Page:Hine (1912) Letters from an old railway official.djvu/35

 Q. That’s easy, law is a rule of conduct. Now, tell me, please, who runs the road?

A. Why, the officers run the road, the men do the work.

Q. Did you not just say that you hire men to run the road?

A. I didn’t mean that.

Q. Then in your business you are not very accurate. You say one thing and mean another.

A. No, sir; we may have more sense than you think we have. We spend a lifetime at this business and must learn something about it.

Q. Will you please tell this fair-minded commission just how you run the road, just how you attempt to minister to the needs of the intelligent people of this great commonwealth?

A. Now, sir, it is a pleasure to testify. You are getting away from definitions and technicalities and down to practical facts, where I feel more at home. I will be glad to tell you all about it. In the first place a railway is such a big affair that we divide it into departments.

Q. Excuse me, what is a department?

A. A department is—well I can make it