The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-01-10
CHANCES ON A RAILROAD.
One Field in which the Right Young
Man L. Certain TO Get Along.

One Field in which the Right Young
Man L. Certain TO Get Along.
Steady young men with brains
enough to master the details Of rail.
reading" said a railway superlntend-
ent, ARE in demand every day in the
week In our business. No young man
in this business need get discouraged
II he has ability and industry enough
to get next to the good things.
THE trouble with most OF our appli-
cants is that they have tried half a
dozen other calllngs before they at
tempt to break into railroading. Fail
ure is bad thing for a young man;
it destroys his nerve, and IL it is en-
couptered three or four times in sue
cession it is pretty near ruinous. We
get plenty of these fellows without
nerve and they don't last long. This
leads to constant changes in the per-
sonnet of the operating departments,
but nowhere else is the sitting so rap
i'd and certain.
Engineers and firemen are recruited
from below, but our higher class engi-
neers, our high salaried clerks who
have something more to do than be
mere recorders, our future superin-
tendents, must come from the educat.
ed young men. Western railroads con-
stantly absorb the supply of high class
mechanics turned out by the practi-
cal departments Of the big univer-
stiles out that way, but the supply
isn't equal to the demand.
Nine out of every 10 young mel
who attend college delve into the class
les or take the academic course and
pass up electrical engineering, civil en-
cheering and kindred practical sub
jects. The professional life Of the doc
tor and lawyer seems to offer an ease
that attracts much more strongly than
those professions which require the
wearing for part of the time of over
alls and the exercise of the muscles
about a bench.
Outside of the college youths with
practical educations there is room in
plainly in the railroad business for hon
est, bright and active young men who
can absorb the myriad matters con-
nected with the railroad, so that we
may recruit from their ranks the
agents, the trainmasters, the aids to
the chiefs of departments and similar
places that pay larger salaries than
twothirds of the doctors, lawyers and
educators can hope to get Every
railroad manager is on the lookout for
men who can acceptably fill the higher
places in the service and the supply
is so much less than the demands that
the roads are constantly bidding
against one another for the services of
men who have distinguished them
selves in some one branch of the bust
ness. if you desire proof of it look
at the number Of young men who hold
responsible places in the various roads.
There is heed for more of them and
when you find one you must keep
boosting his salary along nicely or
some other road will be coaxing him
away.
II know Of one instance where a
young man of 30, who began in the
supply department of a western road
six years ago. has changed employers
four times in the last three years, each
time with big slice of additional sal
airy, and is now chief contracting
agent for one of the biggest roads tina!
does business out of Chicago. He had
a business head on him and industry
in addition. Every ROAD could furnish
you dozen such instances. Sun.