THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION
OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
T0 RAILWAY OPERATION |
By
WILSON E. SYMONS
With discussion by
George J. Burns Frank B. Gilbreth
F. H. Clark Chas. B. Going
A. L. Conrad G. R. Henderson
W. J. Cunningham B. B. Milner -
James S. Eaton Angus Sinclair
Harrington Emerson Walter W. Turner
S. M. Wauclain
and closure by author
$º
Reprinted from
The Journal of The Franklin Institute
January–April, 1912
The Practical Application of Scientific
Management to Railway Operation
BY
w1 ISON E. SYMONS
With discussion by
George J. Burns Frank B. Gilbreth
F. H. Clark Chas. B. Going
A. L. Conrad G. R. Henderson
W. J. Cunningham B. B. Milner
James S. Eaton Angus Sinclair
Harrington Emerson Walter V. Turner
S. M. Vauclain
and closure by author
lºſ
Reprinted from
The Journal of The Franklin Institute
January–April, 1912
Iransportation
Library
TF
37 (,
, 6 3
º
º
CONTENTS .
Foreword ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
INTRODUCTORY . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 7
STATISTICs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
CLASSIFIED EMPLOYEES AND COMPENSATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
OPERATING REVENUES AND ExPENDITUREs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IO
DIVISION OF EXPENDITURES AND BALANCE SHEET . . . . . . . . . . . . • - - - - - - - - II
SAVING $1,000,000 PER DAY BY SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I2
CONSERVATISM IN RAILROAD WORK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
A., T. & S. F., ANALYSIS OF RESULTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.
A., T. & S. F., TABULATED STATISTICs . . . . . ... tº s & e º ſº º e º $ & #' & is e is tº e º 4 & e tº e º 'º e e 25
EXAMPLES OF EFFICIENCY, A AND B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
STAFF OFFICERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . º. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
EFFICIENCY ENGINEERS. WHO ARE THEY 2’ dº. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Two MILLIONS PER YEAR WASTED ON OIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
ECONOMIES EFFECTED BY OIL COMPANY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * 37
EFFICIENCY ENGINEERs, PERSONAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 4O
RAILROADS RUN BY “RULE of THUMB " . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , ſº tº gº tº $ $ tº 42
CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ^ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -. . . . 45
DISCUSSION :— & * .
GEORGE J. BURNS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IO5
F. H. CLARK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . '• * * * * * * * * • *… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
A. L. ConFAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
W. J. CUNNINGHAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IO7
JAMES S. EATON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
HARRINGTON EMERSON ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . e º e º 'º e a gº º 57
FRANK B. GILBRETH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2
CHAS. B. GoING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . III
G. R. HENDERSON ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
B. B. MILNER . . . . . . . . . . . • * * * * * - - - - - - - - • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * … 99
ANGUS SINCLAIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . II.3
WALTER V. TURNER . . . . . . . . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ... • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 53
S. M. VAUCLAIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . … 48
CLOSURE BY AUTHOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . II5
§
FOREVVORD
Lest there may be some doubt as to the author's views on
the value of engineering principles in general, or of Scientific
nmanagement in certain lines of human endeavor, I wish to say
in advance that I regard the observances of broad and liberal
engineering principles as essential to the Success of any under-
taking which involves the “Application of Nature's forces to
the use of man.” And there may be many lines of human
endeavor, such as in the field of Banking, Merchandising,
Manufacturing, Educational, Accounting, Law or Medicine,
of which I have made no special study, that may present an
inviting field for the application of scientific management.
My treatment of the subject under consideration is intended,
as the text implies, to apply to The Practical Application of
Scientific Management to Railway Operation.
THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF SCIENTIFIC MAN-
AGEMENT TO RAILWAY OPERATION.
BY
WILSON E. SYMONS,
Chicago, Ill.
So much has been written and said on the subject of “Scien-
tific Management of Railways * and the remarkable economies
that either have been or can be accomplished in railway operations
by “efficiency engineers,” that the reading public no doubt feels
that Our railways are, with one or two rare exceptions, very
inefficiently managed. The testimony taken at the hearing before
the Interstate Commerce Commission in the recent rate case to-
gether with the numerous newspaper and magazine articles by the
very able advocates of this plan all tend to show that, by the
adoption of “scientific management * in the operation of our
railways, a saving of one million dollars per day could easily
be effected, and, as this information, so widely circulated, has no
doubt carried partial or complete conviction to many who have
not paused to consider the question of the practicability of this
plan to all branches of railway operation, it will be the purpose
of the writer to treat the question from the broad standpoint of a
highly efficient transportation unit, to which all branches or
integral parts must be subordinated.
It also seems quite proper in this connection to analyze some
of the misleading figures and statements presented through the
columns of one of Our leading magazines in Support of the general
adoption of this plan, and to offer a very fitting, though tardy,
recognition of efficiency engineering results already accomplished
in the railway and industrial world.
The physical Operation of a railway is in reality the manage-
ment of a great manufacturing plant, the product being trans-
portation; therefore the complete working unit or plant which
accomplishes in the best or most economical and satisfactory man-
ner the purposes or objects for which it was created and is oper-
7
8 WILSON E. SYMONS.
ated is the most efficient one, although the complete unit may, if
measured by the standards followed in some specific subordinate
branch of the work, appear inefficient or wasteful, when in reality
such may not be the case.
Years of valuable training as the head of, and responsible for,
One of the most important departments in a complete operating
unit give a clear angle of vision, which, to the eye of the shop
Specialist, is slightly in eclipse. And it is due to this fact that
many features of “scientific management,” while admittedly
correct from a theoretic Standpoint, are not practical. Such
portion or percentage of the working forces and expense as
can be handled under this plan is so very small, in comparison to
the complete unit, that the term “Scientific management of rail-
70ays * is a misnomer. - -
To be more specific, the physical management or operation
of a railway consists largely in the direction or handling of large
bodies of men of various classes, characteristics, and conditions,
together with numerous phases of industrial life and human
endeavor, while the purely scientific problems consist largely in
the application of fixed rules or formulas in the office, laboratory,
or drawing-room, and it should be clear to all who have been
charged with, or have participated in, the Solution of transpor-
tation problems, that those best equipped for scientific work are
not, as a rule, well suited to grasp the multiplicity of complex
features embraced in railway management.
Having thus differentiated as to the character of work in-
volved in the complete transportation unit, and consequently the
essential qualifications of those best fitted to direct the various
branches of the work, it is quite proper to present in compre-
hensive statistical form the magnitude of our railways considered
2lS O1162. -
STATISTICS.
Attention is invited to the following tabulated displays of
mileage, equipment, and capitalization, Officers, and employees
classified, volume of business handled, income and expenses sub-
divided, and the estimated number of men and amount of saving
that might reasonably be expected from the introduction, in a
modified form, of the “scientific management'' plan. e
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 9
MILEAGE EQUIPMENT AND CAPITALIZATION.
Mileage, main line (1909). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235,000
Mileage, extra tracks, yards, and sidings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IO7,OOO
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342,OOO
Locomotives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58,000
Passenger cars 45,584
Freight cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,250,000
• * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * e s e s e e s e s - e. e. e. e. e. e.
Number security holders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I,OOO,OOO
Representing (5 to I) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,000,000 people
Or about 5% per cent. of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90,000,000 people
Total capitalization . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $13,700,000,000
Capitalization per mile, about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $60,000
TABLE A.
NUMBER OF OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES BY CLASSES AND THEIR
COMPENSATION
IOOO 1997
Number of Total Yearly Compen-
Total Yearl -
Class *gº" Cº., ºf ºš.
- Com-
pensa-
Number of % Amount to % tion Amount to Daily
Each Class (° Each Class O Each Class Rate
General Officers. . 5,492 $16,574,587 I2.67| $17,231,606 || II.93
Other Officers. . . . 8,022 I7,24I,799 6.40 I5,OI2,226 || 5.99
Gen’1 Office Clerk 69,595 52,516,034 2.3 I-H 48,340, I23 2.30
Station Agents. . . 36,5I9 25,881,387 2.O8 24,831,066 || 2.05
Other Sta. Men. . . I36,733 79,089,030 I.82 84,244,486 || I.78
Enginemen . . . . . . 57,077 78,988, II6 | 4:44 87,496,778 || 4.30
Firemen. . . . . . . . . 60,349 48,294,077 2.67 52,474,059 2.54
Conductors. . . . . - 43,608 5I,873,772 3.81 55,847,244 3.69
Other Trainmen...] II.4,760 89,710,526 2.59 99,978,356 2.54
Machinists. . . . . . 48,237 4I,731,839 2.98 46,475,695 || 2.87
Carpenters. . . . . . 60,867 43,420,646 2.43 - 49,082,659 2.40
Other Shopmen. . I95, I IO II9,909,837 2. I3 I32,42 I,765 2.06
Section Foremen. 4I,859 27,405,664 I.96 26,326,635 | I.90
Other Trackmen. 320,762 IIO,769,22 I.38 I35,793,476 | I.46
Sw. Ten. Crossing º
Watchmen. . . . . 44,698 25, 52 I,433 I.73 32, I84,636 I.87
Tel. Op's & Dispt. 39, II5 29,689,851 2.3O 29,058,251 2.26
Employees Float.
Equipment. . . . 8,758 6,597,867 2.3.I 6,035,4I5 2.27
All other Employ- -
ees & Laborers. 2 IO,898 I22,90I,000 I.98 I29,55I,95I I.92
Total. . . . . . . . . 1,502,823 |IOO $988,323,694 ico $1,072,386,427

Number of employees in 1907, I,672,074, or I69,249 more men on 227,67t, or 7,329 less
miles than in 1909.
IO WILSON E. SYMONS.
Having shown in the foregoing tabulated form the number
of officers and employees, their total yearly and average daily
TABLE B.
OPERATING REVENUES . . .
Proportion to .
Items Amount total Operating
- TeVenules
Tons freight carried one mile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29, Io9,322,589 || Per cent.
Passengers carried. One mile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218,802,986,929
Freight Revenue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... $1,677,614,678 69.32
Passenger Revenue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563,609,342 23.32
Mail Revenue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49,380,783 2.O4
Express Revenue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59,647,022 2.47
Express Baggage and Milk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I3,694, I7 I . . 57
Parlor and Chair Car. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,989,612 . I7
Switching Revenue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2I,599,256 .89
Special Train and Miscellaneous Transp. . . . . . . . 7,833,852 .33
Total Outside of Transportation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I9,756,577 | .82
Joint Facilities—Dr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500,30I .O2
Joint Facilities—Cr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,052,546 .09
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2,418,677,538 I OO
THIS WAS EXPENDED AS FOLLOWS:
Maintenance Way and Structures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 308,450, IOS I9.29
Maintenance Equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363,912,886 22.75
Traffic Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49,287, I48 3.08
Transportation Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 814,088, I49 50.90
General Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63,677,378 3.98
Unclassified. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27,744
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,599,443,410 IOO
Net Income from Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $8,19,234, 128
Income from Investments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $73,586,827
Salaries and Maintenance Leased Lines. . . . . . . . . . . . 4O6,309
— 73,993, 136
Net Revenue and Income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 892,414,646
Interest and Taxes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478,802, 168
Available for Dividends, Improvements, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613,612,478
Net Dividends. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236,620,890.
Available for Adjustments and Improvements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . *I76,991,588.
* It has been estimated that the economies practised in Ioos and IQ09 resulted in arrears;
in maintenance of over $200,000,ooo, or about $15,000,000 more than the surplus available, which
sum contains items from sources other than operation.
compensation, it will now be in order to cast up, in comprehen-
sive form, a display of the results of their labors, or a statement
of operations.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. II
In the following tabulated display showing division of oper-
ating expenses the amounts charged to each are shown, together
with the ratio or percentage such item bears to the whole.
TABLE C.
DIVISION OF OPERATING EXPENSES
Proportion to
Items Amount | total operating
expenses
Maintenance of Way and Structures. . . . . . . . . . . . $308,450, IO5 I9.29
Maintenance of Equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363,912,886 22.75
Traffic Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49,287, I48 3.08
Transportation Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8I4,088, I49 50.90
General Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63,677,378 3.98
Unclassified. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27,774
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,599,443,4Io Ioo9%
First item excludes returns for switching and terminal companies and a few roads whose
reports were incomplete, the amount not included being about $247, 7 oo.
GENERAL BALANCE SHEET, JUNE 3OTH, I909.-221,679.45 MILES
Items Assets Items Liabilities
Cost of Road. . . . . . . . $12,222,830,405 || Capital Stock. . . . . . . . . $ 7,576,335,321
Cost of Equipment. . . . I,228,620,996 || Funded Debt. . . . . . . . 9,739, I27,869
Gen'1 Expenditures. . . I57,732, II4 || Current Liabilities. . . I, O65, I84,870
Stocks Owned. . . . . . . . 2,246,702,598 || Miscellaneous. . . . . . . 884, I59, 190
Funded Debt Owned.. I,229,683,954 || Profit and Loss. . . . . . 8OO,642,923
Cash & Current Assets I,349, I31,087 -
Material & Supplies. . . 2O6,849,619
Sinking, Insurance and
other Funds. . . . . . . . I69,877,287
Miscellaneous. . . . . . . . I,254,022, II3
Total. . . . . . . $20,065,450, 173 Total. . . . . . . $20,065,450,173
From the foregoing Balance Sheet it may be noted that the valuation
placed on the physical property (2II,679 miles) is . . . . . . . . . . $13,658,3OI, IOO
By including the additional I3,321 miles at $60,000 per mile
we have the following: 13,32I X $60,000 = 799,260,000
Or, a grand total (in 1909) of over . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $14,457,561,000
I 2 WILSON. E. SYMONS.
AN ALYSIS AND SALIENT POINTS IN TIHE FOREGOING
- STATISTICAL DATA.
From the foregoing tabulated statistical data the following
potent factors stand boldly out:
That there are . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235,000 miles of railway
That the valuation is about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $14,457,561, IOO
That there are . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58,000 locomotives
That there are . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45,584 passenger cars
And about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,250,000 freight cars
That there were carried one mile . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29, Io9,322,589 tons of freight
That there were carried one mile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218,802,986,929 passengers
That the revenue from operation was . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2,418,677,538
That the expense of Operation was . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,599,443,4Io
That the number of officers and employees was . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I,502,823
That their combined salaries was . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $988,323,694
SAVE $1,000,000 PER DAY.
And it is proposed by the application of “scientific manage-
Iment '' to save one million dollars per day, or approximately
$365,OOO,OOO per year. -
Although it is claimed this new plan or system is applicable
to most all items of expense (material and labor used) on a rail-
road, the estimated probable economies will, in this treatment of
the question, be confined to such branches of the work, or classes
of employment, as in my judgment are susceptible of being placed
on a comparative basis with large manufacturers of standard
articles. *
TOTAL YEARLY COMPENSATION.—OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES.
The total yearly compensation of all officers and employees
(1,502,823 persons) in 1909 was $988,323,694, and by a process
of elimination, the number of employees and amounts earned, to
which the plan contemplated may be partially applied, can be
arrived at by treating each class separately. -
PROCESS OF ELIMINATION.
First: Referring to Table A, we will take the first two items,
General Officers and Other Officers
Total 13,514. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . compensation, $33,816,386,
that would not be subject to this plan.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 13
Second: General Office Clerks, of whom there are
69,959 persons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . compensation, $52,516,034,
that would not come under this system.
Third: Station Agents, of whom there are
36,519 persons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . compensation, $25,881,387.
These would not apply.
Fourth: Engineers, Firemen, Conductors, and Other Train-
'men, of whom there is a total of
275,794 perSO11S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . compensation, $268,866,491,
to whom this plan will not apply, as they are all working under
contracts that will undoubtedly be kept in good faith by the com-
panies. The amount of their earnings fluctuates with the volume
of business.
Fifth: Section Foremen, of whom there are
41,859 persons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . compensation, $27,405,664,
to whom this would not apply. There are only 468 more fore-
nen now than in IQO7, to handle I3,321 additional miles of
road, and their average daily rate of pay has increased from
$1.90 to $1.96, or 6 cents per day, while their duties have
imaterially increased. •
Siarth. Other Track men, of whom there are
320,760 persons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . compensation, $1 Io,769,229,
to whom this plan would not apply, as the grade of men and
character of their work will not lend itself to arıy such scheme.
There are, it may be noted, 46,517 less in number than in 1907,
and their average daily earnings have dropped from $1.46 to
$1.38, or a reduction of 8 cents per day.
Seventh: Switch Tenders and Crossing Watchmen, of whom
there are
44,698 persons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . compensation, $25,521,433,
to whom this plan would not apply, as there are 87I6 less in
number than in 1907, and their average daily rate has dropped
I4 - WILSON E. SYMONS.
from $1.87 to $1.73, or I4 cents per day. Again, these men
are largely of a disabled class who have served their companies
during the prime of life in more responsible positions.
Eighth: Employees Floating Equipment, of whom there are
8,758 persons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . compensation, $6,597,867,
who would not be affected by this plan, as most of them come
under our Federal Steamboat Inspection Law requirements, and
their daily average wage rate of $2.3.I will not admit of reduction.
Ninth: Telegraph Operators and Dispatchers, of whom there
21 C.
39, II.5 perSOn S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . compensation, $29,896,851
Less estimated reduction of I5 per cent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,484,527
$25,412,324
By the use of telephone for train movement and a more
liberal supply of common sense in the transaction of the com-
panies' business by letter (and a less number of letters) in place
of telegrams this can be reduced I5 per cent., or to $25,412,324.
This, however, is not a subject for any Scientific study whatever,
but calls for the attention of a good, practical railroad man.
Tenth: Carpenters, of whom there are
(1907) 70,394
(1909) 60,867 persons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . compensation, $43,420,646
9,527 less than in Igo7.
The plan in question would apply to very few of these, if any,
as they are now among the poorest paid employees On a railroad,
due to the fact they are not organized. There are 95.27 less in
number than two years ago, and their average daily rate has only
increased 3 cents per day, or from $2.40 to $2.43.
Eleventh: All Other Employees and Laborers, of whom
there are
(1907) 228,324
(1909) 210,898 persons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . compensation, $122,901,000
I7,426 less than in 1907.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I5
The plan in question would not apply to this mixed class, as it
includes the raw recruit, the man of migratory habits, and the
“hobo,” most of whom are of a low order of mentality, and
some dissipated. Increased supervision by practical men is the
only means of increasing their efficiency, or quantity of work per-
formed. There are 17,426 less in number than in IQO7, and
their daily rate has only increased 6 cents, or from $1.92 to
$1.98 per day.
Twelfth: Other Stationmen, of whom there are
(1907) I52,929
(1909) IS6,733 persons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . compensation, $79,089,030
16, 196 less than in 1907.
The plan would not apply to this class, although such increased
and improved facilities as the managers have been providing,
as finances will permit, from time to time, and will doubtless
continue in future, will make it possible to take care of some
considerable increase in the scope and volume of station work
without materially increasing the number of employees. There
are now I6, 196 less in number than in 1907, while their rate
per day has increased 4 cents, or from $1.78 to $1.82 per day.
By the foregoing process of elimination the various classes
Of Officers and employees have all been considered except two,
which will come next in turn. -- - -
The classes disposed of, and the amount of their total yearly
Compensation, are as follows: -
Number classes disposed of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I6
Employees embraced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I,359,476
Classes yet to be considered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ---. 2
Number of employees embraced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243,347
With a total yearly compensation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $161,641,676
TWO CLASSES.
The two classes yet to be considered are:
Machinists . . . . . . . . . . . . 48,237 Compensation . . . . $41,731,839
Other shopmen . . . . . . . . 195, IIo Compensation . . . . I 19,909,837
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243,347 Total . . . . . . . . . . $161,641,676
Per cent. Of all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I6
I6 WILSON E. SYMONS.
By the foregoing process approximately 84 per cent. Of the
total employees and expenditure for labor has been disposed of
without locating any economies that would yield only to the
“Scientific management’’ plan. . .
The One item of $4,484,527 on page 12, “Telegraph Oper-
ators and Dispatchers,” is one that an experienced, practical
railway officer would See and take advantage of, while the plan
considered is not applicable to this class of employees.
Returning to the two classes of employees comprising the
remaining I6 per cent., Or 243,347 employees, it may be stated,
first, that these include, among others, the following:
Machinists Coachbuilders
Boilermakers Upholsterers
Blacksmiths Cabinetmakers
Coppersmiths Freight car builders
Sheet metal workers Freight car repairers
Tinners Passenger car repairers
Painters Apprentices, handy men, helpers, etc.
A large majority, say 75 to 80 per cent., of these men are
thoroughly Organized and quite aggressive. They are also, in
most cases, working under contracts that are jealously guarded.
While, no doubt, there is room for improvement in the shops
Of all railway companies, the condition is one calling for, and
that will yield to, such remedial measures as the progressive
mechanical Officers of Our railways are applying as fast as the
managements permit them to incur the expenditures necessary.
Additional shops, machinery, tools, tracks, material, increased
Supervision and office help are needed on most all roads.
There is nothing scientific about this; it is simply a plain,
common Sense business proposition.
The maintenance of equipment, or its current upkeep, is not
all work of such a character that it is susceptible of predeter-
Imination as to method of Operation, or cost, and cannot, there-
fore, be reduced to writing, blue-print or graph, but must be
handled by the experienced, practical man, who, usually, like the
skilled surgeon, decides on the exact method or details of pro-
cedure while gathering instruments, tools, and material to perform
an Operation.
The proposition to apply “Scientific management ’’ to all
running repairs of railway equipment, especially locomotives,
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I'7
is not only impractical, but strongly emphasizes its advocates
as lacking in the elementary knowledge of locomotive operation
and maintenance essential in advising or directing others.
As the current running repairs to railway equipment are of
a character calling for treatment by competent, experienced
mechanics, the possible economies from the adoption of “scien-
tific management " must necessarily be confined to the main
shops of such companies as are large enough to maintain, and
have in Operation, One or more general shops entirely independent
of, and separate from, their running repair shops. In these
large shops locomotives and cars in considerable number are
built new, or rebuilt, on such scale that much of the work is
of the character of that in a manufacturing plant where work-
men are principally machine operators or tenders, and are not
required, or permitted, to exercise any mechanical skill or initia-
tive in preparing for or executing the work. • f
The number of men, even in a large central railway shop, who
continually perform the same, or similar, operation, and in the
same manner, are comparatively few.
IMPRACTICABILITY OF “SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT * IN HAND-
LING THE RUNNING REPAIRS THAT ACCRUE FROM SERVICE.
To those familiar with operating requirements of railways
an apology is due for using time or space in the presentation
of matter embodying details which, to them, are well-known
facts, and your indulgence is asked with the hope that the matter
presented may be of interest, or value, to many who are interested
in the subject, but may not have had the necessary practical
experience in actually doing the things talked of to enable them
to fairly judge as to the merit, or demerit, of disputed points.
CHARACTER OF LOCOMOTIVE REPAIRs.
That there may be no doubt as to the extremely difficult and
varying character of repairs that accrue from service, and enter
largely into the cost of locomotive, maintenance, each of which
requires some special treatment, the following views (Plates Dº
are offered to amplify what has been said on the subject.
IS WILSON. E. Sy Mons.
PLATE DI.
Showing fractured part of locomotive cylinder.
PLATE D2.
Showing fracture in locomotive frame.


SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 19
The character of repairs made necessary by the foregoing
conditions renders it absolutely essential to successful operation
that both the foreman in direct charge of each operation, and the
mechanic who is actually performing the work, shall not only
be permitted but required to bring into use their mechanical skill
PLATE D3.
Showing locomotive frame after repairs.
and judgment, which, under the proposed plan of “scientific
management,” they would be prevented from doing.
In addition to the foregoing examples, there are numerous
other operations in the repairing of locomotives, the same each
day by description, but entirely different in the matter of time,
physical effort, material, and mechanical skill employed in their
completion. It may be stated, as a fact, that these operations
are seldom ever exactly alike, except in name or description.
Among the more common operations that go to make up
locomotive repairs are the following:

2O WILSON. E. Sy Mons.
Repairs to, or renewals of, revolving and reciprocating parts,
such as rods, guides, pistons, piston rods, cross-heads, valves,
valve gear, truck and tank wheels and drivers; driving boxes,
shoes and wedges, frames, cylinders, steam chests, and covers;
air pump and brake apparatus, truck frames, headlights, boiler
and front end complete, cab and cab fittings, tender complete, etc.
There is also a great variety in the character of repairs to
both passenger and freight cars.
PLATE D4.
Showing locomotive frame welded in three places.
To establish an arbitrary time limit, in advance, for the com-
pletion of all these operations, particularly locomotive work,
based on time studies of each “body movement" from com-
mencement until completion of certain trial test operations, prac-
tically eliminates the operator's or mechanic's personality, trans-
forming him from a skilled mechanic into that of factotum or
machine, and the foreman in charge only one grade higher,
but in the same class.
Such a system would have a tendency to discourage both men
and officers from that personal initiative essential to a strong,
efficient and economical organization.

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 2 I
Some form of measured output, based on compensation, such
as task or piecework plan, fair and just alike, first, to the men,
and second, to the company, to be used at such points as operating
PLATE D5.
Showing broken fire-box and ring ready for welding.
conditions will permit, and with sufficient amount of competent
supervision over the working forces at all points to insure good,
efficient service, is a far superior plan, and would yield handsome
returns where the so-called “scientific management” plan would
not only fail to give the results claimed, but prove an earpensive
ea periment.

22 WILSON E. SYMONS.
SUMMARY OF ECONOMIES.
The two classes, shown on page 13, yet to be disposed of, are
as follows:
Number men Amount compensation
Machinists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48,237 $41,731,839
Other shopmen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I95, I IO - II9,909,837
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .… 243.347 $161,641,676
We, therefore, have yet to consider the above item, which is 16
per cent. Of the Operating expense.
On large roads maintaining extensive shops where the con-
struction of new, and rebuilding of present, equipment is carried
on to a considerable extent, the number of men who are regularly
engaged on a fixed class of work that would lend itself to the
proposed “scientific management'' plan has been estimated at
IO to I2 per cent. Of the mechanical department forces, while as
a matter of fact the actual number is much less, but in Order to be
more than liberal, the figure will be placed at I 5 per cent., and
this applies to both the machinists and other shopmen, although
the duties of other shopmen are of such a diversified character
that there is probably less than 5 per cent, to whom this plan
could be applied.
Summing up on the foregoing basis of I5 per cent. On three
items, however, we have the following figures:

Number to be Amount to beſ ©
* * Numb • * . - & Average saving
Class *::::::: Hº ºf "ºº"
Operators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39, II 5 5,867 - $4,412,324
Machinists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48,237 7,235 6,259,675
Other shopmen . . . . . . . . . . I95,347 29,302 I7,986,475
Total. . . . . . . . . . . 282,699 2,404. $28,658,474 $78,242.OO
Instead of $1,000,00 per day we have $78,242, and this is
predicated, or conditioned, on the assumption that such additional
tools, shops, supervision, etc., be provided as to enable the officers
in charge to Secure a greater output on the same expenditure, or
the same output at a less expense, and that the organization of
the department be on lines calculated to strengthen the hands
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 23
Of the line officers in charge, who, in the last analysis, are always
held responsible for results.
CONSERVATISM OR LACK OF MORAL COURAGE.
It is a traditional characteristic of the human race that they
will Submit to continued hardship, loss, and suffering, rather than
undergo a change from time-worn precedents, and even though
seeking relief are slow to adopt remedial measures when pre-
Sented; in fact, as individuals and corporations, many of us move
SO ultra-conservative that it is a wonder that we do not fall over
backzward.
Any material change in the methods of operation on railways
usually results either in improvement or injury to the organiza-
tion, and consequently affects its efficiency or earning power.
It is, therefore, the part of wisdom to move with at least ordi-
nary business caution in approaching a proposition of such
moment in the company’s affairs, for even a bold, aggressive
management seldom accepts a theory which has not become a
demonstrated fact. - - -
Recently there has been much written with respect to “scien-
tific management " as applied to railway operation, and as proof
of its merits the Santa Fe Railway is cited as an example, and
the very extraordinary economies claimed are mentioned in
detail, and approximate Standards of cost for the maintenance
of locomotives and freight cars are given. I wish at this time
to State, however, that in the presentation of statistical data
from the annual reports of the Santa Fe Railway Company or
in any comments or criticisms of the results on this line in com-
parison with other lines, the sole purpose is to show to what
extent Scientific Management has actually operated to the com-
pany’s benefit in the item of equipment maintenance. The conclu-
sions in no case are intended for, and should not be construed
as any reflection on the ability of the officers in charge of this
splendid property.
ANALYSIS OF RESULTS ON THE A., T. & S. FE.
In order to present a clear understanding of all items of
expense shown in the following statistics, it is proper to review
conditions on the Santa Fe prior to the introduction of “scientific
Imanagement " in their shops, and up to the present time.
24. WILSON E. SYMONS.
During the year 1901–02 there was constant evidence of dis-
content on the part of the shopmen generally throughout the
West, and a few local strikes occurred at different points on the
western portion of the Santa Fe lines. All were of rather short
duration except the one on the company's lines in Texas, which
included all shopmen, except carmen, and continued for many
weeks, the men being finally defeated.
This, however, proved only to be the forerunner of a general
Strike on the entire Santa Fe system, which took effect in May,
1904. It was a most bitterly fought contest, and like all kinds
of war no matter where waged, in the drawing-room, the count-
ing-house, in Wall or Lombard Street, on the high seas, On the
field of battle, or between organized labor and a corporation, they
cost money in proportion to the size or strength and determina-
tion of the contending parties.
It is unnecessary to dwell on the cost of the strike to the
Santa Fe at any great length; that it was extraordinary, how-
ever, is evidenced by the fact that, as a result, the cost of loco-
motive maintenance advanced, as follows: -
Years Number of engines | Cost per engine per yr. Increase over 1900
I900 I, I36 $2,096
I90I I, I 74 2,858
I902 I,3 I2 3, I56
I903 I,309 3,04. I
I904 I,433 3,772 *
I905 I,454 4, I65 98.7%
It should be noted that the cost of locomotive maintenance
in 1905 above IQ03, the year prior to the general strike, was
37 per cent, or $1,634,296, this item being one of the essential
factors in determining the economic effect of “scientific man-
agement * on the cost of maintenance, but on which the advocates
of this plan have so far remained painfully silent, even when
quoting figures affected thereby, thus conveying the impression
that conditions were normal in 1905, and thereby taking credit
for the reduction in cost per engine, to $31OI in 1906 and
$3O36 in 1907, that was bound to follow the termination of this
struggle, thus changing the basis of company's financial budget or
1maintenance item from a war to a peace basis.
TABLE E.
STRIKE PERIOD
TABLE. NAECHANICAL DEFARTNMENT. STANTISTICS 19CO To ISIO INCLUSIVE
OF
|TENMS
19CO
|S}Ol
1902 || 1903 |1904|1905 || 1906|1907 || 1908||1909||19|O
| © | 7 |
&


26 WILSON. E. SYMONS.
Having reviewed the conditions up to IQO5 with a view of
making clear any comparisons with that or other years, a tabu-
lated display of mechanical department expenses for the years
I900 to 1910, inclusive, is next presented, from which many
interesting comparisons may be made and deductions drawn.
Referring to Table E, page 19, attention is invited to the
following facts:
That the average cost of maintenance of locomotives, items.
7, 8 and 9, was 47 per cent. greater during the years 1904, IQ05,
1906 and 1907 than during the four years prior.
That the total average cost for maintenance of equipment (see
item 30) was 50 per cent, greater in IQO4, 1905, IQO6 and IQO7
than during the four years prior. *
That general office clerks’ expense increased 56 per cent.
That maintenance equipment superintendence expense in-
creased I 53 per cent. . -
That shop machinery and tools expense increased 67 per cent.
That cost of new engines and cars increased 80 per cent.
And the item of “Other Expenses * increased 258 per cent.
during the four-year period of 1904–1905–1906–1907 as com-
pared with the four years prior. -
This comparison is intended to serve two purposes:
First: The abnormal high cost of maintenance in IQO4 and
1905 due to the shop men's strike.
Second: That with this abnormal high cost as a favorable
starting point, together with the lavish expenditure of millions
for new locomotives, cars, shop tools, supervision and other
expenses, the showing for the four years mentioned, or even the
three years following, I 908, IQO9 and IQIO, a total of seven
years, has not at any time been as good as prior to the intro-
duction of “scientific management " on the road in Igo4.
OPERATING RESULTS IN COMPARISON.
With a view of presenting a comparison of certain operating
results of representative lines, in the territory traversed by the
A., T. & S. F. Ry., also in the United States, an additional table
(F) was prepared, and your attention is first invited to section
one of the comparative cost per engine per year and cents per
- SECTION
SHOWING THE COST PER ENGINES PER PER MILE RUN, ALSo I SHOWING
AVERAGE TONS PER FREIGHT TRAIN º EARNINGS FROM FREIGHT I AND ALL
AND MILES PER ENGINE PER DAY ON TWELVE (12) LINES
HUMBER
NANAE
OF
RORD NUMBER PER
ENGINES DAY
R.T. & S.E. 8]
C.B
C & N.W. |OO
P. - | 6
C.R. & P
PER
PACIFIC. 43O
& S.F. 979
AVERRGES
CENT FE
TABLE F.
MAINTENANCE OF
AND COST PER *
DAY PER ENGINE, PER CENTAGE of ENGINE MILEAGE MADE IN P
BEARS To THE NUMBER of LocoMotives AND To LocoMotives
PER MILE RUN, FOR REPAIRS, .
PER YEAR To MAINTAIN, coST
Assenger service AND RATIO OF operaTING ExPENSEs To.
LOCOMOTIVES, PASSENGER AND FREIGHT CARS, AND RATIO OF
OF NUMBER
EQUIPMENT PASS. FREIGHT
YEAR. . . .191C) CARS I CARS
T8] 4-95 || 6 |
NUMBER
RLL CARS
S.

28 WILSON. E. SYMONS.
mile run on twelve of the more prominent lines in the territory
bounded by Chicago on the east, Pacific Ocean on the west,
Canada on the north, and Mexico on the south, the Santa Fe
Occupying a somewhat middle ground position.
It will be noted that, notwithstanding the high cost of the
Southern Pacific, which is, more strictly speaking, a mountain
road, and entirely in the zone of maximum prices for both labor
and material, the average cost per engine per year on the Santa
Fe is 21 per cent. above the average of all twelve lines, and 25
per cent. above on a basis of cost per mile run.
Section Two.—The second portion of the table treats with one
item of expense not heretofore given much, if any, prominence
in the analysis of costs, and that is the item of “superintendence
maintenance of equipment,” or, in the more common language of
the street, what it costs to boss the job.
This analysis, or comparison, was really invited by the very
extravagant claims of great saving made on the Santa Fe, in
which mention was made of the slightly increased cost of super-
vision necessary in order to enjoy the great economy resulting
therefrom. The figures present quite an interesting study, par-
ticularly when considered in connection with the companion
section No. I, and the preceding table on page 19, of Santa Fe
statistics.
The cost of supervision, or superintendence, is first given in
full for twelve lines representative of the leading railways of
the United States, and from a geographical standpoint, quite
evenly distributed.
The first ratio of cost is based on the number of engines, while
the second, which is the better of the two, is based on the total
number of engines and all kinds of cars.
By the first comparison it will be noted that the Santa Fe
is 56 per cent. above an average of all lines, and by the second
78 per cent. above an average. -
Next, the locomotive mileage, average cost per engine per
year, and per mile run, is given, with averages of all, and by this
comparison it will be observed that the Santa Fe is 41 per cent.
above an average cost per year, and 33 per cent. above an average
cost in cents per mile run. -
From the foregoing statistics, it would appear that the figures
generally given out with reference to the millions of dollars saved
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 29
to the Santa Fe Company by “scientific management” will not
“bear analysis”; that the experiment has been a most expensive
one, that they are not doing as well as a majority of other lines
operating in the same, or similar territory, and are far below the
average of efficiency attained by many prominent trunk lines of
the country, or of the railways of the United States.
COMPARISON WITH THE UNITED STATES.
The average cost for maintenance locomotives, freight cars
and passenger cars in the United States, and of the Santa Fe,
was as follows:
Cost on Santa Fe and amount
above U.S
Average -
Items cost
in U. S. Cost on | Total excess am't
Santa Fe on each item
Locomotives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,368 $3,832 $2,819,664.OO
Freight Cars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 IO8 I,774,454.5I
Passenger Cars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737 I,249 738,375.OO
Cost on Santa Fe in excess of U. S. average. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,332,493.5I
From the foregoing it certainly should be clear to everyone
that the Santa Fe Road, which is now, and has been for six
years, under, a heavy expense maintaining a “scientific man-
agement * plan, has a maintenance of equipment cost of over
$5,000,000 per year above an average of the United States, and
far in excess of most all other lines similarly situated, except in
the matter of this special feature of expense. It is, therefore,
unnecessary to enter into details with respect to the possibility
of maintaining locomotives on 6 cents per mile and freight cars
On $35 per year, and passenger cars on a corresponding amount,
as the proposition will not justify consideration. *
The unprejudiced railway man, who is guided by knowledge,
born of experience in the solution of such problems, is forced to
the conclusion, that, notwithstanding the unqualified support
given this plan by the operating vice-president in charge, over a
period of six years or more on the Santa Fe, it does not, on
analysis, present results at any time in this period that would
commend it for general adoption in railway operation.
30 WILSON E. SYMONS.
EXAMPLES - OF EFFICIENCY IN THE REORGANIZATION AND MAN-
AGEMENT OF THE MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT OF A RAILWAY.
Two examples of most excellent results in the reorganization
of the mechanical department of a railway, embracing as it did,
maximum efficiency at a minimum of cost, might serve to show
the possibilities under conditions that, while manifestly bad, had
become so under oppositely different systems of management,
each having gone through with, and partially recovered from, the
effects of a shopmen’s strike, and had, for some time, been enjoy-
ing the economies usually following a successful issue of that
kind, so that such comparisons as may be made, or reductions
shown in cost, or improvement effected, are measured from a
point below average conditions.
Earample A.—On this line the physical condition of the power
and rolling stock was very bad, while the organization was
demoralized and, therefore, inefficient. The management was
thoroughly aroused at conditions and was prepared to authorize
additional funds to meet the anticipated increased expenditures
involved. - * * : * ~ * * * * * *
After making a careful study of the situation, however, it
was decided to first obtain maximum efficiency from present
facilities before incurring heavy expenditures for new locomo-
tives, freight cars, passenger cars, shops, shop tools and addi-
tional force.
The engineers, firemen, shop forces, officers, and clerks were
all in a highly nervous state and naturally skeptical of the mean-
ing of every move, which rendered it doubly necessary that no
mistakes be made. The cry from almost every direction was for
increased facilities, either machinery, tools, men, or all three.
The shop output was low in quantity and not of the best quality,
and immediate action was necessary.
Instead of theorizing for weeks or months, and then another
similar period in experimenting on theories, a well-defined plan
was in working order and giving results inside of thirty days.
Many machines that were thought obsolete, it was found only
needed slight repairs and intelligent operation, thus saving the
price of new ones, and indirectly increasing the output of others,
and in many cases a substantial increase in the compensation of
the operators. -- - a -
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 31
The entire department, including enginemen, became con-
verted to the new order of things at once, and combined to
attain IOO per cent, efficiency in a thoroughly practical manner,
and the results, which were in some instances realized inside of
thirty days, were substantially as follows:
Per cent.
Increased shop output, number of engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Reduced shop cost of engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IQ
Reduced cost repairs per mile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I6
Reduced cost lubrication per mile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Increased number passenger cars through shops . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Decreased cost per car . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2O
Decreased cost per car for lubrication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Increased number of freight cars repaired . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Decreased cost per car . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I4
Decreased cost per car for lubrication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I6
Increased cost of Supervision, clerks, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NONE
The above results were obtained, much to the surprise of
those in charge, at a cost less than the corresponding preceding
period of over 3 per cent., while it had been conservatively
estimated that an increase of I 5 or 20 per cent. in pay rolls alone
would be necessary to overcome the general poor condition of
equipment.
Earample B.-The conditions on the second line in question,
while not generally as bad as on the first mentioned line, were
worse in some particular respects, in that the organization had
been on an entirely different basis; therefore, the remedial meas-
ures to be applied were, of necessity, fitted to suit the case and
somewhat different than in the first mentioned case,
The financial conditions had been such for years that the
power, rolling Stock and shops had been sadly neglected, and
fallen into a state of repair that prevented much of it from being
operated at all, something like I2 to I4 per cent. of the freight
cars being parked out in bad order, account no funds to make
repairs. The shop forces, while not decidedly bad, were far
from good. This, however, was largely due to the form of
organization rather than the men in direct charge.
Confronted with a condition calling for the expenditure of
large additional sums of money, heavy reductions were at once
put into effect, the total amount of reduction made in 60 days.
32 WILSON. E. SYMONS.
being approximately 27 per cent., while there should have been
added more than that amount.
Under the restricted latitude due to lack of funds, however,
much encouraging progress was made in shop and road economies
and in perfecting an effective organization.
The number of engines turned out of the main shops was
equal to the number receiving like repairs prior to the reduction
of shop forces, which result was equivalent to an increase of
about 30 per cent. in shop efficiency. The same was true with
respect to both passenger and freight car repairs and mainten-
ance, while in the items of economy in fuel used by locomo-
tives, economy in engine supplies, and locomotive and car lubri-
cation, the reductions varied from I5 per cent, to 30 per cent.
The plan of organization and the respective characteristics
or qualifications of the two officials who directed the departments
on the two lines in question were diametrically opposite, one
being considerably below the average practical man in mechani-
cal or executive ability, while the other stood away above the
average “gentleman of scientific attainments.”
The system of “scientific management’’ as outlined by its
advocates would not have improved conditions on either line in
question, but would have very likely proved destructive to the
poorly organized and suspicious forces that were not in condition
to take up new ideas or theories, in the operation of which their
compensation, and possibly their positions, were involved.
STAFF OFFICERS’ QUALIFICATIONS.
There is scarcely a business in which there is greater need of
additional supervision in the way of Staff Officers than in rail-
road work, and nowhere will the investment, when properly made,
bring larger returns. Contra to this, there is no place where a
staff officer can, and is liable to, do more harm than in a railway
organization, hence the necessity of great care and caution in
making a selection, and clearly defining the scope of his work.
Men whose experience has been confined exclusively to that
of a line officer where departmental lines are clearly defined and
closely drawn, or those whose experience has been largely in the
analysis of statistical data or engineering matter, are not well
suited, as a rule, to successfully cope with the various delicate
and perplexing problems that are constantly confronting a staff
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 33
officer of harmonizing conflicting interests, the proper solution
of which calls for personal knowledge of the details of the ques-
tions at issue, and the very happy faculty, or ability, to handle
nven. As a general proposition, a staff officer should be a man
who has successfully managed (as a line officer) an important
department in railway operation.
The term “ qualification '' as used in this paper, with respect
to those in authority, is predicated upon the following character-
istics, and should be a prerequisite to being placed in charge of
any work involving contact with, or in charge of, men:
First: As a fundamental principle, a man who cannot handle
himself cannot handle others, although it is a notorious fact
that men who have little or no control of themselves actually
believe they have great ability to handle or control others.
Second: No man who is not well within self-control should
ever be placed in charge of others.
Disregard of these two cardinal principles in the selection of
railway officers has driven more men into labor unions, and
created more anarchists, than any other influence, and in addition
has cost the railways untold millions of dollars that should have
gone to employees and shareholders. &
Third: No man should be placed in charge of men who is
not personally familiar, from practical experience, with the work,
or that of a correlative character, so as to enable him to intelli-
gently direct others, and with a sufficiently liberal education to
enable him to transact business with his colleagues, superiors,
and the public, in a gentlemanly, business-like manner, and with
capacity for increased responsibility.
EFFICIENCY ENGINEERS–WHO ARE THEY P
From the rather serious charges of inefficiency previously
referred to in connection with the hearing of the rate cases before
the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the recommendations
of the distinguished counsel for the shippers (see pages 97 and
I79), together with testimony of the very able exponents of the
so-called “scientific management,” it would appear that the rail-
way companies had done little, or nothing, in the direction of
economy in operation. -
In addition to the testimony, and counsel’s pleading, there
was an unusual quantity of literature on the subject in the daily
34 WILSON E. SYMONS.
press and current magazines, much of it highly colored, but most
all detrimental or openly hostile to corporate interests.
One of these articles appeared in Hampton's for March,
pages 346 and 356, from the pen of a very forceful writer. The
tenor of the entire article is such as to poison the public mind
against corporations regardless of the facts in the case.
Among the many very extraordinary statements there are a
few that have special reference to the subject matter under con-
sideration, and to which I shall refer.
“ TWO MILLIONS A YEAR WASTED ON OIL.”
On page 347 appears the following quotation:
“Mr. Brandeis estimates that, in the comparatively small item of lubri-
cating oil, our railroads waste two million dollars a year because Wall Street
influences them to buy their oil from the ‘Standard Oil’ interests, in spite
of the fact that independent refiners would gladly sell them an equally good
article for less money. Such independent concerns have learned long since
that even the most favorable bids against the firmly entrenched interests will
not be considered.
“Of course, two millions is nothing in the huge annual budget of our
railroads—it is like the loose change that a clerk spends on picture shows—
yet a hundred thousand weary commuters must deny themselves twenty dol-
lars each in order to raise two million dollars, twenty dollars each, that they
might keep if grim magnates did not need the money.”
The foregoing is, to say the least, a very broad and sweeping
Statement, and may be summed up, as follows:
First: That the railways of the United States stand charged
with wasting two million dollars per year on the single item of
“lubricating oil,” due to Wall Street or Standard Oil influence.
Second: That the burden of this waste by the railroads of
the United States comes on “one hundred thousand weary com-
muters ” who must deny themselves twenty dollars each, per year,
that they might keep “if the grim magnates did not need the
money.”
As there can be no possible connection between an item of
waste on the railways of the United States and a fixed number of
classified passengers, the statement at once automatically receives
the stamp of unreliability in character and hostility of purpose.
Let us review the facts in the case.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 35
RAILWAY PASSENGERS CARRIED–CLASSIFIED (1909).
Total number passengers carried (I. C. C. reports). . . . . . . . . . .. 891,472,425
Total number of passengers carried one mile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29, Io9,322,589
Passenger revenue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $563,609,342
Number of commuters (railway companies' statistics) . . . . . . . . . I88,359,788
Revenue from commuters, estimated on basis of each passen-
ger riding IO miles at six-tenths cent per mile, or six cents
per trip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * $II,3OI,587
Per cent. of passenger revenue from commuters, estimated . . . . 22
Taking the average number of commuters handled per day,
based on the figures for Igo&, which are low, if each one pays
$20 per year too much fare, the total excess from this source
would be as follows: -
Average number of commuters per day . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606,554
Amount per year at $20 each . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $12,131,080
which, it will be noted, is more than the entire estimated income
from commuter travel for the entire year.
The average rate per mile paid by all passengers On Our rail-
ways is slightly above two cents, while that paid by the com-
muters is considerably less than one cent per mile (to be more
exact, about six-tenths of a cent), from all of which it would
appear that commuters are now enjoying a lower rate than other
passengers, and that there is no intelligent application possible of
the number of commuters, or the sum of money mentioned, to the
statistics of passengers carried, or earnings therefrom.
From the foregoing facts, with respect to passenger traffic, it
is clear that the author of the article in question was either unin-
formed on this matter, or purposely garbled the figures with
mischievous intent.
We may now go further and see about the alleged waste of
two millions per year in the item of oil.
In the early history of our railways most all supplies were
bought at a flat rate per unit of quantity, and in the items of
oil, tallow, and waste the quantities used depended largely, if not
wholly, on the judgment or disposition of those who used it,
i.e., enginemen, trainmen, and carmen.
The governing factor in car lubrication was the size or cubic
capacity of the journal box, for both car- and trainmen were
Strong advocates of “Gospel measure,” full and running over.
The same was true with respect to locomotive lubrication except
that the engineer was privileged to observe the Biblical injunction
36 \\ ILSON E. SYMONS.
at various and divers places on each trip, while the car journals
were, as a rule, not given an oil bath at such frequent intervals.
Along many tracks where cars and engines were regularly
Oiled, the oil thus wasted actually stood in pools or puddles, and
if an engine's drivers slipped in starting, one would need an
umbrella, if standing near, as a protection from the falling oil.
Some excuse for what now appears to have been a great
waste at that time, in quantity at least, was the fact that the
lubricating oil was largely of a very cheap grade.
Some 30 years ago (1880), when there were in round num-
bers about IOO,OOO miles of railway in the United States, and
the construction of new lines and other industrial development of
the country in general were on a gigantic scale, those in charge
Of the work, especially railway construction and operation, could
not give close attention to details. Certain others saw the need
of improvement, and set to work in a systematic, business-like
manner to bring it about, and to these pioneers properly belongs
the title of efficiency engineer in its broadest sense, for the great
financial benefits that have accrued to railway companies from the
economies in operation which they made possible.
In the matter of lubrication, a superior quality of oil was
produced, but like good clothing, food, fine horses, or other high-
class commodities, it cost more than an inferior or poor grade;
therefore, the railways would not at first consider its use, for
the reason they did not see how any less quantity would serve
their purpose, and at the increased price per gallon this would
result in a big increase in cost of lubrication.
To meet this condition, the oil company offered to make the
railroads Safe against loss by a guarantee, on a mileage basis,
staking their reputation and the difference in price, between a
high-grade compounded oil and the cheap product then in use,
against the results they felt sure could be obtained. The success
of the plan proved the superiority of the good oil, and from this
beginning the use of these oils was gradually adopted by most all
lines, for in most every case there were the following good
reasons for making the change:
First: A guaranteed reduction of Io per cent, on existing
costs per thousand-mile run.
Second: A guaranteed cost per thousand-mile run in future
on all service.
Third: Responsibility for fluctuations in item of cost of lubri-
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 37
cation on a mileage basis, transferred from railroad to, and
assumed by, the oil company.
All of which are excellent business reasons why any efficient
railway manager would secure the higher grade and more efficient
oils at a higher initial cost per gallon, but with a much less net
cost for the same unit of service.
The result is, that at present, and for some years past, about
98 per cent of the mileage and equipment is lubricated with the
Oils furnished by One company on the guaranteed mileage basis
plan above mentioned, and in most every instance the change
was made by virtue of the displaced oil company not being able
to meet the IO per cent, reduction offered, thereby losing out on
a fair, Square, competitive business proposition.
ECONOMIES EIFFECTED BY OIL COMPANY.
When the oil company that now stands charged with coercing
the railways into wasting two million dollars a year, through the
purchase of their goods, first Secured the business, it was, as
previously stated, on a guaranteed reduction in cost per IOOO-
mile run of IO per cent., and protection against increased costs
in future.
Since these oil contracts have been generally accepted by Our
railways, the trend of most all prices or cost for material and
labor has been upward, except on two items, one of which the
railways purchase and the other they manufacture and sell,
namely: lubrication and transportation.
The cost of labor and material (except oil) has advanced
during the past twenty years in a most remarkable degree, the
various estimates ranging from 20 to as high as IOO per cent., and
it is fair to assume that if the guaranteed mileage feature of
lubricating railway equipment had not been introduced and main-
tained (sometimes at great loss to the oil company) the cost of
lubrication to engines and cars would have increased, both in
proportion to their increased sige and the general advanced cost
of other materials and labor used in railway operation.
As locomotives have been more than doubled in size or
capacity, and in many other ways require additional lubrication,
and both passenger and freight cars have likewise increased in
size, it is thought that a conservative estimate of the increased
cost for lubrication, if left on the old basis of 20 years ago,
would at present be about as follows:
38 WILSON. E. SYMONS.
Locomotives, per IOOO miles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $6.00
Passenger cars per IOOO miles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6o
Freight cars per IOOO miles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
On the above basis the cost for lubrication to our railways
would have, in all probability (in 1909), been as follows:
Locomotive miles, I,529,454,537 (3) $6.00 per IOOO, $9,176,727
Passenger car miles, 2,746,510,733 (3) 60 per IOOO, I,647,906
Freight car miles, I7, 169,413,224 @ 30 per IOOO, 5, I50,824
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : . . . . . . . . . . . $15,975,457 .
As a matter of fact, however, the oil company has gradually
reduced the general average cost of lubrication, per IOOO miles,
on both cars and engines, thus effecting economies that have
saved, and are at the present time saving, the railroads millions
of dollars. -
The exact average cost of lubrication per IOOO-mile run on
all railways is not known, but from an average of quite a num-
ber of the leading lines the cost may, for comparative purposes,
be estimated as follows: -
Locomotive miles, I,529,454,537 (Q) $2.50 per IOOO, $3,823,636
Passenger car miles, 2,746,510,733 (3) .I2 per IOOO, 329,581
Freight car miles, I7,169,413,224 (G) .05 per IOOO, 858,470
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,0II,687
From which we secure the following figures:
Estimated present cost of lubricating equipment on
railways, if the oil company had not only prevented
an increase, but systematically reduced cost for the
past 20 years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15,975,457
Estimated present cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,0II,687
Present saving to the railroads on the item of oil. . $10,963,770
I will next invite attention to a graphic chart (Table G),
showing the increased size or area of freight car journal bearings,
and the decreased cost per IOOO miles, and per square inch of
area, for the past 20 years.
The chart is, on a little study, replete with data in confirma-
tion of the foregoing statements and figures, all of which are alike
applicable to locomotives, freight and passenger cars.
Yet, in the face of these facts that are within reach of any
one searching for the truth in the matter, the oil company stands
TABLE G.
2d
COST PER 1000 MILES RUN, WHILE THE EQUIPMENT HAS, IN MANY CASES, More THAN DoubleD IN
GRAPHIC CHART SHOWING ECONOMY IN FREIGHT CAR LUBRICATION ON MANY LEADING RAILWAYS, RESULTING FROM REDUCED
SIZE.
SIMILAR, AND IN SOME INSTANCES, GREATER ECONOMIES HAVE BEEN EFFECTED IN LocoMOTIVE AND PASSENGER CAR LUBRICATION
Ż C0ST PER SQUARE INCH ALL JOURNAL BEARING AREA PER 1000 MILES PERINUMBER SQUARE INCHES INCREASED
jº. %. º.º.j ; SIZE OF
flºº OF JOURNALS (890 , IGIAL SUARE MCHES J005MLBEARNG AREA PERCAR (8 JOURNALS)];####" cos; or :
thlºo incºrvé tº gº "ºº-ººººº; sºycºl.
* º OWER 1890 IN PERCENT OWER 190
- FREIGHT SERVICE s 2 3 4 5 6 7 a 9 to II 12 13 14 NOINCHES #95 1890 $900
|890 COST PER 1000 MILES 204 8
SIZE OF JOURNALS 3#x7" S § § § N NRN § N N .25
|*|†ºsºfº
|895 COST PER 1000 #. 184. | 83 4339 |0 29
SIZE OF JOURNAL54%8% º g e
AREABEARNGS assºciºğis | 10%
§§ § §§ § N § - N * -
Jºſé PER 1000 MILES 144. |5.33 |83554, 30%|48
SHE OF JOURNAL54;1835.9% & J. º
| WEFAGE AREA,235SQIMGE º º º 5. % 4.
gº; 2820:48, 50.1709
SIZE OF JOURNALS 5 X 9. § "- --------
§ N N N § §§ N N \ & e
ã232 sam&#5 ºf jºb is % %
|9|0 C0ST FER 1000 # 64 57.50 70 109.
SIZE OF JOURNALS 5;xid £3% - - N º 584. e
AREA 345sq.inches, jºis N 84 70%
COMPARISON OF CHEAP-VERSUS HIGH GRPADE Oſ LS IN QUFANTITY AND COST 18 9 O – |S|O.
º ST PERCOST PER
º: UARTSPINTSIGILLSIGILL IN 1000MILES
Nº|| LLS RUN
QUANTITY OFoll. USED PER 1000 MILES RUN AT S4 PER GAL. AND A coST OF 20+PER 1000 MILES RUN. 222, 8.88 |r1.76 ſil.04] 2.91 204
** tº wº REQUIRED */ &z ** ** ** | 84 w/ #s ** fg tº tº 1, 6d. tº t W0 # * & a 33 1.32 || 2.64||O.56 5.66 6 4.
QUANTITY OF Oll. USED PERIOOO MILES REDUCED FROM 71.O4 GILLS TO IO-56 GILLS, OR LESS THAN ONE SIXTH THE ORIGINAL CUPANTITY, WHILE
EQUIPr-1ENT HAs AbouT Doubled in size. STATED IN OTHER TERMS THERE WAS MORE THAN Six TIMES THE AMount OF CHEAP oil_USED
Orli rhE LIGHT EQUIPMENT OF 1990 THRN IS NOW REQUIRED FOR LL BRICRTION,
§

4O WILSON E. SYMONS.
charged with practically forcing the railways to waste two
million dollars per year.
In addition to the economy to railways on the item of oil
alone, there were many other economies enjoyed as a result of
their oil contracts, as the oil company furnishes experts, free of
charge, to supervise the economical use of the oils, and in their
co-operation with mechanical and operating officers many im-
provements in the design and repairs of motive power, handling
of equipment, stores and supplies have been accomplished, this
item amounting in the aggregate, doubtless, to many times the
sum of two million dollars per year which the oil company stands
accused of causing to be wasted.
It may therefore truthfully be said that regardless of what
mistakes may have been made by the Standard Oil Company
(and none are pointed out by its critic), the Galena Signal Oil
Company, which supplies lubricating oils for about 98 per cent.
of the railway mileage, has, as a result of this analysis, been
relieved from the general charge of causing a considerable waste,
and credited with effecting much economy that actually adds to
the cash balance in the treasury. And to such companies, their
founders and leaders should be given the credit they justly de-
serve, instead of being held up as public enemies.
There are to-day in this great Commonwealth of Pennsyl-
vania three industrial concerns in particular that have contrib-
uted much to the cause of efficiency engineering. I refer to
THE BALDWIN LOCOMOTIVE WORKS
THE WESTINGHOUSE AIR BRAKE COMPANY
THE GALENA SIGNAL OIL COMPANY
and to the names of the men who founded and built up these
splendid companies may properly be added, such as James J.
Hill, Andrew Carnegie, Richard T. Crane, Thomas W. Scott,
George M. Pullman, Reuben Wells, and many others.
The Westinghouse Company, in the development of the air-
brake, has contributed more than any other one company toward
making it possible for our railways to handle in one year the
following volume of business:
Tons freight carried one mile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29, Io9,322,589
Passengers carried One mile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218,802,986,929
With a total net revenue from operation of . . . . . . . $2,418,677,538
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 4I
For, without the improved air-brake, making it possible for the
engineer to stop high-speed passenger and fast freight trains,
there would be no eighteen-hour passenger trains, or three-day
freight trains between New York and Chicago. Fresh vegetables
and tropical fruits gathered in Florida on Thursday could not be
served on your tables in Philadelphia and New York on Sunday,
and the two hundred million commuters who annually come to,
and return from, their places of business at speeds of from 40
to 60 miles per hour, in trains, many of them less than IO minutes
apart, would either have to give up their suburban homes and
live in flats, or devote probably one to two hours per day more
in travelling to and from their homes.
While it would be extremely difficult to estimate in hundreds
of thousands, or even millions of dollars, the benefits that yearly
accrue to our railways through the agency of the modern air-
brake, it may safely be said that with all our other highly devel-
oped modern railway equipment, that if we were dependent, for
one day, on the brakes of 20 years ago, the business of the country
would be practically paralyzed, and the loss of both life and
property very great. -
LUBRICATION.—CON CLUSION.
In the matter of lubrication, the Galena Signal Oil Company
has, by its efficiency engineering system of basing net costs on
guaranteed service rendered, disregarding the purchase price per
gallon of its high grade oils, succeeded, as previously stated, in
securing about 98 per cent. Of the business of our railways. And
Strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless true, that, although
motive power and cars have, during the past twenty years, in most
instances just about doubled in size or capacity, the oil company
has constantly reduced the cost of lubrication per IOOO-mile run,
and has therefore effected a double saving—one on the reduced
cost per IOOO-mile run by cars and engines, and the other in
providing lubrication for, and accepting as one unit, the thousands
of new engines and cars that are twice the size of, and equal
to two of, the type and size built some years ago.
From a review of the foregoing figures and facts, it should
be clear to any unbiased mind that the actual saving to the rail-
ways, in money, on the single item of lubricating oil, based on
cost of service rendered, is not less than an average of $5,000,000
42 & WILSON. E. SYMONS.
per year for the past twenty years, and the additional saving, due
to the increased size or capacity of engines and cars, together
with the unestimated economies in various other items of a col-
lateral character, resulting from the “efficiency engineering sys-
tem. ” so successfully practised by the Galena Signal Oil Company
for the past twenty years, that it would be safely within the
bounds of conservatism to place the actual amount saved at not
less than about $100,000,000 and that the present saving may be
estimated at about $10,000,000 per year, which not only justifies
placing this company among those engaged in effecting economy
in railway operation, but discredits the statement that the oil
company either uses coercion to Secure contracts, overcharges
for its oils $2,000,000 per year, or in any manner affects the
rates of fare paid by commuters.
RAILROADS RUN By “RULE OF THUMB.”
On page 355, Hampton's for March, the same author, pre-
viously quoted, makes the following statement:
“At present, with our railroad business conducted more or less by rule
of thumb,” there are wide margins where stealing is possible, since no one
can be sure where waste begins and stealing ends. No one knows exactly
how much should be spent for the repairs of a freight car. It may be $30,
$40, $50, $60 or $70.”
Anticipating the possibility of the general application of this
charge by the reading public in its literal sense, it might not be
amiss to first state that the following employees of the operating
departments of our railways work under, and conform to, the
standard rules adopted by the American Railway Association.
They also have, with few exceptions, contracts made through
their organizations, and in one or both of these their move-
ments, rates of compensation, and duties are minutely outlined.
Connected with train movement there are:
Engineers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 57,077
Firemen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63,349
Conductors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43,608
Other trainmen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . II4,760
Section foremen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41,859
Other trackmen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320,762
Telegraph operators and dispatchers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39, II5
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 43
Shopmen—Maintenance of Equipment.—Of the Shopmen
whose duties and rates of pay are not all prescribed in the book
of rules, there are the following:
Machinists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48,237
Carpenters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60,867
Other shopmen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I95, IIO
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3O4,2 I4
Of the 304,214 shopmen a large majority of them are work-
ing under contracts that clearly define their duties and pay for
the various classes of work, while quite a large number of the
principal lines operate their main repair shops on a most thor-
oughly detailed piecework schedule, Some schedules covering as
many as 3OOO or more items, with costs ranging from one-quarter
of one cent, or two and a half mills, to upward of $10, or a range
of over 43,000 per cent., every item or operation in locomotive
and car work being covered so completely as to brand, at Once,
the “rule of thumb '' statement as a misstatement of facts, there
being few, if any, corporations, outside of railroads, that have
gone as deeply, thoroughly and Scientifically into the minute de-
tails of unit costs and accuracy of operations as the railways have.
SYSTEMATIZED COST OF MAINTAINING EQUIPMENT.
The extent to which actual costs of the thousand of different
operations in the maintenance of equipment have been applied
on most of our leading railways during the past ten or fifteen
years could not well be covered, Save in a special paper on that
subject. It would appear sufficient answer to those who assert
no such plan is in existence to simply say that such plan has been
for years in successful operation, and is now in daily use on about
sixty thousand miles of railway in the repairs of probably more
than 800,000 freight cars, aside from locomotives and passenger
car work. -
EXAMPLE OF SYSTEMATIZED COSTS.
On one prominent trunk line the maintenance of equipment
is conducted, so far as practicable, under a most thoroughly
efficient system of compensation, based on a schedule of prices
for the various operations in locomotive and car work, varying
44 WILSON E. SYMONS.
in price from one-quarter of one cent (or 2% mills) to as much
as $10.80 on two different items, or a range of 43,2OO per cent.
in prices. Every possible operation in the repairs of locomo-
tives or cars, from driving a small nail in a roof to changing
the driving wheels of a locomotive, is fully covered, and in car
work the number of items and range of prices are equally as
complete, so that every known item, both in the machine or
Smith shop, mill or fitting room, that can be, has a scheduled
price which yields a wage in proportion to the operator's ability,
the minimum day's pay being the standard rate for the class of
workman. t
As an example of the very thorough and systematic manner
in which maintenance of equipment has been handled for years
on many of our trunk lines, the price schedules of the line in
question, with certain sample pages, have been photographed.
Your attention is invited to the following items: -
First: Schedules of prices in book form, seven copies.
Second: Sample page from schedule of car work prices
showing a range of rates from one-quarter of one cent (or 2%
mills) to $10.80, or 43,2OO per cent.
Third: Sample page from Schedule of locomotive prices rang-
ing from 5 cents to $9.70, or IQ,300 per cent.
These schedules embrace more than one hundred and seven
thousand items, or Operations, on cars and locomotives, and have
been gradually extended to all work at points where practical,
until over 90 per cent. Of the work at many places is being
handled in a manner satisfactory both to the workman and the
company.
The earnings of the workman clearly reflect the improved
shop conditions under which the company’s power and rolling
stock have been materially improved, and at a much reduced
cost from the flat day work plan.
This line is one of the heavy freight carriers between Chicago.
and New York City, and although operated under adverse con-
ditions, the splendid service rendered, together with the improved
physical condition of the entire property, reflects the very able
management and efficiency of departmental heads, who have made
possible such good results. - -
A profile (Plate J) of the line will more clearly indicate its
physical characteristics.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 45
CON CLUSION.
Having reviewed from different angles the most important
phases of the question under consideration, weighing carefully,
not only the numerous and rather extravagant claims made for
“scientific management,” but also the statistics of the only line
that has for years employed this system, or plan, the only verdict
possible from the evidence is most emphatically against the adop-
tion of any such plan or scheme as contemplated by the very able
attorney for the shippers in the recent rate case, and the various
writers who have contributed to the support of the Scheme to
save one million dollars per day to the railroads, by means that
PLATE J
it may safely be assumed, if adopted, would embrace the
following: -
First: The employment of a large additional force of expen-
sive but not productive men, who, as a rule, are unfamiliar with
the practical operation of a railway, and consequently not in
sympathy with methods essential to efficient management, which
is paramount to any of the multiplicity of shop operations that
may have been reduced to a highly scientific basis, but all of
which, if combined, would only aggregate a small portion of the
cost of maintenance of equipment, the total of which is only 22
per cent. of the cost of operating our railways. So that, aside
from the human equation, the quantity of the work, or percentage
of expense involved in the maintenance of equipment to which
this experiment could be applied, is so insignificantly small, and

46 WILSON. E. SYMONS.
the benefits claimed to accrue therefrom so uncertain, as to leave
it without Support as a means of solving financial problems in
railway operation.
Second: The human equation is one that has not so far been
considered, although different authorities have casually referred
thereto, treating the matter lightly, or in a manner favorable to
the proposed plan which is delusive in the extreme. This is one
of the most important features, and we may just as well meet
the issue squarely. -
In the first place, the shopmen of American railways will
never submit to any such scheme as outlined and defined as
“scientific management,” neither will mechanical officers accept
it without protest, and its introduction would, if made simul-
taneously on all lines, precipitate an industrial struggle, the toll
from which would be measured in human lives and millions Of
dollars. w
The ratio or percentage of men who would come up to all
requirements and retain employment, as compared to the number
that would be cast aside, either through failure to enter or the
result of working under the new and more exacting conditions,
would be so small that the working forces could not, in all proba-
bility, be maintained. But, even if the requisite number were
available, it is beyond range of the remotest probabilities to expect
243,347 American mechanics and shopmen to work under such a
plan, while more than one million and one-quarter of their fellow-
citizens and employees were enjoying much more favorable con-
ditions in the same line of endeavor, most conspicuous among
whom would be the newly added employees.
Third: No one is more familiar with the difficulties encoun-
tered in railway operations due to the attitude of organized labor
than myself, and while it is a fact that many railway officers and
foremen would, if not hampered by contractual conditions made
by the management with the unions, treat many of the men they
personally know more liberally than they do now, yet, at the same
time, there is no doubt but their present compensation and work-
ing conditions are largely, if not wholly, due to their organiza-
tion, which if eliminated would probably result in the money
powers, or corporate interests (that are wholly impersonal),
reducing compensation and changing working conditions when
they are confronted with financial difficulties, therefore, the ques-
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 47
tion of the application of scientific management to the practical
operation of railways resolves itself into one of “making the best
use of facilities,” and, in doing this, the man best equipped to
handle men is without question the man most needed by the rail-
roads to increase the efficiency of their facilities, and thereby con-
tribute to the production of transportation at the lowest possible
cost, that the net income from operation may, if possible, be
increased. *
Fourth: The underlying principles of “intelligent human
endeavor * were clearly enunciated by Solomon, King of Israel,
over two thousand years ago, when he exhorted the inefficient
and lazy as follows: “Go to the ant, thou sluggard: consider her
ways and be wise.” And at various times in the world’s history
this same principle has become conspicuous either in its applica-
tion in a broad sense, or its absence.
Kings, queens, statesmen, Soldiers, sailors, engineers, lawyers,
railroad men and farmers have been elevated to the highest pin-
nacle of fame or relegated to obscurity by adoption or rejection
of this principle, and to hold there is some new discovery in
“scientific management ’’ erroneously implies that lines not em-
ploying these methods are unscientific, inefficient, or behind the
times, while as a matter of fact the principles of efficiency have
been constantly practised since the earliest history of man, and
have been in railway operation since the construction of the first
line in the world, and there is no place in the civilized world
to-day where “nature's forces are applied so efficiently to the use
of man * in the production of railway transportation as on Ameri-
can railways, and if the very able writers on, and advocates of,
the scientific management plan, who have so unsparingly criti-
cised the present management of our railways, would employ
some of their time and energy in an effort to bring about a more.
friendly feeling toward corporate interests, especially railways,
from Our courts, legislatures and the public in general, much
more could be accomplished toward economy and efficiency in
operation than by holding them up to the public eye as examples
of extravagance or inefficiency.
- The writer has received much valuable information from
railway officers and other Sources of recognized authority, for
which grateful acknowledgment is hereby made.
48 F. H. CLARK.
DISCUSSION
MR. F. H. CLARK, General Superintendent Motive Power,
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen:
I am sorry that I have not had an opportunity to read Mr.
Symons’s paper and that I did not arrive until after the reading
of the paper had begun. I feel that under the circumstances I
am not very well prepared to open the discussion, or even to
discuss his paper intelligently.
It seems to me that most writers on the subject of “Effi-
ciency " overlook or ignore the fact that the railroads of the
country are, and have been for a good many years, giving a
good deal of attention to this question of efficiency, not only in
shop operations, but in the matter of fuel train load and other
transportation costs, Had nothing of the sort been accom-
plished by the railroads in the past twenty years, they would
certainly have been unable to meet the reductions in rates that
have been brought about, in spite of increases in rates of pay
and costs of material used, and at the same time improve their
service.
I think it is quite possible, also, that these writers fail to
appreciate the difficulty of effecting important reductions in the
cost of railroad Operations as compared with manufacturing
operations, because of the fact that the former are widely
scattered and a great deal of money in the aggregate is spent at
points where facilities are necessarily poor and where it would
not be economically possible to provide facilities for doing the
work at as low a cost as it could and should be done at larger
points where more work is done.
Mr. Symons’s paper refers principally to shop operations
and the possibility of effecting further economies in that direc-
tion. He has pointed out the fact that in a good many instances
it seems impossible to bring about further economies. The
subject had the careful consideration of the railroad companies,
and as conditions change and new and improved methods are
devised the railroads are generally ready to adopt them.
MR. S. M. VAUCLAIN, Vice-President Baldwin Locomotive
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 49
Works: It has been some time since I was engaged in active
railroad work, but I am still engaged in building locomotives
for those who are proficient in railroad management, where with
to carry on their business.
The term “Scientific Management ’’ is, to my mind, just
what Mr. Symons has described it—somewhat of a misnomer.
It might be called “economical ‘’ management with greater
accuracy, because economical management has been in existence
ever since I was a boy, and probably before that. We have read
a great deal in the newspapers lately as to how managers should
manage their property to derive economy, telling us just how to
do it and how many millions of dollars could be saved by doing
it just that way. Now, I do not know of any persons more
anxious to save those millions than are the railroad managers
themselves.
The first economical railroad management I was interested
in was in 1875. The master mechanic of one of Our large rail-
road systems happened to have been an inspector of locomotives
at the Baldwin Locomotive Works, and when he returned home
immediately set the wheels in motion and turned his attention to
study efficiency and economy in the repair of our locomotives, and
the same institution established at that time has been continued
and perfected, and I doubt if to-day any other railroad in the
United States has a more perfect system of handling its locomo-
tives than has this same railroad. If this is true—and being
familiar with it from the time it was started I know it to be
true—it proves that there has been, and still is, Some economic
management by railroad officials.
When Mr. Symons calls attention to the scientific manage-
ment now in force on the Santa Fe Railroad, and of which much
has been said pro and con—it having been the Only road SO far
that has striven by such methods to reduce their costs—we must
consider that many of their shops are located where it is difficult
to Cbtain men, and that the cost of doing their work is not only
influenced by material and prices, but by the enormous size to
which their locomotives has increased. The size of the loco-
1notives on the Santa Fe Road in IQIO was between 50 and 75
per cent, greater than it was in 1900, if locomotives are to be
measured by their tractive power. Therefore, what is true of
that road will also be true of other roads, and it would take a
50 S. M. VAUCLAIN.
long time to analyze the figures and make a thorough study of
them as presented in these tables. Mr. Symons has no doubt
made a thorough study of them, and so is not to be thought
guilty of eliminating facts before this meeting, for he certainly
will have to stand for them hereafter. But I call your attention
to the fact that locomotives have increased greatly in size during
the last decade, and the possibility is that they will increase
still more, and the probability is that railroad managements will
continue to be called down because their expenses are increasing
per engine mile. Also, each locomotive is being worked up
to a greater efficiency, or rather to a greater percentage of its
maximum efficiency, by the railroads. All the devices of their
mechanical engineers, all the devices they can secure, are being
tried in order to promote the efficiency of the locomotive, and in
addition on many railroads large expenses are being incurred
in modifying and altering the type of locomotives, all of which,
or much of which, may be charged to their maintenance cost.
Another item is the question of speed. The feeling is that
we all must go faster. Ten years ago none of us would have
thought of flying, but the idea of our getting up in the morning
now without giving a thought to the flying-machine is ridiculous;
everybody does so, and we believe that these things are going to
be instruments of common use. The flying-machine to-day is
One of the most discussed things of modern times; anything with
an element of danger in it is sure to draw a crowd. We must
now run our freight through from the West to Philadelphia or
to the seaboard in a specified number of hours, otherwise our
freight is passed over to another road that will maintain its
power to such a point as will enable it to give satisfactory service
under guaranteed conditions.
Having been an employer of labor all my life, I naturally
feel that every employer should start out to save money; most
employers save it from the wages paid their men. Materials
bought in the market are standard, and if we economize we must
do so in our labor by the scientific handling of that labor. If all
laboring men were precisely the same, a system could probably
be established by which we might handle all our workmen like
so many machines, but they are not all precisely the same. Go
into a stocking factory and you will find, say, twenty-five
machines operated by one woman, all attending to business and
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 51
producing with a maximum efficiency. In a machine shop, how-
ever, your human machines are not all of maximum efficiency;
they are of variable efficiency, and you cannot change it. You
cannot weed out and give your competitor all the poor Ones, be-
cause he very wisely won’t have them. You must be content
with a proportion of the good and of the bad and of the indiffer-
ent. There is nothing so plentiful as poor labor, and that you
do not want at all. If you want to save money from labor on a
railroad you cannot save it by reducing the President’s salary;
you cannot save it from the clerks; you cannot save it from the
roadmen, as they are mostly protected by unions: you have to
save it in the shops. I do not care what business you are in,
you must save it from the labor in your workshops. No one
ever thinks he is paying too much for his materials, as prices
are fixed; therefore you must save it out of your labor. Now, if
my memory is correct, there are some 3 IO,OOO shopmen in rail-
way shops throughout the country, and if we are going to save
a million dollars daily from these 3 IO,OOO shopmen we would
have to save about $3.30 a day from each one, which would
exceed their average daily wage. -
I did not expect to be called upon to speak this evening, but
I happen to have with me a little memorandum that I carry
around for my own protection, because when every one is attack-
ing you for efficiency and efficient management, or inefficient
management, it is very interesting to be able to go back twenty or
thirty years—depending upon your own age, of course, for your
ability to do so—and compare notes. It is more important that a
man earn a thousand dollars a year than it is that he gets forty
cents an hour for his day's work and only works two-thirds of the
days in the year. He must have a living wage, and in order to
do that he must have a rate of pay per hour or must have the
privilege of working a sufficient number of hours per day to
insure him a living rate of wage per week upon which he can
support his family. Suppose we go back to a low efficiency
working standard such as we have had for a good many years
and compare the pay of our workmen; for instance, in 1873 we
had no electricity, no labor-saving devices, etc. In 1885 the
Baldwin Locomotive Works had less than 500 horse-power in
the entire works; it now takes 20,000 horse-power to run it. In
1873 the wages averaged $13.73 per week; in 1905 they were
52 S. M. VAUCLAIN.
$13.93, after which there was a general reduction of IO per cent.
in all labor throughout the country, but in 1905 we ran $13.53
a week. In IQO6 business was off a little and the men averaged
$13. I8 a week, including all holidays taken out, etc. In 1907
it was $13.37 a week, and in 1910 it averaged $13.4I a week.
For the first nine months of last year it averaged $13.71 a
week. To accomplish this we have spent during the last few
years about four millions of dollars to increase our facilities, not
by employing a thousand clerks to hold a stop-watch over every
man in the place to see that he did not waste a minute, but in
carefully providing these men, whose power is artificial ability,
with suitable tools and labor-saving devices for handling their
work, and sufficient power to get the full capacity out of their
machines, and when we had done this we gave each man a special
notice that no man would be discharged for breaking his machine,
and there would be no reduction in his pay. Our men during the
last five weeks of this system averaged $14. I4, the next week
$14. I2, the next $14. I6, the next $14.2O, and the next week
$14.2 I, or a maximum variation from the minimum to the
maximum average weekly rate of pay of only nine cents a week.
This is in a shop, gentlemen, that is employing I4,OOO men and
whose wages are paid to them every week. The men are work-
ing faithfully. We have just gone through a little labor experi-
ence; the last trouble we had was in 1859. Most of the men
who disagreed with us were led astray by labor agitators. We
have eradicated the idea that was being grafted on these men
as to how a shop should be managed, but the average rate of
pay of the men in the shop now varies but a few cents, and the
same men now earn an average of twenty-five cents a week
higher, showing that by their present system of employment they
are able to produce better results and earn higher wages. This
rate of pay may seem low, but this rate of pay is high, because
if you look up statistics you will find the average pay of the
American mechanic is only about $600 a year. But the Ameri-
can workman is not employed all the time; his employer unwisely
sacks him upon the least provocation in order to save his wages.
These averages I have given you, gentlemen, cover men who
earn from five cents an hour as first-year apprentices to men
who have applied to their occupations the highest principles of
economic management and who have earned as high as 60 cents
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 53
an hour. Being now a manufacturer, it is impossible for me to
discuss this paper further from the railroad man's standpoint.
I believe in scientific management and in economic management,
but I do not believe in an espionage over human beings that
grinds them down and makes them feel that they are owned
body and soul by the men who control them.
G. R. HENDERSON, Mechanical Engineer, Baldwin Locomo-
tive Works: There is little to add to what has already been said,
as my thoughts have largely been anticipated by the previous
speakers. I think that the railroads of this country are greatly
indebted to Mr. Symons for taking up this subject, as I believe
that it is the first time that the challenge has been accepted, which
was the slogan of the anti-rate increase movement: “Save a mil-
lion dollars a day by Scientific Management and you won’t have
to raise rates.” The statement has gone so long uncontradicted
that many people were beginning to believe that it must be true,
and that careless and unscientific railroad management and opera-
tion were the Order of the day; and it must be a source of Satis-
faction to them to have the other side presented and upheld.
From the manner in which this subject has been treated by
efficiency engineers in times past, the natural impulse is to think
of unloading pig-iron and repairing belts immediately the term
“Scientific Management’ is mentioned. It seems odd that when
speaking of large accomplishments the enthusiast always begins
with these insignificant illustrations, which at once rather convey
the impression that there may have been a “Save at the Spigot
and leak at the bung" economy. Of course, the best results are
obtained in all lines when they are scientifically and carefully
followed up, but practical methods are equally important, and if
these be lost sight of in an over-exaltation of the former the
results are apt to be delusive and transient.
MR. W. V. TURNER, Chief Engineer, Westinghouse Air
Brake Company: Mr. President and Gentlemen: I have read
over rather carefully the paper written, or read, by Mr. Symons,
and I am glad to say that I am heartily in accord with the sense
of the paper as I understand it. I believe that the general inten-
tion of the paper is not against economic management; that
any method, call it scientific management or anything else you
54 W. V. TURNER.
please, is not discredited by Mr. Symons, but issue is taken upon
the saving of one million dollars a day, the inference being that
the railroads of this country are so mismanaged that one million
dollars a day is being thrown away, or failing to be realized,
because the gentlemen in charge do not practise Scientific man-
agement, and that until these scientific management gentlemen
came along, thirteen or fourteen years ago, everything was being
run back-end foremost or without any regard to economy.
Mr. Symons, I think, has illustrated the point that if one
million dollars a day would be saved by scientific management
of the mechanical department of our railroads, it would be
necessary to save one of every three dollars earned per man,
and, according to Mr. Vauclain's figures, I think his men only
earn two dollars per day; therefore, they would have to shell
out a dollar a day to the railroads to help foot the bill. That
would be rather a difficult proposition, and would not only be
getting something for nothing, but, on the part of the men,
a case of giving something for nothing, which would reduce
the pay to about the same terms as those proposed by the Scien-
tific gentlemen, who have a lot of theories which, so far as my
experience goes, have cost about a dollar and a half to work
Out for every dollar saved; this, however, is no argument against
scientific management and applies only to this particular mani-
festation, or application of it.
I am not actively engaged in Shop management at the present
time, but I am connected with a firm that has been in existence
now for forty-three years and under the jurisdiction of one of
the greatest men of this country. Its men are working under
an economic System and are allowed to earn what they can,
and there has been no strike nor symptoms of a strike in the
forty-three years that the company has been in existence, and I
do not think there is a stop watch in use. The men put forth
their best efforts, and the result is that we have one of the best
Imanaged shops in this country, and there is no scientific manage-
ment about it of the kind referred to in the paper.
To secure such efficiency in the Westinghouse Company
organization involved the expenditure of large sums of money,
and it was all spent to produce the articles manufactured by
our company as cheaply and efficiently as possible. The rail-
roads have been gradually improving their facilities and educating
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 55
their men, and the school systems prove this by their results;
but if they were to put in such a system as is proposed by this
Scientific management it would be necessary to spend many more
millions of dollars before the new men and methods got a start;
but when the railroads are selling transportation as cheap to-day
as they were twenty years ago they must obtain money in some
way. When, however, they ask permission to increase rates for
the purpose of getting the money essential to the development
of Scientific management, they are told that this money, and
more, is available if they would only save it. As well explain
to the newsboy whose pockets are empty that there is money
to be made selling newspapers. A rancher out West being
without ready money to scientifically develop his property, but
having a timber tract, thought to raise the necessary preliminary
to this scientific management by disposing of his timber. To
this end, it was necessary to purchase a sawmill, and he therefore
wrote to a manufacturing concern for prices, etc. They obtained
information as to location, and quantity, character, etc., of the
timber, and quoted him a price of $10,000. This surprised Mr.
Ranchman considerably, as he did not expect that scientific
management would require any such initial outlay as this, and he
answered the quotation by a hot wire as follows: “If I had
$IO,OOO, what in Hades do you suppose I would want with a
sawmill!” If the railroads have money enough to inaugurate
scientific management, a raise of rates would not be necessary,
as we are told that they would be able to add a million dollars
a day to their treasury without it. In fact, Mr, Emerson has
now raised this estimate to five million dollars a day.
Gentlemen, the worst feature about the whole proposition,
as it appears to me, is the desire to get something for nothing;
to inaugurate a revolution without cost; to do it by means of
stop watches and bonuses (another name for premiums on bad
work and concealed defects), and by the pitting of one man
against another to the exhaustion of all physical and mental
energies, making life a mere drudgery, with neither time nor
disposition to find out that it is good to be alive.
No one believes more in getting the best efforts out of a
man than I do, but it can be done by encouraging him and
giving him more enthusiasm, and should not be done by spying
upon him or giving him less care or thought than the machine
56 A. L. CONRAD.
he is working upon. I was on the Santa Fe when this system
was inaugurated, and, undoubtedly, there was room for consider-
able improvement, but I must confess that I am not prepared
to unqualifiedly indorse the means employed to effect it or the
quality of work resulting. However, we are told that these
methods will in some way produce the money with which to buy
more machines, more locomotives, and more cars, and I suppose
we ought to be satisfied. It reminds me of a story told on J. J.
Hill. Shippers were kicking because they were not supplied
with either enough cars or as promptly as they desired, and
he advised them that he would furnish cars and made prepara-
tions to issue bonds to buy cars, at which they got out an injunc-
tion to restrain him. He turned to them and said, “Gentlemen,
if you will furnish the cars, I will haul them for you,” and this
illustrates pretty well about how the matter stands. No doubt,
Mr. Clarke and Mr. Hill and other gentlemen connected with our
railroads would be only too glad to get out of it all that there
is in it, and the fact that they desire to obtain money with which
to inaugurate Scientific management shows that they desire to
profit from the advice and by the assistance of the efficiency
engineers, but to realize it in perhaps a little different way; that
is, supply the man with tools and all other things necessary to do
his work, but at the same time allowing him to remain under the
impression that he is still a man.
A. L. CONRAD, Assistant General Auditor, The Atchison,
Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company: Mr. President and
Gentlemen: I have been very much interested in listening to this
discussion, but did not come prepared to take any active part
therein; therefore must beg to be excused. However, in view of
the direction taken by this discussion, dealing largely with re-
sults obtained under the so-called scientific management plan on
the railway with which I am connected, I will say that there are
many elements entering into the equipment repair performance
reflected in the Atchison repair accounts, such as contributions
of new engines, changes in weight, tractive power, and type of
engines, etc., each of which has had considerable influence on
the unit costs of repairs during the period covered by Mr. Emer-
son’s administration and since that time, and when these elements
are fully analyzed and each given its due weight and importance
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 57
it is believed that there will be found no substantial reduction in
repair costs during the Emerson period; neither will it be found
that there has been any diminution of efficiency or practical
application of scientific management in the subsequent period in
which our mile-run unit costs are shown to be considerably
higher. -
I will add that from my personal observation and study of
this subject I believe there is much to be gained from a scientific
study of the conditions surrounding the performance of all
mechanical Operations and theorizing thereon, as both lead to
the elimination of much wasted energy; but, like everything else,
this application of Science and theory has its limitations and
must be coupled with practicability and consideration of the
human equation, as it requires a harmonious combination of all
of these factors to secure profitable results. The so-called scien-
tific management, including the profit-sharing or premium-paying
plan, that has been so widely advocated and which is the subject
under discussion, is, in my opinion, much less adaptable to rail-
way repair shops and operations performed therein than to
large machine shops and manufacturing plants where the Output
can be accurately and inexpensively measured as to quantity and
quality.
MR. EMERSON : It is unkind to criticise Mr. Wilson E.
Symons’s address, “The Practical Application of Scientific Man-
agement to Railway Operation.” Mr. Symons quotes the Bible.
He will remember the story of Balaam, who, being employed by
Balak to curse Israel, blessed instead, and when Mr. Symons
blesses we heartily agree. Mr. Symons shows at length that in
the matter of lubrication railroads were formerly very wasteful,
but that this small item of expense has been decreased 233 per
cent. ; that “the total Saving since 1890 is not less than
$IOO,OOO,OOO ; the annual saving to the railroads may be esti-
mated at about $10,000,000 a year, which justifies classing Gen.
Charles Miller as a leading efficiency engineer.”
Some of my friends and clients were interested in the Galena
Oil Company for many years. For three years I carefully stud-
ied its plans and operations. I have been consulted by its officials.
I have expressed to General Miller my great obligation to his
teachings, and I agree with Mr. Symons—
58 HARRINGTON EMERSON.
Firstly, that General Miller is an eminent efficiency engineer;
Secondly, that his technical methods are those of efficiency
engineering;
Thirdly, that his methods have probably saved the railroads
$IOO,OOO,OOO in twenty years and are saving the railroads
$IO,OOO,OOO on the single item of lubrication. -
What were the efficiency methods put into effect by General
Miller P
Formerly lubricating oil was purchased and used without
investigation of quality or special properties.
General Miller established laboratories, employed experts,
tested oil from raw product to finished application. He and his
experts knew more about oil than all the railroad employees in
the United States. He entered into contracts with the railroads
on a mileage basis. His contention was that it was not price per
gallon but quantity used per mile that counted; that in the equa-
tion Q P the railroads could obtain a minimum, not as they were
doing, by reducing Price and increasing Quantity, but by increas-
ing Price and reducing Quantity. The railroads were at first
staggered at the proposition to pay $0.36 a gallon for oil when
they had formerly paid only $0.18, but as better results were
guaranteed by the Galena Oil Company than they could obtain
themselves, they acquiesced, and it is said 98 per cent. Of the
railroads of the United States have mileage lubrication contracts
with General Miller's company.
I was not in the slightest interested in the price obtained for
oil by the Galena Oil Company, but it is an efficiency principle
that better quality at a higher price is economical, and this prin-
ciple applies to materials, to supplies, to labor, and to equipment.
Whether the railroads could or could not have made a better
bargain with the Galena Oil Company as to price is a different
question from that of economies in use. Personally I am always
willing to pay more for materials, for labor, for equipment, if
increased price results in less quantity.
The Galena Oil Company having secured a contract, the easy
part of its work, took up with equal intelligence the use of the
oil it had sold. -
Engineers, car oilers, and others, who had been accustomed
to “Gospel measure,” “full and running over,” were not easily
converted to the use of one-third, or even one-sixth as much oil.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 59
Mr. Symons states: “As a result of the oil contracts, the oil
company furnished experts free of charge to supervise the eco-
nomical use of the oils, and in the co-operation of these experts
with mechanical and operating officers many improvements in the
design and repairs of motive powers, handling of equipment,
stores and supplies have been accomplished.”
It was these methods, these experts, I most carefully studied
and watched. The oil company with a contract on a big road
was willing to pay more for experts, for organization to look
after oiling alone than the railroad was willing to pay a superin-
tendent of motive power and his direct staff for looking after all
motive-power conditions. The experts of the oil company
Boarded locomotives, cultivated the friendship, stimulated the
interest of engineers, took up their difficulties, co-operated with
them, persuaded them not to use $0.36-per-gallon oil to light the
fires, perhaps even discovered that all elevators and mills along
the line of the railroad were using railroad oil and other supplies,
and this practice they stopped. By constant, unremittent personal
attention to men and conditions, supplemented by the quality of
oil used, the Galena Oil Company made good. Its methods were
those of Scientific Management:
(I) As complete knowledge of the subject as the state of the
art permitted;
(2) An Organization to realize ideals;
(3) Equipment to supplement the organization;
(4) A strong executive who understood, who directed and
who through Organization and equipment accomplished.
If $1 O,OOO,OOO a year is being saved on oil, the total lubrica-
tion bill for all railroads now being about $21,000,000, what
could not be saved on a $525,000,000 material bill, on a
$1,019,000,000 labor bill, on a $1,210,000,000 equipment charge,
if the methods of Gen. Charles Miller—investigation by experts—
application by experts—were applied ?
With the example of Gen. Charles Miller's work before me,
with thirty years of railroad experience covering all departments,
with fifteen years’ experience as investigator, manager, and
efficiency counsellor to various industrial and transportation
enterprises, I know that the expenses of operating and main-
6O HARRINGTON EMERSON.
taining the railroads of the United States could be reduced
several hundred million dollars a year. -
This reduction could not be effected without the earnest,
patient, wise, and just co-operation -
Of railroad owners;
Of railroad employees;
Of the public, both individually, corporately and repre-
sented by its State and National Government;
Of a great body of competent efficiency counsellors and
Scientific managers.
This reduction in expense can be brought about with great
gain to each of the four classes, not at the expense of any class
for the profit of any other class. -
Railroad owners, until they had been paid off in full, would
hold securities of more stable and greater market value than
those they now hold. It is not necessary to confiscate one dollar
of present market value of railroad securities. Individual rail-
road employees, from presidents down, should receive increas-
ing compensation for less toil, strain, anxiety, and effort, and it
would not be necessary or be any part of the plan to discharge
or lay off or throw out of work a single employee on account of
the application of efficiency principles.
The public would ultimately benefit from the very great
reductions in current expenses. This benefit might take in part
the form of better service—elevated tracks through cities, electri-
fication, steel cars, faster trains, more trains, palatial and commo-
dious stations—it might take in part the form of reduced rates
for both passenger and freight service.
Reforms of this magnitude cannot be put through without
utilizing the highest experience available. -
This highest experience cannot be obtained solely from the
ranks of railroad owners, nor solely from the ranks of railroad
employees, nor solely from the representatives of the public, nor
solely from the great body of scientists and specialists who have
given their lives to acquiring knowledge and skill in various
directions.
The highest experience must be collated and applied by the
co-operation of all those who know. g
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 61
An example of supplementing knowledge occurred on the
Rock Island. The water chemist, analyzing all the tank waters,
reported one as particularly bad, and advocated the erection of
a purifying plant. Mr. Mudge, vice-president, knew that more
Serious trouble occurred elsewhere. than at this particular tank.
He checked up the quantity of water used at each tank and
showed that a water with only one-quarter as many grains of
incrusting Solids per gallon, but used for twenty times as many
locomotives, was causing five times as much trouble. A purify-
ing tank was approved for the pure water. This illustrates the
difference between System and Efficiency, also illustrates the
advantage of combining the knowledge of the man who can
analyze water with the knowledge of the man who knows rail-
roading in its length, its breadth and its depth.
Demagogues as well as many well-meaning deeply-interested
but ill-informed have preached to labor that savings can only be
effected by adding to the burden or lessening the compensation
of labor.
The public is for the moment satisfied that rate increases have
not been granted. The public like the workers has listened to
demagogical assertions, and vaguely thinks that rates might be
lowered to the extent of a million dollars a day, when in fact
railroad owners and managers, as well as the governments repre-
senting the public, have many serious problems to solve before
any reductions are in order; and if enormous terminals and
expensive way stations are to be built, if tracks are to be elevated,
if smoke nuisances are to be abated, if wood in equipment is to be
replaced by steel, if wages are to be raised and hours shortened,
the public will have to face higher rates, and higher rates will
serve it right.
At present there is not the co-operation between the four
classes interested that there ought to be. -
Efficiency experts have asserted
(I). That stupendous wastes exist in railroad operation;
(2) That the application of efficiency principles would elim-
inate these wastes.
The railroads have countered with a general denial that any
such wastes exist, or that they could be eliminated even if they
did exist.
62 HARRINGTON EMERSON.
Why not test the matter out?
Mr. Brandeis, an eminently successful practical efficiency
expert, has offered to place knowledge and expert skill at the
disposal of the railroads without charge. Not one has accepted
his offer. • &
Other efficiency engineers are willing to undertake the reduc-
tion of unit costs on the same basis as Gen. Charles Miller uses,
namely, for a contingent fee. The offers are spurned. They
are willing to carry out test analyses free of charge. They are .
scoffed at. -
We told one eminent railroad manager that the wastes on his
road amounted to $2,700,000 a year. This was in IQO7. He
was very indignant, told me that he knew it as well as I did,
and that he proposed to eliminate them without the help of
Scientific Experts as to inefficiency. The next year, 1907–8, his
expenses went up $2,300,000, or $5,000,000 above what they
ought to have been.
We were invited to check up another trunk line. My asso-
ciates discovered wastes of over $2,000,000. The same railroad
was checked up by a very eminent and successful railroad execu-
tive. . Pursuing wholly different methods, he also estimated an-
nual preventable losses at $2,000,000. Ten weeks after we had
presented our report I was told that it would be unfair to the road
and to its officials to allow any outsider to offer advice or suggest
remedies. He had never paid for the information given. This
was according to the principles of strenuousness, but not accord-
ing to efficiency principles.
I recall with pleasure an experience of twenty years ago.
I was engaged by the Burlington to look after its tax matters.
For a fee of $1,000 I offered to do the same thing for another
great line, the Union Pacific. My offer was refused because the
officials could not see what excuse they would have to pay me
$1,000 to attend to their business. Inside of a month I bought
in their delinquent taxes in my home county and scooped $3,000
in penalties without investing a dollar. It was the sweetest
money I ever earned.
I have read with great care Mr. Symons’s brief against the
use of Scientific Management in railroad direction, maintenance,
and operation. My Own theory is that the railroads, to a higher
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 63
degree than industrial plants, apply Scientific Management, and
it is due to this higher degree of application that in so many
respects railroad operation is so excellent.
The predetermined precision with which very fast trains run
in all weathers over long distances is one of the best examples
the world has ever seen of the accurate and perfect results result-
ing from Scientific Management. Railroads were originally
organized to transport passengers, and in this they have attained
a high degree of excellence as to speed, safety, and comfort.
Mr. Symons's argument against applying available knowledge
and skill to the details of railroad operation, except as to lubri-
cation and air-brakes, can be reduced in substance to a few
definite propositions:
(I) That the man who said the preventable wastes of rail-
roads amount to $1,000,000 a day is an academic theo-
rist or student without practical knowledge of transpor-
tation problems or of the applications of Scientific
Management of these problems.
(2) That practical railroad men know their own business
and need no advice from theorists as to how to run it.
(3) That the practical application of Scientific Management
to the Santa Fe was a failure.
(4) That as a practical railroad man he sees possibilities of
savings of $78,OOO a day, which is much less than
$1,000,000 a day. -> --
It does not seem to me that Mr. Symons knows either the
aims, methods, or results of efficiency principles applied to rail-
road operations, for if he knew, he would not endorse the in-
vestigations and methods of the Galena Oil Company, claiming
for them an annual saving of $1 O,OOO,OOO, yet object to expert
investigation and co-operative methods as to all other items of
railroad expense.
What is Scientific Management? &
It is the common-sense and economical application of all
available knowledge and skill to every part of operation, however
great—$1,000,000,000 of wages, for instance; however minute—
lubrication, for instance. -
64 - HARRINGTON EMERSON.
The aims of Scientific Management applied to railroads are:
(I) Not to ask for the discharge of a single man on account
of the introduction of efficiency methods.
(2) To lessen the toil, hardship, danger and friction, fluctu-
ation in employment that at present in greater or less
degree affect every railroad employee, from president
down. - .
(3) To increase the pay of those who are carrying on rail-
road work. e
(4) To increase the security and value of railroad invest-
111entS. •
(5) Ultimately to lessen the costs of service to the public.
In 1908, in a contributed article written at the request of
The Railroad Gazette, I ventured the opinion that small ineffi-
ciencies following one another in dependent sequence resulted in
terrific end inefficiencies, and that owing to the great number of
dependent sequences in railroad work the losses aggregated
$3OO,OOO,OOO a year. This essay was favorably commented on
by railroad publications, and I did not hear a single adverse
CO1minent. & . .
In February, IQIo, nearly two years later, I repeated the
statement before the Railway Club of Pittsburgh, at which time
there was violent dissent by railroad men.
In November, 1910, Mr. Brandeis startled the country by
his dramatic presentation of the argument against rate increases
before the Interstate Commerce Commission, and he put me on
the stand to state how I had arrived at this estimate of
$3OO,OOO,OOO. - - *
In preparation for that hearing and during the past year I
have been obliged to study and analyze more carefully than .
before the different items of railroad expense, and these studies
and analyses, in which I have been assisted by very able men of
lifelong railroad experience, have caused me to revise my esti-
mate of one million dollars a day, and with due and deliberate
consideration I now place the ultimately preventable wastes at
two million dollars a day—losses to be eliminated by increasing,
not decreasing, the efficiency of the roads both as carriers, earners,
and employers.
Mr. Symons puts the words “efficiency engineer'
y
in quota-
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 65
tion marks, and under the heading “Efficiency Engineers—Who
Are They P” he quotes from an article in Hampton's Magazine,
written by a man of no technical or engineering training, abso-
lutely without efficiency reputation or efficiency experience of any
kind, an article against whose sensationalism I protested to the
editors of the magazine, a magazine recently in difficulties of
another kind with the United States authorities.
The implication by Mr. Symons that efficiency engineers and
Scientific Management experts belong in the same class with
irresponsible sensation mongers and muckrakers is not in accord-
ance with the efficiency principle of “The Fair Deal" or the
efficiency principle of “Common Sense.” Personally I cannot
allow that Mr. Symons’s railroad experience has been either
longer, broader, or more varied than my own. As I have
assumed to speak of railroad conditions and problems, it is but
just to our audience to let it know that it is not listening to an
irresponsible theorist without practical experience.
I was on the far frontier in railroad work thirty-five years
ago. For thirty-five years, including the present year, I have
travelled on railroad passes because engaged in railroad service.
I have been employed by six trunk lines—three western and
three eastern—I have been directly on the staff of two railroad
presidents, of Several vice-presidents, and of general managers.
I was for a year on the staff of one of the greatest superintendents
of motive power America has produced: a man also eminent as
a scientific railroad manager. My assistants have come from a
dozen trunk lines.
I have sat in business specials from the shores of the Atlantic
to those of the Pacific, but I have also slept in box cars with the
laborers on grade. On frontier surveys I have gathered pebbles
to soften the hardness of my bed on the bare ground. I do not
pose as an operating railroad expert Or as an expert in any branch
of railroading. As to all facts and theories I have always taken
counsel of those more experienced than myself; nevertheless,
few men of my age have a larger or more varied general
acquaintance with railroad operations. So much for the parlor
theorist.
This knowledge is, however, not necessary. I was an effi-
ciency engineer before I touched railroading. I have been in
efficiency practice since I stopped railroading. My associates
66 - HARRINGTON EMERSON.
have gone into plants which had no connection with railroading
and achieved results, because Scientific Management rightly
applied always achieves results. Science is not a method, a
device, a system; it is a truth based on an understanding of the
laws of the universe.
I deny, therefore, absolutely that a man who has thoroughly
grasped the fundamental principles of organization could not
apply them to insects, to birds, to the animals in a menagerie, to
packs of hounds, to Savages, to railroad lubrication, and to
civilized men. I deny absolutely that I would have to be a
Chinaman to apply efficiency principles to a Chinese railroad
or to a Chinese caravan.
As to the second contention, namely, that railroad men can
Imanage their own business without asking counsel, railroad men
know better. As to legal matters, they consult lawyers. As
to railroad accounting, they have been guided by chartered
accountants, who applied to railroads the fundamental principles
of all accounting and who displaced the earlier, primitive, inade-
quate, and faulty bookkeeping methods. As to lubrication, cer-
tainly a practical detail of railroad operation, 98 per cent. Of them
have sought the advice and assistance of the Galena Oil Company.
Recently Congressman Redfield, of Brooklyn, in a humorous
talk at Dartmouth College, told the manufacturers of New Eng-
land that the great trouble with them was that they knew their
own business so well that nobody could teach them anything.
His sarcasm was applauded by the men he was addressing. A
great labor strike is now in progress on the Harriman lines.
The railroad employees know their own business so well that
they can’t take advice, and the railroad officials know their
business so well that they also feel quite competent to manage
their own end of it, and in the meantime violence and outrages
that would be disgraceful in the Congo Free State are of daily
occurrence. The shopmen don’t think the managers know how
to solve railroad labor problems justly, and the managers do not
think the shopmen have any conception of the magnitude of the
problems.
It is said that a few years ago the Big Four lost $623,OOO
by defalcation; more recently, on the Illinois Central, car repair
frauds ran into millions—both these frauds an absolute impossi-
bility under the charts and standards of Scientific Management,
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 67
since any deviation from standard would at once have been
investigated. When any body of men assume to know it all, to
be above all advice and advance, they have become Bourbons,
who can neither forget nor learn. Knowing a great number of
progressive railroad men, having all my life been associated
with progressive railroad men, I would be sorry to accept Mr.
Symons as speaking for them.
Mr. Symons states that Scientific Management has been a
failure on the Santa Fe.
He seems to mean by failure that expenses as to some items
are not as low as on some other roads. Is the feature of economy
all he considers in Scientific Management?
Even as to economy we shall answer him, but there are more
important matters than the dollar.
On the Harriman lines, namely, the Union Pacific, the South-
ern Pacific, and the Illinois Central, at the present time an acri-
monious and bitter strike of the shopmen, freight handlers, and
others is in progress. *
The Santa Fe lies in the triangle formed by these three roads.
There has been no strike of the shopmen on the Santa Fe for
seven years and there is none now. Strikes were a continuous
performance before Igos. During the whole of the last seven
years there have been strikes on other roads—the Erie strike
that lasted several years, the strike that sent the Chicago and
Great Western into the hands of a receiver, the recent Pennsyl-
vania strike, and many others. -
The shopmen on the Santa Fe have not found it necessary to
strike, because under more favorable work conditions they re-
ceived more per hour than other Western railroad workers, and
the railroad company had no complaint, because the more the
shopmen earned, the lower the unit costs. I quote from different
reports of Mr. J. W. Kendrick, at the time of the statements,
vice-president in charge of operation:
“Our rates, including bonus, are considerably higher than
those of other roads in the same territory. This is what was
intended in the first place.” -
“We have between twenty-five thousand and thirty-five thou-
sand schedules in force, and since 1905 the average efficiency of
workmen employed on bonus has increased from about 60 per
cent. to 93 per cent.”
68 HARRINGTON EMERSON.
“The total expenditure on account of bonus payments and
bonus Supervision, etc., in 1910 was at the rate of $1,283,000
a year.”
“As the efficiency of our shops increases, it follows that the
premium payments must also increase. The company has looked
on this growth of premium payments with a great deal of
satisfaction.”
In 1903 I was recommended to Mr. Kendrick, the new vice-
president of the Santa Fe Railway, by the second vice-president,
Mr. Paul Morton, whom I had known for many years.
The problems demanding solution on the Santa Fe in May,
1904, were four, and I name them in the order of their impor-
tance : -
(I) To maintain equipment with nearly all the mechanical
employees on strike and violently and destructively
hostile. .
) To take care of a rapidly-increasing business without
time to increase shop facilities and equipment. The
freight business increased 40 per cent. in three years,
the passenger business 30 per cent., with almost no new
equipment added. -
(3) To restore harmonious relations between employer and
employee—relations that had been strained and embit-
tered for many years.
(4) To reduce unit costs which had been steadily rising for
a series of years. This was never an aim. It was be-
lieved that unit cost reduction would necessarily follow
increased efficiency.
(
2
Each of these problems was put in the way of successful solu-
tion owing to the untiring and intelligent support given by Mr.
Kendrick, vice-president. -
I believe I am the only professional efficiency engineer ever
employed by the Santa Fe. Between January, IQO4, and Septem-
ber, IQ07, I advised Mr. Kendrick as to certain small problems
affecting only one or two departments; also, between April, 1904,
and March, Igo7, I collated, put in shape and superintended
the introduction of certain efficiency principles as to mechanical
operation, especially the practical principles of records, reliable,
immediate and adequate; planning, despatching, schedules and
standards.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 69
In March, 1907, I moved from Topeka to New York, taking
up, to me, more important but less interesting work. The general
work of “betterment,” as we called it on the Santa Fe, was trans-
ferred to railroad men of very great ability and experience. Mr.
Kendrick continued to take great interest in the work, showing
an unusual courage, ability, and energy in prosecuting it.
Mr. Buck, who was appointed Superintendent of motive
power, was an able railroad man of long and successful mechani-
cal experience.
Mr. H. W. Jacobs, a young man of great energy, who had
had railroad experience on the Burlington, on the Missouri
Pacific, on the Union Pacific, and on the Santa Fe, was appointed
assistant superintendent of motive power. Whatever Success or
failure attended their efforts on the Santa Fe after June, IQO7, is
due to railroad men and railroad methods, not to efficiency engin-
eers or to a strict or even general application of the principles
of Scientific Management.
The efficiency organization, small and inadequate, which was
built up on the road between IQO4 and IQO7 was disbanded.
Some of my assistants were retained, others followed me to New
York. A very much larger but distinctly systematizing railroad
organization was created, taking the place of the small Organiza-
tion of expert efficiency advisers. Before Mr. Buck was ap-
pointed, mechanical expenses began to increase. -
The increase was, in my opinion, not due to personality, be-
cause all the men mentioned were exceedingly able, but it was due
to inability on their part to dislodge from their minds the old
railroad conceptions of management and control and substitute
for them the principles of Scientific Management. Methods were
extended, but principles were lost sight of.
In modern organization it is the function of staff experts,
however employed, to evolve standards and experimentally show
that they can be attained; it is the function of line officials prac-
tically to realize and maintain the standards demonstrated by the
staff. This distinction between staff and line was not maintained
after June, 1907, on the Santa Fe; the peculiar and special duties
of staff were largely added to those of line.
Even though in 1905–6 and 1906–7 the principles of Scien-
tific Management were only partially applied on the Santa Fe,
it is fair to hold them responsible for whatever changes for
better or for worse occurred in these years as compared to the
7O HARRINGTON EMERSON.
years immediately preceding, omitting the year of the mechanical
employees’ strike, Igo4–5. It is not fair to cite the Santa Fe
as an example of the results of Scientific Management in years
Subsequent to IQO6–7, since the work was neither extended nor
Supervised by any efficiency engineer. There is a great differ-
ence between System and Scientific Management; there is even
a greater difference between strenuousness and efficiency—strenu-
ousness expecting greater results from more effort, efficiency
expecting greater results from less effort. Betterment work on
the Santa Fe has been systematized ; there has been a strenuous
but not always efficient endeavor to extend its scope. Those in
charge of it, railroad men as is Mr. Symons, are abundantly able
to defend it against his attacks. I do not know whether expenses
per unit have increased or not. I no longer have the unit records.
The road is using some locomotives twice as heavy as when I
was with it. These are new types, necessarily costly in the
experimental stages. The cost of repairs per mile or per loco-
motive is not to be applied comparatively to locomotives weighing
respectively 66 tons and 425 tons, costing respectively $7,740
and $43,880. I confine myself to the period when the road as to
its mechanical operations was counselled by an efficiency engineer,
supplemented by an efficiency staff.
As to the maintenance of equipment with employees in
strikes, I quote from the president’s annual report, IQO4–5,
page I3 :
“Equipment is in better conditon than ever before, notwith-
standing the adverse conditions of the past year (strike), and the
road is now prepared to handle promptly and efficiently a large
prospective business.”
The equipment maintenance conditions were serious in May,
1904, on the A., T. & S. F. Ry.
(1) An enormous increase in business was beginning.
Passenger Freight ton Number
miles in miles in of
millions millions locomotives
I903 613 4,706
I904 708 4,682 I433
I905 744 . 4,730 ) , I454 ) .
§ ºr ºr ºr
I907 97o 6,843 I79 I
(2) Because the annual increase in business could not be
foreseen, it was impossible to order new locomotives in time to
take care of it. It was also impossible to build and equip new
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 71
shops in time to take care of the increased deterioration of over-
loaded old equipment and added new equipment. &
So great was the increase between IQO4–5 and IQO6–7 that
President Ripley states, page 20, report 1906–7: “At times the
increase in volume of traffic was so large that the company’s
equipment was overloaded. The necessity of moving traffic
without regard to economy of operation caused a material in-
crease in Operating expenses.”
The International Association of Machinists, which in 1903
had won a successful strike on the Union Pacific, thought the
time propitious to force concessions, and made proposals to the
A., T. & S. F. Ry. President Ripley's words, Report I904, page.
I9, are: “Certain unreasonable demands made by the Inter-
national Association of Machinists having been declined, that
Organization declared a strike at all shops of the company, effec-
tive May 2, 1904, which Order was quite generally obeyed on the
western portion of the system, as well as by a large number of
employees on the eastern divisions.”
The shops, therefore, in May, IQ04, found themselves quite
generally without employees and with run-down and crippled
equipment, the bad conditions being largely due to the hostility
of several years' standing of the employees towards the employer,
a hostility always conducive to neglect and worse.
Yet even under these difficult conditions, when expenses of
track maintenance and of operation were rising, the expenses
of maintaining equipment were falling. - -
The diagrams show the detention of locomotives in the
Topeka shops at an interval of a year on the two dates, March
3O, IQO5, and March 30, 1906. Each black square represents a
locomotive, and the position from left to right shows the time
of detention for repairs. The total number of locomotives dis-
charged from shop was
IOO5 I906
January . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 32
February . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 24
March . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 36
86 92
Total days of detention :
March 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I,735 254
Gain in locomotive days . . . . . . . I,481
7
2
HARRINGTON EMERSON.
Each locomotive's service per day was estimated to be worth
$35 to the company.
I902-3 IQ03-4 IQ04-5 Igoş-6 Igoó-7
Gross earnings per day . . . . $171,000 $187,000 $187,500 $214,000 $256,500
Divided by locomotives in
Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I3 I I3O I3O I31 I43
An average gain of 1481 days at one shop in one month
meant a gain in gross of $194,0II. ..
Even if these locomotives had been repaired at a higher cost
;
;
|
*
it.
i
i
**
apalru
;
;
|
}
each, the additional expense would have been justified. They
were, however, repaired at considerably less cost each. The
average records per mile run of freight locomotives on the Santa
Fe for year ending March 31 were as follows: -
I904 I905 I906 IQ07
Gross freight tons per locomotive mile. . . . . . . 686 685 725 765
Miles run per locomotive failure. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, IOO 4,900 4,250
Coal used per locomotive mile, pounds. . . . . . . 243 24I
Repairs per locomotive mile, cents. . . . . . . . . . . . II.34 I2.56 9.63 9.40
Per cent. of locomotives in shops for repairs.. 2O I9 IQ













SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 73
As to restoration of harmonious relations, the absence of
Strikes among the Santa Fe mechanical employees, the occurrence
of strikes On other roads everywhere and none on the Santa Fe,
is the best testimony. º
Why should men Strike when current day rates are guaran-
teed, when overtime is eliminated, when the management does its
part in standardizing conditions and facilitating standard opera-
tions, when the worker is paid an extra sum for the exercise
of intelligent supervision, when he is freed from tyranny, when
his gross earnings are increased on the average nearly 20 per
cent., in Some cases as much as IOO per cent., when his net earn-
ings, that is, the margin between minimum living costs and gross
income, have been increased several hundred per cent. P
The operation of the equipment, taking care of the increased
business, harmonious relations, these were the main aims sought
both by the vice-president, Mr. Kendrick, and by his efficiency
staff. If cost reductions occurred they were a welcome by-
product due to increased efficiency, but not to increased strenu- .
O11S1162.SS.
The story of the attempt to apply the principles of Scientific
Management to some departments of the Santa Fe has been told
at length elsewhere, and those interested are referred to these
sources of information.*
Nevertheless, even as to economic results I take up Mr.
Symons’s challenge. - -
Economies in railroad Operation can be comparatively ascer-
tained only when reliable units or standards are used.
Railroad units valuable for comparison are a subject of ex-
treme technicality, almost out of place in a public discussion.
Some of the difficulties will be indicated. How shall the per-
formance of locomotives be compared? What unit shall be
used P
* Betterment Work on the Santa Fe, 1906. (Reprint from American
Engineer and Railroad Journal.)
Shop Betterment and the Industrial Effort Method, 1905.
Securing Efficiency in Railroad Work.
Story of an Attempt to Apply Scientific Management to Some Depart-
ments. Lecture delivered at Harvard University, November 16, 1910,
before the rate hearing in Washington. (Reprinted by the Emerson
Company, 30 Church Street, New York.)
74 HARRINGTON EMERSON.
Locomotives vary in weight from a few tons up to 400 tons.
The mileage in a year may run from nothing up to 70,000
miles. -
. The tonnage hauled may run from nothing up to 30OO tons.
On mountain divisions the cost of repairs per unit of work
performed is 60 per cent. greater. 4.
The efficiency of some shops where locomotives are repaired
is IOO per cent., of other shops it is as low as 30 per cent.
What unit shall be used to compare locomotive repairs? The
locomotives? The mileage? The tonnage? The division?
The shop P. Each is absolutely absurd unless all other conditions
are similar. There is a further consideration. What is included
in the costs to which any one of these units is applied ? Shall
it be the moneys actually expended in locomotive repair, or shall
it include in varying degree such items as the purchase of new
locomotives to replace old locomotives scrapped, the maintenance
and renewals of shop machinery and tools, supervising expenses
of all kinds, extraordinary expenses, or those for guards during
a strike?
Mr. Symons makes Santa Fe comparisons when the conditions
vary as follows:
I902–3 I903-4 I904-5 I906–7
Tons Tons Tons Tons
Average weight of locomotives . . . . . . 68.76 74.91 81.74
Average weight on drivers . . . . . . . . . . 54.37 58.63 62.66
Average mileage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36,344 33,868 29,210
Average road units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43,422 47,25I 47,855 64,629
Average tonnage hauled . . . . . . . . . . . . 686 74O 775
Indirect expenses added to direct
locomotive maintenance cost . . . . . . I5% 18% 18% I6%
Strike conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . None. 2 111 OS. I2 mos. Overcome
Even with these variations in the comparisons and with loco-
motive conditions most variable, I cannot find any comfort for
Mr. Symons in his attack on Scientific Management.
If a locomotive made no mileage it would need no repairs,
therefore cost of repairs per mile run is a better basis, although
still very unsatisfactory, as one road might haul small tonnage
and the other heavy tonnage.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 75
COST PER LOCOMOTIVE.
I902-3 I903-4 I904-5 I906-7
Santa Fe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . $3,042 $3,772 $4,165 $3,033
Southern Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,288 3,588 3,473 3,444
AVERAGE WEIGHT IN TONS OF LOCOMOTIVES.
I902-3 I903-4 I904-5 I906–7
Santa Fe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68.7 74.9 77.5 8I.8
Southern Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56.2 59.7 64. 67.2
COST OF REPAIRS PER TON OF LOCOMOTIVE WEIGHT.
1902-3 I903-4 I904-5 I905-6
Santa Fe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $38.45 $50.35 $53.57 $37.08
Southern Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.35 60.12 54.35 49.82
MILEAGE PER LOCOMOTIVE.
• I902-3 I903-4 I905-6 I906–7
Santa Fe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30,506 36,344 33,868 29,210
Southern Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38,154 34,74I 3O,940 33,976
CoST PER LOCOMOTIVE MILE.
I902-3 I903-4 I904-5 I905-6
Santa Fe . . . . . . • * * * * * * * * * - - - - - - - $0.0867 $o.II34 $0.1256 $0.094
Southern Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . o.O862 O. IO33 O. II23 O.IO48
We have a better unit than either locomotive or mile if we
take weight on drivers multiplied by mileage and divide by
IOO,OOO,OOO.
CoST PER ROAD UNIT.
I902-3 I903-4 I904-5 I906–7
Santa Fe . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $80.00 $96.63 $IO5.92 $72,60
Southern Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93.98 IOI.7.I IO9.27 89.55
These comparisons, lacking identity of units, are wholly un-
satisfactory, since there are variations in mileage, in weight, in
costs of labor and materials, in tonnage hauled, in climatic and
in labor conditions. - *
It would be absurd to draw very close conclusions as to
efficiency, but at least the last year, IQO6–7, on the Santa Fe
does not suffer in comparison either with the year 1902–3 nor
with the parallel road, the Southern Pacific, in any year.
While these reductions were occurring in locomotive repair
76 HARRINGTON EMERSON.
costs under partial application of efficiency principles, what was
happening as to maintenance of way and structures per mile
without Scientific Management?
I903T4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,12I 1905-6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,479
I904T5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I,37I I906-7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I,648
Not knowing the units, not knowing what was being done,
what great washouts had occurred, no unfavorable inference can
be drawn. It is possible that the low cost of 1903–4 was rela-
tively higher than the high cost of IQO6–7.
These comparisons, flattering though they are to Scientific
Management, both as to the Santa Fe compared with itself in
Sanfa Fe 5ys fern
Cosf of Locornofrve Repairs per Locomotive
Fiscal Years ending March 31 ºf
Labor
º
~)
O
Qb
S
*>+.
Th
§
5.
(b."
S
O
<
/905 1906. /907 /909 /909 /200
% of Locomotives in 5hops for repairs - 20 /9 19 /3 /4.
Milesge per Locomotive Failure 3/OO 4900 4250 464/ 62OO
Tonnäge Hauſed per locomotive Mile 635 725 , 765 770 796
different years and the Santa Fe compared with the only other
comparable road, the Southern Pacific,” they are nevertheless
not the kind of comparisons Scientific Management would make
except in the most popular manner and with apologies. *
They are not the kind of records called reliable, immediate,
and adequate. Happily there are other corroborating records,
although we cannot forbear introducing one other diagram, a
railroad man's diagram, printed in one of the official reports of
the Santa Fe. x
This diagram does not extend further back than 1905.
The cost of the maintenance of shop machinery and tools on
* Both running through the same states—California, Arizona, New
Mexico, Texas—both having same mileage, same number of locomotives,
both having oil burners, labor and physical conditions being similar for both.

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 77
both the Santa Fe and on the Southern Pacific, both actual
expenses and per unit, the unit selected being based on com-
bined mileage and weight on drivers of all locomotives, make a
better comparison. gº
Here is a distinct test, this department of the Santa Fe being
pitted against its own past record, pitted against a predetermined
cost allowance, pitted against the records of the corresponding
department on the only comparative road. The Santa Fe started
7.4 per cent, behind, $10.31 as compared to $9.55 on the Southern
Pacific. In the first year of the race the Santa Fe was struggling
with strike conditions, the Southern Pacific was operating nor-
mally; in fact, in the month in which Scientific Management was
first applied on the Santa Fe the preceding average yearly cost
had risen to $1 I. Io per unit. The main and chief difference
between the two departments was that on the Santa Fe the work
was being advised and directed by efficiency counsel and staff
experts, and on the Southern Pacific it was being directed in the
usual way by railroad line officials unassisted by staff counsel.
|MAINTENANCE SHOP MACHINERY AND TOOLS.
A., T. AND S. F. RY. (SANTA FE).
Year Units Expense Unit Cost
I903T4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47,250 $487,171 $IO.31
I904T5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47.854 486,620 Io.16
1905-6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57.760 376, IO6 6.5I
I906-7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64,628 315,844 4.89
SOUTHERN PACIFIC.
I903T4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.I.OO3 $487,150 $ 9.55
I904T5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.037 567, I61 IO.90
1905-6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57.034 537,318 9.42
1906-7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.076 638,193 9.81
The actual cash gain by the Santa Fe below the Southern
Pacific was $322,249; the unit gain, a fairer comparison for
the Southern Pacific, $313,796. Had the cost per unit remained
what it was in 1903–4, on the Santa Fe, the IOO6–7 bill would
have amounted to $666,315. The methods of Scientific Manage-
ment should therefore be given credit for a reduction of $350,471.
Incidentally, the improvement in the condition and Operation
of the Santa Fe tools was very great.
I expatiate at length on this pecuniarily unimportant item,
although it has tremendous dependent sequence effect on all shop
78 HARRINGTON EMERSON.
repairs, because on the Santa Fe the reforms were carried out not
by me, but by a staff expert selected by me and appointed by Mr.
Kendrick for this particular work. At the time of his selection,
June, 1904, he estimated the possible reductions at $2OO,OOO. At
the end of two years, on the basis of same number of units, he had
effected reductions of $179,573, at the end of three years of
$253,909, at an expense in no year exceeding $10,000 for his
Services and those of all his assistants engaged on this work.
This specialist did for tools exactly what Gen. Charles Miller did
for lubrication: he bettered the quality, standardized conditions
and Operations, and everlastingly exercised helpful supervision.
The expenses incurred for new tools, charged to capital not
included in maintenance account were as follows:
I904-5 To IOO6-7.
Santa Fe. Southern Pacific.
$363,968 $765,169
Even these records do not comply with the requirements of
Scientific Management. Happily there are others that strictly
do comply.
In 1905 the efficiency organization began to determine stand-
ards of time for each different item of work. These standards
of time were based on time and motion studies of particular men,
of particular machines. These standards were called schedules,
and altogether many thousand were prepared by men selected
from the various trades, men trained and supervised by the
efficiency staff. A combination was thus obtained of railroad
experience with efficiency experience. These schedules covered
just such items as those given in illustration by Mr. Symons—
broken frames, cracked cylinders,” etc.:
The same schedules were in force for several years as to the
same Operations, in the same shop, on the same machines, run
by the same men, under the same foremen. All conditions were
therefore as strictly comparable as they could possibly be.
These schedules were practically so perfect that when used to
predetermine the cost of the repairs to an individual locomotive
coming to the shop the actual costs of repairs on One hundred
locomotives only differed from the theoretical, predetermined
repair costs by 4 per cent.
* Shop Betterment on the Santa Fe. H. W. Jacobs. John Wiley & Sons.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 79
Efficiency of work under these schedules was determined by
dividing for each man, each month, the standard time indicated
on the schedules by the actual time he took to do the work. If,
of three men in the shop, each present 250 hours in a given
month, one turned out 200 hours of standard work, his efficiency
was 80 per cent. ; if the second turned out 250 hours, his effi-
ciency was IOO per cent. ; and if the third delivered 300 hours of
standard time in 250 hours of actual time, his efficiency was I2O
per cent.
The progress of the shop between January, IQO5, and
October, 1907, is shown in the table.
December,
January,
February,
March,
August,
September,
October,
No. of Standard
Iſle Il hours
2I 2,OII.2
50 4,350.2
77 7,649.6
25I 27,051.8
656 I22,736.4
73I I2O,357.5
77I I48,841.o
Efficiency
per cent.
3,613.9 55.6
7,418.8 58.6
I2,748.3 60.o
41,463.0 89.3
I26,534.4 97.O
I2O,478.O 99.9
I46,434.0 IOI.7
The effects of the application of efficiency principles to this
shop, the largest on the Santa Fe system, were:
(I) To increase output enormously without adding to shop
equipment or space.
(2) To reduce unit costs 30 per cent, or more.
(3) To increase the pay of the best men as much as 30 per
cent. On the average.
(4) To hold permanently the best men.
(5) To know accurately the cost of every item before work
is begun on it.
Relations of costs and efficiencies in a shop working IO,OOO
hours a day, average wages $0.36, average machine rate $o.40
per hour, average burden $0.24 per hour:
Efficiency
60
Increase
1n wages
O.
7.92
II.7.72
356.76
72O.
Io80.
I444.
Total cost
per day
IO,OOO
IO,007.92
IO, II'7.72
Io,356.76
IO,72O
II,080
II,444
Reduction in
unit cost
O.
I4.24
24. I2
30.96
35.68
39.56
43.OO
Increased
output
O.
7O
8O
90
IOO
IIO
I2O
I6.7
33.3
5O.
66.7
83.3
IOO.
8O HARRINGTON EMERSON.
A shop, as above, increasing its efficiency from 60 to I2O
per cent., not impossible of realization, increases wages 44.4 per
cent., decreases unit costs 43 per cent., and doubles the output.
The actual realization was IOI.7 per cent., showing a cost reduc-
tion of 36.33 per cent., an increased output of 69.5 per cent.
The work on the Santa Fe as to belting, tool maintenance,
locomotive repairs forced upon us the appreciation of the univer-
sal law earlier applied to lubrication by Gen. Charles Miller:
that when efficiency methods are applied costs go down.
High costs mean inefficiency; efficiency means low costs. It
is inevitable. The efficiency staff therefore turned its attention
to the establishment of standards. We made the most elaborate
study of locomotive operation that has ever been made. For a
period of five years we had the individual records of mileage, of
fuel consumption, of repairs in round-houses and shops of I5OO
locomotives of many different types under very different condi-
tions of service. We did for locomotives what actuaries have
done for life insurance. We used a unit of comparison taking
into account both weight and mileage. •
We determined beyond the slightest question that, on the
average, Santa Fe locomotives could be maintained for $50 a
year per unit, about $0.06 a mile for locomotives weighing
I67,OOO pounds on drivers and running 3O,OOO miles a year.
At the time we began and before the strike the average was
$96.63, or about $o. I 13 a mile; in 1907 the average was $72,60,
about $O.O94 a mile. -
Certain passenger locomotives on the A., T. & S. F. have
given I60,000 to 231,000 miles between the periods of general
repair. Locomotive I42O % of the Albuquerque division up to
June IOth, IQIO, had been in service four years without shopping,
had made 232,894 miles, was not due for shopping for two
months, had an allotment for repairs of $0.059 a mile and an un-
expended credit of $1500. Others of the same type show a per-
formance of only 34,000 miles. Can anyone doubt that this
average unsatisfactory performance is due to causes ultimately
if not immediately preventable?
On any railroad the cost of locomotive repairs can be stand-
ardized and the predetermined standards can be realized, not by
* Railroad Age Gazette, July, Igro.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 81
main strength, but solely through a combination of local ex-
perience and a plan applying all the efficiency principles.
In September, IQO7, a final report was rendered to Mr.
Kendrick showing how locomotive repair costs as to locomotives
then in Service could be reduced $O.O6 a mile, a figure averaged
as to all the locomotives on several divisions.
The final report showed on what divisions standards had
been attained and how, on what divisions they were not attained
and why. The causes were numerous, but chiefly type of loco-
motive, ability of master mechanic, and character of service.
Under the same master mechanic locomotives of different type in
similar service varied IOO per cent. in repair cost; under different
master mechanics, locomotives of the same design and class
varied IOO per cent. in repair cost. Shop facilities had very
little influence; Old and poorly-equipped shops seemed to be able,
when well directed, to repair locomotives as cheaply as the best-
equipped shops of the system.
During the three years from April, IQO4, to April, 1907, the
efficiency staff, which had gradually increased to 30, were watch-
ing efficiencies everywhere. We watched other railroads and
other railroad shops, we watched all branches of operation, we
saw freight blockades which at small expense could have been
mitigated. We saw the losses due to poor dispatching, to ineffi-
cient operation of all equipment, and, above all, we began to
grasp the underlying laws that affect economy. We discovered
why it was that tool maintenance could be reduced to one-third
and belting purchased to 5 per cent. of what it had been.
The work on the Santa Fe, although only a beginning, only
crude, was investigated, passed on, and endorsed by representa-
tives of the Railroad Gazette and of the American Engineer and
Railroad Journal, and also by the editor of the Engineering
Magazine.
The first time attention was ever called to the million-dollar-
a-day wastes and their cause was in a solicited article for the
editors of the Railway Age Gazette. -
The records as to economy on the A., T. & S. F. from 1903–4
to 1906–7 are not a matter of opinion. The facts appear in the
annual statements of the president of the company, as well as
in the sworn statements to the Interstate Commerce Commission.
Nobody, least of all myself, ever maintained that the A., T. &
82 HARRINGTON EMERSON.
S. F. had applied universally or thoroughly or widely the prin-
ciples of efficiency. The most that was ever contended was that
in the spots where they had been applied efficiency increased in
the broadest sense, and costs decreased. Does close observation
of railroad operations for thirty years, do fifteen years of experi-
ence in efficiency work, do the minute and careful investigations
of railroad operations by a staff of many specialists not only for
nearly four years on the Santa Fe, but also on a great number
of other roads before and since, do the inevitable effects of
dependent sequence to which railroads are peculiarly liable in
their operation, justify the estimate of preventable losses of
$2,000,000 a day?
The line of reasoning is:
(I) That the cost, supply, distribution, and use of materials
by railroads is not essentially different from the cost,
supply, distribution, and use of materials by other
industrial concerns; •
(2) That the cost, supply, distribution, and use of personal
services by railroads is not essentially different from
the cost, supply, distribution, and use of personal ser-
vices by other industrial, concerns;
(3) That the economical and efficient utilization of invest-
ment expenditures in cost, Supply, distribution, and use
is not essentially different in railroads from cost, supply,
distribution, and use of similar charges in industrial
plants. t
Railroads manufacture transportation, they add to the value
of products and individuals by carrying them from one point
to another. We have only to compare railroad transportation
as to speed, economy and Safety with earlier means of trans-
portation, as slave ships and caravans, to realize the astonishing
absence of waste of railroad operation as to the particular
function for which they were created.
Most plants show high efficiencies as to materials of manu-
facture, most plants show low efficiencies as to supplies for opera-
tion and maintenance. Railroad operation, if materials of
manufacture are included, is on the whole very much superior
to that of industrial plants, and if only supplies, labor and
investment charges are considered railroads are still superior to
most industrial plants.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 83
Therefore as to every kind of plant, railroads included, there
are three, and only three, main classes of expense—materials,
labor, fixed charges.
$525,000,000 + $1,019,000,000 + $1,210,000,000
Total Railroad Costs F Supplies –H Labor + Investment charges
Efficiencies 66.7 72.9 65
Total Standard Railroad Costs = Q P + T W — t R
Total Actual Railroad Costs = Standard Costs
Efficiencies
As to Supplies, as to Labor and as to Investment charges
there are two elements—Quantity and Quality.
As to Supplies, we have quantity used and price per unit.
As to labor, we have quantity of time required and price or wage
rate per hour. As to fixed charges, we have quantity of time
equipment is used and cost per hour.
Given a certain standard of excellence, Scientific Manage-
ment asks that the product of quantity and price shall be a
minimum; but hitherto, almost universally, price has been con-
sidered and not quality. It was Gen. Charles Miller's great merit
that as to lubrication he has persuaded 98 per cent. of the rail-
roads to consider quality rather than price. -
It is not the price of material that counts, because it is very
difficult to lower its price. It is the use made of it. In indus-
trial operation, from whose laws railroads are not exempt, the
prices or materials are fixed or rising. It would, for instance,
have been very difficult for any railroad president to buy rails
at less than $28 a ton. If, in fact, he wants better rails the price
will be raised. -
The only way to reduce the cost of rails is:
(I) Not to buy more rails than are needed. (Efficiency of
Supply.) - º
(2) Not to buy heavy rails where lighter rails would have
answered just as well. (Efficiency of distribution.)
(3) To buy rails of such shape and quality, so to lay them
and maintain the road-bed, so to design curves, grades,
and wheel flanges as to cause minimum practical wear.
(Efficiency of use.)
All these efficiencies are no doubt fully considered as to rails,
84 HARRINGTON EMERSON.
whose renewals, after all, amount to a very small item of rail-
road maintenance expense; but what about stationery and other
printed Supplies (as time-tables), for which the aggregate bill is
almost as large as for rail renewals P. -
Is the price per unit for printing as low as it ought to be
I assume that it is. -
Are more different time-tables and other forms printed than
are needed ?
The eminent purchasing agent of the Harriman lines is
reported to have said that by Standardizing forms he had been
able to reduce printing bills 30 per cent. Are more time-tables
and other forms distributed than are needed ? We all know that
hotel racks are filled up with time-tables obsolete before they are
taken. - - .
When it comes to use it is safe to say that in America, where
time-tables are forced free on a traveller, he uses ten times as
many as in Europe, where he pays a cent or two cents for a
time-table.
Therefore as to time tables, efficiency of price. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IOO per cent.
efficiency of supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 per cent.
efficiency of distribution. . . . . . . . . . 70 per cent.
efficiency of use. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 per cent.
End Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I4.7 per cent.
Time-tables cost seven times as much as they might.
Innumerable other examples of inefficiencies of supply, dis-
tribution, and use could be given.
As Gen. Charles Miller, according to Mr. Symons, by Scien-
tific Management secured a lubricating cost to the railroads
of $21,000,000 which would otherwise have been $31,000,000,
the reduction is about 33.3 per cent.
The total cost of all railroad supplies is $525,000,000, and,
applying the same percentage, the possible reduction is
$175,000,000. The average efficiency of railroad supplies may
therefore be 66.7 per cent., the preventable loss may be
$175,000,000. - -
I have seen loads of telephone poles bound to flat cars with
heavy copper wire, the requisition having been made out by some
busy foreman, put into the hands of an ignorant foreigner, care-
1essly filled by a division storekeeper. By analysis made by the
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 85
test department chemist we found scrap metal containing 51 per
cent. of tin being used to counterbalance locomotive drivers, tin
at that time being worth $0.25 and lead $O.O4. These are iso-
lated cases, of course, but the dependent sequence is always busy
somewhere, if not everywhere, with its deadly work.
Gen. Charles Miller increased the price of lubricating oil.
Price efficiency sank from IOO per cent. to 70 per cent., but he
furnished much less; it was not wasted before it was used, there-
fore efficiency of supply was brought up from 70 per cent. to
90 per cent. He distributed suitable oil, not cylinder oil, to
freight cars and the efficiency of distribution rose from 60 per
cent. to 90 per cent. He saw to it that very much less was used
—in the words of Mr. Symons, “ no umbrella was necessary, or
Gospel measure *; the efficiency of use rose from 30 per cent.
to 90 per cent. What is the end result?
QP QP_,
70 × 60 × 30 × Ioo 12.6
actual cost eight times what it ought to be, was changed to
QP QP,
90 × 90 × 90 × 70 51
actual cost one-quarter of what it had been. Naturally, the
cost to the railroads fell from $0.20 per IOOO miles to $0.06.
Lubricating oil is not a large item of railroad cost, about
$21,000,000 for all the railroads in the United States. Coal, the
largest item, is more than one-third of the total supply bill,
costing $188,736,OOO a year. The dependent sequences in coal
are not four, but a dozen.
Excessive costs at the mine, due both to
(I) High price and
(2) Short weight deliverances;
(3) LOSses in transit;
(4) Losses at the bunker; -
(5) Losses in loading on to tender, .
(6) Losses in round-house from wasteful and
(7) Premature firing up;
(8) Losses in firing owing to poor engineering;
(9) LOSses in firing Owing to poor stoking;
(IO) Losses due to poor loading and
86 HARRINGTON EMERSON.
(II) Poor dispatching of trains;
(I2) Losses in returning to round-house.
In various tests made as to freight, passenger, and switch locomo-
tives, coal consumption has been found to be three times what
care and supervision could reduce it to. .
A recent practical demonstration of fuel economy is reported
in detail in American Engineer and Railroad Journal, p. 439,
I9 II:
Coal per passenger Coal per passenger -
- train mile car mile
Test Train 4, June 21, 1911 . . . . 67.33 pounds. 7.I.34 pounds.
Average 1910 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I32.2 pounds. 24.4 pounds.
If Mr. Symons's claim as to lubricating oil is extended to all
Supplies, the average efficiency is only 66.7 per cent., as to sta-
tionery, it is probably not over 30 per cent, as to coal, the
largest single item of supply expense, the efficiency is probably
not over 50 per cent. Each item of Supply can be separately
investigated and an approximate efficiency be established. Many
careful investigations and tests of this kind have been made and
all the testimony lies in the direction of an average supply
efficiency lower rather than higher than 66.7 per cent.
The same formula holds good as to the third great class
of expenses, investment charges. Here, also, it is not cost of
locomotives and cars, road and stations that counts, but over-
supply, faulty distribution, and inadequate use. As locomotives
spend nearly one-quarter of their lives in the shops for repairs,
when an attainable standard might be IO per cent. instead of
25 per cent., it is evident that the efficiency of supply is only 85
per cent. The natural inclination is to be extravagant. It is
convenient to have a surplus of locomotive power; it is much
easier to have extra locomotives for emergency service rather
than assiduously to plan to use effectively a small number. The
vice-president in charge of operation of one of America’s greatest
railroads told me that his ambition was to have in reserve for
emergencies, for snow blockades, when tonnage has to be reduced,
IOO locomotives, slushed and under cover. While not an efficient
expenditure, it would have been less wasteful than the investment .
of $1 OO,OOO,OOO in a terminal nobody wants to use if he can
avoid it.
The low mileage of American locomotives—27,OOO miles a
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 87
year, about 75 miles a day—indicates oversupply. A good team
of Yukon dogs will go this distance in a day. A horse, if emer-
gency arises, will temporarily exert eight times his normal power.
Let us learn from dogs and horses how to maintain high aver-
ages and meet emergencies.
1How often are large locomotives attached to small trains!
(Inefficiency of distribution.) How often does it take twenty
hours for a five-hour run! (Inefficiency of use.) Freight cars.
are no better. An average of only twenty-five miles a day, the
distance that a postman walks daily. How often are small loads
sent in large cars! To what extent do cars move slowly when
they ought to run fast? - e
The Same law applies to track. More miles than are needed,
few trains per day using the trackl
What shall we say of the paralleling of one road before the
first road has enough traffic to keep it busy P Why should the
Northern Pacific have been paralleled from the Missouri River
into Tacoma and Seattle, a distance of IOOO miles? Why
should the Western Pacific have paralleled the Southern Pacific
from Salt Lake City to San Francisco P Why should the New
York Central have been paralleled from New York to Buffalo 2
About thirty years ago the Burlington paralleled the North-
western up the Mississippi to St. Paul and Minneapolis. In
Nebraska the North Western, in retaliation, paralleled the Bur-
lington all through the counties of Southern Nebraska. Both
roads were injured. Who can deny that there is a larger quan-
tity of railroads than needed ? The records of 1910 for the
United States show 81 abandoned railroads. That so many of
them fail to pay dividends further proves it. Let us call the
efficiency of supply 90 per cent., the efficiency of distribution 90
per cent., and the efficiency of equipment use 80 per cent., and we
have an end efficiency of 65 per cent. The total equipment
charge per year on basis of present capitalization is about $1,210,-
OOO,OOO. Ought it on basis of present capitalized unit cost to
have exceeded $786,500,000? Is not the loss that can ultimately
be wiped out $423,500,000 P. This, added to the $175,000,000
of material waste, sums up to $598,500,000, or more than a
million and a half a day.
A million and a half a day and I have not yet touched labor—
labor that everybody is so worried about, except the heartless
88 HARRINGTON EMERSON.
*
Scientific managers; labor at whose expense all the saving of one
million dollars a day was to be made; labor, always the first point
of attack when reductions seem necessary. It is so easy to issue
an order to reduce the payroll 20 per cent., to cut the wage rate,
to lay off those who can least stand the strain, who have the
Smallest margin above misery !
Mr. Symons is very solicitous about labor, yet so ingrained
is the virus of wage reduction that he estimates the total amount
that could be saved by Scientific Management at $78,000 a day,
about $23,400,000 a year, and he takes it all out of labor. Even
as a railroad economist he is not a good guesser, for between
1908 and 1909 the railroads of the country reduced their pay-
rolls $47,000,000, although apparently (so unreliable are the
records) they employed 66,500 more men. The reduction in
pay, as was to be expected, fell most heavily on those who were
least skilled, the classes of highest skill increasing either in
number or in average daily pay.
To slash the payroll either by cutting rates of pay or laying
off men is abhorrent to all Scientific Management, is contrary
to all the principles of efficiency. Permanence of employment,
higher skill, and higher pay are the aims of Scientific Manage-
ment. Nevertheless, “Labor ’’ is subject to exactly the same
analysis as materials and equipment.
The cost of labor consists of two factors:
(I) Time used, corresponding to quantity, and
(2) Wage rate per hour, corresponding to price.
As to wages, man is not a machine. Continuous horse-power
from Niagara costs about $20 per year. If men working at 66
per cent, efficiency and receiving $2 per day delivered a con-
tinuous horse-power for a year the cost would be $54,OOO per
horse-power. Man is not an animal. As a producer of energy
the horse is cheaper than the man. It would take a man with
a spade 560 seasons to turn up a section of prairie land, 64O
acres. Directing a team dragging a plow the man can accomplish
the work in four seasons, but with oil pull engines and gang
plows twelve men will do the plowing in 36 hours.
Only a fool man will try to match his strength against animals
and engines. Man can think, can supervise, can direct; animals
and engines cannot. It is for directing intelligence that men are
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 89
wanted and for which they will be paid. There is no limit to
their upward value.
The general officers of railroads average $12.67 a day, track-
men only $1.38. Ten, a hundred, a thousand trackmen could
not replace a great railroad executive. The average daily pay
of all railroad employees, including presidents, seems to be $2.2O.
This is none too high. Wages can go up only as quality im-
proves, and in the equation of T W, wages, W only rises as T,
Time, falls, and T falls not by using muscle strenuously, but by
using brain efficiently.
Labor expenses of the railroads aggregated, in 1909, $1,019,-
OOO,OOO a year. As to labor, there is inefficiency of supply, ineffi-
ciency of distribution, and inefficiency of use. All these three
inefficiencies occur in greater or less degree as to all classes of .
labor. There is inefficiency of supply when three men are em-
ployed to do the work of two men. If there are too many
locomotives and trains, there are inevitably too many locomotive
crews and train crews. If any man does useless work, there is
inefficiency of supply. If a high-priced man is put on low-
priced work, work that could be done better by steam and
machinery, there is inefficiency of distribution.
For three months one winter I watched a gang of 500 men
at $6 a day shovelling snow on a railroad grade; they worked
hard and they were none too many. The following winter the
bread was theoretically taken out of their mouths by a rotary
snow-plow.
I have seen a man take eighty times as long at a job as he
ought to take. I have seen men spoil jobs that had to be done
again. This is inefficiency of use. -
Even as Gen. Charles Miller doubled the price of oil, im-
proving its quality, but reduced operating costs by lessening
its quantity, so again and again in railroad work and elsewhere
we have found that as quality of labor improves, a higher rate
per hour being paid, quantity of time required goes down.
Nobody pretends that lubricating oil works any harder than
twenty years ago; it works more efficiently. At the Topeka shops
Some men earned IOO per cent. above wages for a whole year.
They did for themselves what General Miller did for his oil.
They cut out the wastes because they were higher-quality men,
90 -- HARRINGTON EMERSON.
and because they were higher-quality men they doubled their
wages per hour.
The principle of price and quantity applies from the presi-
dent's chair down to the Mexican on the grade. No class of
worker is exempt. Some men hold more important positions
than others, some men in comparatively humble positions are
able immensely to waste or to save. We have checked over every
class of railroad labor and find as to all classes the dependent
Sequences of rate, of supply, of distribution, and of use. Mr.
Symons's Sweeping exclusion of all classes except shopmen is
astounding. In what way do railroad clerks differ from other
clerks, railroad trackmen differ from other handlers of dirt and
wood and iron P In centralized, supervised, repeated work the
efficiencies of the dependent sequences ought to be high. In
decentralized, unsupervised, unrepeated work, just such work as
constitutes track maintenance, the efficiencies of the dependent
sequences are low, terrifically low, and when the attention of a
general manager was called to their existence his only excuse for
the large force was that he held all these men through spring,
summer, and autumn because he might have a snow blockade
in the winter. The fear of snow blockade did not prevent another
Western road from reducing its section men to one for each eight
miles when economies were imperative to impress Wall Street.
Labor on a whole ranks better than materials; by test of each
different class, summarized for all classes, it averages below 80
per cent. The rate per hour varies much for men of the same
grade in different parts of the country, much more for men in
different classes. The inefficiencies are high wherever the pay
is low. -
Wages are often high where the cost of living is cheap, wages
often low where the cost of living is high. One class is high in
the East and low in the West. I justly debit to labor or personal
service expenses the peculations and steals that have occurred.
The one steal of $623,000 on the Big Four enhanced the pay-
roll of that system $2OOO a day for a whole year. The several-
million-dollar steal on the Illinois Central enhanced the payroll
of general officers $7500 a day for two years. Both these steals
would have been impossible under Scientific Management.
Let us, however, not quarrel with the rate per hour, as this
usually indicates quality. Attention is to be directed to the
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 91
f
great inefficiency of work distribution, to the great surplus of
time, and to the great inefficiency of time use. In all but the
most highly organized industrial plants the efficiency of supply
is not over 80 per cent., the efficiency of distribution is not over
80 per cent., the efficiency of use is not over 80 per cent. This
gives us an average end efficiency of 51.2 per cent.
Before going to the rate hearing we checked up the piece rates
for the identical operation of turning up Pullman wheel tires
and found it to vary from $0.28 to $1.40. The men on different
rates earned daily about the same wages, yet the time efficiency
of the $1.40 rate men was only 25 per cent.
Many of the railroads boast of their piece rates. Piece rates
are not an efficiency proposition. They are based on the theory
that they will promote strenuousness; but strenuousness is
opposed to efficiency, which works on the theory that intelli-
gence, not toil, produces best results.
I know of no class of railroad labor as high as 90 per cent.
in each term of the sequence. I have known literally thousands
of cases in all classes of railroad work where one or the other
term was below 60 per cent.
Assuming, however, 90 per cent, as to each term of the
sequence, the end efficiency is 72.9, and as to $1,019,000,000 the
preventable loss is $275,000,000. One-half of this should go to
increasing the rates of pay in order to secure better quality. This
reduces the possible saving to $137,500,000. Add this to
$175,000,000 estimated loss on supplies, $423,OOO,OOO estimated
excess in investment charges and we have a total of $736,000,-
OOO, or over $2,000,000 a day for each day in the year, even
if it is leap year. -
Even with Supreme wisdom, or even such wisdom as Ger-
many brings to bear on her industrial problems, it would take
time to eliminate all this loss. The $175,000,000 as to materials
could be remedied in a very short time, say five years.
The loss in personal service efficiency, less than one-quarter of
the total loss, only $137,500,000 could be eliminated in ten years,
by educating the workers, including general officers, to greater
efficiency, by employing more men who think and fewer who
merely toil, by standardizing conditions so that efficiency would
be easier and there would be no necessity to discharge a single
92 FRANK B. GILBRETH.
man. On the contrary many poorly qualified men would have
to be engaged to replace those dropping out from natural causes.
But as to investment, with proper backing by the United
States Government and a suitable amortization of capital $423,-
5OO,OOO a year could be wiped out in forty years.
There are a number of eminent efficiency engineers in the
country. There are also a number of executives. There are a
number of labor leaders. Instead of giving the lie to each other,
why not put the matter to a test?
An American Society for Promoting Efficiency is forming.
The object of the society is to promote efficiency in enterprises.
of all kinds, including public service corporations. A special
committee working to establish definite standards will be formed.
Under the auspices of this society competent efficiency special-
ists, at small, perhaps even no expense to the railroad com—
panies, could investigate any representative item of cost on any
railroad in the United States, report on actual methods in use,
and also outline Scientific control of the cost of the same item,
showing the difference between what is and what might be.
If this opportunity should be used, if the investigation should
show worth-while economies, the next step ought to be to carry
the economies into effect and to that end railroad men, efficiency
engineers and labor leaders ought to co-operate so that the
railroad managers may be convinced that high efficiency means
better operation at less cost, that labor men may be convinced
that high efficiency means a higher manhood, less toil and
higher pay.
MR. FRANK B. GILBRETH.-It is exceedingly appropriate
that the Franklin Institute and the American Society of Mechani-
cal Engineers should hold a joint meeting at Philadelphia for
the discussion of the practical application of Scientific Manage-
ment to the operation of railways, because, first, the Franklin
Institute has a long record of pioneer investigation in the great
national problems; second, the important papers on management
have been presented before and can be found in the Transactions
of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers; and, third,
Messrs. Taylor, Dodge, Day, Tabor, Hathaway, Lewis, and
Cooke—pioneers in efficient management—are all Philadelphians.
There can be no question that American railroads are efficient,
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 93
especially efficient from the standpoint of all that has usually
been considered good railroad management; but, as has already
been stated by me when I was subpoenaed before the Interstate
Commerce Commission at Washington and Mr. Brandeis cross-
questioned me, I believe that the railroads will, without a doubt,
be much more efficient when they adopt the Taylor plan of
Scientific Management.
Although I have personally been engaged in Some work on
railroads, I have not sufficient data on which to base an Opinion
as to the amount of money that it is possible for the railroads
to save per day should they all adopt the Taylor plan of manage-
ment. I have no knowledge of the Santa Fe, except as a
passenger.
There is no reason to doubt that the railroads would be
able to pay larger wages to all employees, and have still more
earnings for dividends and improvements, if they should adopt
the Taylor plan of management, and I feel sure they will adopt it
sooner or later. The history of railroading in America shows
that the managers have not always adopted improvements at
first sight, but that they have usually adopted the best procurable
sooner or later.
Now, there are other factors that will delay the general adop-
tion of Scientific Management by the railroads besides the time
necessary to convince the railroad managers and their employees
that the Taylor plan of management is not like any of the old,
unfair, “bonus schemes,” but is founded on the Golden Rule,
and is the one plan that will raise wages and reduce costs simul-
taneously. One of the causes for delay of adoption is the great
cost of the duplication of the work of establishing ultimate stand-
ards of Scientific Management, if all railroads were each to do
that work independently, simultaneously.
It would seem that Mr. Symons, though he be recognized
as a railroad expert, is not at all familiar with Scientific Manage-
ment when he “ disposes '' (see page I3) of 16 classes of the 18
classes into which he divides railroad employees, and then appar-
ently doubts the possibility of applying Scientific Management
to the last two. -
If the Taylor plan of Scientific Management is to be applied,
it is for all and not for a few ; for the greatest economy and
efficiency it should apply to and govern all, from the highest of
94. FRANK B. GILBRETH.
the managers to the lowest of the employees. We have applied
it with a large increase of efficiency to office employees as well
as to those doing manual labor.
Mr. Symons excludes locomotive repairs in the following
words: “ The character of repairs made necessary by the fore-
going conditions renders it absolutely essential to successful
operation that both the foreman in direct charge of each opera-
tion, and the mechanic who is actually performing the work,
shall not only be permitted but required to bring into use their
Imechanical skill and judgment, which, under the proposed plan
of ‘scientific management,’ they would be prevented from doing.”
There is nothing under the Taylor plan that does not apply
to repairs. In fact, it would be but fair for anyone to concede
that any man who has made the remarkable mechanical inventions
that Dr. Taylor has made, who has had the remarkable oppor-
tunities of education, training, general and specialized experi-
ence, and travel that he has had, would never for a moment advo-
cate any plan of management that did not apply to anything
so perfectly obvious as repair work. A little more than a mo-
ment's consideration will serve to remind anyone that the more
difficult the problem confronted, and the more unexpected the
conditions, and the more the problem differs from standard,
the greater will be the necessity for the work to be planned by
the man best fitted by experience and special training, assisted
by the command and use of records of previously standardized
elements of all previous similar jobs, to determine what shall be
done, and to prescribe the exact quality of workmanship with
which it shall be done.
The entire jobs may be very seldom alike, but the number
of their elements which differ are, by comparison, very few.
Mr. Symons’s fears, as shown in his statement: “Such a
system would have a tendency to discourage both men and offi-
cers from that personal initiative essential to a strong, efficient,
and economical organization,” are not borne out in practice,
as can be seen daily in the two most highly systematized shops
in the world—the Tabor Manufacturing Company and the Link-
Belt Company, both of which happen to be right here in Phila-
delphia.
In my own experience, I have never seen a case where a fore-
man or workman has had his personal initiative discouraged,
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 95
but, on the contrary, I have seen hundreds of men delighted with
the fairer treatment, higher wages, better conditions, and more
definite recognition of their individual merits. º
The recommendation of Mr. Symons on page IQ is achieved
by Scientific Management better than in any other way, be-
cause the measured output, task, or piecework plan is determined
by the One and only fair method, namely, time study, which
is based upon scientifically derived fundamentals, makes allow-
ance for the human element—the variations and differences of
individuals—and makes due allowances for unavoidable delays
and for overcoming fatigue. For example, the allowance for
rest for overcoming fatigue is never less than IO per cent., and,
for some kinds of work, more than 50 per cent. of the entire
working day. -
Without time study, Mr. Symons's piecework prices can
never be set “fair and just alike, first, to the men, and, second,
to the company.” Without time study it will ever be necessary
for the worker to dawdle, and soldier, to protect his best inter-
ests (see professional papers Nos. 647, 928, IOO3, of the Ameri-
can Society of Mechanical Engineers, also “Principles of Scien-
tific Management,” published by Harper & Bros.).
Without time study as a preliminary in standardizing elements
and operations the “measured output ’’ will be an unfair gauge
to effort or to efficiency, because the workman cannot be fur-
nished with continuous conditions such as affect the supply of
materials, or conditions of machinery, or “working opportunity.”
Our work, while not the operation of a railroad, is the
handling of mechanics and laborers in many of the trades of
building construction, and offers probably as many difficulties
as does the handling of railroad employees. We have always
Succeeded in greatly reducing production costs and time of con-
struction, and raising laborers’ and mechanics' wages from 30
to IOO per cent, simultaneously by the installation of the Taylor
system.
Mr. Symons's conclusions are not well founded, if he thinks
that the Taylor plan of management entails putting men “un-
familiar with the practical operation of a railway ” in charge
of its management.
H. K. Hathaway, vice-president of the Tabor Manufacturing
Company, one of the best known of the Taylor-trained mana-
96 FRANK B. GILBRETH.
gers, says, in Engineering Magazine, April, I9 II, Speaking of
the men who should develop Scientific Management:
“These men should be selected from the existing force
wherever possible, and in case they are not available, and it is
necessary to bring in new men, they should be directly in the
employ of the company, and not in that of the systematizer.
This is almost imperative if the work done is to be of a per-
manent character. If new men must be brought in, it should be
done some time before the active development of the system is
started, so that they will have ample time to become familiar
with the plant and its output, and get acquainted with the other
employees. These men should be started as workmen.”
The Taylor plan in no way proposes to eliminate the present
efficient workers. It protects such as these, and insures them a
better and more agreeable job. They are invariably in favor of
the new way when they have, by personal experience, discovered
that the fears that have been roused in them by those who have
not worked under the Taylor system, and have therefore led
them to believe that it is simply a new scheme of the employers
to flimflam the employees, are not well grounded. -
There must be employed, however, at the beginning, and
until the managers and functional foremen have been taught their
new duties and until the system is self-perpetuating, Scientific
managers who can teach the foremen and the men their duties.
The difficulty of obtaining the right men with the proper
training and knowledge, coupled with the time and expense of
duplication of the work of collecting motion study, time study,
and other data of the trades, analyzing the data, building up
methods of least waste synthetically, establishing standards, re-
classifying and dividing and assigning functions of management,
and then converting and teaching the workmen: (1) That it
is good for them, and (2) How to perform their new duties,
makes it impracticable for a railroad or any other organization
to do its own pioneer work.
There are no “non-productive men º’, unless those that “plan
more than they perspire * are, on account of that fact, called
non-productive. - -
All those who have investigated the conditions agree that
railroad employees are not receiving as large wages as they
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 97
should, and also that at present those best informed in the man-
agement of railroads claim that they cannot increase the em-
ployees' wages under existing conditions.
Dr. Taylor's plan of management has invariably raised wages
and reduced production costs simultaneously. Organizations
operating under it have never once had a strike of their em-
ployees, after it has been installed long enough for them to
understand its workings. Why not take the time to investigate
thoroughly? The best place is right here in Philadelphia, at
the Tabor Manufacturing Company and at the Link-Belt Com-
pany. A proper appreciation cannot be had by merely walking
through the shops. The subject must be studied like any other
scientific subject. -
What better work can the Franklin Institute do than to
encourage such investigation, and then to (I) announce their
findings to the industrial world, (2) encourage the establishment
of a government bureau for the discovery, collection, cataloging,
and dissemination of industrial methods of least waste, that,
from the enormous savings thus made, the wages may be in-
creased, hours of the working day shortened, production costs
reduced, and the cost of living lessened?
MR. J. SHIRLEY EATON : The word scientific carries the
notion of finality and precision. To attach it to any particular
practice involves, as it were, an invidious distinction. Yet in
a pecular way the particular practice under discussion may lay
claim to such title. It is scientific in the sense that it seeks to
incorporate the latest, if not the final, idea, regardless whence it
Originates, so only it applies to the case in hand.
We, as railroad men, have been associated with big under-
takings. The railroads were the first form of associate effort
of large masses of men under corporate direction. Their methods
were necessarily experimental; their early exigencies developed
and brought forward men of great force of character, but that
very force of character has sometimes blinded them to the
methods that are the most intelligent. Business has been con-
strued to be mere strife—almost on the plane of physical strife—
and the notion of a hustling, strenuous life, which notion runs
through the whole fabric of railroad organization, has resulted
98 J. SHIRLEY EATON.
in pitiful wastes of men and time and nervous energy. Situa-
tions have been met as they occurred and the thing sought has
been jammed through by sheer force; but it must be painfully
clear to all of us that only a small part of the potentialities of
men and of resources have been realized. Rules of thumb, pre-
conceptions, and mere vague impressions have played too large
a part. We have seen evidence of that in the paper here to-night,
especially in the use of figures of which this “so-called ” Scientific
Management would not be guilty.
Scientific Management insists primarily that the unit is the
basis of knowledge, and the first prerequisite of their business
is to evolve and standardize these units in order that they may
get the facts of experience into terms that can be used day in
and day out. For three years I was on the statistical committee
of the American Railway Association, trying to determine some
of the fundamental units, and we did not get very far. The
theme is a profound one, as it is a most imminently practical one.
I do not think that we appreciate the significance, in its larger
bearings, of this movement called Scientific Management. In-
stead of attacking it in prejudice, we should try to comprehend
the spirit of it and accelerate its achievement.
In 1835 Troy Polytechnic conferred the degree of Civil En-
gineer for the first time in an English-speaking country. Science
and its application up to that time had been indifferently joined.
It is hard to conceive that the large place achieved by the en-
gineer of every kind in Our life of to-day springs from so recent
a beginning. It was my good fortune in the past few days
to attend a meeting of the leaders of Scientific Management
and their critics under the auspices of Tuck School of Adminis-
tration, Dartmouth College. Here was sounded the latest note
in the theme of the engineer and modern life. In the citadel
not only of pure Science, but of learning and abstract culture,
the efficiency engineer made bold to enter with his instruments
of precision, his tabulations, and his averages, in the application
of his methods to academic life.
We may not agree with all the claims of Scientific Manage-
ment, but it moves in the direction in which we are going to
find the solution of our gravest difficulties of labor and capital .
and the way out of Some of our political mazes that confuse and
defeat to utter futility the public will.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 99
In every walk of life is laid on us the responsibility to find
what is efficiency, what its concrete form and what are the units
in which it can be measured, so that we may accurately determine
the relation of what we do to the results which we Seek.
MR. B. B. MILNER: In 1904, while working in one of the
larger shops of the transportation company by which I am em-
ployed, a large part of my time was devoted to the question of
“Scientific Management.” I became an enthusiast, having
received my inspiration from a careful study of a paper upon
“Shop Management” presented to the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers by Fred W. Taylor, of Philadelphia.
Many practices, obviously inconsistent with the highest effi-
ciency, came to my attention, and invariably I asked myself the
question, “Why?” to which question satisfactory answers did
not come for a long time. In the meantime I read and heard a
great deal of the wonderful things which were being done by
“Scientific Management’ upon the Santa Fe, and I visited
the Topeka (Kans.) shops on several Occasions, the last visit
being incident to an extended trip to the Pacific Coast over the
Santa Fe’s lines.
A large portion of shop labor was being paid under the
“Bonus System ’’ and the number of schedules during the time
the system had been in effect, together with the amount of
enthusiasm with which the work was being carried on, was far
in excess of that under the old régime of “Day Work.” The
improvements evidenced were those which would be expected
from substitution of any reasonably well administered reward
system of labor payment, free from hindrance by labor organi-
zations, for the previous “Day Work” system. .
The shop betterment organization, which introduced the
“Bonus System ’’ and also paid particular attention to tool equip-
ment and other conditions affecting efficient operation of the shop,
in an incredibly short time, introduced the use of many new, or
modified, tools and methods. This betterment movement was
loyally supported by Mr. J. W. Kendricks, then vice-president,
and a large amount of friction between the old organization,
which remained responsible for the operation of the railroad, and
the corps of betterment specialists, was frequently apparent.
Great as was the improvement over previously existing con-
IOO B. B. MILNER.
ditions, the shop methods and costs were apparently no more
efficient or economical than those of other well-regulated shops.
The methods of administration were not stable, and subsequent
visits developed changes made from time to time, even in the
administration of the “Bonus System ’’ of labor payment.
Very glowing statements were made of the improvements
effected, supported by numerous statements and graphical data.
In some instances deductions were made therefrom which to
those familiar with railroad operations could obviously not be
substantiated. In some cases data submitted for the support of
conclusions seemed to be at variance with actual facts. This
is very naturally a result of pressure brought to bear upon
“specialists '' for results, and it very frequently happens that
“specialists’ themselves are misled, having every confidence in
data which do not, upon careful analysis, support their con-
clusions. -
It is well understood, by those familiar with railroad shop
Operation, that the wide variation in the cost of turning tires at
various carriers’ shops, referred to by Mr. Emerson, does not
reflect, in proportion to those costs, high or low efficiency for the
various points from which the cost data were reported to the
Interstate Commerce Commission. The labor cost of this or
any other operation involves and is dependent upon (I) the
volume and regularity of the work to be done, (2) the facilities,
i.e., tool equipment, appliances, etc., (3) the local wage scale,
(4) the class of labor used upon the operation, (5) the amount
of assistance given the workman or workmen, and (6) other
conditions under which the operation is performed.
The comparative cost data referred to cannot mean much
unless all the conditions mentioned above are taken into con-
sideration. Failing this they become the basis of very erroneous
conclusions as to relative efficiencies.
The inaccurate impressions which it was frequently found
necessary to correct, and the keen reflection upon the efficiency of
operation in railroad shops (none, so far as I know, excepted)
culminating in the testimony presented at the recent “rate
cases '' heard before the Interstate Commerce Commission, have
occasioned a reduction in my enthusiasm for what is popularly
covered by the term “Scientific Management,” and, with others
in the railroad business, I have been influenced adversely by the
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. IoI
superabundance of literature of the type mentioned specifically
by Mr. Symons. The display of spectacular results said to have
been obtained by the adoption of the so-called “Scientific Man-
agement System ’’ has actually retarded the consideration of
the subject, and has effected its advancement in the railroad
field. Its results are so seriously questioned as to occasion Mr.
Symons’s paper.
With regard to the very sweeping claims which have been
made relative to the saving alleged to be possible in railroad
operations, two errors have been made—on the part of those
responsible for these claims, the criticism most frequent and
keen has been concentrated upon the operation of the carrier’s
shops; on the part of most shopmen, of those interested and
responsible for shop operation and most of those who have
followed the press on the subject, to generally include under
the caption of “Scientific Management’’ only such details as
“stop watches,” “speed bosses,” “premium,” “tasks,” “time
study,” “planning departments *-terms which are only appli-
cable to certain phases of shop operation.
Most distasteful among the “Scientific Management ’ details
mentioned above, to outside men not in sympathy with the
movement, is the “ time study '' idea. The strenuous objections
thereto arise from the popular misconception, which should
easily be relieved. The term “time study * is not specific but
relative. More or less accurate “ time studies '' were made
under the “Day Work ’’ system, when information was gath-
ered upon which to base an opinion as to whether this man
or that had consumed more or less than a reasonable amount of
time upon this or that operation. Some of these formed the
basis upon which the earlier “piece work' rates were estab-
lished, but their inaccuracies occasioned the largest portion of
difficulties incident to operation under the “piece work º' system.
They may be made more and more minute, until they arrive at
the point referred to by Mr. Gilbreth as the “blood-drawing
type.” Some “Time Study " must be the basis of every piece
work, premium, bonus, contract, or reward system of labor pay-
ment, but such study only becomes objectionable as it approaches
the type mentioned by Mr. Gilbreth.
Various meanings have evidently been applied to the term
“Scientific Management,” and it is suggested that many differ-
I O2 B. B. MILNER.
ences in opinion might be easily reconciled by the adoption of a
common definition of the term. If “Scientific Management’’
means that which appeals to many upon casually reading Mr.
Taylor's paper on “Shop Management,” or upon first visit to
a plant, such as the Tabor Manufacturing Co.'s plant in Phila-
delphia, where the so-called “Scientific Management ’’ is in
operation, then the term is a misnomer so far as railroad opera-
tion is concerned, and Mr. Symons must be very liberal in re-
stricting its possible application to as many as I6 per cent. Of the
carriers' employees. But if the term is given the broader defini-
tion evidently attached to it by Mr. Emerson, and is understood
as covering the whole field of human endeavor and as involving
the elimination of every waste as soon after its development and
isolation as practicable, then Mr. Symons must remove the
restrictions imposed upon its application until every phase of rail-
road operation is covered. It then becomes applicable to the labor
and material expenses, at each desk, of each office, of every
department, and to all phases of operations involving expense or
efficiency of service. -
The economical repair of rolling equipment involves the
proper location, installation, maintenance, and efficient operation
of the railroad shops, their component departments, and the tools
therein, with the economical purchase of all materials required.
But the economical operation of the railroad involves not only
the economical maintenance of its rolling equipment (costing
only about 20 per cent. Of the total Operating expenses), but
also the efficient use of that equipment. Cars must be loaded
to the maximum consistent with the service rendered, trains
must also be so loaded, speeds must be those most economical,
light car and locomotive mileage must be avoided, and
cars and locomotives of ever-increasing efficiency, from Ser-
vice and maintenance stand-points, must be developed, etc. In
so far as the efficiency of all these elements of operations is
improved, by so much the items of labor cost, mentioned by Mr.
Symons as being excluded from the application of “Scientific
Management,” will certainly be lowered. The carriers have
specialists, inside and outside the ranks of their own employees,
engaged upon the study of direct and indirect means of further-
ing economy in most every item of expense mentioned.
Every broad-minded railroad man has endeavored to further
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. IO3
efficiency and knows that opportunities—“simply overwhelm-
ing ”—do exist for increasing the general efficiency and economy
of railroad operations. It is hoped that the following memoran-
dum, in reply to the question of how carriers may most promptly
approach and maintain maximum operating efficiency, will not
be out of order. It was outlined some two years ago, after much
thought, in the light of conditions existing upon One of the larger
lines, and, practically without change, is offered as applicable to
the operating Organization of every carrier, which Organization
must consist of a combination of the “ Divisional ’’ and the
“Departmental.” -
(I) The existing opportunities for further increasing the effi-
ciency and economy of operation must be freely acknowledged,
as that past creditable achievement has been obtained. Satisfac-
tion with present operating conditions and results must be given
persistent attention until an ever-increasing proportion of em-
ployees take seriously the management’s desire that prompt and
continued increase in operating efficiency and economy be
obtained.
(2) Many identical operating problems are being solved by
independently working employees—especially the subordinates—
thereby unnecessarily duplicating and wasting effort which must
be conserved. -
(3) The acquaintance possessed by the “staff" with details
of those operations in which they are concerned must be increased
in order that, through it, the general problems of which the
lower officers and their subordinates should be relieved may be
definitely, promptly, and otherwise satisfactorily solved—this in
order that lower officers and their subordinates may be better
able to cope with those problems of which they cannot be relieved.
Any deficiency in the knowledge of the higher “staff" occa-
sions or results in : (a) inertia on their own part, due to a per-
sonal knowledge of its own weakness; (b) increased attention
which their superior “line * officers must devote to the work of
their subordinates, by so much taking their own time from work
which they—“line * officers—cannot delegate; (c) weakening
of the position of the higher “line * and “staff " in the minds
of the lower officers, who are very quick to detect a weakness;
(d) tabling or burying in higher offices of matters originating
in the lower offices, which stultifies the ambition and constructive
IO4 B. B. MILNER.
genius of the masses of employees, who, if properly encouraged
and intelligently directed, would develop innumerable valuable
ideas—“ by-products * of their regular duties—with pleasure to
them and at a minimum cost. From the above it follows that
(I) a sharper distinction must be developed and respected be-
tween the problems regularly belonging to the higher and those
belonging to the lower “staff" and “line * officers, and (2)
lower officers must not expend effort in the solution of problems
not properly belonging to them, without the knowledge and
endorsement of higher officers concerned ; (3) a knowledge and
breadth of view must be developed in all employees sufficient to
insure their being competent and receptive. With added knowl-
edge and breadth of view must come an increased mutual confi-
dence between higher and lower employees, if the number of
problems confronted by either are to be actually reduced by trans-
fer of an increasing proportion of present problems to those more
expert and competent. -º-
(4) By whatever means they may be immediately directed,
all operations must be freely opened to a competent, broad-
gauged inspection, conducted along such lines and in such manner
as will insure the helpful co-operation of those whose operations
are inspected, and Occasion the sincere invitation of the inspec-
tions. (The means of inspection are two, viz., (I) direct, i.e.,
made by personal observation of the operations inspected, and
(2) indirect, i.e., made by the use of statements and reports
which (a) transmit to higher officers and others, who cannot
make personal inspection themselves, information gathered by
personal inspectors, and (b) develop, through comparison of
properly collated and co-ordinated records and statements of
operations, or their results, operating conditions and facts per-
taining thereto which could not or would not be developed by
direct observation.)
In conclusion, let the term “Scientific Management” be de-
fined and understood in the broadest sense, remove the restric-
tions popularly imposed upon its application, eliminate the idea
that the means of its application consist so largely of the spec-
tacular elements to which such strenuous objection is, frequently
unreasonably, raised, and that efficiency is so largely evidenced
by the spectacular results of which so much has been heard, and
let the means of permanently instilling principles of broad
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. IoS
“Scientific Management' into the minds of individuals compos-
ing the masses, as well as others employed by the carriers, be
pushed persistently and consistently along broad lines, that results
may be obtained which are permanent and real. The possibilities
of such procedure cannot be accurately estimated.
GEORGE J. BURNS (communicated): Mr. Symons's paper
is such a complete and comprehensive answer to the claims and
pretensions of scientific managers that it is no easy matter to
add to its conclusiveness. In a series of articles in Engineering
Magd&ine, I am attempting to demonstrate that the most available
Opportunity for increased machine shop efficiency is through
co-operation between the different shops to the end that each may
profit by the combined experience and demonstrated advantages
secured by the best. -
I take decided exception to the term “Scientific management "
in the sense that it has come to be popularly understood, to
wit: that some one, without practical experience with the work,
and lacking familiarity with its requirements, is superior to a
man of the same calibre, plus the experience. It must be con-
ceded that the railroads are seeking and commanding the best
natural ability, developed by technical training, and are broad-
ening it by practical experience, and profiting it by contact with
men who have made the problems a life study. To sweepingly
condemn such men, whose highest ambition and greatest incentive
is increased efficiency, as lacking an appreciation of the principles
of scientific management is an attempt to turn back the hands
on the dial. -
The history of railroad development refutes the charge that
railroads do not welcome suggestions from the outside. Machine
tool builders, co-operating with railroad mechanics, have revo-
lutionized many, if not most, shop operations; the air-brake has
made fast speed safe and heavy power practical: autogenous
welding is being rapidly introduced, and is securing important
economies: advanced ideas are being sought for and availed of in
every department, but no one thinks of designating any one of
these as scientific management. To denominate “motion study *
that can be applied, as Mr. Symons has so conclusively shown,
to but a small fraction of railroad employees, as scientific manage-
ment of railroads, is too absurd to be seriously discussed.
IO6 GEORGE J. BURNS.
PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE AS A FACTOR IN MODERN EDUCATION
“And long experience made him sage.”—GAY.
It was discovered long ago that mere theoretical instruction
may stimulate the mind without controlling it. Practical train-
ing has come to be recognized as an indispensable factor. Com-
mercial schools have their banks and counting rooms, with all
the paraphernalia of actual business conditions. Law Schools
have their moot courts presided over by experienced judges from
the bench. Normal schools give their students the experience
of actual teaching. The clinic has long been recognized as an
essential in the study of surgery. Manual training has become
a part of grade education. Is not the school of practical rail-
road administration an educator and developer? Isn't a man
more capable because of his service in it? -
Are the exponents of motion study scientific managers? Is
it possible for any one man to so far prescribe the best and
fewest movements an operator shall make in performing all
classes of railroad machine shop work, as to make it safe and
economical for those motions to be followed as though the
operator was an automaton? I, contend that it is not safe. I
have before me data taken at 31 of the principal railroad machine
shops in the country, showing the time and practices for pre-
paring shoes and wedges, which, perhaps, comes nearer than
any other job in a railroad machine shop to being a manufactur-
ing proposition, and as affording an opportunity for motion
study. The shortest time in any one shop is I4 minutes. Four
of the shops at which data were obtained, have had the benefit
and advice of efficiency engineers, all of whom are prominent in
condemning the unscientific management of railroads. In one
shop where the expert was permitted to prescribe the tool on
which the work was to be done, he gave the time as 35 minutes.
In another 22 minutes was given, but not attained. In a third
shop the estimate was 42 minutes, and with the equipment and
the prescribed practice, never was, and never can be, attained.
In the fourth shop, the expert offered no criticism of a shop
time of 40 minutes. The failure of these experts to prescribe
the shortest time and the best practices is not a reflection on
their ability. It is, however, an obvious commentary on their
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. IO7
pretensions. Had these experts been given control of all shops
soon enough they would, by prescribing inflexible rules, have
made the shortest time impossible of attainment. -
I have in mind a German professor who persuaded a Western
road that he could reduce the burning of crude oil under loco-
motive boilers to a science. He was so well grounded in the
faith that he regarded the suggestions of the foreman as im-
pertinence. He fitted up an engine. It steamed perfectly in the
yard, but when it was taken out on the road, it died on the first
grade, so much to the disappointment of Herr Professor that
he didn’t return to the shop and explain how it happened, but
left the problem to be worked out by the practical men who
evolved a science from practice. In his failure the ranks of the
scientific managers lost a man who would have joined them in
condemning railroad management as unscientific.
In my opinion, the railroads have much to gain through a
systematic study and comparison of practices in the different
shops. It isn’t given to any individual to see the best solution
of all problems. “Every one excels in something in which
another fails '' is a maxim that is older than the “ Sermon on the
Mount.” Disraeli said: “We have put too much faith in sys-
tems and too little in men.” The phases of the human mind are
as diverse as the problems encountered. Every shop' excels in
something in which another fails. Nearly 50,000 of the best
journeymen machinists in the world are studying the problems
of increased railroad machine shop efficiency. Is it not safe to
assume that their combined wisdom is superior to that of any
theorist?
WILLIAM J. CUNNINGHAM, Assistant Professor of Trans-
portation, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard
University (communicated): -
I thank you for the privilege of participating in the discus-
ision of Mr. Symons's paper on “The Practical Application of
Scientific Management to Railway Operation.” I have read
the paper with a great deal of interest and shall look forward
to the privilege of reading also the discussion at the meeting and
the contributed articles which will appear in the final proceedings.
For my own part, I have already gone on record on the
IO8 WILLIAM J. CUNNINGHAM.
subject in an article which appeared in the quarterly Journal of
Economics for May, IQII, published by Harvard University,
from which the following statements are taken:
The railroad man, knowing how keen is the anxiety of his
profession for improvement and vigilance, has been and is proud
of the achievements of American railroads. He believes that
railroad efficiency is higher than the average in manufacturing
establishments, and can hold its own with any line of enter-
prise in the United States. He thinks, too, that in the recent
rate hearings the railroads should have been measured not with
the exceptional industrial establishment, but with the average.
He recognizes, none better than he, the existing deficiencies in
railroad management; but that they are greater or more flagrant
than those in other large undertakings he will not admit. The
extended area of railroad activity and the problem of adequate
Supervision make it difficult to secure high efficiency and use
of materials. The tendency of labor union policy is increasingly
to trammel the manager. He is also hampered by the difficulty
Of Securing competent men in Supervisory positions. Expert
knowledge is not required to point out losses and inefficiencies.
They are apparent. But criticism should be accompanied by
practical remedial suggestions.
The history of American railways shows that their progress
has been steady and substantial. A comparison of any two
periods ten years apart will reveal impressive increases in effi-
ciency. The net train load, for example, has increased nearly
fifty per cent. in the last ten years. Such advances in nearly
every case have been the result of development and improvement
of existing methods and facilities. The new and improved have
been the adaptation of the old ; and, judging by this steady
improvement in the past, it may be expected to continue in the
future.
The solution of the problem of how to effect further eco-
nomics and yet maintain good service seems to lie in a more
rigid application of the railroad's own kind of scientific manage-
ment and a continuation and enlargement of the best practices
of the best railroads, so that the operating results of the least
economical may approach those whose efficiency is marked, and
these in turn set new and higher standards. A new system is
not needed so much as a more determined and a more general
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. Io9
application of the sound and business-like methods which have
already been found effective in railroad work.
After all, there is little essential difference between the aims
and accomplishments of Scientific Management as advocated by
the new experts and Scientific Management as practised by the
exceptionally well-managed railroads. As a system, it means a
careful study and analysis of each element of operation, and the
application of the methods best adapted to bring about the best
results under the given conditions. Many railroads are doing
this successfully; others are doing it in part. In the nature of
things, however, their efforts have been directed more to the
“high spots" or to those features of operation which are most
in need of correction or which promise the largest or quickest
returns. Scientific Management, as a system, takes a broader
view and requires that the same careful study and treatment
be given to every detail of operation as is given, say, to the
subject of train-loading. Obviously, there is a point where this
would be unprofitable—where the cost of the system would
exceed the saving.
The real difference, then, between the efficiency experts and
the railroads in their conception of Scientific Management is not
in kind but in degree. To find a common ground means mutual
concessions. On the part of the efficiency expert it will require
less stress upon “system,” “principles,” “dependent sequences '':
it will require more knowledge of the practical problems of rail-
roads, more respect for what the railroads have accomplished,
and less exaggeration and generalization concerning waste and
possible savings. On the part of the railroad a more receptive
attitude is needed for suggestions from the outside and a recog-
nition of the fact that, notwithstanding commendable progress
in operating economies, much yet remains to be accomplished.
Among the important features of Mr. Taylor's system of
shop management, the principle of time study might well become
a part of the practice of any railroad shop with a piece-work
basis. The piece-work schedules of to-day are generally an
evolution from “cut and try " methods. Their defects are
recognized. Mr. Taylor's second principle, of standardized con-
ditions, is equally important, and many railroad shops come
reasonably close to standard practice. º
But, apart from shop operation, other and greater avenues
I IO WILLIAM J. CUNNINGHAM.
of economy are being earnestly studied. The delays and red-
tape obstruction to local initiative,” will yield to Some plan of
decentralizing authority, such as is now being tried on the Harri-
man lines. There are undoubted economies in further standard-
izing of equipment and materials, as well as in improved methods
Of storing and distributing supplies. There is promise of econ-
omy in the experiments now being made by the American Rail-
way Association in clearing-house accounting for joint use of
cars. A substantial Saving in fuel may be made by a more
general adoption of the methods of the roads having the best
fuel records; and throughout the service there is crying need for
more and bitter supervision.
Better supervision calls for better men, and to that end the
educational activities of the railroads should have wider scope
and more effective organization." A system of management is
not needed so much as managers. The system is not as impor-
tant as the man. A good system will not altogether save a
poor manager, nor will an imperfect system altogether hold
back one who is ambitious and able. Mr. Taylor himself recog-
nizes this in his statement, “The first object of any good system
must be that of developing first-class men.” "
* Mentioned by W. M. Acworth, the English economist, as a defect in
American railroad organization. In the same statement, made on the eve
of his departure, February first, last, he expressed surprise that the news-
papers should give so much space to criticism of railroad efficiency. In his
opinion, American railroads are the most efficient in the world. He believes
that the skeletons in the railroad cupboards have all been buried, and that now
the roads “would do well to open their cupboards and let the public see
how sweet and clean they are.” --
"J. Shirley Eaton, in “Education in Railroad Service ’’ (1900), says:
“In the course of railroad development, there was a first era, which was
the era of railroad building. Any railroad was better than a wagon road.
There was next an era of co-ordination of the railroad service and finance
to the commercial and financial conditions as a whole with which the rail-
roads were called upon to deal. This was the time of the traffic organization
and railroad consolidation. Next came the era of internal adjustment on
the physical and mechanical side—perfection of machinery, cutting down
grades, strengthening bridges, increasing the train unit. And now has come
the sociological adjustment. The human part of the machine is quite as
vital as the steel and wooden part in producing efficiency, and so in increasing.
the income.”.
"American Magazine, March, 1911, p. 570.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. III
Except in the important particulars of time study and func-
tional foremanship, the system advocated by the experts and the
system practised by the railroads are not very far apart. Both
have for their object that which is desired by the railroads and
the public—ability to give good, safe, and economical service.
And if achieved, either by an improvement of present methods
Or by an adaptation of the new system, private management of
railways will have strengthened its claim to continuance.
MR. CHARLES B. GOING, Engineering Magazine, New York
(communicated):
If there is any part of Mr. Symons's article that merits dis-
cussion it is the statistical portion, in which there seem to be
issues of fact between his statements and the figures given out
officially by the road. All my statistics and data were sent away
some time ago and are not immediately accessible. Offhand, I
notice that Mr. Symons makes his comparisons on number of
engines, irrespective of types. Types were rapidly changing on
the Santa Fe during this period, much heavier engines, much
more expensive to maintain, being rapidly installed. Comparison
on any other basis than the tractive unit would be worthless, and
where the important variable is ignored suspicion is thrown upon
the whole calculation. Beyond the few figures thus open to
suspicion, there seems to be nothing in the article except asser-
tion. The officers and employees are divided into fourteen
classes, which Mr. Symons takes up consecutively, apparently be-
lieving that by ascertaining of each class separately that it “would
not come under the system ’’ he has in some way strengthened
his argument. Of course, it still remains a bald and wholly
unsupported assertion. In fact, I am perplexed, in reading
through this list, to form any idea of what Mr. Symons thinks
Scientific Management is. He says that “the plan will not apply
to engineers, firemen, conductors, etc., because they are all work-
ing under contracts that will undoubtedly be kept in good faith by
the companies.” The introduction of Scientific Management, of
course, would not in the least affect existing contracts, but would
offer additional reward for increased efficiency. He says: “It
would not apply to section foremen, because there are only 468
more now than in 1907 and their average daily rate of pay has
increased 6 cents per day, while their duties have materially
Il 2 CHARLES B. GOING.
increased.” Under Scientific Management they would have a
fairer deal. As to trackmen, he says that the plan would not
apply, as the grade and character of the work will not lend itself
to any such scheme. Scientific Management has been success-
fully applied over and over again to men of this grade and work
of this character.
Of switch tenders and crossing watchmen, he says that the
plan would not apply, “as there are 8,716 less in number than in
I907.” What the decrease in numbers has to do with the applica-
bility or non-applicability of Scientific Management I am utterly
unable to conjecture. -
Most significant of Mr. Symons’s misconception of what he
is talking about is the comment under Section 8, “Employees
of Floating Equipment,” of whom he says that “they would
not be affected by this plan, as . . . their daily average wage
rate of $2.3.I will not admit of reduction.” Mr. Symons appar-
ently conceives of Scientific Management as Some plan for
cutting down wages, instead of being, as it is, a plan for making
men earn larger wages by showing them how to do better work.
If further evidence is needed that Mr. Symons does not under-
stand what Scientific Management is, it may be found conclu-
sively in the IIth Section, “All Other Employees and Laborers.”
He says here, top of page I3: “The plan in question would not
apply to this mixed class, as it includes the raw recruit, the
man of migratory habits, and the hobo; most all are of a low
order of mentality and some dissipated. Increased supervision
by practical men is the only means of increasing their efficiency
or quantity of work performed.”
This is the very genius of Scientific Management—to in-
struct the raw recruit, as well as every other worker, by the
co-operative direction of expert practical specialists, and then, by
a voluntary agreement (interfering in no way with any con-
tract or wage agreement which may be in force), to reward
him by extra incentive for any exhibition of higher efficiency in
his work. The profit which employees bring to the employer
through this efficiency is divided with them. It is alike within
the powers of general officers, clerks, station agents, engineers,
firemen, section foremen, trackmen, employees of floating equip-
ment, telegraph operators or dispatchers, carpenters, and all other
employees, to waste or to save the company’s time, money, ma-
terials, good-will. Whether there are more or less of any one of
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I 13
these now than there were four years ago, or whether their wages
have increased or decreased, has nothing to do with the common-
sense proposition that by careful planning Of their work (plan-
ning done by expert practical men—and by careful instruction
in their work (instruction by expert practical men) they could
learn to do it better, with less waste from internal or external
interference, less waste from unintelligently-directed effort than
exists now.
Whether the average man is firing a locomotive or tamping, a
tie, he can certainly learn to do it better under the guidance of
the better-than-average man—the best man obtainable. If all
the average men could be thus instructed, does Mr. Symons deny
that it would save the company money? If this saving were
shared with the men by granting them a bonus (so that there
still remains on the one hand profit to the employer, and on the
other incentive and reward to the employee), is not common-
sense all that is necessary to determine that Sound policy and
good practice have been observed? And yet this is the substance
of “Scientific Management.”
As Mr. Symons practically grants this proposition repeatedly,
as, for example, on page IQ, I am compelled to end where I began,
with the simple statement that I can not discover what. Mr.
Symons thinks Scientific Management is, and I am therefore
unable to discuss his discussion of it. -
ANGUS SINCLAIR, editor Railway and Locomotive Engineer-
ing (communicated): It appears Strange to me in this day and
generation, when the production in every line of industry has
been vastly increased by labor-saving machinery, that a clamor
should have arisen to provide means for increasing beyond reason
the output of the workman's manual skill and labor. Produc-
tion of finished goods has increased so rapidly of late years
that the demand of the people has not kept pace with the sup-
ply, and the whole world seems to be suffering from overpro-
duction.
When viewed in its broadest sense, overproduction only
means under-consumption; but production has increased so rap-
idly during the last decade that there is no time for natural
adjustment. That being admitted to be the case, it is not a proper
time to urge greater efforts for production upon the workman.
The assumption of the people promoting Scientific manage-
II.4. ANGUS SINCLAIR.
ment of production is that the ordinary workman is constantly
trying to do as little labor as possible in return for the wages
paid by the employer. I spent some ten or twelve years as a
shop mechanic, and I was for about five years a shop foreman,
besides spending several years visiting manufacturing establish-
ments and railway rolling stock repair shops, for the purpose
of writing about the work going on; So I have enjoyed good
opportunities for judging the habits of workmen. Some men
are lazy, permanently tired, and they do as little work as they
possibly can, but the great mass of workmen are naturally in-
dustrious and ready to do a fair day’s work. There is an indi-
viduality among workmen that enables Some men to do much
more work than others with the same degree of effort; but it is
the kind of individuality that enables one stenographer to write
much faster than another person engaged in the same business;
the want of quickness ought not to be blamed upon the person
as lack of industry. -
I am familiar with the work carried on in nearly all the lead-
ing railway repair shops in Europe, in this country, in Canada,
and in Mexico, and I feel safe in asserting that when left to his
own volition the American workman accomplishes from IO per
cent. to 25 per cent, more than any other mechanic.
Nearly all mechanics work on the principle of giving a fair
day’s work for a fair day's wages. In British shops there is very
little inclination among those in charge to push workmen beyond
their working gait, and it is generally considered rude to find
fault with a man who is working steadily.
I had personal experience in the first shop I worked in in
this country that gave me a striking impression of the shop
etiquette here as compared with that I had been accustomed to
in Scotland. I had been given a job which involved much chip-
ping and filing, and went at it on the same speed I had been
accustomed to work. When I had been working about three
days, the shop superintendent stopped and watched me for a few
minutes and remarked, “You know how to chip, but you’re tak-
ing a hell of a time over the job. Remember, you are not in
Scotland now.” He was a Scot himself. -
I have been watching the operation of Scientific Manage-
ment, and I believe its tendency will be to take away the pride
a mechanic has in doing his work—a thing to be sadly deplored.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. II 5
There has been so much sentiment manifested of late years to
work machine tools up to their highest capacity that a similar
sentiment seems to be extended to the man who is regarded as a
mere animated machine, deserving no more consideration as a
producer than the working parts of an automatic tool.
Another thing about the Scientific Management which I dis-
like is the idea of having the workman constantly under a sort
of tutorage, his every movement being Supervised. It seems to
me that human nature will resent such humiliating conditions.
I agree with Mr. Symons that it may be practicable to in-
troduce Scientific Management to new work, but I fail to see how
repair work can be done by that system. Those Supervising piece
work in repair shops have great difficulty in arranging equitable
pay for certain jobs, for it is often almost impossible to estimate
the time that a good mechanic will require to do the work.
Repair-shop mechanics are specialists in their line. Under Scien-
tific Management the inclination is taken away from the work-
man and taken up by the management. The management would
need to consist of very skilful and experienced mechanics to
decide in which way a difficult repair job should be executed.
According to my judgment, the system would confuse the work-
men without reflecting any glory on the management.
C/COSURA2 B Y TAZAE AUTHOR.
NOTHING but ingratitude could possibly prevent my first
utterance being an acknowledgment of the very complimentary
manner in which my paper has been received and discussed, and
I wish to express my thanks to all concerned.
Those interested in the management of railway properties
have, I trust, had an opportunity to get the benefit of the views
on both theoretical and practical sides of the question, and it
only remains for me to review the remarks of the different
gentlemen who SO kindly took active part in or otherwise con-
tributed to the discussion of my paper.
MR. F. H. CLARK. To my mind, the two salient points in
Mr. Clark's remarks cover the question very nicely and strongly
endorse my position throughout.
It might be stated that the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, of
which Mr. Clark is an officer, has an earning capacity of about
II6 WILSON. E. SYMONS.
$90,000,000 a year. Under a very able and aggressive manage-
ment, the road is being systematically rehabilitated to increase
its efficiency as an operating unit. In Mr. Clark's own field of
activity—that of Maintenance of Equipment—the expenditures
last year amounted to more than $16,000,000, which sum was
this year reduced by about $492,OOO.
J
MR. S. M. VAUCLAIN. I am not surprised that Mr. Vauclain
cannot endorse in his remarks either the attitude of those who
so severely criticise our railway managers or the methods of
relief they propose, especially as I have already had occasion to
make a study of the plan of organization and the degree of effi-
ciency resulting therefrom in the plant with which this gentle-
Iman is connected. . -
With respect to the isolated location of many of the repair
points on the Santa Fe, as compared with other lines, I would
reply that my analysis of this same subject under the sub-heading
of “Unit Costs Itemized ” (see Emerson) enables a comparison
of cost supervision of Mechanical Department to be drawn be-
tween the Great Northern—practically a mountain road—and the
Santa Fe. The Great Northern has a greater number of Mallet
engines than any other railway in America, if not in the world.
It has an average of one locomotive to every 6.46 miles, while
the Santa Fe has one locomotive to every 5.12 miles. In other
words, the Great Northern's equipment is more scattered than
that of the Santa Fe by 24.6 per cent., while the cost for super-
vision of the Mechanical Department on the Great Northern is
$23. IO per mile, as compared with $53.66 per mile on the Santa
Fe, a figure I32.29 per cent. higher. -
Mr. Vauclain also calls attention to the greatly increased size
of locomotives on the Santa Fe road. It is true that this line,
like many others, has purchased many new locomotives having
two or three, and in some cases four or five, times the tractive
power of some of their old light engines still retained in service.
Actual figures indicate that the average tractive power of all
engines in 1900 was a little over I6,OOO pounds, while in 1910
it was 29,803 pounds. In connection with these figures it should,
thowever, be borne in mind that the company still owns and oper-
ates over a thousand medium or light-weight locomotives, many
of which were owned and operated in or prior to IQOO, and that
these engines suffer an actual reduction of effective tractive power
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I 17
due to their boiler pressures being gradually reduced on account
of age. These locomotives, too, are now being used in lighter
Service, on branch runs, and on less important trains, etc., hence
their cost of maintenance should really be less now than when
* they were in the heavier service. This fact, taken into considera-
tion with the increased size of new locomotives on all other trunk
line railways besides the Santa Fe, should bring the relative
cost per engine mile on this road to about the same as that on
other roads. 49
An examination of the table on page 381, giving the average
diameter of cylinder in inches and the cost per inch of cylinder
diameter in dollars on twelve railways running west from Chi-
cago, will indicate that on this basis there is only one line showing
a higher cost than the Santa Fe. This line, moreover, does not
extend across the Mississippi Valley to the labor and material
markets of St. Louis and Chicago, but is confined to an entirely
Imountainous country where the maximum prices for labor and
material obtain: - .
The point of speed, also included in Mr. Vauclain's criticism,
applies to all transcontinental or trunk lines, and consequently
affects the cost of maintenance of each to the same degree.
The comparative figures of costs, etc., presented in my paper
were taken from the companies’ annual reports, or their sworn
statements to the Interstate Commerce Commission, and, except
for any error that may have been introduced in calculating per-
centages or copying, are a correct representation of actual facts
or conditions.
MR. E. L. CONRAD. The purpose of my rather extensive dis-
play of statistics was to endeavor to show that there was no sub-
stantial reduction made in repair costs of the Santa Fe system
during the Emerson period, and Mr. Conrad, in his remarks,
brief but well-chosen, has stated that this fact is true.
Coming from a gentleman who is personally familiar with
every item of expense I have quoted, and who, on analyzing these
items, would readily bring forth his criticism if warranted, his
Statement I consider to be a strong endorsement of my paper.
MR. WALTER V. TURNER. The fact that the Westinghouse
Air Brake Company, like the Baldwin Locomotive Works, is
operating on a highly efficient and most successful commercial
II.8 WILSON. E. SYMONS. *
basis, without any of the proposed Scientific Management Schemes
to which this paper is addressed, and that the prominent officers
of these manufacturing plants frankly style the term a misnomer,
or, as Mr. Turner puts it, a “premium on bad work,” constitute
a very strong endorsement of my estimate that the plan might be
applied to something less than three per cent. Of railway
operation.
Mr. Turner, having been on the Santa Fe road when the
system was inaugurated, undoubtedly had full opportunity to
observe the personal workings of Mr. Emerson's Scientific Man-
agement plans, and I consider his opinion of more than ordinary
importance in connection with this subject.
MR. G. R. HENDERSON. It appears to me that Mr. Hender-
Son's criticism of “saving at the Spigot and leaking at the
bung" is not only a strong endorsement of my paper, but is tem-
pered with much charity towards those who so openly accuse
railway managers of inefficiency and have made such a dismal
failure in trying to support the unwarranted charge of their
own proposed remedies. tº
MR. GEORGE J. BURNS. Mr. Burns's remarks being quite
clear and consistent with the subject to which my paper was
addressed, there is really not much for me to say in reply to them.
It is at Once evident that Mr. Burns's long-extended and suc-
cessful experience in shop management, handling men and
machines, to obtain a fair average output from both, has greatly
influenced his opinion of “scientific managers ” and theorists
who have never been able to solve the “human equation.”
Mr. Burns clearly defines the popular understanding of the
term “Scientific Management,” and proves conclusively that this
is erroneous, and that by commanding the best natural ability and
by assimilating outside Suggestions the railroads are, and have
been all along, actually applying the real system.
MR. B. B. MILNER. In his discussion Mr. Milner has brought
out some interesting and valuable points, and has submitted notes
on “Increasing Operating Efficiency,” which contain many use-
ful suggestions.
I contend, however, in opposition to Mr. Milner's observations
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I IQ
on the interpretation of the term “Scientific Management,” that
there can be no question as to the employment of the ablest men
known in the solution of the problems under consideration, with
the view of securing maximum efficiency in railroad operation;
also, I hold that such talent is the embodiment of engineering
principles on the broadest lines.
On page IO of my paper I stated: “The estimated probable
economies from this new plan in railroad operation will be con-
fined to such branches as in my judgment are susceptible of being
placed on a comparative basis with large manufacturers of stand-
ard articles.” It should be clear from this as to what is the
interpretation and scope of the plan.
Further, in the matter of the percentage of railway employees
to whom the system (even in a modified form) would apply, I
state most emphatically that about I2 per cent. of the 48,000
machinists and 5 per cent. Of the IQ5,OOO other shopmen, who are
engaged on a regularly fixed class of work in the large general
shops, could work under it. In other words, the fraction of
men affected by it would be .OO8, or eight-tenths of one per cent.,
of the whole. This is probably about the figure, but, to be more
liberal, in my paper I calculated the percentage on practically
double the number of shop and mechanical employees and added
the 5,867 telegraph operators. Estimating the economies at 15
per cent., I therefore obtained the figure .O289.
Although I stand committed to the recognition and employ-
ment of the ablest talent in the railway or engineering field, the
fact that I estimate that less than 3 per cent. of the carrier's
employees can be put on a comparative basis with those employed
in mills, shops, factories, and other manufacturing plants, must
not be construed that I regard all of the remaining 97 per cent.
as being up to the standard of efficiency or even a good maximum
average. *
The question under discussion is, however, so clearly defined
on the title page of my paper and elsewhere throughout, and the
kind of Scientific Management has been so clearly outlined in
, the publications mentioned, that there should be no doubt in the
Imind of anyone familiar with railway operation just how far
this plan could be advantageously applied, and, in order to comply
with the text, this must, of necessity, be aside from economies
through other channels.
I2O WILSON E. SYMONS.
I have estimated that the term applies to less than 3 per cent.,
and I regard it as more than probable that this figure could be
reduced. If others estimated I6, 25, 50, 75 per cent., or even
“Our '' railways, which means IOO per cent., should be managed
by this scheme, as the prosecution, principal witness, and almost
the entire press claimed, in the case referred to, could and should
be done, it remains for such claims to be substantiated.
PROF. WILLIAM J. CUNNINGHAM. I have already read Pro-
fessor Cunningham's article in the Quarterly Journal of Econom-
ics, and I consider it as containing much that is of value to the
practical railroad man and to anyone interested in railroad prob-
lems. To me the article is an exposition of the fallacious claims
of Savings made on the Santa Fe system. -
In reply to Professor Cunningham's remarks, I might say.
that there are many items of expense on a railway that, though
Seemingly extravagant, may represent an integral part of the cost
of a certain operation in itself highly efficient. The theory of
Scientific Management as presented by its advocates would result
in a levelling or evening process by establishing unit costs which
would obtain throughout. From the point of view of a railroad
man, the theory would therefore be entirely inapplicable to such
items, although apparently not so to one outside.
The attitude of railway managers and their efficiency engi-
neers or experts is not, as is generally supposed, one of hostility
toward anything that will result in more economical operation.
In fact, these men are not only open to receive and embrace such
plans or methods, but are actually seeking them. At the same
time, however, they are very properly guarding the property in
their charge from the adverse effects of experimental schemes
that would tend to either injure or destroy their organization
and affect their earnings. Many of the plans for saving great
sums to the railway companies that are perfectly feasible from a
theoretical standpoint are known to be impracticable by the men
in charge of railways, and these men, therefore, very properly
decline to allow their organizations—and consequently their ser-.
vice to the public—or the company’s earnings to be interfered
with or jeopardized, and the penalty of their foresight and loyalty
to their employing companies is not infrequently the bitterest
criticism.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I2I
I feel sure that Professor Cunningham and others who
possess a broad and liberal knowledge of railway affairs in gen-
eral will agree that the men who have devoted their lives to the
various phases or branches of railway operation are the men
best able to judge as to what methods should be employed in
effecting economies. -
Two or three conclusions drawn by Professor Cunningham in
his paper already mentioned I would refer to as having a special
bearing on the subject under consideration in my paper.
Speaking of Mr. Emerson's claims of the millions saved on
the Santa Fe by the adoption of his “Scientific Management”
plan, Professor Cunningham says:
“In the first place, the new system was introduced in the Santa
Fe shops just after the collapse of a lengthy strike of machinists.
Shop forces were demoralized and maintenance costs abnormally
high, because of the inevitable employment of incompetent men to
take the place of the strikers. A return to normal conditions under
any system would have shown a marked improvement when results
were compared with the former abnormal period.” º
Further :
“Mr. Emerson’s usual method of expressing the expense of
locomotive maintenance is in cost per ‘Road Unit.’ This is an
unusual and misleading average, because it includes the weight of
the locomotive as a factor and assumes that the repair cost varies
directly with the weight—which assumption is not entirely correct.
In this case, Mr. Emerson’s ‘Road Unit' gave a favorable showing
to the new system because of the purchase of a large number of
new and heavy engines.”
Thirdly:
“Since the Santa Fe experiment lacks convincing proof, the
railroad managers are forced to turn to industrial or manufacturing
concerns to learn of the merits of ‘Scientific Management.’”
Professor Cunningham's conclusions may therefore be
analyzed as follows:— s
Mr. Emerson did not reduce the cost of repairs to locomo-
tives from $4,165 to $3,016 per year, as claimed—this reduc-
tion being simply due to a return to normal conditions, following
an expensive strike.
Mr. Emerson’s “Road Unit,” on which he bases his econo-
mies, is unusual and misleading.
I 22 WILSON. E. SYMONs.
Finally, Professor Cunningham says that the efficiency or
Scientific Management experts must “lay stress on System,
dependent sequences, etc., and acquire more knowledge of prac-
tical railroad problems,” with all of which I concur, Since it
constitutes a strong endorsement of my position throughout.
DR. ANGUS SINCLAIR. Dr. Sinclair's reference to the general
attitude of workmen in American railway shops and the prob-
able effect on them of the so-called Scientific Management plan
brings prominently into view a question that has been given little,
if any, attention by the majority of persons who have written
and said much about this system.
This feature, however, which I term the “human equation,”
is specially referred to in the conclusions on page 43 of my paper.
It becomes of great importance when the fact is borne in mind
that, even under present conditions, it is almost impossible to
secure a sufficient number of men of the various classes to handle
railway work. Owing to fluctuations in traffic, it not infrequently
occurs that the maintenance of equipment or movement of trains
is considerably interfered with on account of inability to suffi-
ciently increase the working forces to take care of the increased
volume of business. *
There are two reasons for this—an insufficient number of
applicants and the actual number rejected owing to the rigid
physical requirements with respect to age and general physical
condition. It is a fact that a large percentage of the various
classes of labor common to all industries can and do find em-
ployment in other lines when they are unable to secure work with
railway companies, owing to too strict physical requirements.
Under the proposed plan of Scientific Management, the
“speeding-up * process would unquestionably be one of the
cornerstones on which the system or plan would stand, should it
ever exist. Therefore, another culling-out process would follow
that of the physical examination, so that ultimately a full realiza-
tion of the economies claimed for this plan would be predicated
upon the use of IOO per cent, efficient men, or, in other words, .
perfection—and it is, on the face of it, impossible to organize
and maintain such a standard. Moreover, such a scheme is con-
trary to public policy and at variance with the Constitution of the
Commonwealth.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. 123
Some years ago a judge presiding Over a court in Tennessee,
at a case wherein the question of a certain railway company’s
liability was at issue, ruled, and so instructed the jury, that the
company was liable, for the simple reason that it did not have the
highest grade of employees to protect property in its charge, and
a verdict was consequently rendered against the defendant com-
pany. The case was, Of course, appealed, and when it reached a
tribunal that was uninfluenced by local prejudice the former ver-
dict was not only set aside and the company held not liable, but
the trial judge was severely criticised for embodying in his charge
to the jury instructions that were contrary to public policy. The
principal point established by the Supreme Court was that it was
impossible for any company, particularly a railway company, to
have all first-class employees. It would be contrary to the policy
of the railroads to expect to obtain all the best men our country
produced, thus casting all the inferior men into other lines of
industry.
There can be no arbitrary time limits predetermined and
established for the thousands and thousands of operations in
railway work without a long series of time-studies with stop-
watches and other means of espionage over workmen which, when
finally completed and put into effect, would result in crowding out
of service thousands who are now valuable and efficient employees
and useful citizens, but who would probably be declared inefficient
by this proposed technical or scientific “ yard-stick.”
Dr. Sinclair has very clearly pointed out that this sort of
thing would confuse workmen without reflecting any glory on
the management, and I feel prompted to agree with him that it
would result in all the adverse conditions he mentions, together
with many others that he has doubtless in mind.
MR. J. SHIRLEY EATON. I regard Mr. Eaton's criticism as
of a character or tone that invites co-operation in the matter
of the problems under consideration. There are doubtless many
problems pertaining to the physical operation of a railway and
to its statistics that do not appear to any one of us in the same
light as they would to another. Difference of opinion largely
reflects our angle of vision, and is also an index to our difference
of environment.
With reference to experimental features of the earlier rail-
I24. WILSON. E. SYMONS.
roads, I am inclined to the belief that there was far less experi-
menting then than now in this field, and that many of the im–
proved conditions accorded to the result of experiment were, and
are, the outcome of the well-matured plans of highly efficient
Imen in their chosen profession. -: -
To quote examples, a railway is built with light materials—
light steel, ties, bridges, etc.—is provided with narrow fills and
cuts, and is operated with light power and equipped with light
cars, and other facilities in proportion.
After the line is opened and earnings either provide funds or
establish sufficient credit for the company to refinance the prop-
erty, it is usually rehabilitated with heavier steel, larger and
more ties, rock ballast, heavier bridges, etc., and those who so
freely criticise the railways immediately say that the first efforts.
were an experiment and were a waste of time and money. Actu-
ally, however, far better use of the original funds and facilities
at hand had perhaps been made than is done by those who rebuild
a line—and not infrequently receive credit for correcting the
alleged folly of an experiment. Following the rehabilitation of
the permanent way, engines and cars are replaced by heavier
types—side tracks must be lengthened, new turn-tables secured,
and the round-houses and shops enlarged—all of which is not
infrequently termed “experiment.” The same is true with
regard to the handling of the men employed. Railway officers
have not experimented with men, but have simply moved with
the times in their endeavor to develop efficiency of a high order.
A notable practical example of the above was the rehabili-
tating of the Union Pacific Railroad some years ago. Some
referred to this great engineering and commercial feat as casting
a reflection on those who located and built the original line.
The chief officers engaged in the reconstruction and shortening
of the road, however, frankly admitted that it was extremely
doubtful whether any other living man could have done so well
under the circumstances as did Gen. Grenville M. Dodge in the
Original location and construction of it.
Many other similar cases might be cited. I myself have de-
signed, purchased, and maintained locomotives of a size and capa-
city much below what I considered the most economical from an
operating standpoint, but they were as heavy as the bridges and
other superstructures would support. As, however, funds were
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. . I25
not forthcoming to rehabilitate the roadway, etc., in spite of the
necessity of supplying greatly increased power to move the
volume of business offered, it was incumbent to do the best that
could be done under the circumstances. Later on, new bridges
permitted using heavier engines, and perhaps the displaced
engines were referred to by some, as “experiments,” although
they worked to maximum efficiency in their “ day and genera-
tion.”
Mr. Eaton is correct with regard to the railway business
having in many respects taken on a form of strife. There are
several very prominent factors exerting a constant influence in
the direction, as indicated by Mr. Eaton, of the strenuousness of
railway life, so that this strife may be found in most all branches
of the various departments. It represents the components of all
the influences tending in the direction of all the executives charged
with the management of the properties. The owners are solici-
tous as to their investments, which prompts the management to
exert their energies to the end of securing the greatest possible
returns from operation; this in turn means that, through the
medium of the traffic officers, they are at all times striving to
Secure the greatest possible volume of business over their rails;
through the legal department they are striving to secure the most
advantageous position in all matters affected by the courts; the
cost of transportation is sought to be lowered by the operating
department.
In opposition to these factors, almost every employee of the
line is constantly seeking—and many demand through their
organized bodies—increased compensation. The labor organiza-
tions are not asleep, and have long ago learned the most effective
manner in which to secure favorable consideration—and in the
application thereof it is not infrequently the case that prominent
trunk lines are, in the matter of wage questions, placed in com-
petition with one another. As a result and as the bidding—as it
may be termed—progresses, the companies are placed, by means
of concessions and compromises, in the position of practically
competing with one another in the purchase of labor at the
lowest possible figure. There is, in the end, a gradual increase
accruing to the labor organizations in consequence of this com-
petitive, collective bargaining. As Mr. Eaton states, this has
126 WILSON E. SYMONS.
assumed a condition bordering so closely on physical strife that
doubtless some of the best men in the railway field have been
sacrificed.
Other contributing causes for this physical strife are such as
the railway companies themselves have not occasioned by their
own methods. An ever-discriminating and sometimes unreason-
able public is largely responsible more than any other one factor.
About forty-seven different legislatures have for years been mak-
ing laws mostly hostile to railway interests, many of which have
been unconstitutional. These, together with the conflicting rules
of State and national railway commissions, Sometimes render it
totally impossible to observe the rulings of one State without
violating those of another, so that it is small wonder that the
railway officers are constantly held under a high nerve tension
from this cause alone. -
Finally, after years of strenuous combating of these com-
bined conditions, there becomes famous in a night the “Scientific
Management * craze. This, by disseminating such statements
that $365,000,000, and even $73O,OOO,OOO, a year can be saved
by the railways, has had the effect of further embittering the
people against railway interests, and has rendered it much more
difficult to operate railway properties with that degree of economy
which, in the absence of these adverse influences, would be easily
attainable.
'Mr. Eaton says that preconceptions and vague impressions
have played so large a part in the questions under consideration,
in spite of the fact that the figures given in my paper were actually
quoted by Scientific Management exponents in Support of their
statements and claims. One advocate actually pointed out that a
prominent industrial concern coerced the railways into purchasing
its products at a probable loss or waste of $2,000,000 a year,
and offered Scientific Management as a remedy for the losses.
Another advocate offers the following unit costs for main-
tenance of locomotives and cars.
Locomotives, per mile run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $o.O6
Freight cars, per car per year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.OO
On this basis the total cost in 1909 should have figured out
as follows:
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I27
Locomotive miles, I,529,454,537 at 6 cents per
mile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $91,771,312.22
The actual cost of Maintenance and Deprecia-
tion was . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I34,675,802.OO
Which is in excess by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32,904,490.00
Freight cars, 2,250,000 at $35 per car per year. 78,750,000.00
The actual cost in 1909 was . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I60,758,186.00
Which is in excess by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82,008,186.00
Or over one hundred per cent.
So that on these two items alone $1 I4,912,676 is alleged to
have been wasted.
It would appear, therefore, that Scientific Management advo-
cates are actually guilty of the very offence of which they are
by Mr. Eaton charitably absolved.
As to the introduction of the efficiency engineer, there is
really not a wide range of difference between railway managers
and railway efficiency or consulting engineers. The fact must
not be overlooked that discouraging influences and impediments
to progress are being overcome by the various able and efficient
railway managers all along. American railways are producing
transportation for less than any other country in the world. They
are paying higher compensation and operating with a less force,
as is illustrated in the following table of ratio of number of men
per mile of line:
United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.38
United Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.
Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.
France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I6.
Switzerland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I5.
Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2i.
Belgium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.
Austria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I8.
Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I6.
An army of railway efficiency engineers is constantly em-
ployed and is achieving results in its work, so that any criticism
of these would, under the circumstances, appear unwarranted.
MR. FRANK B. GILBRETH. I find myself unable to agree with
Mr. Gilbreth in any of his conclusions with respect to the prac-
tical application of Scientific Management to railway operation,
I 28 - WILSON. E. SYMONs.
although I realize that his opinions are entitled to respectful
consideration. - -
Mr. Gilbreth is quite sure that the railways will be much more
efficient when they adopt the Taylor System of Scientific Man-
agement; he is also equally sure that they will adopt it.
The plan of so-called Scientific Management under considera-
tion in my paper was very clearly defined in the testimony before
the Interstate Commerce Commission on the rate cases. It was
also given much publicity about the same time through the press.
In a general way it is the so-called Taylor System, and my opin-
ion is that there is not the remotest possibility of the railway
Officers adopting this system or of the employees working under
it. On the other hand, too, there is not the remotest possibility of
any diminution in the concentrated efforts of our railway mana-
gers and their departmental heads, many of which latter are high-
grade efficiency engineers, to maintain economy. They will pro-
ceed in the future, as they have done in the past, in the solution
of all problems pertaining to economical operation, to the end
that the majority of our railways in America shall remain in the
lead of all other corporations or concerns where high-grade effi-
ciency engineering is concerned. Most of the alleged wastes or
inefficiencies pointed out by those lacking in knowledge gained
from practical experience in railroad work are largely, if not
wholly, such economic wastes or essential costs as are absolutely
necessary in the operation of a high-grade transportation plant,
which will never be prevented.
In stating that the so-called Scientific Management plan under
consideration will not be adopted and used by the railways, I
do not wish to convey the idea that the plan reveals anything but
the results of continued and hard study of the subject of scientific
shop management on the part of its originator. I regard it, on
the contrary, as having brought much distinction in its field
of usefulness, but add that its methods are in this case not
applicable. -
No doubt many who have read of Dr. Taylor's great achieve-
ments in the engineering world have been led to believe that the
same economies could be effected in all items of expenses in rail-
way operation. That this is not the case, however, can be best
shown by taking a particular example.
Some ten or fifteen years ago the efficiency engineers on our
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I29
railways began to stir up the machine-tool makers, first with a
request, then a demand, for machines and tools that would stand
up under heavier loads and increased speeds, thus effecting an
increased output. Although some few of these were a little slow
in getting into action, the progressive motive-power officers of
the American railways continued to press until the demands were
met, and as a result the designing engineers and manufacturers
have, jointly with the railway efficiency engineers who use their
products, brought about great economies in machine shop output.
Although the above is the case, the fact should not be over-
looked that the proportion of the operating expenses of a railway
that would be controlled or influenced by the benefits derived
therefrom is decidedly small. For example, the development
of high-speed tool steel for turning steel tires had very little effect
on Operating expenses, as is evidenced by the following figures,
taken from the statistics of one of our leading trunk lines:
Total number of employees . . . . . . . . . . . . . .* * * * * * * * * * * * * 39,000
Total operating expenses, over . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $37,000,000.00
Maintenance of equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,500,000.OO
Monthly pay-rolls, Mechanical Department, over. . . . . . 400,000.00
Monthly expense of turning steel tires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5OO.OO
Ratio of steel tire expense to shop rolls. . . . . . . . . . . . . .OOI2
Ratio of steel tire expense to maintenance of equip-
ment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .oOOO6
Ratio of steel tire expense to operating expense....... ...Not given
It should, therefore, be clear to anyone that even the maxi-
mum improvements or economies effected by the introduction of
improved tool steels would only touch an infinitesimal part of the
shop work, and entire maintenance of equipment, which is in turn
only an item, amounting to about one-fifth, or 20 per cent., of the
total cost of railway operation.
Passing from shop operations to office expenses, Mr. Gilbreth
says: “We have applied the Taylor plan of Scientific Manage-
ment with a large increase of efficiency to office employees, as well
as to those who do manual labor.” I can only say in reply to this
that for the One line that has been cited as an example of the
wonderful economies effected claims have been made which have
on analysis proven to be without support. -
Mr. Gilbreth’s conclusions on the application of the plan to
locomotive repairs must be formed from a theoretical view of the
I3O - WILSON E. SYMONs.
matter, for 1 venture to say that if placed in charge of mainten-
ance and repairs of locomotives in a large round-house for even
a short period it would be impossible for One to form such
conclusions.
Lastly, I would say that the problems of “Practical Applica-
tion of Scientific Management to Railway Operation '' and of
“Practical Application of Scientific Management to Manufactur-
ing Plants" have very few, if any, points in common, and, no
matter how thorough an investigation were made of the latter,
the experience gained would still be entirely inapplicable in pro-
posing any method of or attempting any Solution of the former.
MR. CHARLEs BUXTON GOING. Mr. Going comments on in-
creased size of engines, and states that comparison on any other
basis than the tractive unit would be worthless. In reply I would
say that it is a matter of common knowledge that all trunk lines
have materially increased the size of their power in the last
twenty years, and particularly in the last decade. The Santa
Fe has made remarkable strides in this direction, but as it has
done so not independently, but in common with the other lines,
the relative difference in cost per unit of all lines should be
about the same. -
An examination of the Santa Fe annual report for IQII
discloses the following figures with reference to locomotives:
Number of engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I,907
Number of engines with less than IOO tons on drivers. . . . . . . . I,770
Number of engines with more than IOO tons on drivers. . . . . . 227
Per cent of locomotives with more than 100 tons on drivers.. II.3
Number Mallet engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Per cent. Mallet engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.9
(While there are about 58 Mallet engines shown in the 191 I
report, many of them were received toward the close of the fiscal
year. During the period covered by the maintenance items for
this year there were approximately 35 Mallet engines, or about
I.8 per cent.) -
Of the 90 per cent. of engines weighing less than IOO tons on
drivers, I,6OI, or 80 per cent., of these have less than 75 tons on
drivers. Further, it may be stated that included in this schedule
of power are many old light engines that actually decrease in
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I3 I
size by age, and, as these are mostly assigned to lighter Service,
they should be much less expensive to maintain than they were
prior to the purchase of the modern heavier power.
The light power is divided into the following classes:
Switch engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I44
Eight-wheel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Mogul . . . . . . . . . . . * * * e e º e º e e º & s e º e º º e e º s e e s a s e s is e º e is 57
Ten-wheel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
Twelve-wheel (only 52.17 tons) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Consolidation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I,22I
Per cent. Of total equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6I.o
From the foregoing it is quite clear that, while the Santa Fe
has added many new engines to its equipment, it, like other lines,
still owns and operates a majority of much lighter engines.
The average tractive power of locomotives on the Santa Fe
for the past six years was as follows:
1906 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27,684 pounds
I907 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29,229 pounds
I908 . . . . .* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * tº e g is ſº ſº tº º is 29,757 pounds
I909 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29,714 pounds
1910 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29,803 pounds
I9II (58 Mallet engines) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30,824 pounds
Increase in tractive power (1906-II) . . . . . . II.3%
Cost per engine per year at maintenance,
1906 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3, IOI.OO
1911 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,544.OO
Increased cost Over 1906 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46.5%
Again, a comparison may be drawn between the sizes of
engines on Some of the lines in question on the basis of average
diameters of cylinders. The following is a tabulated display of
this factor in inches, together with average cost of maintenance
per engine per year and cost per inch of cylinder diameter per
year, on twelve different lines:
I32 WILSON. E. SYMONS.
Average diameter Average cost Cost per inch
of cylinders per engine per of cylinder
in inchés year to maintain diameter in
I9IO. in dollars. dollars.
I Northern Pacific . . . . . 2O.7O $2,481.00 $120.00
2 Great Northern . . . . . . 20.67 2,841.OO I37.39
3 Southern Pacific . . . . . I9.93 4,218.00 2II.64
4 St. L. & S. F. . . . . . . . . 2O.OO 2,923.OO I46.I5
5 C., R. I. & P. . . . . . . . . 2O.OO 2,478.00 I23.90
6 C., B. & Q. . . . . . . . . . . I9.90 3,087.00 I55. I2
7 Union Pacific . . . . . . . . 20.45 3,687.00 I80.29
8 Missouri Pacific . . . . . Ig.60 3,393.00 I73. II
9 M., K. & T. . . . . . . . . . . I9.30 2,783.00 I44. I9
Io C. & N. W. . . . . . . . . . . I9.08 2,527.00 I32.44
II. C., M. & St. P. . . . . . . . 18.77 2,523.OO I34.4I
I2 A., T. & S. F. Ry. . . . . I8.54 3,832.OO 2O7.22
Average . . . . . . . . . I9.74 $3,148.00 $155.44
These figures are self-explanatory and confirm my contention
that analyses of unit costs based on size or capacity can quite
properly be made.
With reference to the comparison of cost per engine per year
for maintenance on different lines of railway and on the same
line of railway for different years, to which comparison Mr.
Going takes exception, adding that “ comparison on any other
basis but the tractive unit would be worthless,” the presumption
is not made by the writer that, in the preparation of Operating
statistics of railways, the method employed to show the general
average earnings per train mile, the average cost for maintenance
of way per mile, the average cost per locomotive per year, per
freight and passenger car per year, etc., gives in any case the
exact cost of each unit involved. For example, on a system where
the average earnings per mile per year are $1 O,OOO, it is not
unlikely that some miles are being operated at a loss. The same
may be said to be true of locomotive maintenance. A line show-
ing an average cost of $3,000 per locomotive may have spent as
high as $10,000 on some certain locomotives, while on others pos-
sibly only about $500 or $600. The ready comparison of the
costs on their own line and on other lines, for the various periods
made by the method of averaging, is, however, the one generally
accepted by the managers of American railways.
A search of the annual reports of railways of the United
States reveals the fact that Mr. Going’s “unit costs based on
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I.33
tractive power '' is conspicuous by its absence. The Railway
Presidents’ annual reports show these figures in average cost per
locomotive per year, average cost per locomotive per car mile,
average cost per car, average income or expenditure per car
mile, etc. -
Just what my position is in respect to Scientific Management
is brought out by the qualifying clauses on pages IO and I 8 of
my paper, and I have therein confined myself to the task indi-
cated—that of establishing an approximate line of definition of
the practical application of scientific management to railway
Operation.
I repeat here that there is no comparison between the daily
duties of section laborers, section foremen, engineers and firemen,
brakemen, conductors, etc., on the one hand, and of machine oper-
ators on the other. The daily duties of the former cannot be
predetermined by some planning department in an office.
With respect to the switch-tenders, it is quite proper to show
that the number of these has been reduced to a minimum and
that their rate of pay will not permit of any reduction, so that
no portion of the proposed $365,OOO,OOO to be saved per year
could be derived from this source.
The next item is that of employees on floating equipment.
Their average compensation is now $2.31 a day—which includes
captains, first, second and third officers, chief engineers, assistant
engineers, stewards, pursers, petty officers, and the remainder of
the crews. No reduction could be made in this rate, which is
already below the average for the character of work performed.
Neither could the number of these men be reduced, as their duties
are usually clearly defined, as I already stated, by United States
laws governing Steamboat service.
As to the mixed classes, which include inexperienced men in
railway service, what I have said of the track-, engine- and train-
men, as compared to machine Operators, also applies to these.
Mr. Going states, with regard to economy effected by first-
class supervision: “Whether the average man is firing a locomo-
tive or tamping a tie, he can certainly learn to do it better under
the guidance of a better-than-average man.” I think I have
already expressed my willingness to admit that first-class Super-
vision would effect economy to the railway company.
I 34 WILSON E. SYMONS.
Consider in tabulated form figures concerning some of the
principal men connected with locomotive operation and fuel
economy.
Engineers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57,077
Firemen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60,349
Mechanical officers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,000
Travelling engineers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900
Members International Railway Fuel Association . . . . . . . . . . . I47
Members Air-Brakemen's Association . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2OO
I20,673
As all of the above are not fuel experts, and as many of
them devote much of their time to other matters than fuel
problems, it is quite proper to subject this list to a process of
elimination.
Of the 57,077 engineers, there are no doubt many that practise
the most rigid economy in the operating of engines in their charge
and guard their employers' property as carefully as if it were
their own. Such number among them the ablest fuel experts
known, and it is from their ranks that men are selected for the
advanced positions of travelling engineer or road foreman of
engines. There are no statistics to show the average percentage
of the number of engineers that would come within this class,
but many years' experience in the examination, employment,
handling, promoting, and otherwise dealing with both engineers
and firemen, studying their records, performance sheets, etc.,
enables one to make a reasonably fair estimate of fifty per cent.,
and of the remainder I would venture to say that at least half
are not wasteful.
Taking the estimate of 50 per cent, however, we have on the
scene of action at all times 28,538 high-grade fuel experts who
are as economical as transportation conditions will allow.
Now, considering the firemen, it is well known that the best
engineers do not tolerate inefficient firemen, and so it may be said
there is an equal number to that of the engineers endeavoring
to save every pound of coal possible.
We now have 57,077 men constantly in service with this
latter object in view.
There are over two thousand mechanical Officers, and more
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I.35
than one-half of these—to form a conservative estimate—con-
tribute much to fuel economy.
Travelling engineers and road foremen of engines are drawn
from the very best engineers on the road. They are experts in
locomotive operation, and are constantly on the “firing line.”
Approximately 900 of these must be added to the above.
As regards the members of the International Fuel Associa-
tion, I 50 in number, these are interested in fuel economy, but,
since many of them are confined to office work, it would be fair to
consider IOO of them as contributing to practical saving of fuel.
To the already considerable number might very well be added
a large percentage of the air-brake instructors, many of whom
teach fuel economy in conjunction. Hostlers, trainmasters, and
superintendents could also be included.
The completed list of fuel economists, therefore, stands as
follows:
Engineers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28,538
Firemen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28,538
Mechanical officers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I,000
Travelling engineers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900
International Railway Fuel Association . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IOO
59,076
or about 59,000 of the best men available teaching and practising
fuel saving.
That there is room for considerable further economy in this
direction than is at present effected is not denied. Recent pre-
ventable wastes have, however, been grossly exaggerated by
Scientific Management exponents.
The assignment of additional men of known ability in loco-
motive operation would secure the best possible service from
each employee to prevent all necessary waste of fuel. Beyond
this no one can go. Scientific Management could not approach
the case, and the Bonus System would have a demoralizing effect.
Locomotive engineers and firemen are paid on a mileage
basis, clearly defined in their schedule drawn up by their respec-
tive brotherhoods. The hours of departure, weight and speed
of trains, number and duration of stops, etc., are all governed
by the Transportation Department to suit constantly-changing
conditions of service.
I36 Wilson E. Symons.
The quality of fuel used is influenced largely by two factors:
its degree of purity and the manner of handling it from mine
to engine. All coal is not first quality, and the railway managers
will continue, in the future as in the past, to purchase that grade
which, from the standpoint of Sound business policy, is most
suitable for their use. -
. One of the most important factors affecting the quantity of
fuel used is the state of the weather, and, up to this date, I have
not heard of any proposition to regulate this by Scientific Man-
agement! There are other factors just as variable as this, and
the foregoing serves to show that these cannot be foreseen or
provided for in any bonus system.
I stand committed to the highest possible efficiency obtain-
able by the employment of the best talent known in respective
lines of work, and regret that I am unable to offer a better defini-
tion of my views on Scientific Management than was given in
my paper.
MR. HARRINGTON EMERSON. At the risk of tiring some
readers with what appears to me too voluminous a review, I will
enter, as part of the record, extracts from the testimony and
writings of different advocates of Scientific Management to
which I have addressed myself (see Docket 3400).
Extracts from the testimony before the Interstate Commerce
Commission in the rate case:
Page 14: “The Science of Management is new. Some of its
principles were discovered and applied a quarter of a century
ago by Fred. W. Taylor in the Midvale Steel Works. Other prin-
ciples have been discovered and developed by him and by many
others since. It was not until the publication of his essay on
‘Shop Management,’ in 1903, that the results of his work and
that of his associates, particularly H. L. Gault and C. G. Barth,
were presented to the public in a comprehensive form; and it is
scarcely more than three or four years since these principles devel-
oped into a science. (Emerson on Efficiency, and Going, Santa
Fe Management.)”
Page I5: “Scientific Management is not merely competent
and progressive management. ‘Scientific Management differs
radically from the most competent and progressive management
under the old system. It differs also from systematized manage-
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I37
ment. The difference is one in kind. ‘Scientific Management’
differs from that now generally practised by the railroads, much
as production by machinery differs from production by hand; and
the Revolution in Railroading ' and other industries, which must
result from the introduction of ‘Scientific Management,’ is com-
parable only to that involved in the transition from hand to
machine production.”
Pages 18 and 19 (WHAT SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN-
voLVEs): “In Scientific Management, therefore, results are pre-
determined. Before the work is commenced, it is determined not
only as to what shall be done, but how it shall be done, when it
shall be done, and what it shall cost.”
Page 52 (PIECE WORK) : “It must not be supposed that the
introduction of the piece-rate system is ‘Scientific Management,’
or even an approach to it. On the contrary, the existence of the
piece-rate system often proves the greatest obstacle to the intro-
duction of Scientific Management.” -
Page 63 (ECONOMY NOT CONSIDERED) : “Mr. Emerson:
We never paid any attention to attaining economy. The only
thing we paid attention to was the attaining of efficiency, feeling
absolutely certain that economy would result as a by-product.”
Pages 64 and 65 (SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT AND LABOR
UNIONs) : “The claim has been made, that Scientific Man-
agement and labor unions are inconsistent; that the organization
of labor presents insuperable obstacles to the introduction of
Scientific Management in railroads and other industries where
unionism is potent. This claim we believe is wholly unfounded
in fact.
(a) “Collective bargaining is alike an important function
under Scientific Management as under the old system.
(b) “Unionism does not prevent the introduction of Scien-
tific Management. It is true that unions have in some trades
bitterly opposed the piece-rate or bonus system without Scientific
Management,’ just as they have Opposed the day-rate system
without Scientific Management.”
Page 8O: “Emerson.—Standards of maintenance-of-way
vary. Innumerable assays of actual work show a maintenance-
of-way labor efficiency of scarcely more than thirty (30) per
cent.”
Page 82: “Emerson.—The cost of fuel is, on all railroads,
I38 - WILSON. E. SYMONS.
a large per cent. of the total transportation expense. It has been
demonstrated that, by proper instruction, fuel consumption could
be reduced at least one-half.”
Page 84 (DEMANDS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT): “The
attainment by each railroad, for each operation, of the lowest
cost attained by any other railroad for that operation, would not,
however, satisfy the demands of Scientific Management. To
attain only the best that has been done presents the beginning
rather than the end of economies which Scientific Management
contemplates. With the ascertainment of the lowest existing
costs, the study must be made whether there are still waste time
and effort involved in the best existing method of performing
that particular operation, and of eliminating such waste when
determined. And when that shall have been done, there will
still remain the wide field of research for a better way of doing
the same thing.” -
Page 88 (RAILROADS ARE NOT SCIENTIFICALLY MANAGED):
“It is no doubt true that some of the railroads are competently
managed, so far as that can be done under the old methods.
Other railroads, while not managed competently as a whole, are
no doubt competently managed as to particular departments,
divisions, or operations. But, so far as appears in evidence,
Scientific Management has not been introduced into any depart-
ment of any railroad operating within official classification
territory.”
Page 92 (TRAFFIC ONLY EFFICIENT DEPARTMENT): “Mr.
Emerson.—Large economies can be effected in all departments
of railroad operation except traffic. The efficiency of the traffic
by my standards is very high; that is, the efficiency of expense
in the traffic departments.” -
Page 76: “Emerson.—No railroad has ever determined any
cost standards, either for maintenance or Operation of equipment,
maintenance-of-way, or consumption of fuel; yet there is no rail-
road in the country on which each of these cost standards could
not be determined in a very short time and with very close
accuracy, at a cost equal to the saving effected in a single month.”
Page 77: “Emerson.—Standardized locomotive repairs run
from 3 cents to 6 cents a mile for maintenance. The actual
average cost is 6 cents to I2 cents, therefore twice what they
should be. The standard cost of maintaining freight cars is as
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I.39
low as $30 per annum. Actual average costs run from $45 on
some roads to over $1 OO on others.”
Page I79 (CONCLUSION) : “This investigation has developed
clearly that the railroads, to meet any existing needs, should look,
not without, but within. If their net income is insufficient, the
proper remedy is not higher rates, resulting in higher costs and
lessened business, but Scientific Management,’ resulting in lower
costs, in higher wages, and increased business. If their credit is
impaired, the proper remedy is not to apply the delusive stimulant
of higher rates, but to strengthen their organization by introduc-
ing advanced methods and eliminating questionable practices.
Thus they will maintain credit by deserving it.”
Replying to Mr. Emerson's criticism of my paper in the order
of its presentation, the first item is that of oil or lubrication. It
should be noted that in this one connection Mr. Emerson agrees
with me in three points:
I. That the Galena-Signal Oil Company’s methods are those
of efficiency engineering.
2. That the company deserves to be ranked among those
engaged in effecting economy in railway operation.
3. That the company’s methods have probably saved the rail-
roads $10,000,000 in the past twenty years, and are now saving
them about $10,000 per year on the item of lubrication.
Mr. Emerson thus takes part in stamping as unreliable the
statements of the author of the article in Hampton's Magazine,
wherein the oil company was accused of coercing the railways to
buy from them at unreasonable prices. -
I myself have had experience of the qualifications of the men
employed by the Galena-Signal Oil Company. When I was
master mechanic on a mountain division of over 800 miles of a
transcontinental line using a low grade of oil with a high cost
(almost $3 per I,OOO miles on locomotives) the oil was changed
to Galena-Signal at twice the price per gallon. The cost per unit
of service on the system was in many cases doubled, and I found
it necessary to act quickly to prevent a cost of lubrication in
my district that would invite unfavorable comment from my
superiors. -
My efforts brought greater returns than expected. The loco-
motive cost of almost $3 per thousand miles with cheap oil was
reduced below $1.50 per thousand miles with oil that cost double;
I4O WILSON. E. SYMONS.
at the same time, the prairie or level divisions of the system,
that should have made the best showing, remained slightly above
their former cost with cheap oil. My own surprise was mild
to that of others, particularly of my superior officer, the stores
department, and the oil company, the impression being that I
had in some manner gotten oil not charged to my district.
Again, when in the employ of the oil company itself, some
years ago, in the capacity of mechanical expert, I found the
conditions were extremely difficult on one of the home systems to
which I was assigned. Constant practice of patience, tact, perse-
verance, and general knowledge of all matters pertaining to the
question of lubrication and railway operation was necessary to
meet them. The policy of the oil company was strictly observed
without friction with department heads, in spite of frequent calls
from the management and a saving of several thousand dollars
per year, and better service was effected. I was later invited by
the management of this same property to take charge of its
mechanical department, including motive power machinery and
rolling stock, and in this capacity received reports from the oil
company's mechanical experts.
On two other railways, of which I was superintendent of
motive power and machinery, there were similar relations be-
tween myself and the oil company’s representatives.
During several years of special or consulting work, making
examinations of and reports on railway properties, I have had
opportunity to observe the prevailing practice on many other lines
than the above, and it has often been my duty to analyze thor-
oughly this item of expense. -
As the result, I am quite positive that the efficiency engineer-
ing methods followed by the oil company’s high officials or their
experts in the field bear little or no resemblance to the scheme
of Scientific Management given publicity through the rate case
testimony and other channels at that time, and to which I have
addressed myself. º
Mr. Emerson misrepresents my position when he commits
me to the statement that I favored the application of available
knowledge and skill in railroad operation to the items of lubrica-
tion and air brakes, but to no other. A glance at my paper will
reveal to anyone the fact that I have placed no such limitations
on the application as Mr. Emerson would have it believed.
I have endeavored to make it clear that I recognize the full
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I.4I
value of engineering principles as essential to the success of any
undertaking which involves the application of nature's forces to
the service of man. I could not do otherwise at this stage of my
work in the practical application of these principles.
My reference to certain industrial concerns is anticipated in
my opening remarks. These companies are entitled to recogni-
tion for the progress they have made on the lines of efficiency
engineering, and I offered the reference to them as a rebuke to
the author of one of the articles who held the railways up before
the public eye as examples of inefficiency, extravagance, and
dishonesty, etc., and offered, as a cure, Scientific Management.
This same author having also pointed out the influence of a
certain industrial concern on the purchase of oils, causing alleged
waste, it appeared quite proper to go into details in this matter
and . show as a contrast the actual probable amount of Savings
effected.
I did not state in my paper, and have never stated, that Scien-
tific Management on the Santa Fe Railway was a failure. I did
say, however, and feel safe in repeating, that the figures given
before the Interstate Commerce Commission and published to the
world, with reference to the alleged economies effected on this
road, would not bear analysis. -
I Stated, and repeat, that the high cost of locomotive repairs
in 1904 and IQO5 was due to the machinists’ strike. (Mr. Emer-
son says that the strikers were “violently and destructively
hostile.”). Also, the reduction in cost in 1906–7 was that which
follows the termination of a strike of this magnitude, and that
Mr. Emerson's employment on the line was merely an incident in
connection with the road's operation. In fact, if neither he nor
his men or methods had been employed at this particular time,
the reduction in cost per locomotive should have been as much
as shown.
In speaking of the great economies to be effected by the Scien-
tific Management of Railways, and pointing to an example of
what had actually been accomplished on one line using these
methods, Mr. Emerson mentions the reductions in cost of belt-
ing, tool maintenance, and locomotive repairs.
I have just pointed out that the high cost of locomotive repairs
in IQ05 was due to the shopmen’s strike, and the reduction in
I906–7 to the termination of that strike. Who knows but the
item of belting costs may have been effected in a similar manner?
I42 WILSON. E. SYMONs.
Belting is one of the many items of cost in connection with
shop tools and machinery, and, as Mr. Emerson has clearly
solicited credit for certain results under qualified conditions, it
would seem quite proper to embrace all items of expense in the
connection involved to make a correct analysis. t
In speaking of the “ untiring and intelligent support ’’ ren-
dered by Mr. Kendrick, Mr. Emerson fails to include many facts
to which quite considerable importance is attached by others.
Belting is one of the items in the cost of shop machinery and
tools that Mr. Emerson tells us was reduced from $12,000 to
$3,600 per year. He fails to state, however, that during the
four years—1901–4 inclusive—prior to his employment by the
road, there were expended the following amounts:
Shop machinery and tools, additions and betterments. . . . . $732,682
Shop machinery and tools, maintenance of equipment. ... I,353,996
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,086,678
Cost of new engines and cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15,810,125
Other expenses (a new item of expense) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I,474,2LO
Increased cost of Supervision mechanical department . . . . 765,235
Total of four items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $20,136,248
and these on four items alone, and that during the same period
expenditures were equally as liberal in other directions, all kinds
of materials and supplies being secured in such quantities as to
insure protection against such emergencies as are liable to arise
on a large system under strike conditions.
Consequently, at the time of Mr. Emerson's employment,
there were on hand large quantities of finished parts of locomo-
tives, belting, etc., and to make any claim whatever for economies
effected on the single item of belting, at one shop only and for
One year, without showing the actual purchases, quantity on hand,
and issues for a sufficient length of time at all points of the
system, not only invites suspicion as to its validity, but excludes
any figures produced from the statistical class.
It would be an easy matter for any employee whatever to
distribute the stock as to show a reduction in the quantity pur-
chased for one year at one point. -
On a certain representative trunk line the operating expenses
last year were:
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I.43
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... • - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - . . . . . . . . . . . $70,768,251.57
Maintenance of equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I6,636,145.45
Maintenance of shop machinery and tools . . . . . . . . . . . . 324,42O.4I
Ratio of maintenance of shop machinery and tools to
operating expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .OO45
Ratio of cost of belting to maintenance of equipment... “Not given "
Somewhere in an expense item that amounts to about two
per cent. of the cost of maintenance of equipment and less than
one-half of one per cent. Of the total operating expenses can be
found, by diligent search, the infinitesimal item of belting costs—
the alleged economies from which are offered as an endorsement
of the Scientific Management of Railways.
With reference to the problems which Mr. Emerson states
were demanding Solution on the Santa Fe in 1904, I note he
quotes the increase of freight business at 40 per cent. and of
passenger business at 30 per cent. in three years, this to be
handled with almost no increase in equipment, and without time
to increase shop facilities. These statements do not harmonize
Very well with the figures shown in the company's annual reports,
which are doubtless authentic. These reports contain the follow-
ing with regard to increased equipment and expense for shop
facilities for three years prior to IQO4, and for the years IQO4,
I905, IQ06, and IQ07:
TABLE ‘‘K’’
Shop machinery and tools #
Cost of
No. | No. | No. * -- i. ?
Cost of new maint'nce
r º * O h
Year 5. º fit Additions Maint'nce engine, and *...* eºs
cars!gines cars and of tº º. CIl-
betterments equipment ence
1901 || 52 52 | I, I.47 |$ 162,572 |$ 181,168 |$ 992,899 $ 50,742 |$ 129,370
I902 || 65|2O7| 4,972 68,757 283,846 6,807,494 || 278,228 239,753
I903 || IQ | 75|| 2,231 || 363,494 | 40I,809 || 3,548,428 || 3 IO,OI6 386,652
I904| 60|I56| 2,640 I37,859 || 487, I70 || 4,461,304 || 326,217 7I8,435
I905 || 20 3 I IOI I37,023 486,620 58,434 367,555 8I7,055
I906|II4|I92 || 5,033 || IQO, IQ8 || 367,474 8,994,478 || 446,287 536,356
I907|I4O |I28 5,566 73,981 || 315,844 8,843,35I 599,290 6II,744
Tot. 470 (84.1 |21,690 ($1,133,884 |$2,523,931 |$33,706,388 ($2,378,335 |$3,439,395
Total expenditures, Seven years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $43,181,903
Average per year. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, I68,843
Amount of expenditures I901 to 1903, inclusive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I4,205,228
Amount of expenditures 1904 to 1907, inclusive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28,976,675


I44 WILSON. E. SYMONs.
From this table it is very clear that, notwithstanding his
statement to the contrary, the Santa Fe had increased their num-
ber of engines and cars, their shop machinery, tools, and Other
facilities very materially before Mr. Emerson’s employment on
the line. Moreover, the same liberal policy was maintained
following his employment. -
All competent railway officers hold, and Mr. Emerson agrees,
that the real measure of transportation efficiency is in reduced
cost of transportation, or in greater net earnings, securing a
greater return to the shareholders of the property. In the items
of locomotive expense, the cost in cents per mile or the cost in
dollars per engine per year may advance on account of the in-
creased size of locomotives and the increased cost of labor and
material; but when such is the case there should be a correspond-
ingly decreased cost per ton mile for moving freight, resulting
from the greater engine capacity.
It is shown in my paper, and I, here repeat, that the cost in
cents per mile and the cost in dollars per year for the maintenance
of locomotives on the Santa Fe was not materially reduced by
Mr. Emerson’s methods. It did drop from $4,165 to $3,036
per engine per year on account of the ending of the machinists'
strike. Since this drop, however, it has gradually increased. In
fact, eight of the principal items in connection with locomotive
statistics have increased and only one—locomotive mileage—has
decreased. Even with the increased size of locomotives, the cost
per ton mile for moving freight has not been reduced to what it
was in IQO4 by almost 22 per cent. Also, the cost per “road
unit’’ for locomotive maintenance is higher than in 1900.
In order to more clearly emphasize these items of expense,
etc., I have reproduced them on the graphic chart L, shown on
the following page. *
In the presentation of and comments on the Santa Fe statis-
tics (pages 2I to 26 and Table E, page 23 of my paper) the point
was established that the reductions in 1906 and IQO7 were the
result of a return to normal conditions, with the double advan-
tage of freedom from the expensive exactions of shop commit-
tees and full benefit of all economies that could be derived from
the interrupted introduction of such improved methods as were
not possible in the shops prior to the Strike.
Consequently the unit cost per engine per year or per mile
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION.
I45
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I46 WILSON. E. SYMONS.
run should have fallen considerably below the costs prior to the
Strike, since the combined economics, which included some 841
new engines, should have more than offset the increased cost of
labor, material, and increased size of locomotives. The cost per
I, OOO ton miles should, without question, have shown a marked
reduction. That this was not so is clearly shown.
In addition to the points already mentioned, the chart brings
out the fact that the term “road unit’ used by Mr. Emerson
to measure the cost of locomotive maintenance is theoretic and
fallacious. The unit is an imaginary one, derived by an arith-
metical calculation, thus: .
Mileage X average weight of drivers in pounds
I, OOO,OOO
= Road Unit.
It is at once manifest that the addition of a large number
(84I) of extremely heavy engines and the retirement of many
light ones (culling-out, of course, those in the worst physical
condition) would increase the multiplier used in this formula to
such an extent that the “road units '' would be “jumped ” out
of sight, as it were. Consequently, the cost per unit obtained by
dividing the cost of locomotive repairs by this unit would be
apparently reduced as if by magic, even when the actual expense
was on the increase. This is precisely what occurred on the
Santa Fe. * -
A study of the Chart L in conjunction with Table E will
render this very clear to anyone, even though unfamiliar with
railway statistics.
The great economies alleged to have been effected on the
Santa Fe have been estimated at $5,000,000, the figure having
been obtained by comparing locomotive costs on the basis of the
number of “road units '' in IQO6–7 as against I904-5. It has
not been explained, however, that the “road unit” was so much
enlarged in the interim as to give a different result when used
as a divisor into the locomotive maintenance cost.
A tabulated display of the total expenditure for maintenance
of equipment, together with the average expenditure per mile of
line operated and average cost per engine per year, copied from
the company’s annual report 1897 to 191 I, inclusive, is given
here for reference:
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I.47

Yº, sºme Aveºlated Total expenditure. Experiºre per Cº. ºgne
1897. . . . . . . . . . 6,443.8I $ 3,443,884.82 $ 534.45 | . . . . . .
I898. . . . . . . . . . 6,936.02 4,659,277.99 671.75 | . . . . . .
I899. . . . . . . . . . 7,032,62 4,810,795.64 684.07 | . . . . . .
I90O. . . . . . . . . . 7,34I.34 5,267,832.40 7I7.56 $2,096
I90I . . . . . . . . . . 7,807.3 I 6,257,456.57 8OI.49 2,858
I902 . . . . . . . . . . 7,855.38. 7,864,951.25 I, OOI.22. 3, I56
I903. . . . . . . . . . 7,965. I3 8,5IO,543.09 I,068.48 3,O4O
I904. . . . . . . . . 8, 179.59 IO,006, I35.4I I,223.3.I 3,772
*I905. . . . . . . . . . 8,305.40 IO,9I4,864.47 I, 3 I4. I9 4, I65
*1906. . . . . . . . . . 8,433.99 IO,72O,O4O.43 I,27I.05 3, IOI
*I907. . . . . . . . . . 9,273. I5 II,779,846.64 I,270.32 3,036
I908. . . . . . . . . . 9.4I5.OI I4,246,621.44 I,5I3. I8 3,713
I909. . . . . . . . . . 9,794.86 I3,903,897.37 I,4I9.5I 3, I32
I9'IO . . . . . . . . . . 9,916.33 I5,560,047.44 I,569. I3 3,832
I9 II . . . . . . . . . . IO,350. I3 I6,686, I45.45 I,612. I7 4,544
* High cost in Ioos due to machinists' strike, and reduction in 1906 and 1907 following
its termination.
To further demonstrate the fallacy of the “road unit’’ theory
as a basis of maintenance cost, attention is invited to the relative
weights of certain locomotives on the Santa Fe system prior to
and during the period 1905–7. -
On June 30, 1905, the Santa Fe owned I,454 engines, with
an average weight on drivers of 50 to II.7.29 tons.
Among this equipment there were 89 engines, or 6.1 per
cent. Only, that weighed over IOO tons on drivers.
Moreover,
I, I22, or 77 per cent. Of the total number, averaged only about
59 tons on drivers, and among these were over 700, or about 50
per cent., Mogul, ten-wheel, and Consolidation freight engines
that would average about 65 tons on drivers. -
From these figures it must be clear that with a preponderance
of such light engines the “road unit ’’ would be low and the
road unit cost would consequently appear high, although the
actual maintenance might be economical.
Mr. Emerson points out the very low efficiency with which,
in his opinion, operating facilities are nowadays being employed,
and endeavors to show that this low efficiency is responsible for
the construction of unnecessary locomotives, cars, and line;
therefore, the investment in these facilities must be considered as
unwise or unnecessary. He clearly emphasizes the conclusion
in his remarks when he says: •
I48 WILSON E. SYMONS.
“American locomotives average about 75 miles per day. A good
team of Yukon dogs will go this distance. Freight cars average 25
miles per day. A postman walks this distance daily. A horse will
in emergency exert eight times his power. Let us learn from Dogs
and Horses how to maintain high averages and meet emergencies.
“The same law applies to track—more miles than are needed,
few trains per day using the track. Who can deny that there is a
larger quantity of railroads than needed? The records for 1910 for
the United States show eighty-one (81) abandoned railroads. That
so many of them fail to pay dividends proves it.”
From this it is clear that not only does Mr. Emerson believe
Our railways to be shamefully mismanaged, but that also a vast
amount of capital has been wasted in their construction, equip-
ment, and operation.
Reviewing in detail Mr. Emerson’s criticisms epitomized in
the foregoing syllabus form: -
American passenger locomotives regularly make from 50
to 70 miles per hour with trains of from 3OO to 500 tons in
weight, while heavy freight engines make from IOO to I50 miles
per day with trains varying from 2,OOO to as high as 6,OOO tons
in weight. The low general average mileage of all locomotives
quoted is secured by dividing the total mileage of all locomotives
owned, which includes thousands of engines standing in shops
receiving repairs, held to go in shops, or in good order, but held
ready for emergency use. - *
If the mileage made by all the dogs in the United States and
the high-speed dogs in Alaska were averaged on the same basis
as that of the locomotives—that is, by equating the tonnage—it
is safe to say that the average dog mileage per day would be
less than two miles. Also, if the power exerted by all horses
were similarly averaged, it would likely indicate less than one-
half horsepower as an average. The average performance of
the inhabitants of the United States would, too, probably be less
than one-quarter their full capacity.
The apparent low average of freight cars is arrived at by
Mr. Emerson in the same way as that of the locomotives, and, on
analysis, reflects more unfavorably on the patrons of the carry-
ing lines than on the management.
The admonition that we learn from “dogs and horses " how
to maintain high averages is nothing more or less than an admis-
sion that “Scientific Management ’’ would, if forced on American
&
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I.49
railways, practically subject all employees to conditions similar
to those under which, as the slave of man, a horse develops eight
times its normal power or a Yukon dog team travels 75 miles
a day. Neither the officers nor employees of American railways
will ever consent to the adoption of any plan or scheme that is
predicated upon a standard of efficiency established by dumb
brutes under the lash. .*
Passing from the items of locomotives and cars, we are next
told by Mr. Emerson that there are too many railroads, and that
81 roads were abandoned in IQIO.
As a preliminary to taking up the main points in regard to
abandoned lines, I will enter the following table of railway
mileage by years, from 1890 to IQIO, with ratio per IOO square
miles of country, etc. : .
TABLE SHOWING MILEAGE.
Miles of line per Ioo square miles territory, total of all mileage, and per cent. of
increase over 1890. -

Miles of line per | Total mileage all Per cent. of
Miles of line. IOO square miles yards and other increase over
of territory. tracks. I890.
I9IO . . . . . . . . . . . 239,652 8.07 348,909 67.2
I905. . . . . . . . . . . 217,018 7.34 306,798 42.2
I90O. . . . . . . . . . . I92,94 I 6.5I 258,784 24.5
I895. . . . . . . . . . . I79, I76 6.O8 236,894 I3.5
I890. . . . . . . . . . . I59,272 5.5I 2O8,6I2. tº sº e sº
Comparative mileage, and mileage per 100 squaré miles of territory, in nine (9)
different countries.
Miles of line
Miles of railway. per IOO square
miles.
Belgium. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,038 44.3
Great Britain and Ireland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23, IO3 I9. I
Germany. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36,601 I7.5
Switzerland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,814 I7.5
Netherlands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,24O I5. I
Denmark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2, I6O I4.5
France. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29,836 I4.5
Austria-Hungary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26,434 IO. I
United States. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239,652 8.07
From the first table it will be observed that the total mileage
has increased 67.2 per cent, during the past twenty years.
Nevertheless, the ablest authorities on this subject have repeat-
I5O g WILSON. E. SYMONS.
edly gone on record as having stated that we are badly in need
of many billion dollars’ worth of additional tracks, yards, ter–
minals, shops, motive power, equipment, etc. Mr. Emerson
now says there is too much mileage.
A further and clearer analysis of this point is made by
considering the number of railways that underwent changes
during the years Igo& and Igo9, and from the following table
given it should be possible to draw definite conclusions:
SUMMARY OF CHANGES IN LIST OF RAILWAYS
During the years 1908 and 1909.


I908 # 1999 #
—| g . 5 .
Class. § Line Line # | # Line Line §
# owned operated ; H # owned operated ; H
5 miles miles $.5 d miles miles $.5
2. <g | Z. <!
Reorganized. . . . . 7| 230.30 | 166.86 |23.83 || 1 42.5I 42.5I 42.5I
Consolidated. . . . . I5] I, I30.53 696.04 || 46.4O | IOI 287.68 285.OO | 28.50
Merged. . . . . . . . . 39| I,345.73 471.65 I2.02 || 63| 9,812.76 2,260.74 || 35.78
Name changed.... 3 57.25 64.43 || 2 I.7I 5 52.03 47.75 | 9.55
Abandoned. . . . . . 30 305.09 || 260.75 | 8.69 29| 258.38 || 189.38 6.53
Miscellaneous. . . 33| 616.06 621.76 18.84 47| 823.80 | 877.2O I6.53
Total. . . . . . . . . . . I27| 3,684.96 || 2,283.49 || I7.98 I55|II,257. I6 |3,702.58 || 23.88
Total mileage in United States, I909. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342,35I
Miles abandoned. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26O
Per cent. of total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - - - - - - - - - - - - .O7
Miles of line added in 1909. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,705
Miles abandoned in 1909. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26O
Net mileage added in 1909. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,445
Per cent. mileage added in excess of abandoned com-
panies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.248
Three thousand two hundred and forty-eight per cent, more
lines were added than were abandoned, and the ablest authorities
still say we need billions of dollars for more tracks, etc.
It is clear from the table that the number of lines abandoned
does not in the aggregate represent very much mileage. The
average length of each line abandoned in 1908 was 6.53 miles,
while in 1909 it was 8.69 miles. In the absence of details,
though, Mr. Emerson's statement might lead one to think that
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I5 I
the railway business in general was so unprofitable that it was
rather rapidly being discontinued.
It should also be borne in mind, in connection with these
figures, that in the development of industries along the railway
lines it is not an uncommon practice for the railway company
to assist private capital by constructing a branch line leading
out to a mine, lumber camp, etc., that will not only serve to
assist the development of the country, but will also provide addi-
tional tonnage for the road. It is not infrequently the case, too,
that small lines so incorporated and operated very profitably for
some years become unnecessary after the mine has become
exhausted or the lumber cut off.
In other cases the corporate name is discontinued, a small
road being taken Over by a larger line with which it connects.
While the records would show the number of such lines as having
been abandoned, a close analysis of the mileage in the different
States would reveal the facts of the case.
The same is also true of short electric lines, intersecting a
imain Steam railway at two points and running parallel to it
between those points. On the taking over of these by the steam
line their mileage is, of course, added to that of the purchasing
company. Therefore, the plain statement that 81 railways were
abandoned in 1910 is misleading.
As further evidence on the question of mileage, I would
invite attention to the following table of new mileage added to
railways in the United States during the years given :
Year. Mileage added.
1906 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,425
I907 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,362
1908 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,918
1909 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,310
I9IO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,75I
or a total of 24,766 for the five years.
To this may be appended the statement that 3,066 miles
were built in 191 I by I46 different companies. -
With respect to the question of dividends or returns on
invested capital of railways, it is quite true that many lines have
not paid dividends. In 1909, 35 per cent. of the stocks failed to
yield a dividend, while approximately 59 per cent, yielded returns
I52 WILSON E. SYMONS.
of from 2 to IO per cent. and about six per cent. (to be exact,
5.95) yielded more than IO per cent. dividend.
The lines yielding no returns were usually located in a
territory where public sentiment—influenced by the attitude of
those who so continually point to the railroads as examples of .
mismanagement—has been so embittered against the roads as to
render economic operation very difficult, if not impossible. The
result is a matter of no great surprise.
In referring to the question of locomotive fuel, Mr. Emerson
says: “In various tests made as to freight, passenger, and
switch locomotives, coal consumption has been found to be three
times what care and supervision could reduce it to.”
In other words, $123,018,OOO of the $184,527,OOO paid for
locomotive fuel is practically wasted. -
I have already touched on Some points in regard to fuel
economy in reply to Mr. Going, and therefore consider it unneces-
sary to enter into further details on this subject. -
The record of fuel used on the test run on the Lehigh Valley
Railroad on June 21, 1911, referred to by Mr. Emerson, does
not represent the average conditions in railway operation by any
means; neither do the results of runs on other lines that he
quotes support his claim that two-thirds of the fuel now used is
wasted. The Lehigh Valley test record shows only the fuel used
on a special run, in which one engine handled a train 466.6 miles
under conditions it would be impossible to duplicate in ordinary
every-day practice. - -
Therefore this comparison is of no value So far as locating
fuel wastes and defining a practical remedy therefor are con-
cerned, since, to draw it, is tantamount to saying that fuel per
ton or car mile in excess of this amount is wasted, and no state-
ment could be further from the known facts.
THE BONUs systEM.
What might be termed the “ acid test" or ultimate analysis
of the bonus system, the main feature of Scientific Management
on the Santa Fe, are the all-absorbing questions: Does it actually
save money? If so, how much? Are the savings effected on
certain operations more than offset in others, the ultimate result
being a higher cost?
Mr. Emerson details the various cost of certain operations
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I 53
On the Santa Fe to support his claims of great Savings to the
whole company.
In my paper no mention is made of the amounts paid out by
the Santa Fe in bonuses, for the reason that figures I received
on these were given me in confidence. Mr. Emerson having re-
lieved me of any necessity of betraying confidence, however, by
making public this item of expense, I am at liberty to discuss
this feature without embarrassment. t
That there may be no misunderstanding on the part of anyone
as to what the $1,283,OOO a year expenditure on account of bonus
payments and Supervision in 1910 was really for, it might be
explained that, under the bonus system, a price or time limit is
put on each operation performed, and a premium or bonus is paid
the mechanic or operator for accomplishing the work in a less
time than specified. This premium is sometimes extended to
those in charge of the work. So far it sounds all right.
Actually, however, the plan works out as follows:
The workmen, spurred on to their maximum speed by the
1money prize offered and finding willing allies in the person of
the men in charge who jointly profit, cannot fail to slight repair
Operations. The initial high-speed operations usually pave the
way for an early repetition, and not infrequently necessitate more
extensive repairs in the end. All this results in an excessive
cost for maintenance. -- -
Railway managers and departmental heads are eagerly seek-
ing for and adopting plans whereby the unit cost of any opera-
tion or service can be lowered. Railway security holders are
interested in knowing how much less is the cost per engine per
year, or per mile run, or per ton mile on this line that Mr. Emer-
son offers as an example of the result of such adoption, than
on other lines. -
It is of little comfort to shareholders to read that a passen-
ger engine has run 234,896 miles between shopping, and then
find, on inquiry, that the cost per engine that year (1910) was
$3,832, or I2.87c. per mile, and the next year was $4,544, or
15.80c. per mile, while on another line, operating with heavier
power but making less than IOO,OOO miles between shoppings,
the cost per engine per year and per mile was much less. -
It is beyond the range of possibility to suppose that in
America the laboring classes will submit, without protest, to the
I 54 WILSON. E. SYMONS.
introduction of any plan or system which in its operation dis-
criminates in favor of the man of maximum efficiency or in any
manner abridges personal initiative in any line of human en-
deavor. Both intellectually and in point of numbers they are
in a position to, and probably would, show their resentment, if
pressed, in a manner not pleasant to contemplate.
The proposition of saving $730,000,000 a year on American
railways without speeding up every employee to the limit of
IOO per cent, efficiency and without discharging a solitary man
will not be given even passing consideration by the one and three-
quarter million railway employees, and will be promptly dis-
credited by the majority of more than 91,000,000 people Our
railways serve.
Making the claim that Scientific Management elevates the
class of the workingman both socially and financially might prop-
erly be termed “sugar-coating a very bitter pill,” to enable it to
be forced down the throats of their employers by the manage-
ments. -
The practice has been, and is now, to treat the class of work-
ing people no better than is necessary in order to avoid diffi-
culties, and whenever an employer can substitute machinery for
men he immediately does so, proving that he uses men as a means
of contributing to his interests only, and deals with them as with
a common commodity or article of commerce.
Contra to the above, the employees, particularly the more
strongly organized ones in railway service, have in recent years
not only done much themselves to improve their financial and
social condition, but have in many instances gone to the extreme
of making unreasonable demands. The general trend has been
towards increased compensation and lessened hours, even when
the plant was already operating at a loss. Consequently there
has been, and now exists, a condition calling for a line of demar-
cation between how far the employees may swing the pendulum
in one direction and the employers in the other if departure must
be made from its position of rest.
This latter is becoming more serious each year, and as com-
binations of capital and labor increase, the solution of problems
arising between them will call for ablest talent on both sides.
As men grow more conscious of their birthright of personal dig-
nity, the situation will, in all lines of human endeavor, become
more intensified.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I55
DETAILS OF UNIT COSTS ITEMIZED,
The various items of unit costs of certain operations, of
hours worked, etc., with discussions thereon, given by Mr. Emer-
son, would be of some interest if in the end any net economies
were shown; but, as the expenses of the railway company in
question were constantly on the increase all along (except when
reduced by the ending of the strike), quotation of these items
only tends to weaken the claims of economy. The several tables
given in my paper and in this reply to Mr. Emerson evidence
this, and more than cover the ground. g
The question of increased size of power on the Santa Fe
having been mentioned by other speakers, I will, at the risk of
trespassing on valuable time, give one last example in this
connection.
Take the Great Northern Railway Company, which is a heavy
freight-carrier in the northern range of the Rocky Mountains,
where the winters are severe, rendering operation more costly
than in the milder climate of the South. This line has a greater
number of Mallet locomotives than any other line in America,
if not in the world. It has, however, not yet employed the
Scientific Management methods herein referred to.
Anyone would feel safe in surmising that on this railroad the
cost for locomotive maintenance would be higher than on the
Santa Fe. That this is not the case, though, is shown by the
following table of last year’s figures:
I9 II.
Number of engines Average tractive
and cost per year and power and weight on Total
mile to maintain. drivers. N cost to
O. & *
e maintain
engines engines.

No. Cost per | Cost, Tractive | Weight on
..sº Eng's. year. CentS. power. drivers.
Great Northern...] I, I69 $2,300 9.57 || 33,249 I40,000 | IO3 || $2,688,000
Santa Fe. . . . . . . . 1,997 || 4,544 15.8o 30,829 || 132,000 || 58 | *5,311,000
Per cent. Santa
Fe above. . . . . . . . . 93.65 54.60 | . . . . . . . . . . . . * * * | * * s • * * * *
* For an equal number of engines.
Again, as so much stress has been laid on the increased cost
of maintenance due to the purchase and use of Mallet engines,
it might be stated that the average cost per engine per year
I 56 WILSON. E. SYMONS.
(including Iog Mallets) on the Great Northern for I9IO was
only $2,843.
Using this figure as a standard for comparison with all the
Santa Fe engines except the Mallets, of which latter they had
only 35 at the time, we get the following: .
Great Northern (1910). ... Engines, 1,118; cost per engine $2,843
Santa Fe (1910). . . . . . . . . . Engines, 1,923; cost per engine 3,832
Santa Fe (less 35 Mallets). Engines, 1,888; $2,843 each 5,367,584
The cost of locomotive maintenance in 1910 (see Table
E, page 19) was . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $6,896,894
Less cost of light engines on Great Northern basis. . . . . . . . 5,367,584
Leaving for the Mallets a remainder of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,529,3TO
This, distributed on 35 engines, amounts to. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43,694
If the cost per engine per year on all engines except Mallets
on the Santa Fe had even been down to that per engine per year
on all engines on the Great Northern, the amount spent on Mallets
would still have been $43,OOO per year.
From all view-points, then, it is impossible for Mr. Emerson,
or any other advocates of Scientific Management, to show that
the system under consideration has enabled the Santa Fe to main-
tain its engines at a less cost than on other lines not employing
the system.
CONDENSED OR SIICRT MILEAGE MOST ECONOMICAL TO MAINTAIN.
It is frequently pointed out, and with a certain amount of
justification, that the longer the line, and consequently the more
scattered the Operating units, engines, shops and forces, the
greater is the maintenance cost. These items can quite properly
be compared for the two roads just considered :
I9IO.
Nuºnº, and Cost of supervision and ratio
engine. i per mile.
Roads. Mileage |
- e |
Engines Milº Superintendence Ratio
Great Northern . . . . 7,726 I, II8 6.46 $178,544.78 $23. IO
A., T. & S. F. . . . . . . 9,961 I,923 5. I2 534,564.48 53.66

Per cent. cost per
Per cent of miles to each engine on Great - mile Santa Fe over
Northern over Santa Fe. . . . . . . . . . . 24.6 Great Northern....] I 32.29
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I57
It may be observed that the Great Northern power is scat-
tered or spread over 24.6 per cent. more territory per unit than
the Santa Fe, and although the average tractive power of the
Great Northern engines is above that of the Santa Fe, and the
Great Northern owns and operates twice the number of Mallet
engines, it may also be observed that its ratio per mile for cost
of Superintendence maintenance of equipment is about I 32 per
cent, less than the Santa Fe.
The matter of additions, betterments, etc., to locomotives,
cars and shops, etc., has been in progress on most, if not all
trunk lines during the past ten or fifteen years, and it is there-
fore fair to assume that the amount of expenditure on this
account will connpare favorably on lines handling practically the
same character of business. So that it would seem proper to
suggest that the Great Northern figures on cost of maintenance
of locomotives are indicative of a very high degree of efficiency
in its mechanical organization, while its overhead charge, or
expense for supervising its mechanical department (see Table F,
page 27), reflects freedom from the unproductive labor and
bonus costs on the Santa Fe. -
The very able and enthusiastic advocates of Scientific Man-
agement might well take heed of some notable examples of men
of more than ordinary scientific or professional ability that made
a Sorry mess of certain practical problems in the engineering
line.
Dr. Dionysius Lardner stands out prominently as an example
of a great scientist and mathematician who was believed by some
to have been a great engineer.
When marine engineering was in a state of development
inviting co-operation and assistance from all interests, Dr.
Lardner conceived the idea that he was not being consulted by
everyone interested in the question, and therefore decided the
proposition was a failure. He proceeded to inform the public
in general that the men in charge of the development of this
form of transportation were notoriously inefficient.
Dr. Lardner stated, in 1835, that it was as feasible to cross
the Atlantic Ocean by steamboat as it was to take a trip to the
moon. This was sixteen years after a partially equipped steam
vessel, the Savannah, had already crossed
Now the statement is made that the present wastes on our
I 58 WILSON. E. SYMONS.
railways due to inefficiency are $730,000,000 a year. The fol-
lowing table shows these figures in their relation to the amount
per capita of our national debt, railway employees, railway share-
holders and officers: -

Items Amount in money Classification : a.
National debt.. $926,982,773.55 | U. S. population. . . . . 9I,000,000 IO. I6.
Railway wastes. 730,000,000.OO | Railway employees... I,502,OOO 486.03
Railway wastes.| 730,000,000.OO || Railway shareholders I, OOO,OOO 730.00.
Railway wastes. 730,000,000.00 || Railway officers. . . . . . I3,5I4 $54,018.oo
Less average yearly compensation to officers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,502.O.O.
Average yearly preventable net waste chargeable to each officer. . . . . . $51,516.00
Time required for alleged railway wastes to offset national debt, I year 3
months 8% days. ... •
It may be of interest to note that if each officer were held
responsible for an equal share of the $730,000,000 which Mr.
Emerson claims is being wasted, the deficit charged to each would
be over $50,000. It is the publication of such visionary proposi-
tions as this that poisons the public mind.
In closing, the following extracts from the editorial comments
of the principal railway paper of this country will make it very
clear to all that there is not the slightest similarity between the
methods employed in securing that high standard of efficiency
essential to a well-operated railway and the alleged newly-
discovered Scientific Management:
“THE EFFICIENCY ENGINEER.”
While we have taken great pains to advise our readers frankly
of the mistakes that have been made by the efficiency engineers, we
have taken equal pains to reiterate, time and again, our belief in the
importance of giving more thought to the principles underlying
efficient work.
The danger of this discussion, as we have said before, is that
some managers may be deluded into thinking that the efficiency
engineer, Ór some of the features commonly connected with Scientific
Management, will be the panacea for all his troubles, and will jump
from the frying-pan into the fire.
When the system craze spread over the country, a number of
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN RAILWAY OPERATION. I 59
years ago, many concerns who rushed into the introduction of it
on a large scale overdid it, and not a few of them were forced into
bankruptcy. A certain amount of it proved to be a good thing, but
the employment of some of the system engineers, who sprang up
like mushrooms in a night, proved to be anything but advantageous.
It is curious to watch the rapid development in a similar manner
of the crop of efficiency engineers (at least they call themselves
such), many of whom have had practically no experience and can
lay little more claim to the title than that they have read a book
or two on the subject.
The fads and fancies that have been adopted in manufacturing
or railway shop, then dropped like hot cakes, remind us of Ponce
de Leon in his search for the Fountain of Youth. What a scrap
heap some of them made
Just as the electric engineers disagree among themselves on the
best methods of electrifying railways (and so many good engineers
believe trunk lines will never be electrified), so the efficiency engi-
neers each seem to distrust the other. Taylor, Gantt, Emerson,
Barth, and Morrison in many instances actually contradict each other.
The articles on the mistakes of efficiency men suggest that
some of them, who placed themselves in the limelight during the
past few months, have been extremely careless in their statements.
A railway officer, who is a keen student of men, in speaking of one
of these efficiency engineers said recently:
As an expert statistician and a dreamer of lofty ideals
he has few, if any, equals. Those who know him best regard
him as one possessed of a born gambler's instinct. Not neces-
sarily faro, roulette, or poker, but in taking long chances on
making statements that neither he nor anyone else can sub-
stantiate, and trusting to Providence that they will be accepted
without verification.
A saving of 5 per cent. On 25 per cent. of a machine shop pay-
roll in railway operation, where the entire mechanical department
expense is only about 20 per cent. Of the total operating expense,
is hardly to be classed with the extravagant claims persistently
made in the past few months with respect to the management of
railway properties by this plan.—Railway Age, April 7, 1911.
The railways need much assistance in many ways, and, as
stated in the closing paragraph of my paper, the greatest help
to those charged with the responsibility of management would
be a combined effort on the part of all to introduce the more
liberal policy of friendly feeling towards them, instead of holding
them up before the public as examples of wasting by mismanage-
ment several hundred million dollars a year.