The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-03-11
Pennsylvania Seeks for Men with
Trained Brains
SPECIAL COURSES FOR YOUNG MEN
YARDS AS RODMAN AND
WORKS UPWARD.


college trained men are wanted in the
service of the Pennsylvania railroad
and steps are being taken to obtain
them. The company's tremendous i'm
provements in New York and great ex-
tensions all along it's lines have Great
ed new positions which must be filled
by engineers and operating officials of
ability and judgement. Some
employees who have not had technical
training will, of course, rise from the
bottom to the top-because some men
can't be kept down. But other things
being equal the man who has gone
through regular course of training is
good.
1t is the Pennsylvania policy to
! employ college men almost exclusively
for certain branches of the operating
and engineering departments. This and
the fact that the graduate receives
enough pay at the beginning to sup
| port him, have proven powerful in
ducements to the sort of workers the
company wants.
From Rodman Upward.
It is in the maintenance of way
department that the youth with a
diploma from a technical institution
finds a place. First he is rodman.
Then he is sent to the yards at AL
toona, Pa, which are the greatest in
the world-seven miles long-with 21O
miles of track. There the candidate
for railroad honors learns to keep car
records and classify cars, to handle
| switches, to manipulate signals and to
do many another job that the proper
sort of railroad men must know all
about
Next he is assistant supervisor ION
the road" learning about steel rails.
ballast, crossties, bolts, tie-plates and
roadbed drainage If he is apt he is
promoted to supervisor; after that
come the grades of assistant engineer
and superintendent, and when a man
gets to be superintendent he is quail
fled as a railroad expert.
At Altoona, where the shops and the
what is called 1.-The greatest railroad
university in the world there is
special course for the college man
! trained as mechanical engineer. The
special 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 ap-
prentice" is eligible to rise to be in
spectOr assistant master mechanic
assistant engineer of motive power
master mechanic, superintendent of
motive power.
To Raise Age Limit 10 Years.
Another important step to be taken
by the Pennsylvania, if the STOCKHOLM
ers approve it at their meeting March
II, is the admission to employment OF
men between 35 and As years old. At
present nobody past 35 is eligible to
enter the company's service. The rule
was made in order that every en-
ploye obliged to retire at IS would have
80 years service to his credit and re-
ceive a pension of not less than 30
| per cent. of his average earnings for
his last ten years of work.
But it is found that the 35- year rule
has put too great limit on the field
from wrich the company may draw
it's labor. Many whose services are
classed under skilled labor" depart
ment of mechanics ETC., have to serve
through years of practical expert
ence and reach the highest degree OF
efficiency after passing 80.