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W. R. LAWSON 



on the road and throwing out the whole of the train service, 

 prompt action ensues. The division superintendent has his 

 private car hitched on to the train and runs through with 

 it. He finds out whether or not the delay is avoidable, and 

 if avoidable, who is to blame for it. That is his method of 

 bossing, and the men, independent as they may be in other 

 respects, never object to it. They are not thin skinned and 

 touchy as British railway men might be under similar cir- 

 cumstances. They frankly recognize that the boss is only 

 doing his duty in seeing that they do theirs. 



Another explanation may be suggested of the patience 

 with which American workmen submit to a system of close 

 supervision which at first glance may seem foreign to their 

 national character. They have faith in its being justly exer- 

 cised, and they know that the good workman is taken note of 

 as well as the bad one. Thanks to it, men are unexpectedly 

 raised from the ranks, and having got their feet on the lower 

 rungs of the ladder they will have a fair chance to rise to the 

 top. Such things rarely happen under England's happy-go- 

 lucky regime, where if men are less closely looked after than 

 in the states, they have all the more chance to be overlooked 

 when promotions are going. 



American employers find it pays to raise deserving men 

 from the ranks. The best boss is invariably a man who has 

 worked himself, and knows all the peculiarities and foibles 

 of his class. An Irishman shines in bossing Swedes, Slavs, 

 Dutchmen, or other "furriners." Making him a boss is often 

 a cheap way to prevent him becoming a trades union leader, 

 in which character he can be very troublesome indeed to his 

 late employers. With philosophic impartiality the Irishman 

 seems to be equally ready for either office, and he can fill both 

 of them successfully. A large proportion of the bosses in 

 the Pennsylvania coalfields are Irishmen, and a large propor- 

 tion of the local leaders of the miner's union are of the same 

 nationality. Cornishmen make good bosses for mining work. 

 For skilled labor, as in engineering shops, Scotsmen answer 

 better. They are to be found in all large establishments as 

 foremen, head mechanics, and chief engineers. The native 

 American comes in higher up as manager, superintendent, 



