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

.EN. asked which he had sooner
x9X Be, president Of the United
2ME States, the worlds greatest
detective, leader of the
:.=s,e...s- biggest band, or president
Of a railroad, 1t Is doubtful what the
answer would be. Probably, after long
consideration, he woald say all four.
4 Anyhow, he would have only one
chance in some forty million every
four years of being the nations presi-
dent, and to be the detective or the
band leader would depend somewhat
upon natural talents, which he might
or might not possess.
Therefore, he would do we'll, prob
ably, to select the railroad presidency;
for that position requires no special
genius, and it is simply matter of
getting starting Job, which is not
particularly difficult, working hard,
and attending strictly to business.
and the chances are not at all obscure
that he will reach the coveted goal
sooner or later.
If your boy has his mind set on
striving for a railroad presidency, and
you believe he is wise in doing SO,
there is no end of places to begin, for
there are numberless tried avenues
leading to the presidency-such as
first getting job as a section hand,
or as clerk in a railroad Office, or as
roustabout and assistant in small
station. Today the railroad presi-
dents who began in these and similar
lowly positions are by no means
scarce-in fact, they are in the ma
jority.
But your boy wants to get out into
the wilderness, so to speak, and learn
railroading literally from the ground
up-that is, he wants to become a
civil engineer and build railroads be-
fore he bosses one? Fine!
Well, then, your BOY desires to
make his start for a railroad presi-
dency in this manner-what must he
know? Without doubt he ought to
have good high school education be-
fore applying for job; for he will
not get very far before there will be
figuring and other things to do that
an ignoramus couldn't hope to sur
Tond the bottom otherwise. (Of
course, boy with determination can
do anything he sets out to do, and he
might self-teach himself at nights and
other times; but that is not the kind
of hustler now under considerations
Probably the initial work given your
sixteen or eighteen-year-old boy will
not appear as If it would lead to any
where at all; for likely it will be moth.
ing more than carrying stakes for sur
veying corps in the field, going back
to camp on errands, and doing things
generally that are little more than
chores. But all this time he will be
getting familiar with the methods OF
blazing trails through the wilderness
that are ultimately to be the line of a
completed railroad.
Before long he will be an axman
then chairman, when his pay will be
lars a month. In the beginning, he
will not get much, If anything; fol-
there are other boys that have mapped
= out railroad careers for themselves
-, and many of them are willing to work
for almost next to nothing till they
get above the stake-carrying stage.
i The first distinct promotion thai
amounts to anything will be from ak
man or chairman to rodman, the mar
that manipulates the long pole with
rows of figures on it that everybody
sees with surveying parties. He gets
from forty to sixty dollars a month
which is not at all bad, considering
that food and clothing requirements
are not expensive, and that the pro
motion to this post is a sure sign thai
your boy Is getting on.
Then, If the boy has been observing
what the others do, and asking ques
tions, and getting posted, he will be
come instrument man after awhile
and run the level or transit, and will
receive anywhere from sixty to ninety
dollars month.
But right here, or before, 1t will bt
necessary for the boy to get some
more schooling, If he expects to ge
much higher in his work; from in
strument man on will come up tech
meal requirements that make it al
most necessary for him to have thu
equivalent of four-year's course II
q school of civil engineering. The boy
has soon learned this, of course, an(
has saved his money, or has been lay
ing off for a few months now and ther
to devote to studying; or, If he SHOULD
have happened to have work at {
terminal near or in city, he has beer
able to attend night school. There