414 History of Inland Transport 



of his line, and in the doings of his staff, day by day. He looks 

 forward to the requirements of the line and to the constitution 

 of the staff at least five or ten years hence, and he wants to 

 make sure that, as the experienced men around him are lost 

 to the service, others will be at hand equally, or even still 

 better, qualified to take their place. He further realises that in 

 an undertaking in which, notwithstanding its magnitude, so 

 much depends on the unit, that unit should be encouraged, and 

 enabled, to attain to the highest practicable stage of efficiency. 



This tendency is leading to results that are likely to be 

 both far-reaching and wide-spreading. It is a matter not only 

 of giving to railway workers, and especially to those in the 

 clerical and operative departments, a higher degree of technical 

 knowledge, but, also, of rendering them equal to responsibility, 

 of fostering their efficiency still further through their social, 

 physical and material well-being, and of retaining them for the 

 railway service notwithstanding (in the case of the clerical 

 staff) the allurements of traders who look upon well-trained 

 goods clerks, especially, as desirable assistants in the counting- 

 house, and seek to attract them with the offer of a somewhat 

 better wage. 



The training and the higher education of railway workers 

 have undergone important developments alike in the United 

 Kingdom, in the United States, in Germany, in France, and 

 elsewhere. 



In the early days of the railway the most eligible person 

 for the position of general manager was thought to be some 

 retired naval or military officer, accustomed to controlling 

 large bodies of men ; and the first appointments were based on 

 this principle. But experience soon showed that in under- 

 takings where technical, commercial and economic con- 

 siderations were all-important, the real recommendations for 

 leading positions were to be found, rather, in proved capacity 

 and in thorough knowledge of railway operation and manage- 

 ment. 



Under the company system, as it prevails in the United 

 Kingdom and the United States, railwaymen, of whatever class, 

 are now generally taken on as boys, are trained for the position 

 to which they are found to be adapted, and rise to higher posts 

 according to capacity and opportunity for these must needs 

 go together. In this way it is not unusual for the general 



