5 8o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to retire when they become old or inefficient from any cause ; and, in 

 the fifth place, it prevents old servants from falling into disgraceful 

 dependence, or distressing destitution, which would be a public scan- 

 dal, and would deter desirable persons from entering the service." 



It is not always true, in the history of railroads or other corpora- 

 tions, that the one paying the highest wages is best served. The com- 

 pany that is most forward in caring for the general welfare of its 

 employes, particularly in the matter of providing support for those 

 disabled, aged, and of long service ; that holds all its officials to a 

 rigid responsibility for arbitrary or tyrannical exercise of power ; that 

 convinces its lowest servants that they will be protected against injus- 

 tice, even at the hands of their highest official superiors will soon ob- 

 tain such prominence among the masses as will bring to its service the 

 best material the market affords, though it give no more than nor 

 often quite so much as others, who regard their employes only as 

 so much material to be utilized or expended in the interests they 

 serve. 



The writer has for a considerable time studied the relationship 

 existing between the managers and employes of many of our large 

 corporations, and his observations seem to justify the conclusion that, 

 whereas, in no other business employing large bodies of labor is there 

 a wider field for cultivating cordiality and reciprocity of interests be- 

 tween owners and employes than in railroading, also in no other busi- 

 ness (except, perhaps, mining) have such opportunities been more neg- 

 lected. The admirable results he has observed following even a partial 

 recognition of the equities between the executives and the rank and 

 file of one or two railroads affords a glimpse of the great possibilities 

 easily made certainties by proper cultivation of community of inter- 

 ests and aspirations between the two, that in unsettled times must 

 prove invaluable. 



It is unnecessary here to analyze the causes which produce the dis- 

 content and lack of unity between managers and employes, painful to 

 observe, but too generally prevalent in this country, where the fascina- 

 tions and the esprit de corps of railroading are so great as to give pow- 

 erful support to any systematic and liberal efforts to reach a better 

 understanding. One prominent origin of the lack of attachment to 

 corporate interests here alluded to may be cited by way of parenthesis, 

 namely, the system prevalent on most railways under which subordi- 

 nate officials may discharge those under them without explanation or 

 question. Where rigid accountability has been substituted for such 

 irresponsibility the happiest results have uniformly followed, for 

 thereby the lowest as well as the highest individual in the service 

 became assured that, while he might be suspended for a short time by 

 the exercise of arbitrary authority, a full hearing and exact justice 

 would ultimately be had from an unprejudiced tribunal ; while such 

 supervision over those vested with limited authority naturally made 



