Arizona republican., 1913-10-13
A SUGGESTION FOR
 RAILWAY CLUBS
Excellent Ideas of Officer of West
 inghouse Airbrake Company.

A. L. Humphrey, vice president and general manager of the West inghouse Air Brake company, made a suggestion to the members of the Railway club of Pittsburg, at the September meeting, which in some form or other could be followed up to advantage by the other railway clubs and railway technical associ- atiOns throughout the country. The effectiveness of the work of most of the railway clubs is minimfzed be- cause of q lack of definite aims and polices in preparing the programs for the year; and this is also true to greater or less extent of many of the ether organizations which discuss railway problems. The secretaries, officers, or committees, as the case may be- arrange to secure reports or papers from different individuals without reference to any relationship between these papers, or with no def mite plan as to the order of their presentation, whereas if some inn portant problem was selected and different phases of it were assigned for discussion at the various meet
 ngs throughout the season, with the iGea of finally reaching some goal and making definite recOmmenda- tions to bring about better practices, the work of the clubs would prove of far mere interest and value to the membership at large. As it is now, many of the subjects which are se- lected for discussion are of interest to only a limited portion of the mem bership and too often the great ma jority of the subjects chosen are of special interest to only one class of members usually the mechanical de- partment officers
 Mr Humphrey after directing at
 tention to the fact that the first safety device-the air brake-had been invented and developed in the Pittsburg district. and that the same thing was also true of the cleo tro- pneumatic semaphone automatic signal, one of the greatest factors in safety work; the solid steel wheel and the steel freight car; and also that the first steel passenger train car was built in Pittsburg, recon mended that he Railway Club of Pittsburg make a record for itself by being the first organization of it's kind to give proper and adequate consideration to the subject of wei
  ommendation he described with aid of stereopticon views the very eX tensive work which has been done along these lines by the Westing- house Air Brake company in con nection with safety devices in the shops. the education of apprentices and workmen, the improvement in S nitary conditions and the building of homes for the workmen which are furnished to them at a reasonable rental A much greater amount of this sort of welfare work is being done by the railways and industrial corporations than the general public has any idea of. and MT. Humphreys idea apparently was that the discus sion of these subjects by the railway club would not only give the pub lie and employees a better cOmpre- hensiOn of what was being done. but would enable the railways to com pare the resulth which are being Ob tained by various measures which are being tried out. and to improve the work along different lines where some of them may have been weak or have done nothing at all.
 While MT Humphrey did not spe- cify the various phases of the subject which might be considered to advan- tage. he undoubtedly had in mind the pension systems which have been ir effect on a number of roads . for such a length of time that exact statements may be made as to the concrete results which have followed their introduction; the same thing is true of the relief department estab- Iished on many roads, the railroad '. M. C. A movement, the modern sys- tenn of apprenticeship training and the developing of wOrkmen, the safety first movement, the measures which have been developed on some roads for protecting the employees from loan sharks, and sanitary measures of various sorts which have been installed to protect both the employees and the public. Other subjects which might also be con sidered under this head would be the methods of wage payment so as to afford the least inconvenience to the employees, and the possibility of en- coura ging men to own their homes. In connection with this latter sug gestion, one railway officer has given serious consideration to the forma ton of loan associations, backed by the railroads, which would enable the men to buy property and build their homes; the services of the rail-
 road company's legal, architectural and storekeeping departments, to be extended to these men so that their homes may be purchased under the most favorable conditions. Several meetings of the club could be de- voted to the consideration of these welfare problems with excellent re-
 suits, and it would then be in a po- sition to make authoritative recom
 mendations on the subject. The other railroad clubs could undoubt
 edIy select equally important sub
 iects which could be discussed and