The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-10-04
Spoilers ON TROLLEYs.

In all large cities having an elec
trio railway system there is an i'm
portant branch of service which never
reaches the gaze of the public, states
the Philadelphia Reoo1d. Few peo.
pie have any idea that the company
! pays a number of men to ride on its
cars as passengers every hour of the
day. The object is to keep strict
watch on its conductors and motor
men for any breach of the rules.
These men are called inspectors by
the company, but the employees call
them "spotters.
1t is not only the passengers who
are ignorant of the identity of these
men, but no one connected with the
company except the chief of the in
spectors know them. In making
their reports all the inspectors must
sign by numbers.
These are given then by the chief
to use instead of their names. The
chief is not permitted to give the
name Of any inspector to any one ex-
cept the auditor when the payroll is
made out each week. Another ele-
ment in the absolute secrecy of the
service is the fact that inspectors do
not know each other. They do not
work in pairs, as in other secret SER
vice, but each man works indepen-
dent of any other along certain lines
of directions given by the chief.
The duties of these men are many
and exacting. They must make a
careful study of all the rules, regula-
tions and orders of the company and
any infringement of these must be
reported. These include the proper
and polite treatment of passengers,
careful running of the car on the part
of the motorman in respect to cross
streets, pedestrians, wagons and the
application of the power and brakes.
Perhaps the most important duty
of all is to see that all the fares are
collected, and, what is still more i'm
portant, that they are all registered
correctly. 1t is this duty that re-
quires tact, good judgment, an under
standing of human nature and good
eyesight. The inspector must keep
constantly in mind the fact that the
man he is watching may be little
sharper than he, and any false move
on his part would prove fatal to his
usefulness on that car. Each trip
made by the inspector must bear rec
ord on his final report. He must
give the badge number of the con-
ductor, the block number of the car,
the street and time he got on, togeth-
er with the register statements. All
these facts must be kept in memory
until he gets off the car, when he
makes a record of them on his trip
card.
At the end of his days work he
must make final report of all trips
made, amount of cash paid out for
any wrong doing or accidents witness
ed by him. These reports are given
the next day to the chief on report
ing to the office, who in turn forwards
them to the general superintendent.
After a careful reading by the su-
perintendent all the men who have
been inspected and have no bad re-
ports against them are given good
credit on their record. On the other
hand, if any have bad reports made
against them the reports are placed
on file, and if any have been reported
for stealing or where a number of
complaints of minor nature are on
file, the man is ord ed to be
"specialed.
By this is meant that on every trip
the suspected man makes in a day,
week or month, he has on his car an
inspector. This fact shows how care
fully the man is watched. Each in
spector who goes on a Especial" de-
tail is required to make full detailed
report, either good or bad, of the
mans actions. If majority of these
reports agree as to wrongdoing the
superintendent makes it the basis for
discipline.
The position in itself is not perma-
ment, nor does it offer any chance for
advancement. These facts are told
the applicant with emphasis on his
first interview with the chief. A
working day consists of nine and
half hours, with a sliding schedule
of reporting hours for every week.
He can have no holidays and very
few Sundays off. About twice a
week he starts at a A. M, and on two
other days at 3 PM. The other days
of the week are means between these
extremes. The wages of an inspector
are $2.25 per day and cash paid for
fares.
Another thing to remember is that
an inspector is on different divisions
each day. His work is assigned each
day by the chief, and, as result, he
seldom rides a division more than
once month. Of course, he cannot
inspect every car on a division in one
day, but he is expected to make at
least IS trips of about 20 minutes
each.
Although carefulness and secrecy
are the watchwords of every inspec-
tor, the time soon comes when they
are known to the motormen and con-
ductors. This may be due to some
slight indiscretion or movement on
the part of the inspectors, which has
caused the motorman or conductor to
be guarded. Descriptions soon spread
at the barn, and in about three months
new men take their places, as the
company has no more use for them.
When the cost of maintaining the
system is considered, one would think
that $50, 900 a year would be greater
than the amounts stolen by employees,
yet the officials say it is money well
invested.