Page:Hine (1912) Letters from an old railway official.djvu/155

 certificate must include inspection of men and things as well as audit of accounts.

We, the railways, are big enough to have our own efficiency engineers. This is a distinct function for the staff as contra-distinguished from the line. Efforts, more or less crude, to introduce special staff work have signally failed on a number of railways. The underlying cause has been a violation of the principle that the staff can never as such directly command the line. The temptation of the special staff men, call them inspectors or efficiency engineers, if you please, is to become meddlers. They are so enthusiastic for the cause that they desire to save the country and reform the road all on the same day. The men who succeed at special staff work are those who stick to the principle enunciated. An inspector, because he is a staff officer, should never give an order.

The coming new department of inspection or efficiency, like all innovations, will have its troubles. One of the temptations will be to build up an office full of clerks to check a lot of unnecessary reports. The head of the department, whether he be called general inspector or vice-president, will have to remember