The Dakota chief. (Gann Valley, Buffalo County, S.D.) 18??-1913, 1908-01-30
Railways Arc to Use Phone in
Place of Telegraph After
March L.
OPERATORS TO BE LET OUT.
Block Signals Also Will Be In
stalled and Many Small
Stations Closed.

A new field of employment for wom-
EN- is to be opened by the railways.
This does not mean that the roads will
employ women telegraphers, but on the
contrary their employment will be for
the purpose of taking the place of tele-
graphers already In the service. The
future woman railway operating en-
ploye will be engaged at the smaller
stations taking train orders over tele-
phone, where formerly such orders we're
transmitted and received by telegraph.
This new field will be open to women
when the new nine-hour day law gov
erning the working time of railway
telegraphers goes into effect on
March l. ...
1t was confidently expected that this
law would work revolution in railway
operation, and it was with this end in
view that the Order of Railway Tele-
graphers procured its passage despite
the determined opposition Of the rail
way managers and even against advice
direct from the White House. The lev
olution is coming, all right, but it will
be a revolution which will relegate the
telegraph to a back seat as an adjunct
to railway operation and will throw
thousands of operators out of employ
ment end annually will decrease their
number until they will almost disap-
pear from American railways.
1t was expected that the reduction
in the working hours of railway tele-
graphers to nine hours would compel
the railroads to employ at least 5000
additional men at once. 1t was also
known that it would be impossible to
secure this number Of men when need
ed, and it was therefore hoped by the
men that an increase in wages would
be part of the revolution planned.
Changes to Result.
The railway managers at first took
similar view of the situation, but 1t
soon was discovered that 1t would be
impossible to supply the demand if all
existing telegraph offices were to be
maintained after March I. As re-
suit of a careful study of the situation
the nine-hour day for telegraphers will
bring about the following changes:
!. The abandonment of all stations
as telegraph stations except division
headquarters and functional points.
2. The substitution OF telephones for
the receipt and the transmission Of or
ders and messages. --a .#n
3. The employment of women as
agents in many stations thus trans
formed into telephone stations.
4. The transaction of a tremendous
amount of office business by letter
which formerly was transacted by tele-
graph.
5. The rapid extension of the auto
matte electric block signal system,
which will make telegraph stations un-
necessary. -.
In determining to inaugurate these
changes the railway managers found
that they had in reality been preparing
for them for years. 1t was discovered
also that by adopting the most expen-
sive system of block signaling train
orders and telegraph stations could for
the greater part be done away with.
The railroads, therefore, decided that
they would rather spend millions in
providing and maintaining automatic
block signals which never go to sleep
and which never fail unless they spell
danger" than to spend the same
money in maintaining telegraph sta
tions and telegraph operators. The
closing Of stations as telegraph stations
10 made possible by the fact that with
an automatic electric signal all that is
necessary is to start trains as fast as
the terminal block is empty and keep
them going until a semaphore says
stop"