Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/253

Rh upon systematic lines, such as, for example, produce at "West Point and Annapolis corps of young men whose basic education and training, with a little experience, fit them for any position of responsibility and trust in our military and naval service. Unquestionably there must be in many of our large railway organizations those who have long recognized the need of, and would warmly welcome, this educational factor in railway management, and doubtless many of them are, from previous education and long experience, peculiarly qualified for making a forcible presentation of the advantages of—and in view of the great changes that scientific discoveries are making in methods of production and transportation, and the new industries that are continually springing up, I may say the absolute necessity for—a combination of scientific and technical education for the operatives of the transportation service of the country. But, unfortunately, men of this type are, as a rule with few exceptions, overtasked with responsibilities and harassed with anxieties that leave few opportunities and little inclination for expressing their views on any subject foreign to their specific duties."

In the same ratio that our extensive railway system surpasses all other branches of industry in the magnitude of its business, the number of its departments and the interests affected, is there greater need for economy of administration and greater necessity for the application of the highest obtainable scientific knowledge and manual skill to its various operations. It has become the almost universal practice of our great railway corporations, and especially those whose lines are reaching out into undeveloped and sparsely settled territory, to assume the entire repairs of their plant, even when they amount to practical reconstruction, and there is also a steady tendency on the part of such companies in the direction of manufacturing their own equipment from raw materials. This places them in the category of manufacturers, and makes them amenable to the laws and factors regulating production. Because of the nature of their service, involving the transportation and care of many lives and valuable property, no less than as a matter of economy, is it of prime importance to such corporations that, in the construction and in the repair of their rolling-stock and appliances, they should employ workmen of exceptional competency.

Railroad enterprise is a comparatively new thing in the world's history, and its development has been sudden. Men trained to carry on the work could not easily be obtained. They were picked up where they could be found; lacking scientific training, they were naturally guided by "rule-of-thumb" practice, and their lives were sure to be narrowed, till they acquired a pride in being known as "practical" men. These men naturally transmitted their narrowness of knowledge and skill to their apprentices; and thus has been developed the average railroad workman of to-day. Many of our railroads employ armies of people, all of whom are supposed to be technically expert in