THIRTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV 193 



go into defending our service, and we might say that the stockman has 

 not done his part in every instance. I know of a few instances where 

 stockmen, it seemed to me from my way of thinking, have 'been very 

 arbitrary in their time of loading. They wouldn't load except at a cer- 

 tain specified time, or until the train got there, although the facilities 

 were such that they could have done so. However, it is not always true that 

 the facilities are right; the railroads are in many ways to blame for a 

 good deal of the trouble. We depend a great deal — and necessarily so — 

 upon what our agents and employes tell us about these things, and we 

 don't go into it deep enough to get all of the facts. It is a very serious 

 problem to get competent men who will take an interest in the per- 

 formance of their duties as though they owned the property. I have 

 always been an advocate of the idea that a man occupying a position 

 as agent, clerk, telegraph operator or conductor should run his business 

 just as though he owned the property, but it is a very hard thing to 

 get men of that kind. They will snap you up when you go in and ask 

 questions that you have a right to know, and they will do many 

 things that are bad. The managing officers of these properties do 

 many things that are contrary to instruction that we never know of, 

 and the railroad, of course, is judged largely by the kind of a fellow 

 that the local agent is. Just a short time ago, I told one of our agents 

 that there was no reason in the world why the local agent should not 

 and could not be the biggest man in his town or community, if he is the 

 right kind of a fellow. He comes in contact with more people, probably, 

 than any other individual in the community; he has better opportunity 

 for being posted on general conditions and general business through the 

 country than anyone else; and if he is the right kind of a fellow and 

 taking an interest in his work as he should, he ought to be a leader 

 in that community, helping to mould public sentiment, finding out what 

 the shippers and the patrons of the transportation company want and 

 desire and need, and bringing that constantly up to his managing officer, 

 superintendent or general manager; but you will be suprised to know 

 that there is very little of that going on. I have been in this territory 

 nearly a year; I have solicited agent after agent personally to write me 

 the conditions and tell me the sentiment of the people of their com- 

 munities. I have spent in the year 1912 twenty-four days out of every 

 month out on the line of road, trying to get familiar with the needs of 

 our property. I know that there are many things that we ought to do 

 and that we can do, and that we are not doing. First, however, before I 

 can remedy things, I must know what the trouble is. It is only a short 

 time ago that Mr. Wallace was kind enough to bring two or three 

 gentlemen from a town on our line up to my office. They had a 

 tremendous grievance when they came in there. We sat and discussed 

 the proposition, and just a few days ago, Mr. Wallace, I got a letter 

 from one of those gentlemen, stating that the things he complained of 

 had been entirely corrected, and that the service and operating conditions 

 were going more satisfactorily at this station than they had in the last 

 ten years. We can correct seventy-five per cent of the troubles that are 

 now bothering you if we can get in touch with you gentlemen. I solicit 

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