Page:Hine (1912) Letters from an old railway official.djvu/119

 us all how to do it. The volume of business will usually warrant making him a line officer with the rank and title of assistant general manager. He should not deal directly with operators and linemen any more than a general superintendent under normal conditions should instruct an individual conductor or a chief engineer communicate direct with a section foreman. The integrity of the division as an operating unit should be respected.

By and by the signals followed the telegraph. Once more the management allowed the specialist to put it over at the expense of the good old wheel horses in the regular line organization. The embryo signal engineer said, “This wonderful and mysterious development is really something different this time. It is absurd to suppose these stupid old section foremen can learn anything about electricity.” So the signal engineer was allowed to build up a new department. He went out on the ranches or in the barber shops and hired signal maintainers. A new department is liberally treated because its activities are a fad for the time being. These signal maintainers in a few months absorb so much magnetism from the field of the signal engineer that they are