Page:Hine (1912) Letters from an old railway official.djvu/231

 the other end, if he can start a light caboose without its being included in the average train load showing. How much better, and how much easier, to run two fractional trains in the direction of unbalanced traffic than one light caboose and another dreary drag! The shipper, only a hard-headed business man, takes the same view. He becomes skeptical of all our statements, before commissions or elsewhere, because of our frequent seeming lack of judgment.

Let us not spend too much time in discussion as to theoretical possibilities. My assertions can be either proved or disproved by actual demonstration. In the next labor agreements you make include a stipulation for experiment on some division. My prediction is that if you can convince the labor leaders of your fairness they will give the scheme a trial for the sake of more possible time at home. With a full trial the results will speak for themselves. Success in such matters is made possible only by enlisting the most intelligent efforts of all concerned. Let your officials and employes understand that you do not claim to know it all, that you believe in their practical intelligence as well as in your own, that ideas