Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-04-23
RAILROAD SPOTTERS.
THE SECRET SERVICE THAT ONE BIG
SYSTEM MAINTAINS.

Members of 1t In Every Department
From Yardmen Up-Curious Conn
pIicatiOns When Spoilers Unknown
to One Another Cross Lines.
Probably the most perfect spotter
| system achieved by any private cor
poration," says $. III. Adams in Aims
lees, sis that of one of the big eastern
railroads, which is to some extent
modelled on the secret service system
OF some of the eastern governments,
| though by no means so complex.
so farreaching and so direct, how
ever, are its lines of communication
that the president of the organization
| is himself kept constantly informed
of the trend of affairs and the changes
| of sentiment among the employees of
every division and subdivision OF the
| whole railway system. and that with
out the knowledge of any other persons
but his own special corps of clerks
and secretaries.
Nobody but himself knows the en-
tire personnel of the wonderful service
that he has perfected. His agents are
drawn from every branch of the road $
operating staff They are engineers,
freight brakemen, passenger trainmen,
conductors, signalmen. yardmen, sta
ton agents, track walkers and even
division officials. Should that road
have strickland strikes are far less
likely to occur than they were before
the present system was put into op-
eration-the president will have de-
tailed warnings of it from all the
storm centers long before the first NUT
terings find cautious utterance in the
newspapers.
while it also acts as a defense
against thefts by employees, this sys-
TEN is intended primarily to prepare,
so to speak, a diary of the disposition,
character, working efficiency and senti-
ments toward the road of the men who
constitute the vast human machinery
of the corporation. The feeling which
eliminates in a general strike is not
the result of one act alone, but a slow
growth made up of many grievances,
real or fancied.
''To keep track of the shifting mental
attitude of his employees is the aim Of
this railroad president. If n certain
division superintendent has made him
self unpopular with his subordinates,
information to that effect comes by
underground wire to the central office,
and the matter is taken under advise
ment. If the newest fireman on the
road attempts to stir up discomfort by
infiammatory talk, his views soon
reach the official ear. Every leading
spirit in the employees organization is
known to the president, who also
knows whether, in case of trouble, the
man is to be reckoned upon as con-
sentative or n radical.
Sometimes this works out the mans
career in a manner quite Incompetent
sibIe to him. For instance, Night
Waterman Brown is shifted without
cause that he can fathom from one di-
vision to another. How should he
know that rumorS of trouble in that di-
vision have reached the presidential ear
and that he himself, being down in the
presidents little book as n speaker of
weight and a counselor of cOnserva-
tive methods. has been shifted over to
act as unconscious agent in checking a
dangerous tendency?
''SOme of the admiring coworkers of
the head of this system declare that in
two minutes reference to his collected
funds of information he can unroIl the
family history of the woman who
washes the windows of car No. 41144X
and tell whether in her estimation, he
himself is an oppreSsor of the down
trodden or n perfect gentleman
where so many invisible lines radi-
ate from the same office it is inevitable
that some of them should cross. Curl
Gus complications result from contact
between spoilers as unknown to each
other as they are to those whom they
watch.
Several years ago at a time of gen.
eral labor troubles a certain railroad
got no less than five reports from it's
confidential men informing them that
an employee who was several degrees
higher in the secret service of the road
than any of them. had they but known
it, had been making incendiary speech
eS.
This was true. Matters had so
shaped themselves that the man ac
cused had to appear as radical in or
der to gain admittance to inner coun-
ellis where the important questions
would be finally decided. To the cha
grin of the authorities they were oblig-
ed to transfer him. Had they not done
so the suspicious of the men who make
the reports would have been aroused.
That spoilers should know each other
as such is held to lie highly undesira-
BILE There is always the chance that
they might work in conjunction instead
of acting as checks on each other"