; history, 
 243 ; standardization of de- 
 tails, 246 ; types of trucks, 
 262. 
 
 Car distribution and supervision 
 of fast freight, 80 ; car dis- 
 tributor, 82 ; car record, 88 ; 
 cars set en route, 98 ; cars 
 set out for repairs, 96 ; car- 
 order form, 81 ; coal-cars, 86 ; 
 conditions to be met, 80 ; 
 Daly's manifest fast-freight 
 board, 90 ; manifest freight, 
 89 ; perishable commodities, 
 86 ; reduction of empty-car 
 
 mileage, 82 ; Superintendent 
 of Transportation, 83 ; time 
 freight, 89. 
 
 Car distributor, 82. 
 
 Car service at terminals, 99 ; bills 
 of lading, 118, 473; causes of 
 claims, 120 ; education of em- 
 ployees, 125 ; equipment pools, 
 109; Freight Claim Agent, 
 114; Freight Claim Associa- 
 tion, 116; joint operation of 
 terminals, 100; liability of 
 carrier at law, 113; litigation 
 in handling claims, 116; mile- 
 age rentals, 104 ; per diem 
 rentals, 104; retention of 
 foreign cars, 103; Rules, 463; 
 statistics of claims, 114; 
 Union Pacific equipment pool, 
 no. 
 
 Car shortage, 101. 
 
 Cars set out for repairs, 96. 
 
 Car trucks, types of, 262. 
 
 Chicago & North-Western Rail- 
 way, organization of Operat- 
 ing Department, 143. 
 
 Chicago Car Service Associa- 
 tion rules, 477. 
 
 Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul 
 Railway car distribution, 107. 
 
 Chicago Stock Yards, 99. 
 
 Chief dispatcher, 81. 
 
 Claim Agents, 8. 
 
 Claims, freight, 113. 
 
 Classification of expenditures, 
 316; of locomotives, 86. 
 
 Coal and station piers, 195. 
 
 Coal-cars, distribution of, 86. 
 
 Cole compound engines, 237. 
 
 College, Railway, now develop- 
 ing, 407. 
 
 Columbia locomotive type, 221. 
 
 Commercial clubs, 58. 
 
 Commissary, 10. 
 
INDEX 
 
 493 
 
 Commodity units used in statis- 
 tics, 372. 
 
 Compound locomotive, 226. 
 
 Comptroller, 264 ; also see 
 Auditing. 
 
 Congestion at terminals, 108. 
 
 Consolidated locomotives, 219. 
 
 Construction expenditures, 298. 
 
 Correspondence courses for rail- 
 way employees, 413, 421. 
 
 Cost of ballast in place, 173 ; due 
 to operation, 381 ; by operat- 
 ing divisions, 383. 
 
 Coupon advertising, 31. 
 
 Courses of railway instruction, 
 416. 
 
 Crissey, Forrest, 32. 
 
 Cross compounding, 231. 
 
 Daly's manifest fast-freight 
 board, 90. 
 
 Damaged cars, 79. 
 
 Decapod locomotives, 219. 
 
 De Glehn types of compound lo- 
 comotives, 235. 
 
 Delay in transit, 155. 
 
 Delivery to wrong person, 122. 
 
 Demand for railway education, 
 403. 
 
 Department of Agriculture, 46. 
 
 Development of locomotive con- 
 struction, 225 ; of Canadian 
 railways, 385. 
 
 Disbursements, Auditor of, 269, 
 295. 
 
 Discriminations in rates, 131. 
 
 Distribution clerks, 306. 
 
 Division passenger agents, 30. 
 
 Draft rigging and couplers, 247. 
 
 Drafts, 300. 
 
 Duties of freight-traffic officials, 
 429. 
 
 Early signal apparatus, 197. 
 Earnings of railways, 369. 
 Economy of compounds, 238. 
 Education of employees, 125, 
 
 402. 
 Empty-car mileage, 82. 
 Engineering courses in colleges, 
 
 419. 
 Equipment pool, 109. 
 Express business at terminals, 
 
 179. 
 
 Fast freight, Red Ball system, 
 458 ; kind of freight so 
 moved, 458 ; operation of sys- 
 tem, 459. 
 
 Finance, course of study in, 419. 
 
 Foreign-line bill record, 313. 
 
 Frame construction, 250. 
 
 Free transportation, 14. 
 
 Freight : Auditor, 335 ; car 
 construction, 254 ; claim agent, 
 114, 363', claim associations, 
 116; claim authorities, 311; 
 cost of handling, 447 ; delivery 
 to house, 452 ; effect of con- 
 gestion, 447 ; in-house, 450 ; 
 out-house, 449 ; "spotting" of 
 cars, 451 ; vericheck system, 
 455 ; wages, 456. 
 
 Freight-house, description of, 
 441. 
 
 Freight : less than carload, see 
 Less - than - carload freight ; 
 rates; see Rates, 127; re- 
 ceived, clerical work at termi- 
 nals, 76 ; revenue, accounting 
 for, 269 ; station, details of, 
 188. 
 
 Freight storage, 191. 
 
 Freight terminals, types, 184. 
 
 Freight Traffic Department, 
 duties of officials, 429 ; assist- 
 ants, 431 ; course of instruc- 
 tion, 419; Freight Traffic 
 
494 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 Manager, 431 ; General Freight 
 
 Agent, 43 1 ; Vice-President, 
 
 43o. 
 Freight Traffic Manager, 430. 
 Freight Traffic statistics, 370. 
 Freight-yards, 185. 
 Fuel : Accountant, reports to, 
 
 438; Agent, 151; Inspector, 
 
 154. 
 
 General Passenger Agent, 9. 
 Goodwill, secured by the Indus- 
 trial Commissioner, 61. 
 Government aid in Canada, 387. 
 Grain inspection, 78. 
 Grand Trunk Railway, 388. 
 
 Illinois Central out-freighthouse, 
 440 ; surburban service, 37. 
 
 Immigration advertising, 30 ; bu- 
 reau, 10, 20. 
 
 Income account, 286. 
 
 Incorporation, 2. 
 
 Index clerk, 307. 
 
 Industrial Commissioner, 44 ; 
 commercial clubs, 58 ; cost of 
 labor, 54 ; dependence upon 
 other departments, 52 ; de- 
 velopment of department, 46 ; 
 familiarity with route neces- 
 sary, S3 ; function of office, 45 ; 
 increase of industrial impor- 
 tance, 48 ; local conditions 
 considered, 54 ; markets, 57 ; 
 optimism necessary, 51 ; 
 power, 56 ; raw material, 55 ; 
 value of statistical informa- 
 tion, 51. 
 
 Industrial side-tracks, 192. 
 
 In-freight, 73. 
 
 Interline Freight Department, 
 35i- 
 
 Interlocking slants, 198. 
 
 Interstate Commerce Commis- 
 sion, 6, 316, 287. 
 
 Inventory, 315. 
 Irrigation, 47. 
 
 Joint management of terminals 
 desirable, 65. 
 
 Kruttschnitt, J., no. 
 
 Laboratories for inspection of 
 material, 155. 
 
 Labor cost, influence upon traf- 
 fic, 55 ; disbursements, 318 ; 
 problem as benefited by, the 
 University of Chicago's work, 
 414 ; unions, 65. 
 
 Laisses faire, relation to rates, 
 135. 
 
 Law, decisions applicable to car 
 service, 483. 
 
 Ledgers, 27. 
 
 Legal Department, work of, 1 ; 
 by-laws, 3 ; claim agents, 7 ; 
 consolidation, 3 ; current busi- 
 ness, 3 ; bills of lading, 4 ; con- 
 tracts, 4 ; claims, 5 ; condemna- 
 tion proceedings, 5 ; garnish- 
 ments, 6 ; leases, 4 ; General 
 Counsel, 7 ; local attorneys ; re- 
 lations with state ; legislation, 
 6 ; ordinances, 6 ; taxation, 6 ; 
 traffic agreements, 3. 
 
 Less-than-carload freight : han- 
 dling at terminals, 63 ; billing, 
 70 ; congestion, 63 ; cost vs. 
 service, 66 ; delays in forward- 
 ing freight, 71 ; in-freight, 73; 
 irregular delivery to carrier, 
 64 ; labor difficulties, 74 ; re- 
 ceiving clerks and callers, 69 ; 
 vericheck system, 67. 
 
 Litigation connected with claim 
 settlement, 116. 
 
 Loading freight, 122. 
 
 Local attorneys, 7. 
 
 Locomotives : "Americans," ten- 
 wheelers, and "Mastodons," 
 220 ; cause of numerous types, 
 
INDEX 
 
 495 
 
 222 ; classification by tractive 
 power, 217; by wheels, 217; 
 "Columbia," "Prairie," "Mi- 
 kado," 221 ; "Consolidated," 
 "Atlantic," "Pacific," 222; de- 
 velopment of locomotive con- 
 struction, 223 ; "Forneys" and 
 "double-enders," 218; heavy 
 types injurious, 394 ; method 
 of classification, 212 ; "Mo- 
 gul" compound, 219 ; Whyte 
 classification, 214. 
 Locomotives, compound, 226 ; 
 adaptation to other types, 
 229 ; advantages, 239 ; "Cross" 
 compounds, 235 ; "De Glehn" 
 types, 235 ; economy of opera- 
 tion, 238 ; history of com- 
 pounds, 226 ; "Mallet Articu- 
 lated" compound, 237 ; two- 
 cylinder type, 228 ; "Tan- 
 dem" compounds, 231 ; Vau- 
 clains four-cylinder type, 228 ; 
 "Webb" compounds, 235. 
 
 Mail, handling at terminals, 179. 
 
 "Mallet" compound engines, 
 228, 237. 
 
 Manifest freight, 89 ; numbers, 
 93- 
 
 Markets, 57. 
 
 Master Mechanic, 142. 
 
 "Mastodon" locomotives, 220. 
 
 Mechanical course in the Rail- 
 way Courses, 419. 
 
 Midgley, J. W., 465- 
 
 "Mikado" type of engines, 221. 
 
 Milling in transit, 364. 
 
 Newspaper advertising, 29. 
 Novelty advertising, 29. 
 Numerals, use of, in classifica- 
 tion of locomotives, 213. 
 
 Operating Department, 141, 419; 
 growth, 141 ; Master Mechan- 
 
 ic, 142 ; organization, 141 ; of 
 Chicago & North-Western 
 Railway, 143 ; statistics, 375. 
 
 Operation of manifest board, 92. 
 
 Order or notify manifest freight, 
 122. 
 
 Organization of Accounting De- 
 partment, 268 ; of Operating 
 Department ; of out-freight 
 house, 141, 145. 
 
 Out-freight : clerical work of, 
 78 ; handling, 66 ; as handled 
 by Illinois Central, 446 ; de- 
 scription of house, 440 ; organ- 
 ization of employees, 442 ; 
 handling of freight, 444 ; 
 perishable freight, 446. 
 
 "Pacific" locomotives, 221. 
 
 Passenger - engine roundhouses, 
 181 ; revenue, accounting for, 
 269 ; stations, 182 ; terminals, 
 177. 
 
 Passenger equipment yards, 180 ; 
 storage, 180; cleaning, 181. 
 
 Passenger Traffic Department : 
 commissary, 10, 20; course of 
 study given, 419 ; free busi- 
 ness, 14 ; function, 9, 22 ; 
 mail and express, 10 ; rates, 
 15 ; reports from agents, 21 ; 
 soliciting force, 20 ; statistics, 
 375- 
 
 Pay-rolls, 318. 
 
 Penalty notice, 468. 
 
 Pennsylvania Lines, cars, 107. 
 
 Per diem, 104; per diem and 
 car-service rules, 463 ; condi- 
 tions before per diem, 463 ; 
 rules, 465 ; penalty notice, 
 468 ; effect of rules, 471 ; traf- 
 fic pool, 472 ; car-service asso- 
 ciations, 474 ; Chicago Car 
 Service Association rules, 477 ; 
 history of demurrage, 482 ; 
 decisive legal cases, 483. 
 
49 6 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 Perishable commodities, 86, 446. 
 
 Political economy in railway 
 work, 50. 
 
 Pools, railroad view, m. 
 
 Population movements, 48. 
 
 Power for factories, 56. 
 
 Private car lines, 473. 
 
 Pullman Company, 188. 
 
 Purchase of material ; requisi- 
 tions, 152; contracts, 153; 
 bids, 153. 
 
 Purchasing Department, 147 : 
 authority, 150; evolution, 147; 
 Fuel Department, 151 ; fuel 
 inspector, 154; laboratories, 
 J 55 ; requisitions, 152; sale of 
 old material, 158; stationery, 
 158; stores, 152, 157; tie in- 
 spector, 152. 
 
 Railway education as university 
 work, 402 ; correspondence 
 tuition, 424; curriculum, 410; 
 demand for railway education, 
 403 ; entrance requirements, 
 407 ; historical justification of 
 work, 403 ; instruction now 
 given, 414 ; instructors, 424 ; 
 outline of proposed depart- 
 ment, 405 ; scope of work, 408 ; 
 syllabus of courses offered, 
 416. 
 
 Rate clerk, 77. 
 
 Rate-cutting, by passenger ser- 
 vice, 16. 
 
 Rates, freight, 127; basis, 127; 
 complexity, 130; discrimina- 
 tions, 131; principles, 128; 
 rebates, 139 ; theories of mak- 
 ing rates, 132; distance, 132; 
 cost of service, 133 ; equi- 
 mileage, 133. 
 
 Rates, passenger, 15. 
 
 Raw materials, 56. 
 
 Rebates on freight, 139. 
 
 Receipting for freight, 119. 
 Receipts, accounting for, 269. 
 Receipts vs. revenue, 296. 
 Recurring payments, 305. 
 "Red Ball" freight, 458. 
 Repair- and storage-yards, 187. 
 Requirements of admission to 
 
 railway courses, 407. 
 Requisitions, 152, 304. 
 Revision of waybills, 344. 
 Rigney, J. T., 104, 404. 
 
 St. Louis Union Station, 183. 
 
 Scrap, sale of, 150. 
 
 Seals for cars, 76. 
 
 Seal-takers, 76. 
 
 Seasonable demands for cars, 85. 
 
 "Seed and soil" trains, 58. 
 
 Shunting, poling, and hump- 
 yards, 186. 
 
 Signaling, 196 ; automatic block, 
 206 ; block, 200 ; controlled 
 manual block, 201 ; early sig- 
 naling apparatus, 197 ; inter- 
 locking plants, 198 ; kinds of 
 signals, 196 ; staff block, 203 ; 
 telegraph block, 201. 
 
 Specifications of material pur- 
 chased, 155. 
 
 Staff system for block work, 203. 
 
 Standardization in car construc- 
 tion, 256. 
 
 State attorneys, 7. 
 
 Station agents, 361. 
 
 Station, returns to, 433 ; Car Ac- 
 countant, 438 ; Freight Au- 
 ditor, 434 ; Freight Claim 
 Agent, 439 ; Fuel Accountant, 
 438 ; General Auditor, 433 ; 
 General Solicitor, 440. 
 
 Stationery, 158. 
 
 Statistics of claims, 114; dis- 
 bursements, 323 ; freight-cars, 
 
INDEX 
 
 497 
 
 ioi ; freight earnings, 360 ; 
 out-freight business, 75 ; pas- 
 senger earnings, 11 ; Union 
 Pacific equipment pool, no; 
 value to Industrial Commis- 
 sioner, 50. 
 
 Statistics vitalized, 369 ; cost 
 and earrings by divisions, 383 ; 
 direct cost of operation, 381 ; 
 freight traffic, 370 ; gross and 
 traction ton-miles, 380; in- 
 validity of operating ratio, 
 378 ; monthly commodity 
 units, 372 ; operating statis- 
 tics, 375 ; passenger statistics, 
 375 ; railroad earnings, 369. 
 
 Stock-pens, 192. 
 
 Storekeepers, 152. 
 
 Stores, Department, 157. 
 
 Sub-ledgers, 273. 
 
 Suburban passenger service, 37 ; 
 Columbian Exposition serv- 
 ice, 37 ; factor in urban 
 growth, 38 ; Illinois Central 
 service, 37 ; side-door cars, 
 41 ; station facilities, 42 ; traf- 
 fic movements, 40. 
 
 Superintendents of Transporta- 
 tion, 83. 
 
 Supervision of fast freight, 80, 
 189. 
 
 System of car distribution, 83. 
 
 178; of express, 179; of mail, 
 179; industrial spurs, 192; 
 passenger - coach yards, 180 ; 
 passenger-engine roundhouses, 
 181 ; passenger stations, 182 ; 
 passenger terminals, 177; rail 
 and water terminals, 193 ; re- 
 pair- and storage-yards, 187; 
 stock-pens, 192 ; team-tracks, 
 192. 
 
 Terminal yards, office work in, 
 76 ; clerical routine, 76, 78 ; 
 damaged freight, 79 ; rate 
 clerks, 77 ; seal-takers, 76 ; 
 transfer of freight, 78 ; wages 
 currently paid, 79. 
 
 Tickets, 19. 
 
 Tie inspector, 152. 
 
 Time-check, 322. 
 
 Time-folders, 25. 
 
 Time freight, 89. 
 
 Time-slip, 319. 
 
 Tractive power of locomotives, 
 216. 
 
 Train clerks, 77. 
 
 Transfer freight, 78. 
 
 "Transit" freight, 349. 
 
 Traveling accountants, 330. 
 
 Traveling teachers of railway 
 work, 414. 
 
 Types of locomotives, 222. 
 
 Tandem compounds, 235. 
 
 Tank locomotives, 42. 
 
 Teamsters, uncertain labor, 65. 
 
 Team-tracks, 192. 
 
 Telegraph block, 201. 
 
 Terminal facilities, 175 ; Boston 
 Terminal Company station, 
 183 ; classification-yards 186 ; 
 coal and station piers, 195 ; 
 freight terminals, types of, 
 184, 188, 191 ; freight storage, 
 191 ; handling of baggage, 
 
 Union Pacific equipment pool, 
 109. 
 
 Unions among freight-house em- 
 ployees, 74. 
 
 University of Chicago Railway 
 Courses, need of, 126 ; courses, 
 401 ; scheme of courses, 419. 
 
 Vauclain compound engines, 
 234 ; four-cylinder type, 228. 
 
 Vericheak system of handling 
 miscellaneous freight, 67, 455. 
 
49 8 RAILWAY ORGANIZATION AND WORKING 
 
 Voucher abstract, 303. Waybills, 339, 435 ; for fast 
 
 Vouchers, 299. freight, 91. 
 
 Webb compound engines, 231. 
 Wages at terminals, 79- Whyte classification of locomo- 
 
 Water terminals, 193. tives, 214. 
 

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