The age-herald., 1898-02-21
SYSTEM
 ON RAILROADS

Railroad companies that have adopted the merit system have experienced similar resistance to that which has been encoun- tered in the attempt to install the new or der Of things in the public service. The private corporations. always having in view the idea of larger dividends, have been more persistent, and with the advantage of peing able to work quietly have advanced rapidly and are now able to calculate re- suits from monetary standpoint.
 It Is claimed that the merit system in the city hall saves the tax payers of this city over $1000,000 year, notwithstanding the stones that have been placed in the way of it's enforcement. All the system wants Is an honest chance and 1t will demonstrate it's worth. Such details as to what heads of principal departments'' should or should not be filled through ex- aminations can easily be arranged after a fair trial. The general assembly will un- doubtedly amend the law when its real friends point out It's weak places
 
 The spoilsman, the man who Is always lurking about in search of easy money, does not confine his efforts to the political field or an attempt to get his hands into the public crib Directors of large corpora tions know the truth of this statement. They have encountered the brother-in-iaw and other relatives They know what dead timber is when they see it. But railroad companies, it seems, are much more care- full to guard against fraud in examination than those having charge of the federal and municipal tests of qualifications. The ringer and the dummy are just as ac- tive in their efforts to fool the men intrust- ed with conducting examinations for pri- vate concerns as they are in their attempts to play their game on public officials, but probably less successful. A ringer is kind of gold-brick man. He belongs to the same profession as the confidence man. His part is to impersonate an applicant in an examination. He is physically and men, tally capable of standing the test, and, for consideration or through some other mo- tive, takes the examination for a candidate who has filed an application and either through fear some more substantial de- feet finds 1t practical to send a substitute. Very few men who pass muster in an ex- animation held by a railroad corporation ever shovel coal into an engine or throw a switch. This Is because the officials fol- low up the candidates They make all the features or the test uOHe-toli. HIS iccoius his description and his qualifications must agree on certain vital points.
 So much fuss has been made in Chicago about the merit system examinations that many well-disposed people are really be- ginning to think that the electors of this municipality actually made mistake in saddling civil service reform law on the poor office-holding brigade that biennially alternated at the city hail. Did it ever oc- cur to you when whirling through space over a railroad, such as the Burlington, which has a genuine merit system, that the man who holds the throttle of the pulling engine is pulled off his cab every sixty days or so and his heart and nervous system examined? Did 1t ever occur to you that he shoveled coal into an engine from eight to twelve years before he was advanced to the seat he holds. and that after he arrives at the pinnacle of his am- bition and shoots train through space at the rate of sixty to eighty miles an hour he seldom lasts in that position a year?
 Such are the facts, yet there are always eligibles waiting at the foot of the stairs
  through which a man goes to get into the train service of road having true merit system is much more severe than the trial of an applicant for the police force Of course, the examinations are not along the same lines, but they are not so far apart as to be beyond comparison. The chances are that a candidate for the train service will not be given much of a test as to hn froc he tuition he will develop the strength. Ho will be examined as to his eyesight, hear ing, color sense and general physical con- dition, and signs of weakness in any of the foregoing particulars will disqualify him.
 More men fall in the railroad service on account of imperfect color sense than for any other reason. Colored yarns are used to test this sense, and many man when told to pick up red skein lands his hand . on a blue or a green one. This settles him so far as signals are concerned. There are men who are blind only as to certain eolors, and to some men everything ap- pears to be, what to man with a perfect color sense is, dull red.
 It Is easily understood how important 1t is for switehman or 0 trainn,an of any kind to have a perfect color sense, as well as good eyesight and a delicate sense of hearing. When the Burlington road en- ploys a man for the yard, train or engine service it does so subject to the examina~ tion of the candidate. The applicant is turned over to the medical director. and if he passes muster he is sent back to the employing officer, who gives him an edu- cational test. This is done for the purpose of ascertaining if he is capable of handling train orders. After this he Is given book of rules and chance to "cram" like a college student just before an examina- tion. If the man is to be fireman he is given trip or two with ap instructor, and there Is one thing concerning which the companies arc very particular, and that is to guard against the extravagant use of coal. If every fireman on the Burling- A. yfro