The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-07-14
STREET RAILWAY CONDUCTORS

STREET RAILWAY CONDUCTORS.
From the New YORK sun.
The common notion that the army OF
men employed by the street railway
companies of this town average low in
education, intelligence and skill is
! hardly true. The man who holds his
place for several years as a street car
conductor must be much above the
broad average in all those things, and
what is true of conductors is true in
greater or less degree of other classes
Of street railway employees.
It is not easy to pick from one thou
sand men fifty who have the faculty OF
detail sufficiently developed to make
! them good conductors. The permanent
body of conductors is really picked
corps of men that has been sifted out
by long process. The labor unions
have been able TO enforce some of their
demands as to pay, hours, and some
minor regulations, but they have not
been able TO prevent the discharge of
| conductors for seemingly slight Of
/ fenses-when the offensc was not
1 pretext for reaching a man who had
made himself too active as member
/ of the union.
No conductor. therefore, can long re-
! tain his place unless he have the mem
/ DRY and the will to observe a host of
/ petty regulations. The man who can
not accept the discipline of such regu-
/ lations must make some mistake and
/ bring about his own dismissal. Only
men who are prompt, sober, patient
/ and polite can hold places as con-
! dUctors. A man of violent temper,
! of Il-controlled nerves, of easily
| confused head, is sure to have short
career.
1t thus happens that one almost new
er sees conductor drunk on duty; that
| the great mass of conductors keep their
wits about them when the cars are
| crowded; that conductors are rarely
/ impolite to passengers. Men taken at
random even from the learned profess
| sions could hardly be expected to dis
charge the duties of a conductor with
success. The men show the effects of
their discipline in hundred ways, and
it would not be difficult for an ebserv-
ant person to pitch upon newly-ap-
pointed conductors.
There is for the faithful conductor
the prospect of more or less distant
promotion. The peculiar qualities of
the men are quickly brought out by
the stress of the trade, and when a con-
ducter has been thoroughly proved
there is q chance for him when a va
cancy occurs in the grade Immediately
above his own.
Education and natural intelligence
count much in the matter of promo
ton. Any man who will take the
trouble to have a word with the con-
ductor now and then viii soon discov-
er, that conductors, as class, are above
the average in education. Their speech
is not elegant, but it is usually free
from the blunders of the densely ig-
norant.
Men of more than average intelli-
gence and education are willing 20 be
street car conductors, partly because
the work is more agreeable than that
of many manual laborers of about
the same pay, partly because an efic-
lent and faithful man is sure of his
place, and partly because there is some
of the place is perhaps its chief attrac-
ton. Street railways never shut down
even in the dullest times.
The force is reduced in times like
these, and at certain seasons of the year
a small percentage of the ears is taken
off, but the majority of conductors
are needed tte year round, and when
dismissals take place the inefficient and
inexperienced men are the ones TO 90.
The companies like to keep track of
promising men, for there always comes
a time when the force must be in
creased, and the companies prefer men
they know.
The situation of drivers, hostlers,
and the like is not so fortunate as that
of conductors, because these classes Of
workmen are on the average less intel
iigent and educated than the conduct
ors. Then, too, these times, when mo-
tive power is changing, are hard for
men who know horses only. The
driver who can not develop into a
gripman or trolley man is in ticklish
position.
As to the men above the grade Of
conductors, they are of many sorts, but
most Of them are undergoing the dis
eipline of hard work under the watch-
full eyes of their superiors. Pay is not
high, but places are reasonably secure.
The man who has risen from the grade
of conductor to an executive post must
have acquired an unusual faculty of
detail, promptitude, alertness, and de-
cision. In all these matters the street
railway companies are schools where
the practical lessons of life are taught
By daily iteration.
The result is that each company has
a trained army of men, whence the
idle. incompetent, and negligent have
been veeded out, in order that the
company's work may be done with pre-
cision and dispatch. No two compan-
ies require exactly the same sort Of
men for those places that bring them
in contact with the public, and the
character of conductors especially IS
noticeably differentiated on various
lines.