The Railroad Problem

find at least one in every American town that thinks itself worthy of the title. And they are hardly less to the towns themselves than the red schoolhouses of only a little gre

from Maine to California. Brier Hill is an old-fashioned village of less than 10,000 population, albeit it is a county seat and the gateway to a prosperous and beautiful farming district. Two railroads reach it by their side lines, which means competition and the fact that the agent for each must be a considerable man and o

be compared with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers or the Order of Railroad Trainmen. In some cases the station agents rising from a telegraph key have never relinquished their membership in the telegraphers' union. But, with the telephone almost accepted as a complete success in the dispatching of trains, the railroads see a new opportunity for the

ganization. Instead there is in him a fine vein of old-fashioned loyalty to the property. He was all but born in the service of the Great Midland; he expects to die in the harne

ailroad army, rather than a private in its ranks. For he is secretly proud of the "force" that reports to him-chief clerk, ticket agent, two clerks, a baggagemaster, and three freight-house men. Not a man of these draws

that we're about the best little collection of teamwork here in the village. Together we make qu

but rather of the railroad to the town. You ask Blinks as to the volume of the business his road does at his s

ch is as much as any two industries here-and this time I'm m

h as they handle their products in carload lots on their own sidings there is need of a large force around the station. On the other hand, a neighboring town of the same size shows about the same monthly revenue and needs a sta

and hard hours?" you

s his he

hard hours," he tells you. "My work is complicated and d

age forty-five dollars a month, particularly as his brisk county-seat town is one in which the small-package traffic does not greatly vary at any season of the year. Down in the Southwest, where a great amount of foodstuffs moves out by express within a very few weeks there are men who may, in two months, take several hundred dollars, perhaps a check into four figures from the express company. The gateway to a summer resort is regarded as something of the same sort of a bonanza to the station agent. Still Blinks, if he would, could tell you of a man at a famous resort gateway who lost his job through it. T

and when the railroad begins to find them it is apt to part. So Blinks can consider himself lucky that his commissions do not run over fifty dollars a month. That mean

nd still more tariffs. The tariffs, both freight and passenger, are fairly encyclopedic in dimensions and the folks down at headquarters fondly imagine that he has memorized them. At least that seems to be their assumption if Blinks can judge from their letters. Every department of the road requests information of him

TATIO

f the railroad; the flesh-

th many, many tho

t back of the town; there is a letter on his desk from the general freight agent asking him for a "picture" of the business at Brier Hill, which means a careful analysis of its industries and trade-not an easy job of itself. There is an express package of $25,000 in gold destined to a local bank, over in the corner of the ticket cage. Blinks keeps a bit of watchfulness for that "value package" down in the c

our sixteen," he smiles at the patrons,

ight-but Blinks

p-over at Urbana?

es into a tariff, aft

ferson City and stop off there?" inq

He finds his way through twenty or thirty tariff supplements. He knows that if he makes a mistake he not only will be censured, but will probably b

stamps and punches them, until he has two long green and yellow contracts each calling for the passage of a person from his town to Muskogee. Incidentally he finds time to sell a little sheaf of travelers' checks and an accident insurance policy in addition to promising

rail against the judgment of travelers who wait until the last minute to buy tick

oud of the fact that they've made this a coupon station. My rival here on the R-- road has to send down to headquarters for blank tickets and a punch whenever he hears in a

and Blinks knows tha

via Jefferson City," he laughs. "They catch us up migh

the agent himself shall pay the difference when he fails to charge the patron the fully established rate for either passenger or freight transportation. In fact it does more. It demands that the agent shall see

rks today-of the problems and the perplexities that constantly confront him. And occasion

our road. Fremont does. His road is rotten and he knows it. He knows when he sells a man a ticket through to California or even down to New York that the train is going to be a poor one, made up of old equipment, prob

hree times as hard to get it. He catches it from every corner and starves along on a bare e

magic card which permits his wife or himself to travel over all the main lines and side lines

s one of these for himself; at twenty-five they make it include his wife an

ks l

endents of his division-within a month after he was made station agent at the little town. They had celebrated the centennial of the fine old town; there had been a gay night parade in which all the merchants of the village were represented. Some of them had sent elaborate floats into the line of march, but Blinks had been content t

tine of telegraphic train orders by establishing a block tower up the line at the top of the hill, where regular operators make a sole business of the management of the trains and so widen the margin of safety upon that division.

ge him to spend a few more dollars and make a really good showing. It is giving him a little more help in the office and insisting that he mix more with the citizens of the

freight and passenger traffic-expensive not so much in the matter of salaries as in the constant flood of hotel and food bills. It has

the new plan the agent first pays the claim-if it does not exceed twenty-five dollars, or thereabouts-and the claim department checks up the papers. There may be cases where the road loses by such methods, but they are hardly to be compared with the friends it gains. An express company

ffect goes something after the same fashion. He generally gi

exercise of courtesy. For it reflects not only upon the man who

ot so much discipline, not so much organization, not