it of help if you make it your practice to dispose of a letter before laying it down. I allow no mail to be laid on my desk after I go out for lunch. If anything comes in later that the chief clerk thinks of sufficient importance, he brings it in and talks with me about it.

Too much time of the officers is devoted to handling correspondence-not that there should be any reduction in the number of letters written, or in the statements to be prepared; it may well be that an increase in these will produce better results. What I do suggest is that the work should be done by the clerical staff. It were better that the officer write no more than six or eight letters daily, and these should consist largely of letters initiated by him rather than of replies to letters received. The general run of letters, as well as of statements, should be handled by his aides. The officer should have his time free to study the matters which affect the economic operation of the property, to instruct properly those whose work he may directly supervise, and to transact business with those who deal with the company.

Keep constantly before you that the first thing to do is to look ahead; the second, to try to get good ideas; the third, to arrange your work in such a way that when you do anything you will not have to do it in a hurry.

The aim of every man should be so to discharge his duties or so to do something beyond them as to win the approval of his superiors. I recall Mr. McCrea discussing with J. T. Richards, with whom I had served, the disappointment and embarrassment caused him by the failure of one of his younger officers. Mr. Richards said to him, "You have got a good man in Loree. If you can't keep him busy send him back to me." I have always felt inspiration in the estimate Mr. Richards gave of me.

Almost the first work that I did in the railroad service was the overhauling and reindexing of the file in the engineer's office in which I was employed. In 1897-98 we put all the files of the engineers' and superintendents' offices of the Pennsylvania Lines on a uniform basis of indexing and established a "dead file," a duplicate of the "live file,"

to which was removed all correspondence covering subjects permanently disposed of. The results were so satisfactory that I endeavored to extend the system to the offices of the general officers, but found it incapable of expansion. I then arranged to have W. H. Williams examine the methods generally in use in business concerns and railroad offices both here and abroad, and to make a study of the Dewey Decimal System. The result of his studies is the index which he developed and published, which has proved effective where introduced, and is now in very general use. A good file is an indispensable condition of successful office administration.

You should make every reasonable sacrifice to accumulate a sufficient fortune to safeguard your future and insure personal independence and freedom of conduct. The man on a fixed salary is under a serious disadvantage, his income is known to all his family and the tendency is to live up to its last resource. For a number of years my wife and I struggled valiantly with this important problem and without any considerable success, when quite by accident we stumbled upon a method that was ease itself. I put in a savings bank account on the day I received my pay a fixed percentage of it and left it undisturbed to benefit by the rapid growth of compounding interest accretions. The balance I deposited in a national bank and this checking account was the only one we ever thought of as holding our disposable funds, and it seemed always quite ample for our wants. Later as my business experience broadened and as opportunities offered for investment, and the use not only of cash but of credit, these savings were available for that purpose. I made my first borrowing, when near forty, using my deposit books as collateral. I think I have never been out of debt since. In any large amounts, money must be earned with credits, and by this I do not at all mean to suggest speculation, though something may be said on both sides of legitimate speculative enterprises.

The future of the race is bound up in the use we make of our leisure; advancement depends on willingness to devote

four to six hours' time each day to self-training in addition to that occupied by the details of the day's duties. Roughly, twenty-two years are required to master the technic and detail and the sweep of a business enterprise. No one, aside from those possessed of genius or of unusual talent, may expect to win, in this field of endeavor, the goal of his heart's desire at an age much younger than forty-five.

One of the most common of mistakes made by the younger officer is, in hope of advancement or increased compensation, to move about from one service to another. Much of success depends upon association, and if one is fortunate enough to find himself in a group of the right sort of men he should be loath to sacrifice that very great initial advantage.

112. Intercompany Arrangements and Standard Practices. The treatment of company organization would not be complete without a glance at the history and character of intercompany arrangements. Quite naturally the methods adopted by the stronger and more progressive companies were copied by their less energetic neighbors, and, where matters of mutual interest were involved, they were disposed of by arrangement between the companies immediately interested, whether two or more.

Perhaps the most pervasive of the practices of this character were the arrangements necessary in putting into effect time-tables. To avoid disposing of this matter by correspondence and by telegrams over a period of several weeks, informal meetings were arranged of railway officers connected with the operating departments for the purpose of arranging the details of through time-tables and connecting times, and these came to be known as time meetings, timetable conventions, etc. The earliest record of any meeting of this character available is that of a "meeting of general superintendents for the arrangement of a summer time schedule," held at the Southern Hotel, St. Louis, Mo., on May 14-15, 1872. Twenty-three lines were represented by 35 delegates. The only business transacted was the formation of a "summer time schedule," to take effect on June 2,

1872. The "Proceedings of Time Meeting," held at The Windsor, New York, on April 4, 1875, show that 24 roads were represented by 36 delegates. On motion of J. Tillinghast, general superintendent of the New York Central & Hudson River R. R. Co., W. F. Allen, editor of the Travelers' Official Guide, was elected permanent secretary of the convention. Mr. Allen was a son of Col. J. W. Allen, who was well known among railroad men of his day, and all of whose sons subsequently engaged in railroad work. W. F. Allen was educated at Episcopal Academy, Philadelphia, and in his earlier days was largely employed in railroad construction, carrying forward the work which his father had begun. It was principally through the ability, pleasant personality, and diplomatic capacity of Mr. Allen that this and the successor organization were developed and machinery brought into existence that has done much to stimulate the development of American railroad practice and standardize it in its best condition.

At the fall meeting the organization was given the permanent title of General Time Convention. While meetings were held in the spring and fall of each year, the business was limited to the arrangement of schedules and the fixing of the time on which they were to take effect, until, on October 13, 1881, the question of the adoption of a uniform system of standard time to govern the running of trains was brought before the Convention and referred to the secretary with instructions to report upon the same.

At the same time the question of the continuance of the meetings of the Convention arose, and the following year it was submitted to the members by circular. The opinion was practically unanimous that it was very desirable that the organization should be maintained. It was felt that nearly every road had some change of time to make and that these. meetings afforded the best machinery to reach an understanding regarding such changes; that the conventions were a source of much pleasure and instruction; that valuable acquaintances were formed and opportunities offered for officers to compare notes and exchange views and experi

ences; and that harmonious and closer personal feelings were promoted.

The adoption of a standard time on October 11, 1883, was followed later by the adoption of uniform train signals, and these by uniform telegraph orders and general rules.

Through the activities of Mr. Allen an organization called the Southern Railway Time Convention met on October 29, 1877, at Barnum's Hotel, Baltimore, Md., Mr. Allen being elected secretary. Its business was limited to arranging for schedules and fixing the dates on which they were to take effect.

The existence of two organizations developed certain disadvantages, the additional work taken on by the General Time Convention having to be acted upon separately by the Southern Railway Time Convention and only after it had been completed by the former organization. The General Time Convention of October 8, 1885, after giving consideration to the situation, passed the following resolutions:

Whereas, The original object for which this Convention was organized was to arrange for the moving of through trains between Eastern and Western points, and the determination of the date for making general changes in time schedules; and

Whereas, During the past three years other subjects of interest to all railway lines in this country, such as Standard Time, Uniform Signals, Uniform Train Rules, etc., have been discussed at the meetings of the Convention, and advantageously acted upon; therefore,

Resolved, That in addition to the subject of through trains and general changes of time, the General Time Convention take up, discuss and formulate recommendations upon such general subjects of mutual interest to the operating departments of our railway lines as may be brought before it.

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to the managing officers of the operating departments of all roads in the United States and Canada, with an invitation to participate in the proceedings of the Convention.

Resolved, That the Secretary be directed to transmit a copy of the Proceedings of this Convention to the Southern Railway Time Convention, with a request that they give general consideration to these resolutions, and invite their coöperation.

Committees were appointed by both organizations, who reported that they believed great advantages might be de