The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-12
EXPENSIVE RECORDS.
How Railroad Companies Keep Ex-
tensive Accounts of Operations.

tenS1Ve Accounts OF Operations.
1t is a mystery to some people why a
railroad company requires so many de-
partments and so many clerks in each of
them. II is not that they are required in
order that the handling of traffic may be
kept account of; that could often be ac-
complished at a far less expense than is
common among most railway corpora
tiOns.
The companies keep minute and detailed
records of every transaction. Each trans
action has, as a rule, its own separate
record on the book in which it belongs
and is again recorded in the consolidated
accounts. In large system of railroads
the accounts of each road must be sepa-
rated, and when more than one road is
concerned in transaction. the account
must be divided proportionately between
them. This keeping of detailed records
involves a large expense which often
seems useless, and in some in
stances is. The records OF the
Central railroad, which are not so extern
sive and detailed as is the case with many
large systems, but since the road went
into the hands of a receiver reference has
been made to them as far back as 1887
and they have been found most conven-
lent for this purpose. The railroads in
Savannah, however. do not keep such
complained of.
The accumulated records of a large
system form an enormous bulk which has
to be stored, the more important ones in
vaults and the others in some other
room or warehouse. In speaking of the
luxury of keeping such vOluminous
records, writer in the Railway Age says:
Every record kept is supposed of
course, to be a direct aid to earnings in
IL I'll
check on dishonesty or wastefulness; it
shows leakages and indicates where to
put the finger on improper expenditures
1T affords constant basis of comparison
so that the management can see how the
various parts of the system, the
different lines and branches. show
up in the matter of economy of opera
tion as compared with each other or with
the lines of other companies: it shows
where expenses are getting away with an
undue share of revenue and where the
pruning knife can be applied. This is
the end of every record, and
every record which serves this
end is of course worth keeping-if it
saves more than the expense of keeping it
by indicating possible economies or loca-
ting positive extravaganza. Even if it
only stands fair chance of doing this it
still may have a negative value which
too much of a tendency, especially among
accounting officers, to forget) no record is
an end in itself. Money spent in merely
compiling figures which indicate nothing.
is money wasted. And it is always
somebody else's money.
There can be no firmer believer than
am in the usefulness of useful records. l
always feel greater respect for a COM
pany and its officials when / accidentally
come across the fact that they all keep
close and systematic watch Of some
small detail of their operating ex-
pense. But there are ways of keep
ing records-and there are other ways.
The mere pilng up OF figures
does not save money, it wastes IL. What
are wanted are results-quick, compre-
hensiye and intelligent results. And the
less the stationery, the fewer the men
and the smaller the pay rolls employed in
obtaining these results, the nearer the
man at the head Of the department comes
TO being an ideal railway officer.