Holbrook argus., 1904-04-30
POORLY PAID MEN.
On Whose Shoulders Are Placed Ire.
 mendous Res responsibilities.

 dreds of men earning small salaries and facing large responsibilities. They are the men who "dare not make mis. takes" A single blunder made by them may result in great loss of life and vast damage to property.
 Why such great responsibility should not demand correspondingly large pay is one of the mysteries of business life. It has a counterpart in the enigma of military life. A man in times of war receives about the smallest amount paid for services and risks the most valuable thing he has.
 In almost every great business enter. prise there is some one man who, while not being considered among the important men in the works, would disarrange the whole machinery of the establishment if he were to make even the smallest mistake in the per. formance of his duties.
 Suppose, for instance, that one of the minor officials in the weather bureau at Washington should fail to press a telegraph key at certain stated inter- vals each day?
 This duty may seem unimportant, yet were he to fail In 1t the entire shipping business of the Atlantic coast would be disarranged and vast sums of money would be involved. This off, cial is the one who takes the time ob- servations for the bureau every day. At certain time he watches little star creeping slowly across the field of an instrument called the transit, and when 1t reaches thin line made by cobweb stretched across the lens he presses the key.
 Each time he touches the key he reg ulates and adjusts the clocks by which the time for the entire Atlantic coast is set. Captains of the outgoing steamers set their watches by this, and if they made a mistake even of few seconds their calculations would be badly out of the way by the time they reached the other side.
 Some time ago in England terrible explosion occurred at the powder mills at Ross. The loss of life was appalling, and the loss of money great Yet this accident would not have happened but for the carelessness of man who re- ceived something like $8 or sS a week. He was stationed at the entrance to the mills. His work was to make a thorough search of every person who entered, and to prevent anyone carry- ing matches or pieces of metal.
 The workmen were provided with dressing rooms, where they were obliged to change their clothing and put on soft felt shoes instead of the ones they wore out of doors.
 The watchman had been in the serv- ice of the company for long time, and was reliable But one day he failed to notice that new workman, unused to the routine of the plant, had failed to remove his shoes and put on the felt slippers. A spark from nail in the shoes of this man caused the explo- sion.
 Every powder mill in this country, as well as in England, depends for the safety of its employees and the safety of its property upon the watchfulness of such an employe.
 The responsibility upon the shoul- ders of railroad men is well known and thoroughly appreciated. The switchman in the tower carries the lives of hundreds in his hands. The watchman at the otherwise unguarded railroad crossing is security for the lives of scores. Especially the latter is not a wel-paid workman. Uusally he is a veteran in the service, a man who has given his best years to some other branch of railroad work, who has been injured and now is being provid- o1 Pov Inv rnctfinp rotcbynor