Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1907-03-11
RAILROAD WANTS
COLLEGE MEN
Pennsylvania to Raise Ace
Limit of Those Who
Enter Service

PHILADELPHIA, Pa, March II
More college trained men are wanto,
in the service of the PennsvIvario
railroad and steps are being takao
to procure them.
The company's tremedous imnrovs
ments in New York and great extar
sions all along its lines have created
new positions which must be filed
| by engineers and operating officials ~
ability and judgment.
I Some employees who have not had
technical training, will of course rise
from the bottom to the top-becarvo
some men can't be kept down. Put
other things being equal, the man who
has gone through a regular course NJ
training is the one who will do the
railroads the most good
1t is the Pennsylvania policy to
employ college men almost exclusively
in certain branches of the operating
and engineering departments
| From Rodmen Upward.
This and the fact that the graduate
receives enough pay at the beginning
to support him, have proven power
full inducements to the sort of men the
company wants.
1t is in the Maintenance of way de-
partment that the youth with a d.
ploma from technical school fndds
place. First he is a rodman Then he
is sent to the yards at Altoona, Pa
which are the greatest in the world
seven miles long-with 21O miles II
track.
There the candidate for railroad
honors learns to keep car records.
classify cars, to handle switches. to
manipulate signals and 70 do many
another job that the proper sort NJ
railroad man must know al about.
How Han WORKS Up.
the road" learning about steel rails,
ballasts, cross-ties, bolts, templates
and roadbed drainage II he is apt
he is promoted to supervisor; after
that comes the grade of assistant en-
gineer and superintendent, and when
a man gets to be superintendent he
is qualified as a railroad expert:
At Altoona, where the shops and
yards of the Pennsylvania compose
what is called "the greatest railroad
university in the world" there is
special course for the college man
trained as a mechanical engineer.
The Especial apprentice" as he is
called, goes through four years Of
hard work-blacksmith shop, wheel
shop, car shop, tank shop, and all the
rest. Three months are given to firing
an engine on the road.
The special apprentice" is eligible
to rise to be inspector, assistant mas
ter mechanic, superintendent of motive
power.
Raise Age Limit TO Years.
Another important step to be taken
by the Pennsylvania III the stock
holders approve it at their meeting
March IL, is the admission to en-
ployment of men between IS and As
years old. At present nobody past s.
is eligible to enter the company's
service.
The rule was made in order that
every employee obliged to retire at
s. would have 80 years service to his
credit and receive a pension Of not
less than 80 per cent of his average
earnings for the last ten years of his
work.
But It is found that the S5-year rule
has put too great limit on the field
from which the company may draw
its labor. Many whose services are
classed under skilled labor" de-
partment Of mechanics" ETC.. have to
serve through years OF practical ex-
perience and reach the highest degree
OF efffciency after passinR IS.