The morning news., 1899-06-25

good deal upon the man. Such young
man as you suggest could not win If he
were bent on living as If he had an in
come of thousands, while yet his income
were not more than 800 to $600 a year
But let him work steadily live prudently
and give signs of intelligence aud enter
prise, and help viii eventually come to
him. In truth, help for such young men
is constantly cooking for them TO take it,
help TO buy farms, help to take charge Of
enterprises, small at first but in this
period Of rapid evolution, sure TO grow
into something well worth while; help of
greatly diversified sorts. No one who re-
fleets bit ean fan to see the falsity Of ehe
notion that the day of rapid development
of big enterprises hos past. Il is true
for instance, that more mics of long dis
tance steam railroads have been built than
are vet to be constructed, but the develop
ment Of urban and interurban electric
railroads is still comparatively in its in
forms of development They all require
capital; but when of the right sort, need
have no difficulty IN attaching himself adj
vantageously to those who can command
IT, One of our most serious troubles, at
the present time, is the scarcity of proper
men to place in posts of trust and re-
sponsibihty as foremen, superintendents
and the ike. We simply can't find them
fast enough. There ore plenty among the
working men, probably, with sufficient
ability to assume such posts, but most
of them insist upon Joining I'm certain
short-sighted movements that shut them
out of promotion and often deprive them
will give you an example of this:
A Railroad Economy.
Until a comparatively recent date we
employed hundreds of coal beavers 10 re-
plenish the tenders of our engines They
had to work in the dark as well as in the
iight, for people wish to travel by night
as well as by day in these busy times,
and freight bound from the West TO the
East can not be stopped when the sun
goes down. So, although our coal heav-
@ each day While WdIins for 91 engnes Hleon and
did not work more than from four to SIX
hours in each tWenty-four, they were
obliged 10 be on watch all the time. our
system was TO divide the day into twelve
hour shifts thus keeping two fun forces
of men at each point where our engines
took coal We paid the men S45 a month
After a while some one came along and
persuaded them that they We're NOS haV-
ing a fair show that no matter how short
the actual time of work each day, no man
ought 10 be on watch more than eight
hours at a time. Accordingly, they de-
mandeG three shifts a day with no reduc-
ton of pay. This meant adding one-half
TO the cost Of coaling our engines Down
10 that time Il had cost us 1914 cents q
ton to replenish our locomotive tenders:
under the new arrangement 1t would cost
us nearly 19 cents
well. we had 10 keep the trains rum
ming and we accepted the terms of the
men; but we were not pleased, for this was
an increase of running expenses which
brought no increase Of business. If we
were TO increase expenses 50 per cent.
along the lire without increasing the vol
ume OF business we would have either to
stop our trains or increase our
freight and passenger rates enor-
mously. Naturally, we sought a remedy
for the new situation. Ii was by no means
difficult to find. We have many men OF
mechanical eX pert ness among our employes
and in a short time we were coalng our
engines by machinery employing only two
men at each coaling place one by day and
NFa night II "a n in
stead Of eight or ten men a / a cost of
from $3.50 to $500 month. Now each man
simply tends machine, which is operated
by small engine, run at nominal ex-
pense Now when an engine has to he coal
ed it runs alongside a trestle, the fireman
pulls a lever, and the coal is chuted into
the tender. There is not only a great saw
ing OF expense, but also of time, and his
salter Is one of the most desirable features
of the present system. Per ton, the cost
of coaling our engines now averages be-
tween three and four cents; sometimes it
is as low as two cents. That is all right for
us, though not very pleasant for the men,
since nearly four hundred OF them who ha1
steady work, hard, perhaps. while il LAST
ed, but with plenty of rests between whiles
have had to seek other employment; but
ii should be remembered that II is their
might have come to the present method of
coaling in any event, but we hadn't con-
templated il when the, demand for eight
hour shifts was made"
Mr. Htlfs Methods.
Personally. James ]. Hm practices the
gospel of work as persistenhy as he
breaches il. His friends say he is never
Idle except when asleep. My call upon
him was made late on Saturday after
noon. Nearly every part of the big Great
Northern building was deserted except the
presidents offices. 1t was occupied by
the president and the clerks who work
under his personal direction All were as
busy as bees. In spite of their generally
longer hours and their infrequent holidays
as compared with the other clerks all
Great Northern employees court places
close TO The president. When he takes a
young man into his Office IL means that
he has some faith in that young man,
and IL the faith is justified by his works,
promotion is as sure as the sun rise after
Some years ago a rather difident, seri-
ous-faced young 81. Paul lad, named
Frank e. Ward, went 10 work for Aiu
as his personal stenographer. Times had
never been easy with the boy and this
led him TO approach his duties with terri
bic earnestness. From the first HIN was
interested. He noticed in particular that
the boy always had a book handy, which
he pored over whenever there was a min
ute's respite. One day the president pick
ed up the book. 1t was not work az
fiction, but an algebra, and no objection
was made to its continued study. Ii is
HLFS custom whenever travelling over
make a flying inspection of the tracks and
right of way. Till Frank l.. Wards 5 time
Hill had always insisted that whoever
was with HIM on a trip of inspection
should also watch the tracks, but he made
an exception in the case OF the young
stenographer. He was allowed and en-
couraged to study when making trips Al
the same, the boy kept a pretty close
watch on everything pertaining 70 the
road and its operation, as Hin found out
from time 20 time by talks with him. One
day the stenogyapher was promoted to bf
presidents assistant. Later, when HN
saw that the lad, now grown to be a man
was competent to work alone, he was
promoted again. and now he writes "gen.
eral superintendent after his signature
The story that Great Northern clerks
have taken up the study of algebra eN-
tensiyely since Wards promotion is prob.
ably not true, but Il is certain that his
rise has been an excellent lesson all along
the line.
Though circumstances have sometimes
been against Hin. Il is true that luck has
generally been with him. Thus while The
ST. Paul and Pacific. the first link of the
Great Northern chain. did little business
the year before he acquired its control. its
business increased several fold the year
afterward. This increase was a piece OF
luck and not of management due 10 the
first big Manitoba boom. The business Il
engendered had 10 go over Hin's road. fof
there was no other thorou2hfare for NJ
Six months before Hill got the road one
or two trains a day were counted good