The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-12-09

Walker D. Hines, former director
chairman of the board of the Santa
Fe railroad, says that it is contrary
to the public interest for a large ship
per like Henry Ford to own and oper-
ate railroad by means of>which he
has a powerful leverage for obtaining
special consideration from the COM
mon carriers of the country.
But as long as this is permitted by
law" he says in the December Ma
TONS Business, I'VE can at least con-
graduate ourselves that the D. T. & I.
railroad is in the hands of a genius,
who is willing to turn his railroad
into a laboratory for the making of
experiments which his resourcefulness
suggests. I shall be surprised if some
Of the experiments do not turn out to
be valuable from the standpoint of
railroad companies in general"
After Ford took over the ownership
and management of the Detroit, To-
ledo & Ironton railroad and switched
the traffic of his large industry to
that line, much was made of his abil-
ity to reduce expenses and increase
traffic income. The inference was
drawn that any other road, If man
aged by Ford or in the manner in
which he managed his road, could do
as well. Development of facts, it
seems, shows that Ford's management
of the road was not such as could be
adopted by all roads. In the first
place, owners of other roads did not
own large manufacturing plants
whose purchases of raw materials and
sales of manufactured goods could be
diverted to their own lines. More
over, Ford used the leverage of his
own shippin-- business to induce other
roads to favor his in routing ship
ments. This, obviously, could not be
done generally.
But thera is an equally important
disclosure in connection with the
working rules which other roads were
compelled to observe but from which
Fords road was free. Under the ma
tional agreements adopted under the
McAdoo regime, each class of work
must be done by an empIoye who be-
longed to a union of that class.
However capable a man might be of
doing the work, h ; would not be per-
mitted to do it If it belonged to some
other class of employees. Further
more, thore was an understanding as
to the number of men who must be
assigned to certain work, with the re-
suit that often men were standing
idle for no useful purpose. The roads
were required to pay the men for
checking in and out as they went to
and from their work.
These rules, It appears did not ap-
ply on Ford's road. If anything went
wrong with an engine, the engineer
or fireman fixed it If he could. The
fireman would get down and turn a
switch If no switchman were handy,
and would fix the switch If it got out
of order. While the men are on duty
on the Ford road. they put in their
time doing anything that needs to be
done and which they are capable of
doing. The station agent is permitted
to do odd jobs of carpentering around
the building, or paint it.
The railroad labor board has abro-
gated many of the sense1ess and
wasteful rules adopted by the Nc
Adoo period of management, and,
presumably, the roads and the public
are to be relieved of burdens which
did nobody good. Mr.. Ford's road
will still have the advantage of pri-
Sately controlled traffic, but it will
not have so large an advantage in
working conditions