Charles DeLano Hine

“ The United States government grows stronger with every administration. The Great Northern Railway, too strong to be destroyed, faces a period of relative distress with the next dynasty. The Pennsylvania Railroad is stronger than such strong men as Scott, Cassatt and McCrea. Both the United States government and the Pennsylvania Railroad, although among the least feudal of large corporations, can still eradicate feudalism from their interior organization and administration. ”

“ The still more wonderful Twentieth Century will swing back to a balanced specialization. The medical colleges are learning that they can not turn out successful eye and ear specialists, the law schools that the constitutional or interstate commerce lawyer is the production of a later period. The successful specialist must first have the foundation of an all-round training. Broadly speaking, one applies everything of something only by learning something of everything. We all believe in specialization. Where we differ is as to the point where specialization stops and overspecialization begins. ”

“ Organization is a branch of a larger subject, sociology, the science of human nature. Organization is not an exact science like mechanical engineering, for example. The variables in the human equation defy entire elimination. ”

“ Again, concentration of financial control is not incompatible with decentralization of administration among constituent controlled properties. When the big bankers have time to think out these propositions for themselves they will permit the railways to get closer to the people and hostile legislation will diminish if not disappear.
Organization as a science seeks to develop and to support the strong qualities of human nature. Organization likewise takes account of and seeks to minimize the amiable failings of human nature. ”

“ When we come to the really hard part, the judging of human nature, the co-ordination of the heterogeneous human elements, our self-confidence denies the necessity for preconceived practical tests. Because he is our man, because he followed us from the sage brush or the mountains, he must be all right. ”

“ I believe the railways hatch out better results every year, but I also feel that improvement should and can be made even faster. It is largely a breeding problem. How best can we blend our numerous strains to produce a balanced output? Too often we try to do this by cutting off the heads of all the old roosters, whose craws really contain too much good sand to be wasted. A change of diet to a balanced ration may be all-sufficient.
The wonderful Nineteenth Century in the name of a proper specialization went too far. ”

“ The general manager who insists the hardest that his superintendents are best off under his departmental system will squirm the quickest under the acid test of having the chief supply, the chief maintenance or the chief mechanical official report to the president. The superintendent who finds himself with a complete divisional organization is oblivious to the troubles of a distant yardmaster with car inspectors. ”

“ The great fear is always that the other fellow, being less orthodox than we, will try to put over some constructive mileage on us. Sometimes this causes us to make his run so long and his train so heavy that he ties up under the sixteen-hour law and we miss supper hour going out to tow him in. An empty stomach discourages drowsiness, and we may then stay awake long enough to realize that said other fellow was just as orthodox as anybody about trying to make a good run. ”

“ Some people confuse the terms and ideas, concentration and centralization. Proper concentration in complete units by an earlier convergence of authority permits decentralization in administration. A lack of such early concentration makes centralization inevitable. ”

“ Constitutional liberty insures the citizen protection against the caprice of the public officer. Administrative liberty demands an analogous measure of protection for the subordinate from the whim of his corporate superior. ”

“ Chicago, April 15, 1911. My Dear Boy:—Nearly every man entrusted with authority over his fellows flatters himself that he is a born organizer. Flattery is never more deceptive than when applied to one’s self. ”

“ Inconsistencies between comprehensive conceptions at the top and narrow applications at the bottom are often overlooked. When disclosed and appreciated these incongruities soon give way under pressure of the broad policies above. We must build up from the bottom but tear down our false work from the top. ”

“ We all believe in religion. Where we differ is as to which is the main line and which the runaway track, as to which derail deserves a distant banjo signal and which an upper quadrant. Orthodoxy is usually my doxy. ”

“ Where feudalism exists the effective working strength is limited to the personal equation of the man at the head. The United States government is stronger than Washington, or Lincoln, or Taft. The Great Northern Railway measures its present acknowledged effectiveness by the man the Swedes call Yim Hill. ”

“ Instead of leveling downward, as the labor unions do, by assuming that the average man can learn only one branch of operation, I would recognize individuality and gradually develop a higher composite type. ”

“ Because some car inspectors are not fitted to become yardmasters is no good reason for practically excluding all car inspectors from honorable competition for such advancement. When we build a department wall to keep the other fellow out we sometimes find it has kept us in. ”

“ We run and double back with the dynamometer car to try out our tractive power. We test and retest materials. We weigh and measure our fuel and our lubricants. We do all this for material things, which, because more or less homogeneous, are the easiest to measure. ”

“ We blame the labor unions for these narrowing restrictions of employment and advancement. Look once more for the source, and you will find it among our predecessors in the official class, a generation or more ago. ”

“ These officials insisted upon planes of department cleavage which the men below were quick to recognize. Railway manhood has been more dwarfed by exaggerated official idea of specialization with resulting departmental jealousies than by the labor unions. ”

“ One year they are operating ratio, another, train load, and later on, net earnings. In no storehouse do material things deteriorate to scrap value faster than does the intangible, indeterminate stock article, results. ”