The Washington herald., 1911-06-18
TION-WIDE WORK OF MAJ. C1AS DELANOFINE

over, overspecialization dwarfs the in
dividual. The head of a department is
ready enough to tell what cannot be
done. so he becomes a negative man.
Makes Business Interesting.
But" Maj. Hine went on to say
you asked me about the unit system
in corporations. It is all that the other
system is not. Briefly, it is a simpli-
fication of ways and means. 1t does
away with delay in the useless mechan-
les of administration, abolishes the
waste OF lost motion, and makes busi-
ness direct and humanity interesting
Carrying my illustration again to the
railroad, the unit system transforms the
the trainmaster, and the head dispatch
er into assistant superintendents, with
senior assistant, or chief of staff, in
charge of the office when the superin-
tendent is absent. The idea is borrowed
from the<German army.
Next. all of the assistant superintend-
ents are brought to the main office.
The master mechanic leaves his shop,
but his foreman remains behind. Thus,
when the superintendent finds 1t neces-
sary to communicate with that Official,
ne does so by word Of mouth. I be-
lieve in the personal touch. Also, I be-
lieve in getting the atmosphere of a
whole railroad or factory under one roof.
By the old way. the superintendent
would have called a stenographer and
dictated a letter to the master mechan-
ic. The next day the master mechanic
would have called a stenographer and
dictated an answer to the superintend-
ent. Both letters would have been
copied and later would have gone into
the files of each office. A waste of time.
energy, and stationery. The number OF
letters passing back and forth between
the men on the Hartman lines has been
reduced half a million annually.
IT am not opposed to records, because
they are history. We can learn a great
deal from history If We have time for
reading and for rejecting on previous
events. The files of a business office
usually are ancient history. One is not
so much concerned with the past as he
is with the present and the future A
lot of time and energy are thrown away
on records and the valueless refinements
and technicalities Of accounting. The
details of an organization often become
SO ridiculous and burdensome, In fact,
that the purpose of the organization al
most vanishes in the machinery OF paper,
ink, and tables OF nEuIeS- we nave
closed 100 offices of records and are using
the clerks elsewhere to better advantage.
At the single record ONCE in Chicago we
have the files bearing on 100000 men,
scattered along 1900 miles OF track and
S225, 900 of traffic year.
Always n Man with Lantern.
These things say in passing and be-
fore come to a fuller exposition OF the
main feature of the unit system, which
Is as have remarked. the creation Of a
body of active and skilled assistant
The trainmaster and
ali the rest may take turns in perform
ing the duties of the superintendent.
There is always a responsible man, how
ever, at call. Furthermore. out on the
line an assistant superintendent, having
lost his identity as specialist. is clothed
with complete authority over every branch
OF the service. The old division engineer IS
within the new ethics OF railroading when
ne rebukes a fiagman for neglecting to go
back far enough with his lantern.
'HThe master mechanic who was can
charge the freight conductor
With loafIng too long at switching or at
stations. In theory, we go so far as
o suppose that the superintendent or his
,hief of stan shall have complete knowI-
edge OF everything that occurs and Of
,vsry detail Of the business. Including the