The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1910-09-22

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 all the advance
ment he can from being merely an in
strument man, and Is ready to go on.
We shall say that he has elected to
leave the construction corps and go
on with the maintenance department,
which takes care of-maintains-com-
pleted track, and has come in from
the wilderness and been made rod
man in the Office Of one of the division
engineers. All railroads have pretty
much the same lines of advancement;
but we shall take the procedure fol-
lowed by a railroad whose mainten.
ance department is world-famous.
Having been thoroughly tested by
the division engineer and found to
merit advancement both because of
his knowledge Of engineering and his
seeming ability to handle men Of the
section gang sort, your boy ultimately
finds himself an assistant supervisor
of one of the roads branches, at a
salary of about one hundred dollars.
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 hundred and
twenty-five dollars a month. Then he
goes back to the branch line, this
time as supervisor, at hundred and
fifty dollars; and before long takes
similar post on the main line, at a
further increase in salary Of twenty.
five dollars month.
The next step taken is when your
boy becomes division engineer of a
branch line. Then he goes as divi
work covering a hundred to one hun
dred and twenty-five miles of road, al
two hundred and seventy-five dollars
monthly.
Following this, he will be assistant
principal engineer at three hundred
duu lilly uOl1olS W 4Oul AuAAOA GU OO4
lars a month. This office is directly
under one of the general superintend'
ents, who supervise the work of the
engineers of four to eight divisions,
OF course, your 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, and the goal
Of president at last, at salary that
may rival that received by the presi
dent of the United States, or even
top it.
But should the boy have gone on
from rodman to instrument man in
the construction department, he would
next be made chief of the surveying
party under the engineer at monthly
| salary of seventy-five to one hundred
and twenty-five dollars. Then he
would be an engineer of construction,
working directly under the chief en-
gineer, at anywhere from one hun
bred TO three hundred dollars month.
His work here might be in tho field
or in constructing terminals or other
improvements in city, and would be
direct stepping stone to the chief
| engineers post, where, as assistant
| to the latter, he would receive from
three hundred to five hundred dollars
| month.
Then he would become chief engi-
neer and afterward might be made
president of the system or be called
to some of the greatest engineering
enterprises in the world, such as lay
ing out entirely new systems of rail-
road in hitherto UNEMPLOYED regions.
experimenting the construction of
canals or gigantic reservoir systems,
or directing vast projects Of any kind
that have anything to do with trans
portation. Every header will recall
that 1t was only four years ago that
John F. Stevens, chief engineer of the
Great Northern railway was made
chief engineer of the Panama canal
about the highest engineering position
in the world. And yet Mr.. Stevens rs
now only f1fty-six years old, and he
was once a rodman with an obscure
surveying crew. He became chief en-
gineer of the Sabine Pass & North.
western railway when he was only
twenty-three, showing what young
man of grit and energy can do.
Railroad positions, by their very re-
quirements and responsibilities, must
go to those who have proved their
ability to fill them. Pull may get one
a place at times; but it will rest upon
his merit to keep it; for there is toe
much at stake to run risks from in
competent employees. And the de-
velopment of the country is so rapid
nowadays that there is always a
shortage of men able to take the high
est position. It is fact that there ia
probably more room at the top for
the ambitious young man in railroad