Arizona republican., 1914-07-08
'sEMAPH0RE SAMMY"
 SAVES MANY LIVES

At the plant of the Willys- Overland Co.,, makers of Overland automobiles, in Toledo, Ohio, there is certain humble employe who has the distinc- ton of being the most popular man in northwestern Ohio. And though he is daily greeted by a. large ma jority of the 5000 of his fellow en- ployes and officials of the company, and has cheery hello" and a fa- miliar wave of the hand for every one of these friends of his, it is safe to say that the paymaster of the firm is the only man in the big or ganization who knows his real name. For this man is Sammy to every one of the thousands who pass his station several times a day Some call him 'Semaphore Sammy" but the majority are content with the shorter part of his nickname.
 Though at first glance. "Sema- phore Sammy" looks no more inn portant than any ordinary factory watchman, his is responsible posi- | tion. According to statistics com piled by the heads of the firm, Sammy" daily averts more costly | wrecks than even the New Haven railroad is able to bring about in whole year In fact, that is sam my's'' whole duty to avert wrecks and his capability along this line is | chn fa n years or more he has been at his post there has not been single ac- cident attributable to his negligence. While "Semaphore Sammys" work | ing quarters in no way resemble those of the towerman on big rail road, his duties are just as arduOus and important. Where the tower man has a big, elevated building, with a long line of switch and de- railer levers to manipulate, so that the trains under his control are run on the proper tracks without acci- dent and without loss of time, Sammy" has only a little watch
 house. scarcely large enough to whip a cat in" as he puts it himself. In stead of levers he has only half a l,dozen signalling devices and there are only three roads to watch where the toWerman sometimes has 50 or 60 switches and score or more of | tracks constantly under his eye. But l "Sammy's" is the nerve-racking and wearing job, for there is more travel in an hour on the three rOadways he guards than over the busiest railroad in the world
 "Sammy's station, where he has held forth since the old Pope Toledo company occupied the present Over | land plant, is at the intersection of three driveways, two of which come from inside the huge quadrangle formed by the factory buildings and the third from the street. This lat ter driveway is closely hemmed in by | two of the buildings and a mamoth hnew building crowds closely up into the triangular point of the big 'Y' l formed by the other two roads. 1n- cluding the cars which are being sent out and brought back from the road test to which every Overland is subjected, factory cars, visitors cars
 
 automobiles minute cross the three -cornered area.
 And here every working day in the year, 'Semaphore Sammy holds sway. He occupies the little coop which because of the lack of space is literally pasted up against a cor ner of one of the buildings. Arrang- ed conveniently to his hand are the operating devices for his signals;
 two electric horns tuned to different keys, an air horn and three sets of as to flash Clear" or Stop to any of the three driveways.
 With an average of 120 cars an
 hour dashing up to the danger point from three different directions,
 Sammy" is usually a busy man. His
 hands and fingers flash back and forth over electric push buttons, air
 bulbs and turning-levers as rapidly and bewilderingly as those of a ra- pid stenographer out for a speed record. To the uninitiated, the neces- sity for quick action among the col lection of devices, is maddening, but
 Sammy" is cool and collected all the
 time And he accomplishes his work
 so easily that there is always time
 for his happy smile of greeting and
 a wave of the hand for many of the scores of testers and other drivers as well as employees who rush past his
 "coop' four times a day to and from the various departments of the big
 plant.
 Tt is impossible to estimate how
 much 'Semaphore Sammy has saved
 us every day he has worked here.
 said President John N. Willys, head
 of the mammoth plant, one day re- gently after watching the gray haired
 guardian of the meeting of the
 ways" work "Without him, or with
 an inexperienced and excitable man
 in that watchhouse. we would have a terrifying number of costly acci- dents A tester doesn't like to drive
 slowly and it takes a cool head and a determined hand to keep those young fellows out of trouble. It is
 safe to say that Sammy has saved hundreds of serious accidents, with
 heavy money loss and possible fatal
 results, every working day for years