Letters from an Old Railway Official. Second Series: [To] His Son, a General Manager

My Dear Boy:--We were talking of the unit system of organization. There is little that is new about the system. Like many useful things in this world, it is mainly an adaptation...

My Dear Boy:--Not so very long ago the wife of a passenger conductor, running out of a large southern city, sought the assistance of her pastor, a noted divine. She was worried...

My Dear Boy:--Someone has asked me how far up and how far down the principles of the unit system and the chief of staff idea can be applied. It is too bad the answer is so easy....

My Dear Boy:--Supplies and purchases are a feature of railroad operation illustrating the tendency to overcentralization through overspecialization. Please notice that I say sup...

My Dear Boy:--How many miles of road should one division superintendent handle? Like the old lady's recipe for pie crust, it all depends. Some superintendents in the east with t...

My Dear Boy:--You have asked me to tell you something about line and staff. The term line is used to indicate the direct sequence toward the active purpose of the organization....

My Dear Boy:--It has doubtless occurred to you how worthless as evidence are many of the office files. How can any one tell a year afterward whether the general manager or the s...

I restrain my impatience and consequent desire to jump on you hard. Allow me, therefore, with expressions of distinguished consideration, to invite your esteemed attention to th...

My Dear Boy:--The man who is successful in the exercise of authority soon learns to be something of a buffer between his superiors and his subordinates. He learns to temper just...

My Dear Boy:--Did it ever occur to you how easily a bright lawyer could tangle up many an able railway official on the witness stand? Nowadays we have to spend more or less valu...

My Dear Boy:--Do you think it logical and just to pay a train (including engine) crew the same wages for going over the freight district with a light caboose as with 50 or 75 ca...

My Dear Boy:--After the commission kicked for rest, the general manager tied up in his caboose. Nobody was allowed to run around him and he was marked up first out the following...

My Dear Boy:--Let me tell you something about a wonderfully effective human machine, the Confederate Army. I sit facing a Confederate monument which depicts a self-reliant son o...

My Dear Boy:--You tell me that you are conducting labor negotiations these days. As I understand it, all the old grievances have been merged; after eliminating all demands intro...

My Dear Boy:--Nearly every man entrusted with authority over his fellows flatters himself that he is a born organizer. Flattery is never more deceptive than when applied to one'...

My Dear Boy:--One of the easiest things to measure, because definite in terms and limited in quantity, is money. The things which money may represent are hard to measure because...

My Dear Boy:--You write me that your work is heavy, that your territory is extensive, that you wish to divide it into two districts each under a general superintendent. If your...

My Dear Boy:--I have had a good deal to say to you at one time and another about chief clerks and the chief clerk system. From actual experience as a chief clerk I know that it...

My Dear Boy:--Once more a circular comes to gladden my heart and gratify my pride. This circular announces your appointment as general manager, a position of honor and importanc...

My Dear Boy:--As the old order changeth, yielding place to new, the last of the feudal barons among the chief engineers are passing. Bold have been their conceptions, faithful t...

My Dear Boy:--If people's eyes were never too large for their stomachs there would be less overeating. If human concepts were never too vast for practical performance there woul...