and body work; six months in the passenger-car shop; four months in the paint shop; four months in the wood mill; four months in the car blacksmith shop; six months in the car machine shop; four months in the yard; four months in the drawing-room; four months in the testroom, and the last six months at large.

Second-Locomotive building and repairs. The four years' work could be divided as follows: Ten months in the machine shop; six months on the floor; nine months in the boiler shop; nine months in the blacksmith shop; four months in the drawing-room; four months in the test-room and the last six months at large. Third-Locomotive operation. The four years' work could be divided as follows: Three months in the roundhouse as helper; two months in truck gang; one year as fireman; three months as boiler washer; six months with boiler maker; eight months with machinist; four months in drawing-room; four months in test-room, and six months at large.

The last six months of each course could be devoted to such work as the master mechanic saw fit. For instance, there might be one department in which he intended to place the man at the completion of his course. The last six months could very profitably be spent in that department.

By confining the special apprentice to one of these three lines of work he would doubtless be of more value at the end of his apprenticeship than he is under the present system. He would be a specialist in the particular line of work he has followed. There would not be the hesitancy there is at present about placing him in a position. He would surely be more competent under this system than he is under the present one. It is true he would not have had experience in all the departments, but at the same time he will not be entirely ignorant concerning them. If he has been at all observant he will have a general idea of the work in the other departments. rate, he will in all probability have a better idea of the work outside of the departments in which he has worked than will a master mechanic who has

At any

risen to his position from a mechanic.

VALUE OF PROPER MANAGEMANT OF

LABOR.

The latter man will probably have, on account of his having risen from the ranks, one decided advantage over the special apprentice. He will understand his men better. He has worked by their sides and lived with them. He will appreciate their likes and dislikes and anticipate their ways of thinking and looking at things. The better an officer is acquainted with the men under him the more successfully will he be able to deal with them. This is a fact which is lost sight of to a great extent in the special apprentice course.

Very often it is the case that where two or more of these men are employed in the same shop, they will live together and practically ostracize themselves from the other men. This condition should

not exist. The special apprentice should live the same as the regular apprentice. He should associate with them, and, in fact, become one of them. By so doing he will learn to know them better. He will know their ways of thinking and of looking at things. He will know how they will be apt to receive any order or innovation which is introduced in the shop. It will enable him to look at all questions of shop management from two diametrically opposite points of view. He will not be nearly so liable, when the time comes, to give orders to do things which will antagonize the men in the shop if he knows and understands them thoroughly.

It is a notable fact that, as a rule, men who have come up from the ranks are more successful in the handling of men than the technical graduate. This, we believe, is due to their better knowledge of the persons with whom they have to deal.

The successful man is not so much the man who can do a great deal himself, but rather the one who can manage and direct the other men to concerted action and thus quickly attain the desired result

So long as we insist on having a special apprentice system, I believe that bet

ter results can be obtained by following the course as outlined above. To my mind, however, the special apprentice system is, at least, a poor one. The technical graduate is put in the shop and is given the best of opportunities to learn. He is given a great deal more attention than the ordinary apprentice. He is favored, and what is worse he expects it. On this account I am afraid that in a great many cases we turn out men who would have been a great deal better off if they had been given to understand that their advancement depended entirely on their own exertions. We favor them and turn out a hothouse plant which, when finally transplanted, can not stand the cold blast of competition. At the same time that the special apprentice is being favored, the general effect on the shop is not good. When the other men in the shop see the technical graduate rushed ahead, they are not liable to be nearly so energetic as when they see that all men are being treated alike.

The more you take away from a man his prospect for promotion, the less valuable he becomes. If every man in the service feels that his chance for promotion is as good as that of any one else, you will have an organization which will do business and be free from discord.

THE NEED FOR TECHNICALLY TRAINED MEN.

He

Technical men are needed in railroad work, and the need becomes greater every day. The question is how to get them and keep them. If it is possible to hire these men without offering them any special inducement or making any promises, I believe it would be the best way. This can frequently be done where a man is wanted for special work. should be paid what he is worth the same as any other man. By doing this the apprentices' and journeymen's ambitions are not stifled, and at the same time the technical man is put on his mettle, because any advancement which he receives will be due solely to his own efforts. If this can not be done, and it is absolutely necessary to have special apprentices, let us not attempt to do so much with

is sent to the shop to learn a trade, not because of any ability he has shown or is liable to show, but it may be he has some influential friend who has spoken for him, or probably his father is working for the railroad and he is employed because he is the son of his father. This turns the shop into a reform school.

It may be that the apprentices' wages are not high enough to draw a desirable class of boys in all communities. If such is the case it would pay to increase them

and then insist upon a certain standard.

After we have done this, let us make the regular apprentice feel that we are interested in his welfare. Let us encourage him to improve himself technically. Let us help him in every way we can and make him feel that he stands in line of promotion. By doing this I believe we will be able to obtain just as good men in the future as we have in the past, and the technical graduate will be at the front with the rest if he proves himself worthy.

NEW UNIT FOR OPERATING STATISTICS.

The committee on Ton-Mile Statistics: Credit for Switch Engines expressed the belief that the next step in the evolution of basic units for operating statistics will be the use of a power unit instead of the ton-mile unit, just as the latter superseded the train and engine mile, the reason for the probable change being found in the fact that the power unit will supply the one element missing in the ton-mile necessary to make it ideal, this missing element being speed.

Referring in particular to switch engines, the report, among other statements, says: "It is a comparatively simple matter to determine with reasonable accuracy the ton-mileage made by locomotives in freight and passenger service, but it is practically impossible to do this for engines in switching service. For this reason roads which base the statistics of their locomotives in road service on the ton-mile have not done this for their switch engines. It would, of course be a simple matter to credit an arbitrary ton-mileage, in the same way that an arbitrary credit of miles per hour is now made, but this would have no advantage over the arbitrary credit of mileage, except that the statistics for all classes of locomotives would be on the same basis.

"It will be quite generally conceded that the best basis for railroad operating statistics is that which most closely measures the work done. The almost universal basis for switch engines is a credit of six miles an hour. It will require but little investigation to demonstrate that this credit does not even approximate the work done, and is far from ideal.

"If the actual number of ton-miles per hour could be accurately or even approximately determined, it is evident the unfairness and injustice of the present credit would be remedied, but so far no one has been able to develop a practical method of doing this. However, a unit has been proposed which, while by no means all that could be desired, we believe will result in a credit fairly approximating the facts and proportional to the work done, because proportional to the power of the engines. refer to a credit of ton-hours, which is found by multiplying the weight of the engine, expressed in tons, by the number of hours it is in service.

We

"The ton-hour as a basis of statistics for switch engines has a number of advantages over the present credit of six miles an hour. The ton-hour is not arbitrary, but has a logical and reasonable basis; it is as easily figured as the mileage and will require the keeping of no records not now kept; it is a reasonably accurate measure of the work done and gives a basis from which to determine costs, which is proportional to the work done by the engines because it takes into consideration both their power and the length of time they are at work."

For these reasons the committee recommend the adoption of the ton-hour as the credit for engines in switching service, instead of a credit of miles per hour.

The office of Joel Meadows & Co., money-lenders and financial agents, stood in a dark side street that branched off from St. Mary's Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares of the old city of Parkersburg, West Virginia.

It was a dingy place at the best of times; for even in summer scarcely a ray of golden sunshine penetrated into its recesses; or if by any chance a sunbeam wandered into its gloom, it seemed quickly to feel that it was out of place, and departed to some more congenial surroundings.

The office consisted of one large room, facing the street, whose windows were protected by wire blinds from the curious gaze of outsiders. This was labeled "Office," and a smaller room behind, upon whose door, that had known little of the painter's art for years, the legend, "Manager's Room-Private,' was written in bold but yet fading letters.

In this private sanctum one morning in the year 19-, upon the hard and uncomfortable chairs provided for clients, sat a young lady of twenty-one years of age, or thereabouts; and facing her, behind a table with deal top, stained to resemble mahogany, sat Joel Meadows & Co., rubbing his hands.

Mr. Meadows (for the Co. was but a myth) was a large, portly man with an oily, smooth face, around whose corners a smile seemed to be always playing; a steady, trading smile that meant many things, according to the class of clients with whom he was deallng.

The young lady opposite him was of medium height, with eyes like the clear blue of an Italian sky, that lit up as beautiful a face as man could wish to see; but now it was set to a sad expression, and the tears, like April rain, were brimming over and coursing down her lovely

cheeks.

"Mr Meadows," she said, taking her handkerchief and hastily drying her eyes "I did not think you could be so hard.

When you lent my late dear father money and took the mortgages on our home and the farm in the adjoining suburbs, you said you would never ask for the principal as long as the interest was paid; but now, when I come to pay the interest, you inform me that you must have the money or the property will come to you by the first of January, 19—, and you know as well as possible that we could not find it in that time."

"My dear Miss Caskey," said Mr. Meadows, rubbing his hands together softly," I am sorry, very sorry if anything I have said has distressed you, but you see business is business, and I find that your property is going down in value; in fact, I lent your father too much money at the time, and unless I can get my money back or realize, I shall be the loser; but," he continued, looking straight at the face before him and then at his own reflection in a glass opposite, "there is one way in which we might arrange the matter. What is that?" said the young lady, looking with her clear eyes into his and a ray of hope shining in her face. The money-lender shuffled in his padded chair uneasily for a moment.

99 66

The girl looked up again, wondering what had made the conversation take this turn. "I should think you were about forty, Mr. Meadows."

"I am forty-one this month," said the money-lender.

There was a pause, and then Miss Caskey said, a touch of impatience in her voice, "Excuse me, Mr. Meadows, but I do not see what this can have to do with my business." "No, perhaps not; but I do," said the man. "Let me put the matter plain to you. I am getting tired of single blessedness, Miss Caskey, and am fairly well off. I am a man of few