The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-09-14
SANTA Re POLICY.
Liberal Treatment of EN-
plOyes the WatchwOrd.
Pension System Recently Es-
tablished Part of Plan.
HOW 1T is ALL DONE.
An Exhaustive Article on Sub
ject by an Official.
Details of tho New Ideas as APP
piled Here.


piled Here.
There is probably no large railroad
| system in the entire country which
is doing as much and has done as
| much in the past. and is planning to
| do in the future for the benefit of its
employees as the Santa Fe. The poll
| CO of the Santa Fe railroad towards
| It's employees is almost a contradiction
| of the time honored phrase that great
corporations have no souls. The econ
| om1c principle of maximum produc-
! tlon at minimum cost has been set
aside and instead the policy of mu-
tuaI interest and loyalty of employer
and employe has been inaugurated.
The interest which has been given
to the Santa Fe policy by economists
ana 1ndustrialists has been remarka-
! Die and other systems are beginning
| 70 realize the benefits to be derived
from a liberal system. However the
people living along the Santa Fe sys-
tenn are the most blind to their sur
roundlngs. The liberal policy of the
road has become so familiar to it's pa
irons and such an ordinary feature of
railroad life that 1t is accepted along
with the other blessings of the age
and little thought is given to it.
Mr.. H w Jacobs of Topeka. assis-
tant superintendent OF motive power
has written at the solicitation of the
editorial department of the Engineer
ing Magazine an occount of the Santa
Fe policy. The editors say in their
preface to Mr.. Jacobs article.
It is eight years since H. F. L. Or
cult, writing in these pages of con-
trast in industrial policies at that time
newly apparent. used the significant
words: 1T is economy as we'll hu-
manity to plan factories in which hui
man life is of more account than ma
chinery; into which human beings will
not be driven by hunger, but attracted
by superior. hygienic surroundings
air. light, comfort-as we'll as by the
most modern equipment for saving
labor, increasing output, and raising
the standard of workmanship and
wages
No one movement in the field of
Power and Production" during the
intervening period is more striking
than the progress of this concept in
the belief and the practice of the fore
most employers. We are glad that
much of the current history of the
advance has been written in the En-
cheering Magazine. We are especially
glad now to show SO brilliant an ex-
ample of its extension into a branch
of engineering activity which some
times has not been closely associated
with the idea of care for the individual
life. Mr.. Jacobs present article is a
welcome demonstration that there are
railway managers by whom the
square deal to the employe" is con-
sidered equal in Importance to the
increase of efficiency in the railway
machine shop
Following are extracts from Mr..
Jacobs article:
"E. P. Ripley. president of the
Santa Fee system, is quoted in the
Chicago Record-Herald of January 5,
as saying:
The Santa Fe Policy.
lone of the most serious condi
lions which this country is facing to-
fr1I
regard which the employe has for the
interest of the employer.
THE Santa Fe,' continued Mr.. Rip
ley, hopes to establish better esprit
de corps among the employees and ex-
poets that a liberal pension system
will have this tendency. We have on
this system as much loyalty as most
railroads enjoy. If not more, but it is
not what it should be. The lack of
loyalty among employees is a condition
from which all corporations are now
suffering, and it presents a most seri-
Gus problem !
Railroads are the pioneers Of civili-
cation and commerce, in America; |
through the forest and establish a
highway through the arid plains and
the desert regions of the southwest. |
They are antennae or feelerS, through |
which human society reaches out and |
extends it's domain over untrammeled |
nature.
The hardy and adventurous. the !
bold and the wild, among our race, be- |
come prospectors, miners, ranchers. or |
settlers. or they serve the railroad |
which serves all. This life, hard and |
rough, encourages the lawless and in |
cubates the saloon and attendant So !
cial evils. 1t was hardly uncommon !,
in a frontier town to find every third |
house a saloon, and to their tempta- |
tons the railroader, because of his ex- |
tremely unsettled and nervous life, is |
especially subject For instance, in |
one desert town, there used to arrive |
each month on payday morning, from |
a large Pacific coast city, about twelve |
hours distant. a number of detrimen-
tails and gamblers who spent the next /
few days shearing their victims.
ITO combat the evils of the saloon |
and to encourage men of the superior |
class. with families. or without. one
western road. the Santa Fe. has gone |
and extensively into the |
and maintenance of read |
ing rooms, recreation halls, hospitals,
and company cottages, and of parks
and pleasure grounds around the sta
Persons will never know what