The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-06-25


roads is still comparatively in its in
fancy. The same is true of many other
forms of development. They all re-
quire capital; but when of the right
| sort, young man need have no diff
Guilty in attaching himself advantage
ously 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-
| sponsibility as foremen, superintend-
ents and the like. We simply can't find
them fast enough. There are plenty
among the working men. probably, with
sufficient ability to assume such posts
but most of them insist upon joining in
certain short sighted movements that
shut them out of promotion and often
deprive them of the work they already
| have to do. 1 will give you an ex-
ample of this:
A Railroad Economy.
Until a comparatively recent date
we employed hundreds of coal beavers
TO replenish the tenders of our engines.
They had to work in the dark as Well
as in the light, 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 cannot be stopped
when the sun goes down. So. although
good portion of each day while wait
! ing for engines, and did not work more
| than from four to six hours in each
! twenfy-four, they We're obliged to be
| 'on watch all the time. Our system
was to divide the day into twelve-hour
SHIFTS thus keeping two full forces of
men at each point where our engines
took coal. We paid the men $45 a
month. After awhile someone came
along and persuaded them that they
were not having a fair show; that no
matter how short the actual time of
work each day, no man ought to be on
watch more than eight hours at
time. Accordingly, they demanded
three shifts, with no reduction of paw
This meant adding one-half to the cost
of coalinS our engines. Down to that
time 1t had cost US 1919 cents ton
to repienish our locomotive tenders:
under the new arrangement it would
cost us nearly 10 cents
We'll, we had to keep the trains run
ming, and we accepted the terms of
the men: but we were not pleased. for
this was an increase of running ex-
penses which brought no increase of
business. If we We're to increase OK
penses 30 per cent along the line
without increasing the volume of bust
ness we would have either to stop our
trains or increase our freight and pas
SSdiStT IdteS enormously. Naturally.
we sought a remedy for the new situa-
tion. 1t was by no means difficult TO
find. We have many men of mechani-
cal experiences among our employees
and in a short time we were coaling
our engines by machinery, employing
only two men at each coalinS place.
one by day and one by night. at a cost
of $50 a month. instead of eight to
ten men at "A cost of from $3.50 to $500
a month. Now each man simply tends
a machine. which is operated by
small engine, run at a nominal eX-
penSe. Now when an engine has 10
be coaled it runs alongside a trestle
the fireman pulls lever, and the coal
is chuted into the tender. There is not
only a great saving of expense, but
also of time, and this latter is one of
the most desirable features of the pres
ent system. Per ton the cost of coaling
our engines now averages between )
and cents: sometimes it is as low as
cents. That is all right for us.
though not very pleasant for the men,
since nearly 400 of them who had steady
work-hard. perhaps, while it lasted,
but with plenty of rests between whites
have had to seek other employment:
but it should be remembered that it is
their own fault if they are idle. Event
ually we might have come to the pres
ent method of coaling in any event,
but we hadn't contemplated it when
the demand for efght-hour shifts was
made"
Mr.. Hilrs Methods.
Personally, James j. Hill practices
the gospel of work as persistently as
he breaches it. His friends say he is
never Idle except when asleep. My
call upon him was made late on Sat
urday afternoon. Nearly every part of
deserted except the presidents offices.
1t was occupied by the president and
the clerks who work under his personal
direction. All We're as busy as bees.
In spite of their generally longer hours
and their infrequent half 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 if the faith is justified by his
works. promotion is as sure as the sun
rise after the night
Some years ago n rather diffident.
serious-faced young st. Paul lad.
named Frank L. Ward, went to work
for Hill as his personal Stenographer.
Times had never been easy with the
boy. and this led him to approach his
duties with terrible earnestness. From
the first Hill was interested. He no.
ticed in particular that the boy always
had a book handy, which he pored over
whenever there was a minutes respite.
One day the president picked up the
book 1t was not a work of fiction.
but an algebra, and no objection was
made to its continued study. It Is
Hills custom whenever travelling over
his road to sit at the rear of the train
and make a flying inspection OF the
tracks and the right of way. Till
Frank E Wards time Hill had always
insisted that whoever was with him on
trip of inspection should also watch
the tracks. but he made an exception
in the case of the young stenographer.
He was allowed and encouraged to
study when making trips. All the
same, the boy kept a pretty close
watch on everything pertaining to the
road and its operation, as Hill found
out from time to time by talks with /
him. One day the stenographer was.
promoted to be presidents assistant. |
Later, when Hill saw that the lad, now
grown to be a man. was competent to |
work alone. he was promoted again. |
and he now writes general superin- |
tendent" after his signature. The story |
that Great Northern clerks have taken |
up the study of algebra extensively |
since Wards promotion is probably not |
true. but il is certain that his rise has |
been an excellent object lesson all |
along the line.
Though circumstances have sometimes |
been against Hill. il is true that luck has |
generally been with him. Thus, while I
the ST. Paul & Pacific, the first link of |
the Great Northern chain. did little bust |
ness the year before he acquired its con- |
troll, its business increased several fold |