ORGANIZATION OF EMPLOYEES.

397. Railroad management may be divided into two grand departments,—

Financial management.

Operating management.

The first of these does not properly come into a work of the present kind. It embraces the entire system of accounts. Its officers are a president, secretary, treasurer, attorney, and directors.

398. The operating management is subdivided as follows:—

The mercantile department.

The mechanical department.

The first embracing every thing relating to the adjusting of tariffs, the transport of passengers and freight, the embarking and delivering of goods, and the weighing and measuring, ticket and receiving offices, steamboat, stage, and railroad connections. The second, the maintaining the road-bed, superstructure, bridging, masonry, buildings, and fixed stock in working order; making all repairs, renewals, enlargements, and alterations, and the purchase, inspection, maintaining, and operating of the rolling stock. These departments are again divided and subdivided until we come to the minutest details.

Note.—That part of Chapter XVI. in italics is extracted, by permission, from the elaborate Report of D. C. McCallum to the stockholders of the New York and Erie Railroad, (March 25, 1856).

399. The following general principles govern the formation of an efficient system of operations.

First. A proper division of responsibilities.

Second. Sufficient power conferred to enable the same to be fully carried out, that such responsibilities may be real in their character.

Third. The means of knowing whether such responsibilities are faithfully executed.

Fourth. Great promptness in the report of all derelictions of duty, that evils may at once be corrected.

Fifth. Such information to be obtained through a system of daily reports and checks that will not embarrass principal officers nor lessen their influence with their subordinates.

Sixth. The adoption of a system, as a whole, which will not only enable the general superintendent to detect errors immediately, but will also point out the delinquent.

400. A system of operations to be efficient and successful should be such as to give to the principal and responsible head of the running department a complete daily history of details in all their minutiæ. Without such supervision the procurement of a satisfactory annual statement must be regarded as extremely problematical. The fact that dividends are made without such control does not disprove the position, as in many cases the extraordinarily remunerative nature of an enterprise may insure satisfactory returns under the most loose and inefficient management.

All subordinates should be accountable to, and directed by, their immediate superiors only. Each officer must have authority, with the approval of the general superintendent, to appoint all persons for whose acts he is held responsible, and to dismiss any subordinate when in his judgment the interests of the company demand it.

401. The following table shows the rate and direction of subordination for a first class railroad:—

{Road-master.{Section men.
{Superintendent of Road.{Section men.
{{Road-master.{Section men.
{{Section men.
{
{{Foreman Machine shop, Machinists.
{{Foreman Blacksmith shop, Blacksmiths.
{Superintendent of Machinery.{Foreman Car shop, Carpenters,
{{Foreman Paint shop, Painters.
{{Engineers (not on trains), Firemen.
{{Car-masters, Oil men and cleaners.
{
{{Conductors{Brakemen.
{{Mail agents.{Engineers (on trains).
{{Ticket collectors.
General Superintendent{{
{General passenger agent.{Station agents.{Hackmen.
{{Switchmen.
{{
{{Express agents.
{{Police.
{
{{Conductors.{Brakemen.
{{Engineers (on trains).
{General freight agent.{Station agent.
{{Weighers.
{{Gaugers.
{{Yard-masters.
{
{Supply agent.{Clerks, Teamsters furnishing supplies.
{Fuel agent.{All men employed about the wood sheds.