The Van Buren press., 1893-06-03
RAILROAD SUPPLIES.
Purchasing Agents Spend Millions OF Dol.
lara Yearly.

l2ro 4 early
The purchasing agent Of a great rail.
road occupies place that would be q
q sinecure for those persons of either
sex who delight in buying for buying
sake. But it is no sinecure to the pur-
chasing agent, who buys from years
end to years end, and is always on the
lookout for low prices, which he gen.
orally finds. The custom of big rail.
road is no small matter to any bust.
ness house, and as goods are always
ordered in large quantities, the prices
are made correspondingly low.
The work of the purchasing agent is
to audit all the acquisitions made upon
him by heads of departments and sta
tion masters, and to buy the goods
called for. Some of this work he does
In person and some by proxy. The
principal items with which he has to
deal are iron, rope, waste, glass. sta
tionery and oil. lie must keep himself
informed of the market prices of these
articles, and be ready always to take
advantage of a glut in the market or a
drop in price from any other cause. He
buys always at a discount from the
lowest market price, because he buys
in great quantities. uZA
The purchasing agent of such road
as the New York Central buys about
s5,00o,OOO worth of goods every year.
He has nothing to do with the rails,
lumber or heavy machinery; they are
attended to in other quarters. Every
head of department and every station
agent must make requisition on the
first of the month for the supplies that
he will need for that month. To keep
the business in good running order it
is imperative that the acquisitions be
made on the first of the month. II will
not do for the agent to write in the
middle of the month that he is short of
something. 4##5- 4,5
These requisitions are sent direct to
the purchasing agent and he audits
them. If he thinks that too much of
any article has been ordered he cuts
down the order. n, on the other hand,
an order Is manifestly too small, he in
creases it. This, however, seldom hap
pens After the acquisitions have been
audited they are sent to one OF
the principal officers of the company
for his approval. As soon as they re-
ceive his stamp the goods are shipped
to their destination. They are not
bought as needed, but are kept in stock
in great quantities.
A Sun reporter found the purchasing
agent of the New York Central railroad
in the midst of heap of acquisitions.
One or two examples will give an idea
of what the acquisitions called for.
One was for three dozen red globes for
signal lanterns, 750 barrels of oil, 100
barrels of signal oil, twenty gallons of
turpentine, 10000 seals and wires for
sealing freight cars, coil of rope Ave
inches in circumference, one dozen
brooms, half dozen sponges, 100 pounds
of waste for cleaning chimneys, gal
Ions of soft soap for cleaning cabooses,
4 kegs of nails, 500 envelopes, 1000
paper clasps, gross each of pens and
pencils, and 10 yards of flag bunting.
An office in the interior of the state
called for 10000 large envelopes, 10000
small envelopes, 500 small pads, 5000
letterheads, 10 gross Of pens, 500 appli-
cation forms, acknowledgement blanks.
10 gross of pencils 10 gross Of clasps,
100 large sticks of red sealing wax, 500
heavy MANILA envelopes, dozen oil
cans, dozen lanterns, 10 signal lamps,
2 dozen with globes, large lamps for
station, 2 dozen broofns, feather dust
ers, $50 pounds of waste, 9 kegs OF nails,
a half dozen large chamois skins, 75
panes of glass 16xaO, 5 coils of small
rope, one-quarter bale of coarse wrap
ping paper, $50 fence pickets, and 100
feet Of barbed wire.
Sometimes the iron bought comes out
of the foundry SO hot that it scorches
the car floors. The discount secured
by buying iron in large quantities is
very slight; but in stationery, on the
other hand, it is very large. Stationery
at retail is not high at present, but the
purchasing agent gets it at about one
half the usual rates. In rope, too, he
gets heavy discounts.
The purchasing agent not only keeps
his mind practicing continual gymnas-
tics figuring for low prices, but he has
hard work to keep the run of all his
stock. The single item of envelopes is
enough TO confuse him. The New York
Central railroad used 10000 different
forms of envelopes.-N. Y. Sun. .f
Ginger Cream. si 1
Cut in small thin pieces three ounces