Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1910-09-30

equivalent OF a four year course III
a school OF civil engineering. The boy
has soon learned this, of course, and
has saved his money. or has been lay
ing off foEa-ie" months now and then
to devot{%tudying or, if he should
have hapIehed to have work at a
terminal near or in a city, he has been
able to attend nigh, school. There
are a lot of ways in which an anDl'
tious youth can get this technlcA
training.
AS a general Thing the worker Is
somewhere around twenty-five years
old by the time he has got the neces'
sary schooling and al the advance
ment ne can from being merely an IN
man, and is ready to 90 on.
We shall say that he has elected 10
leave the construction corps and go
on with the maintenance department,
which takes care Of-naintalnS-co"-
pleted track, and has come in from
the wilderness and been made rod
man in the office : one of the DIVISION
engineers. All r~ailroacS have pretty
much the same lines of advancement;
but we shall take the procedure fol-
lowed by a railroad whose ma1nten-
ance department is famous
Having been thoroughly tested by
the division engineer and found to
merit advancement both because or
his knowledge of engineering and his
seeming ability to handle men or the
section gang sort, your boy ultimately
fnds himself an assistant supervisor
of one of the road's branches. at a
salary of about one hundred dollars
a month. The supervisor Is the direct
controlling head Of rack foremen and
labOrers and attends to the malnten-
ance of all bridges, track and road
bed over a stretch of forty to fifty
miles.
This is the boys real try out in eX-
ecutive work, and If he sizes up to his
new responsibilities, he will be sent to
similar work on the main line. This
time, however, owing to its greater
Importance. he will have only twenty
five to thirty miles to look after; but
his pay will be about a hundred and
twenty-five dollars a month. Then he
goes back to the branch line, this
time as supervisor, at a hundred and
fifty dollars; and before long takes a
similar post on the main line, at a
further increase in salary of twenty
five dollars a month.
The next step taken is when your
boy becomes division engineer Of q
branch line Then he goes as divi
sion engineer on the main line, his
work covering a hundred to one hun
dred and twenty-five miles of road, at
two l,r1rnJ arI nIn u Hyn lilo r0
monthly.
Following this, he will be assistant
principal engineer at three hundred
and fifty dollars to four hundred dol
lars a month. This office is directly
under n of the general superintend-
ents. who supervise the work of the
engineers of four to eight divisions.
OF course. YOU boy Will before long
be made a general superintendent
himself, getting from four hundred to
one thousand dollars a month, and
after he has worked up to the head
of the most important place in this
branch of the business, will be IN di-
rect line for the post Of general man.
ager. From there he goes straight
through to vice-president, n the goal
ol pleSlueit a. tdSl, a. q ola IAat
may rival that received by the presi
dent Of the United States, or ever
top 1t.
But should the boy ave gone or
from rodman to instrument man IL
the construction department, he would
next be made chief of the surveying
party under the engineer at a monthly
salary of seventy-fve to one hundred
and twenty-five dollars. Then be
would be an engineer of construction
working directly under the chief en-
gineer, at anywhere from one hun
dred to three hundred dollars a month
( His work here might be in the fielc
5 or in constructing terminals or Other
! improvements in a city. and would be-
2 a direct stepping stone to the chic
l engineers post, where, as assistan
to the latter, he would receive from
a three hundred to five hundred dollar!
Il a month.
r Their he would become chief engi
d neer and afterward might be mad,
+ president of the system or be called
X to some of the greatest engineerin;
II enterprises in the world, such as lay
y ing out entirely new systems of rail
road in hitherto uneXplored regions
> experimenting the construction O
canals or gigantic reservoir systems
> or directing vast projects of n kin,
that have anything to DO with trans
nOrtatiCn. Every ~aGer VIII recal
e that it was only four years ago tina
.IOhn F Stevens, chief engineer of tn
t Great Northern railway. was mad
u chief engineer of the Panama cana
u about the highest engineering positiO
j. in the world. And yei IIr. Stevens .
Il now only fiity-siX years old. and b
y was OEc a Todman with an obScur
surveying crew. He became chief e1
g.nCer OF the Sabine Pass &, Nortl
n Weste-n railway When he was Onl
IL twenty-three, showing what a youn
II man of grit and energy can 90.
! Railroad positions, by their very r,
. quirements and responsibilities. mus
H. go to those who have proved the
g ability to fill them. Pull may get on
3 a place at times: hut it will rest upo
o his merit to keep 1t; for there is tc
IL much at stake to run risks from il
competent employees. And the d
g velopment of the country is so rapi
s. nowadays that there Is always