Los Angeles herald., 1891-10-26
THE RAILROADS.
The Ephemeral Train Agent
System
Soon to Be Discontinued on the
Southern Pacific.
The Executive Committee of the
Traffic Association.
Chairman Stetson Announces the Ex-
ecutiye Committee-Southern Cal
ifornia Not Represented.
News Notes.

The train agent system inaugurated
some months ago by the Southern Pa
ci6c company entitled can act to in
crease passenger receipts is not dead,
but it is dying fast, and within few
weeks the old order of things will be re-
sumed, says the San Francisco Call. The
force of collectors has been reduced from
twenty-five TO thirteen, these remaining
agents having charge of the southern
overland trains~-Nos. 19 and 20-as fer
south as Bakersfield, the Los Angeles
express trains-17 and lS tc the same
point, and the Oregon trains-15 and 16
as far north as Ashland.
On the Central Pacific overland and
several other trains the collectors have
been taken off; and it seems that in
discontinuing the system the company
is doing just what it intended to do
when the men were put on six or eight
months ago. Eastern roads have done
the same thing, always taking the col
lectors off, however, after few months
trial. For this reason it has been gem
orally thought that the scheme was
advantages over the usual methods of
collecting fares and tickets. An officer
of the Southern Pacific explained yes
terday that this was all mistake.
"No road, said he, fuses the collector
as a permanent check on conductors.
They are used rather as a temporary ex-
ample. Here is the whole thing in ten
words: A collector takes a run where
the conductors receipts have been 5000
day. He (the collector) runs up the
returns to $3.50 per day, and keeps this
up for say month. Then the conductor
is allowed to take the run again after
being shown what it has paid the COM
pany under the collector. This COMPARE
son inspires in the conductor an ambi-
ton to keep the returns up to a notch
where the collector left them"
THE TRAFFIC ASSOCIATION.
The San Francisco merchants are fast
perfecting their traffic association.
Chairman j. B. Stetson made public
yesterday, says Saturdays Call, the
names OF the gentlemen whom he had
selected as an executive committee to
organize the traffic association. The
committee as appointed consists OF
eighteen members, fourteen of them
representing various lines OF business in
San Francisco and four in different in
terror cities.
x*x
The names ofthose chosen for the ex-
'ecutive committee are as follows: F. l..
Castle, of Castle Brothers; NJ. p Jones,
of Jones & Co.. Robert Watt. ,.of Lang
ley, Michaels & Co.; J. G. Siegfriend, of
Siegfriend & Brandenstein B. Il. Dun
ham, OF the Durham. Carrigan & Hay
den company; Isaac Upham, of Payot,
Upham & Co.. Isidor Jacobs, of the A..
Lusk Canning company; Eugene B.
Beck, of ID. J.. Beck & Sons; A. w. Por-
ter, of Porter Brothers Sidney NJ. Smith
of the Cutting Packing company; j. H..
Neustadter, of Neustadter Brothers A.
J. Marcus, Of S. H. Frank & Co.. A. S.
Hallidie, of the California Wine works
Barry Baldwin, of Baldwin, Girvin &
Eyre Thomas E. Hughes, president OF
the board OF trade OF Fresno; G. T. Set
tie, president of the Farmers union OF
San Jose; J. A. Hedges, of Hedges, Buck
& Co., OF Stockton; w. II. Wood, of w.
81 Wood & Co., Of Sacramento.
Southern California is not represented
on the committee if it was the result
would be small. as the affair is evidently
by the north, OF the north, for the north
NOTES.
The first Raymond excursion of the
season arrived on Friday.
The Librarians excursion party
travelled on special train
Saturdays Santa Fe westbound over
land had larger passenger list than any
train since the boom days.
Messrs. Gray and Curtis, of the South
ern Pacific company, are in Southern
California. They are accompanied by
Messrs. Morgan and Spyers, Boston
bankers, who will return east shortly.
G. F. Taylor, formerly of the Northern
Pacific at Duluth, Mich, is visiting
friends in San Francisco.
@. G. Craine, of the Vanderbilt lines
started another special party east on
Saturday from San Francisco on the fast
mail. This time it is the private car
'Grassmere, which it is proposed to
run on the same time as that made by
the John Mackay party four days,
twelve hours and thirty minutes--the
fastest overland run ever made.
r. j. Waugh, city passenger agent oi
the Rock Island, who has been in Chi
cago for several months, has returned to
San Francisco.
H. M. Yerington, general manager OF
the Carson & Colorado and the Virginia
& Truckee roads, is in San Francisco.
General Passenger Agent Goodman, OF
the Southern Pacific, has returned to
headquarters after trip to this city.
r. J. Wilder, freight auditor of the
Southern Pacific, arrived here on Satur-
day from the east and went to Santa
Monica.
The surveyors of the proposed rail
road completed their survey on Monday
at noon and on Tuesday morning re-
turned to Los Angeles by way of Santa
Paula. They report the distance from
the junction of the Southern Pacific rail
road tracks, in Ventura, to point di
rectly north Of the Ojai Valley hotel, 8
trife under fifteen miles, and the high
est point on the line is in the town O
Nordhoff, being about 800 feet above the
sea Ventura Unit