Las Vegas optic., 1912-08-20
las VEGAS MAN
BREAKS into
PRINT
CHRIS CLAY or SANTA FE or.
FIcE WRITES ARTICLE ron
AcE-cAzETTE

j JtMls clay, VINO IS employed in the
Santa Fe offices here, has written an
Interesting article ON THE Habit Of
Thinking which appeared in the cur
rent number Of the Railway Age-Ga,
zette. The article is reproduced here
as follows:
/ James j. Hill was quoted recently
as saying that theer are excellent
prospects in the railawy field for a
young man who shows initiative. Pre-.
Stunning that this is SO, are they mr..
mitted to show initiative after being
employed? I? Are they allowed to think
In very few cases, It is short
sighted policy to issue instructions
which cover the minutest detail and
leave nothing for the worker to fig.
lure on. The worker in time forgets
to think, becoming less efficient, and,
by not figuring on his work, wastes
money for the company. A section
foreman who wants ell his work out.
lined for him before he can do any
thing always has poorly maintained
track, for he has lost the power OF
thinking out the work for himself,
The trouble is largely with the off
GERS and it exists in all departments,
There is the trainmaster who insist
ON running the train he is riding; the
master mechanic, who shows the ma
chinist how it should lie done; the
general foreman Of bridges. who takes
charge Of the gang he is visiting; and
the roadmaster, who runs his district
on. butterflies. Such methods practi-
cally amount to a threat that a man
who shows that he is capable Of
thought will be discharged, as no
competition is allowed. Such petty
jealousy ought not to exist, but it
does. No officer should let petty jea-
lousy blind him to the fact that the
more the men under him think the
more efficient he will be considered,
as he is judged largely by the com
petence of the men under him.
If machinist is not capable of
thinking out how a piece of work
should be done, he is not worth
ILL., Te = t,.os,,,,.s, :, e,x.rft as,e,cy 70 ,.e
in manner which delays the train,
his lack Of thought may mean other
delays before the day is over and
increase the cost Of operation # a
section foreman has to have the road
master show him every piece of work
he has to do, the gang loses many
hours time waiting for the roadmas-
ter When a man fails to think and
waits for his work to be laid out for
him, he cannot be expected to show
initiative in an emergency By using
the brain constantly a man is better
able to meet an emergency, which in
raiIroading is bound to arise sooner
or later, for his brain will act the
quicker from such use.
The man who is not allowed to-
think is incapable of economy in his
work If there was cheaper and
just as effective way Of doing it, It
would never occur to him. The rail-
ways want competent men who will
practice economy and need them bad
ly, but when vacancy occurs 1t Is
difficult to determine whom to pro
mote because the logical man for the
position has been repressed until he
has become a mere cog. have heard
officials say: IF that man quit to-
tomorrow, do not know where
would find a man to take his place.
Such men are not educating the men
under them to think, which means
that they themselves are forgetting
to think. A man Is often only too
willing to become a cog It is firing
for him to have TO think about his
work. Therefore he relies on the
other fellow and sinks into a lethargy.
Take. for instance, the section fore
man who has unloaded material from
the local train going in one direction
'or some time. When 1T Is necessary
or material to be unloaded from the
ocal running in the other direction,
le gets noticaand pays little dattention
o 1t. He goes to the wrong end Of
lis section to meet the train he is us I
d to meeting and causes backhanl J
# material and consequent delay to
rains.
In addition to thinking carefully I
bout methods Of doing work, men !
hould cultivate retentive memory. t
% not keep notes unless absolutely
ecessary for purposes Of record. s
earn to refer to such notes only .
fhen necessary to verify statement.
he keeping Of notes and constantly Il
sferring to them means loss of 3
me and the more voluminous the e
otes the greater the loss. The man k
Ilo is thinking about his work should II