Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-04-05
THE l CHAPTERS l
 By FRAN CIS LIN D B
CHAPTER XXI.
,copyrshs. lsaa, y The BoSDs-xsrili Co,
THE UNDERGRADUATES.

and small, set their oficial guillotines at work looping of department heads, they commonly ignore a consequence overlooked by many; namely, the pos sible effect of such wholesale changes in leadership upon the rank and file. The American railroad in It's uncon- solidated stage Is a modern feudalism. |, It's suzerains are the president and board of directors; its clan chiefs are the men who have built it and fought for it's footing in the sharply-contest- ed field of competition. To these lead CTS the rank and file is loyal, as loyalty : is accorded to the men who build and do, rather than to their successors who 1 inherit and tear down. Add to this 1 the supplanting of competent execu- { tive officers by a staff of political trenchermen, ignorant alike of the science of railroading, and the equally i important sub-science of industrial man-handling, and you have the kin ding for the fire of instruction which had been slowly smoldering in the r Trans Western service since the day when Mai. Guilford had issued his gen. ] eral order No. 1. ~-5
 At first the ire had burned fltfully, eating its way into the small econo- mics; as when the section hands pelt stray dogs with new spikes from tho stock keg, and careless freight crews seed down the right-of-way with cast off links and pins; when engineers pour oil where 1t should be dropped, and firemen feed the stack instead of the steam-dome.
 But later, when the incompetence l of the new officials became the mock ! ing gibe of the service, and the cut rate avalanche of traffic had doubled all mems tasks, the flames rose high CT and out of the smoke of them loomed the shape of the dread demon of demoralization.
 First it was Hank Brodrick, who misread his orders and piled two freights in mountain of wreckage in the deep cut between Long Pine and Argenta. Next it was an over worked night man who lost his head and cranked a switch over in front oi the westbound Flyer, laying the 1920 on her side in the ditch, with the postal and the baggage car neatly tele- scoped on top to hold her down.
 Two days later 1t was Patsy Calla- ] han; and though he escaped with his life and his job, 1t was a close call. He was chasing time freight with the fast mail, and the freight was taking the siding at Delhi to let him pass. One of the red tail-lights of the freight had gone out and Callahan mistook the other for the target lamp of the second switch. He had time to yell at his fireman, to fling himself upon ' the throttle-bar and to set the air brake before he began to turn Irish handsprings down the embankment: but the wrecking crew camped two whole days at Delhi gathering up the debris.
 It was we'll on in the summer, when the two divisions. east and west, were strewn with wreckage and the pit tracks in the shops and shop yard i were filled to overfowing with crip- pied engines, that the insurrectionaries began to gather in their respective la bor groups to discuss the growing haz- i ards of railroading on the Trans-West- ern.
 The outcome was a protest from the ! Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. ! addressed to the receiver in the name of the organization, setting forth in plain terms the grievance of the mem 1 bers, and charging it bluntly to bad management. This was followed im- mediately by similar complaints from the trainmen, the telegraphers and the 1 firemen; all praying for relief from the incubus of incompetent leadership. | Not to be behind these, came the Anal gamated Machinists, demanding an in- crease of pay for night work and over ! time; and last, but not least, an inti- nation went forth from the Fedora tive council of all these labor unions limiting at possible political conse- quences and the alienation of the labor ! vote if the abuses were not corrected. 1 What dye calc'late the major will | do about it?" said Brodrick, in the roundhouse conclave held daily by the 2 duty. will he listen to reason and give us a sure-enough railroad man or two at the top?"
 1 Not in ein 'tousand year." quoth ! Dutch" Fischer. Callahan's alternate , on the fast mail. "Haf you not de i Arkoos been reading? It Is bolotics from der beginning to der ent; init der governor yorwarts."
 Then I am tellin' you-all right now there's eoin' to be heap O trouble. $ drawied "Pike County" Griggs. the oldest engineer on the line. "The shopmen are b'ilin'; and If the major puts on that blanket cut in wages he's { tsikin' about"
 "Tf,'" broke in Callahan. with fine seorn. Iris slaping on yer injuries ye are. Misther Griggs. The notice is out; twas posted in the shops this . day" sa...
 Then that settles t." said GrizEs. gloomIIy. When does 1t take hoid?" The first day av the month to come. An they're telling me it catches every body, down to the missinser b'ys in the ofces"
 Grigss got upon his feet. yavning and stretching before he dropped back into his corner of the wooden settle You IIssen at me. if that. the fact. Tin telling yuu-an that every wheel