Arizona republican., 1910-01-24
Education For Efficiency in
 the Service MEN NOT LESS IMPORTANT
Than Equipment of Roads, Fast Coming to Be Rec ognized By Managers to Advantage of Railways and tLeir Employees

Washington. Jan 23-"The time will come when railroad employment for every man in the service will not mean drudgery. nor sinecure, nor ac- cidental opportunity. but an enlight- ened, stimulating. highly efficient ser vice of highest earning power, least uncertainty from accidental causes, largest freedom for individual initia- tive. entire self respect and thor oBghly democratic spirit"
 With this prediction J. Shirley Ea ton. former statiStician of the Lehigh Valley railroad: concludes a lengthy monograph for the Cnited States bu- rcau of education on Education For Efficiency in Railroad Service" which Commissioner Elmer F. Brown has submitted to the secretary of the in terior In his letter of transmttal Commissioner Brown says the sub ject of educational preparation for definite occupations in life. and par ticularly for the several trades. is un- der serious consideration in the Unit ed States. The relation of trade edu- cation is one of che important aspects of that question. This relation was summed up by President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University in saying. What science and prac tical life alike need is not narrow men. but broad men sharpened to the point"
 The advance made in the present decade in the subject of education for railroad service is very surprising to those who may not be informed" says MT Eaton. Ideas of practical men on the subject are now less indefinite and conflicting. The relation between education and efficiency in railroad service is coming to be generally con ceded. The large educational value of the railroad service itself is being turned to systematic practical ac- count. and the value of educational agencies in preparing for specific in dustrial efficiency is better under stood
 The railroad service in the United States will shortly reach a total of 2.0o0.000 men. It is the largest and most highly organized example of as sociate effort in an epoch conspicuous for industrial and commercial concen tration. Education Yin broad sense must always be a large factor.
 Tn the course of railroad develop ment. there was first era. which was the era of railroad building. There was next an era of coordination of the railroad service and finance to the commercial and financial conditions as whole with which the railroads were called upon to deal
 Next came the era of internal ad- 1,a nh ical side-perfection of the machinery. cutting down grades. strengthening bridges, increasing the train unit And now has come the era of sociolog ical adjustment The human part of the machine is quite as vital as the steel and wooden part in producing efficiency and so in increasing the in come.
 The most practical and efficient railroad manager today is now squarely up against the problem which he is attacking in one form or another. of education, of himself, his staff the individuals in the rank and file, and the rank and file as a whole. - This is the last and highest and most comprehensive stage of the function of administration. It implies, for in stance, an eager. resourceful, self-re- spectng individualism throughout the working forces.~ co-ordinated with a keen appreciation of the social char acter of the work. which expresses itself in a loyalty not to a person or a local group, but to the income ac count of the railroad-nor yet to one income account. but to the aggregate of the income accounts of several years These income accounts show ing steady. healthy growth over sev eral years became at the same time the terms of largest service to the community, the stockholder and the individual employe.
 "A note Of warning may at this time seem to be premature. but cer tain tendencies are already foreshad- owed which should not go unchecked. When the railroad manager comes fully to realize how his new found tool of education enables him to shape almost absolutely to his purposes the working body. there may arise the danger that railroad specialization in education he carried too far.
 ''If the railroads. when they come very generally to instruct their em- ployes. turn their back upon the pro- fessional teacher. severely divorcing their work in subject matter and in method from. and at the same time substituting it for the work of the regular established educational agen- ciaS Of tho pta pnunar school and hioh