Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/154

 142 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

soon measure his days of usefulness. In our scheme of life he sees the scrap heap only a little way ahead of him. Coldly, mathematically are his capacities measured, and, like his engine, he is driven at the highest speed until he fails. A splendid army of trained men is under a constant forced march which is hurtful and demor- alizing, bringing them down to a mere test of physical endurance. Shoulder to shoulder, under the whip of progress, these men are rushing forward forever for- ward. Let one of them fail through sheer exhaustion, and the result is chronicled as another railroad disaster. Very few people not connected with railroads know the exacting conditions under which these men perform their duties especially the engineer. Leaving a terminal, he must make himself familiar with all of the special instructions posted in the bulletin book, where he will find instructions that signals at different places are out of order, and he must be governed accordingly. He will receive orders to reduce speed on certain parts of the road over which he runs, each place requiring a different rate. If there are any new signals put bp or interlocking plants put in, he must know where they are and how they work. He must watch the track in front of him for danger signals, see that all fixed signals are displayed prop- erly and switches set right, blow road-crossing signals at grade, call the attention (with the whistle) of all trains he passes to the signals displayed on the front of the engine, and often have in his possession orders to be executed at five or six different points ; watch for the markers on the rear of his train and see that it is all together ; respond to signals from the conductor ; teach the new firemen and brakemen who enter the service their duties. Besides these he must carry the water in the boiler at its proper level, work the engine in the most economical manner that will be consistent with the work it is required to do, and make the time and watch to see that he does not get ahead of his schedule time ; and if the engine is leaking or running hot, or the injectors working badly, his duties are increased.

Can men who have been on duty for eighteen or twenty hours, often with but very little to eat during that time, perform successfully such duties as these ? Are their eyes and brains as clear, or their judgment as good, as those of men not overtaxed and in full use of their faculties in normal condition ?

And when his term of usefulness is over, with nerveless hands and a heart of old age in the breast that ought yet to be filled with youth, the victim realizes that such years as may yet be vouchsafed him will be filled with pain and penury. He is thrown into the scrap heap. The race loses in his loss, for he once represented its highest physical energy. Can the race for its own sake, or for humanity's sake, indorse this sort of economy ? Will railway consolidation lessen rivalry and stay the whip of this sort of progress ? Or is the spirit of a higher civilization going to enter into the manage- ment ? Or will the saving common-sense of the general managers lead them to check this fatal progress ? Already the hands are growing unsteady and the brains beclouded. The year just closed has been a very carnival of railroad disasters. Shorter hours of service and less exhausting labor in one trip must come, or more and yet more appalling disasters await the railroads and the people.

Good business sense may govern in finding the remedy, but how much more pleas- ant life would be if the remedy were found in man's humanity to man !

HUNTINGTON, W. VA. H. R. MCLAUGHLIN.

Some New Educational Theses. The address on "The American Univer- sity" recently read by Professor J. McKeen Cattell, of Columbia University, before the Phi Beta Kappa of Johns Hopkins, has a combination of sense, audacity, and breeziness that amounts almost to a gale. For example, he says : " Ten years of age is early enough to begin to read, write, and calculate ; primary education should be chiefly for the for- mation of motor habits ; a child's head will not hold more miscellaneous facts than can be injected in a year or two ; he can learn nearly as much of his present scholastic studies in two hours a day as in eight. If the required school attendance for each child were reduced to one-half or one-third, then, without additional expense, the fewer build- ings and smaller equipment might be doubled or tripled in value, and the salaries of teachers might be doubled or tripled. The best-trained teachers, more men than women, should be in charge of the younger children. If society must develop a class similar to the neuter insects, it should not have charge of the education of children.