The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-07-11
Railway telegraph Operators.

| Hardly q week passes but the newspapers
chronicle some railroad disaster due to the
negligence or Incompetence Of ''the opera
torn The telegraph operator who receives
and sends train orders Is meant, and free
quently he is youth who does not APP
preciste the responsibility Of his position
until some terrible accident occurs. Disaster
after disaster, due to the faults of railway
telegraph operators, have occurred, until at
least one state, Ohio, has felt the need
of legislation upon the subject. At
the last session of the Ohio
legislature a bill was introduced
regulating the employment Of railway
operators and prohibiting the hiring of
youthful and incompetent persons Just
before the bill was introduced the investi-
CATION Of an accident on leading railway
system in Ohio brought out the fact that
the operator through whose carelessness
the wreck was caused was boy less than
Is years old.
In England the railway telegraph service
is systematIzed to the end of securing the
safety Of trains and passengers. Before an
operator can take charge Of a railway tele-
graph office he must have begun at the
bottom" and worked his way up through
several successive stages 20 the top, dem
onstrating at each stage that he
is compesens to go up to the next grade.
In America there is an utter lack Of system
about the employment Of operators The
man, woman or child who will undertake TO
do the work for the least amount Of money
IL usually the person employed. Economy
is what many Of the managers think OF,
rather than the competence Of the persons
employed. IL is stated that the average
salary paid railway telegraphers in this
country is 5 Is per month. For that amount
they are expected TO work from twelve to
sixteen hours day. AS consequence, men
Of reliability and capacity are not attracted
to the service, leaving the places to be filed,
for the most part, by persons lacking in
experience or natural ability. But there is
never a scarcity of applicants for the places.
The haphazard manner Of employing opera
tors Is hardly worse than the haphazsrd
manner in which a majority Of them "learn
the business" They pick up few dots and
dashes with the assistance Of the operator
at country stations probably. or while
serving az messengers In a city Office, and
then imagine that they know 10 ALL The
teaching Of pupils is discretionary with any
operator, and no guarantee is asked or ex-
pectsd as to the educational qualifications
Of the student The indiscriminate
teaching Of boys and the lack OF
system In hiring them as operators
has filled the business with q lot of
Incompetent persons whose chief aim has
been to escape work ON the farm or in the
workshop. There are In the railway tele-
graph service a large number OF bright and
competent men, and nothing that has been
said is intended TO disparage them; but the
frequency of railway accidents due to the
incompetence Of operators calls for atten-
tion and the suggestion that IL Is about time
for the railway managers 70 establish a
standard of qualifications and organize a
system Of teaching and grading operators
on their respective lines