Page:Hine (1912) Letters from an old railway official.djvu/28

 route of reasoning you please, and you will reach the same conclusion.

Railway administration to-day suffers most of all from overcentralization. Trace this to its source and you will find overspecialization of function, and its concomitant, an exaggerated value of certain constituent elements of administration. When in doubt, recall the ever applicable axiom that the whole is greater than any of its parts. Some people confuse the terms and ideas, concentration and centralization. Proper concentration in complete units by an earlier convergence of authority permits decentralization in administration. A lack of such early concentration makes centralization inevitable. Again, concentration of financial control is not incompatible with decentralization of administration among constituent controlled properties. When the big bankers have time to think out these propositions for themselves they will permit the railways to get closer to the people and hostile legislation will diminish if not disappear.

Organization as a science seeks to develop and to support the strong qualities of human nature. Organization likewise takes account of and seeks to minimize the amiable failings