Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/455

Rh the country following its example; but the advice which might be accepted, if proffered in a practicable manner, has been hitherto urged upon the officials by means of hostile newspaper articles, and agitation for legislation to place their entire extra force at the mercy of State-appointed examiners who might disorganize it and bring it into great confusion. There seems to be a natural hesitation on the part of medical men to place the examinations for color-blindness in the hands of laymen, and an equal unwillingness on the part of railroad officials to submit their force to the inspection of a numerous corps of medical examiners, but the solution is found in the use of the instrument described, which merely enables non-professional persons to make a record of certain selections and place them on paper, where they can then be submitted to a surgical expert, who can as well decide upon that evidence as though he were present at the examination, with the understanding that all doubtful cases are to be examined by him in person.

What is gained by this? The expense under the law passed in Massachusetts and Connecticut was estimated to be from two to three dollars per man, to be paid by the roads, and with a penalty of two hundred dollars for the employment of any man not provided with the certificate of an expert appointed by the Governor of the State. For this sum, say three hundred dollars per one hundred men, the road could be informed that from ten to fifteen employés were unfit for its service; no provision was made for the correction by glasses, or other treatment of the trained men, otherwise so valuable, and no time was allowed to replace men especially fitted for certain duties; the roads were to be thus taxed for the more than decimation of their entire force, while the employés were subjected to a pitiless scrutiny that would end in the summary dismissal of about fifteen per cent from the discharge of duties for which they had spent, perhaps, years of training. It can easily be understood why such a law would be resisted by all the political or other influences of the entire railway force in a State, from the directors and presidents to the lowest employés, and should awaken also the opposition of the holders of its securities.

By the system adopted on the Pennsylvania Railway, the men below their standard are detected unerringly by their own officials; those color-blind are sent to the surgical expert, and after his decision are yet retained in the service where possible, being placed where their defects can work no harm. Any valuable men below the standard of visual power can be sent for treatment to their surgical expert, if the officers so decide, or the men can elect to have their defects treated elsewhere, upon the condition that they can pass the proper examination afterward. The one plan, it is evident, is expensive, irritating to the whole personnel, and disorganizing, while the other is economical, confidential, and orderly. By a wise liberality in aiding men to have their defects removed by proper glasses, etc., the officers of the road