Page:Hine (1912) Letters from an old railway official.djvu/184

 helps them by impressive teaching to gain a proper viewpoint. Similarly, the general storekeeper should control the superintendent and teach the latter the most economical handling and use of material and supplies. Control is comparatively valueless without authority. This authority can be most effectively conveyed by rank. The general storekeeper should not be a keeper of a general store. He should be a general officer, under the general manager, superior in rank and pay to the division superintendent. Instead of the superintendent being relieved from responsibility, he should be held to a greater accountability. The reformed and reconstructed bandit often makes a relentless police chief. The despised user of material under proper organization becomes the zealous conserver and protector.

The general storekeeper, like the chief mechanical officer, should be located in the same building with the general manager. There is no more reason for locating either one at a store or at a shop than there is for locating a general superintendent in a switch shanty near a yard. General officers must see the whole property and maintain a balance among its component units, which are normally operating