INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION AND RAILWAY SERVICE. 241 



ployes upon systematic lines, such as, for example, produce at "West 

 Point and Annapolis corps of young men whose basic education and 

 training, with a little experience, fit them for any position of respon- 

 sibility and trust in our military and naval service. Unquestionably 

 there must be in many of our large railway organizations those who 

 have long recognized the need of, and would warmly welcome, this 

 educational factor in railway management, and doubtless many of 

 them are, from previous education and long experience, peculiarly 

 qualified for making a forcible presentation of the advantages of 

 and in view of the great changes that scientific discoveries are making 

 in methods of production and transportation, and the new industries 

 that are continually springing up, I may say the absolute necessity for 

 a combination of scientific and technical education for the operatives 

 of the transportation service of the country. But, unfortunately, men 

 of this type are, as a rule with few exceptions, overtasked with respon- 

 sibilities and harassed with anxieties that leave few opportunities and 

 little inclination for expressing their views on any subject foreign to 

 their specific duties." 



In the same ratio that our extensive railway system surpasses all 

 other branches of industry in the magnitude of its business, the num- 

 ber of its departments and the interests affected, is there greater need 

 for economy of administration and greater necessity for the application 

 of the highest obtainable scientific knowledge and manual skill to its 

 various operations. It has become the almost universal practice of our 

 great railway corporations, and especially those whose lines are reach- 

 ing out into undeveloped and sparsely settled territory, to assume the 

 entire repairs of their plant, even when they amount to practical recon- 

 struction, and there is also a steady tendency on the part of such com- 

 panies in the direction of manufacturing their own equipment from 

 raw materials. This places them in the category of manufacturers, 

 and makes them amenable to the laws and factors regulating produc- 

 tion. Because of the nature of their service, involving the transpor- 

 tation and care of many lives and valuable property, no less than as a 

 matter of economy, is it of prime importance to such corporations that, 

 in the construction and in the repair of their rolling-stock and appli- 

 ances, they should employ workmen of exceptional competency. 



Railroad enterprise is a comparatively new thing in the world's 

 history, and its development has been sudden. Men trained to carry 

 on the work could not easily be obtained. They were picked up 

 where they could be found ; lacking scientific training, they were 

 naturally guided by " rule-of-thumb " practice, and their lives were 

 sure to be narrowed, till they acquired a pride in being known as " prac- 

 tical" men. These men naturally transmitted their narrowness of 

 knowledge and skill to their apprentices ; and thus has been developed 

 the average railroad workman of to-day. Many of our railroads employ 

 armies of people, all of whom are supposed to be technically expert in 



VOL. XXXI. 16 



