Railway. On the Adriatic company's road employees are appointed on approval, which amounts to the same thing as being a probationer, only the period of approval is much longer, a certain number of years being required before permanent employment is given. Promotions are usually from the ranks, length of service being a secondary consideration, and proficiency, in the opinion of the superior officers, being the chief test. Promotions from fireman to engine driver, from clerk to assistant station master, and from station master to freight agent are usually preceded by examinations; likewise promotions from the lower grades of ordinary workmen.

7. HUNGARY.-A very careful report on the conditions of admission and promotion on the Hungarian State railways was made by Mr. Kiss and is published in the reports of the sixth session of the International Railway Congress. In Hungary the conditions of admission are practically established by the conditions of admission to the schools, from which the major part of railway employees are recruited. Much use is also made of the apprentice system in the workshops of the Hungarian State railways. All employees must be Hungarian citizens and familiar with the Magyar language; they must at least be 18 years of age and their antecedents must be beyond all reproach. Promotions take place from the ranks almost exclusively and new recruits are admitted only to the lower grades

of service.

§7. TECHNICAL EDUCATION FOR RAILWAY EMPLOYEES.

All railroads appreciate the value of a high standard of elementary education among their employees in all grades of the service. This is quite apart from the assistance they render in some cases to the children of employees, and especially to those whose parents have been killed or injured in service of the railroads, which is given as an act of charity or philanthropy. Many railroads, both in the United States and abroad, have established or financially assisted common schools in districts where public schools were inadequate or weak. In some special railroad schools a little technical training has been introduced in the upper grades. In general, however, it may be said that the American railroads have done very little for the training of their employees along technical lines for the special departments of service in which they were engaged. European railroads have done much more in this direction. The American roads usually prefer to take only employees who have a good preparation by way of a general education in reading, writing, arithmetic, and such subjects as are taught in the common schools, and then to have such employees learn by practical experience and from directions given them in the specified duties of their employment by responsible officials of the road. In Europe, on the other hand, many railroads encourage their employees to get a part of such technical training in schools either provided by the company or officially assisted by the company for that purpose, and in order to do this they frequently grant employees a leave of absence, on part or full pay, to attend the higher technical schools, or grant them special privileges by way of leave of absence during certain hours of the day or night to pursue courses in local schools. They sometimes pay the tuition fees for such of their employees as take these courses.

A fairly good survey of the work being done throughout Europe and some account of what little work of this character has been started in America will be found in the report of the International Railway Congress (sixth session, Paris, 1900) in answer to question 34 on technical education, appointment, and promotion, on which reports were submitted from the railway officials of nearly all companies. Perhaps it may be well to review, first of all, the European regulations on this subject:

I. Technical education of railway employees in Europe.-1. SWEDEN.-No special schools for subordinate classes of railway men, such as conductors, firemen, etc., have as yet been established in Sweden, but night schools for the more advanced education for the staff of Swedish_railways is recognized, and a plan has been drawn up by the Swedish Railway Employees Association and has been approved by the administration of State railways. This plan will be put into practice in connection with the Sunday and night schools, of which there are some 30, forming a part of the public-school system in the chief towns of Sweden. The course will cover 7 months, 2 hours a day and 2 hours in the evening on week days and 3 hours in the morning on Sunday. Instruction will cover such subjects as writing, arithmetic, geometry, drawing, physics, and chemistry and in addition to these subjects, 3 hours a week devoted to railway science. The instruction in railway science will cover the principles of motive power and their application to hauling railway vehicles, the object of the tender, the different kinds of vehicles,

and the arrangement of couplings and brakes; also, general ideas about permanent way, signals and telegraphing, the make-up of trains, railway time tables, elementary facts about the conveyance of passengers and goods, and the geography of Swedish railways.

It is proposed that regulation and service instructions shall be taught in the second course to be organized by the railway administration, with the railway officials as professors. This second course will give 6 hours' lectures per week in the evening for 9 months for the permanent way and traffic staff and 12 hours of evening lectures for the locomotive department. For the permanent way staff it includes instruction in writing, bookkeeping, algebra, geometry, drawing, physics, and railway science. Under the latter topic is included here a discussion of "the simplest methods of constructing permanent way and bridges, stations with the arrangement of the lines, signals and safety appliances, mileage, and characteristics of the lines of the country." For those in the locomotive department instruction is given in writing and bookkeeping, algebra and geometry, drawing, physics, and chemistry, the theory of steam engines- steam boilers, their object and different methods of construction; the various kinds of steam engines; the locomotive and its parts; the locomotive's working and motive power, etc."-and railway science, comprehending "the effect the construction of the permanent way has upon the motive power of the locomotive; the principles upon which the different engines and vehicles used upon the State lines-the brakes, signals, and safety apparatus—are constructed; the mileage and characteristics of the lines in the country." For those in the traffic department instruction is offered in writing, bookkeeping, arithmetic, and railway science, covering stations, station buildings and plant, signals and safety apparatus, the various kinds of carriages and brakes, telegraphy, the postal service, the geography of the Swedish railways, the geography of the Norwegian, Danish, and German railways so far as is required by the traffic with these countries; the booking of passengers, luggage, and goods in accordance with the rates; the different kinds of gauge. Furthermore, conductors of express trains must, as at present, attend a course in French, German, or English, so as to be in a position to give foreigners any information they may desire."

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2. NORWAY.--The Norwegian State railways provide no schools for the higher rades of service, although the Government does grant funds for traveling scholarShips. For the lower grades, however, there is a school for instruction in telegraphy belonging to the railway department and intended for employees who are telegraphists at stations. This instruction is under the direction of the inspector of telegraphs, who is an official of the State railway administration. The teachers belong to the railway telegraph staff and receive extra pay for this service. Candidates must pass an examination in arithmetic, reading, and writing, and they are taught, in addition to theoretical and practical telegraphy, the elements of railway accounting and the methods of issuing circular tickets. There are two technical schools of higher grade, namely, the Elementary Technical School of Christiania and the Engineering School of the same city. The railway administration grants sums of money or leave of absence to enable railway employees to attend these schools. The Christiania Elementary Technical School is under the direction of the minister of public works. A course lasts six months, and the instruction given amounts to 6 hours per day, and includes such subjects as arithmetic, elementary mathematics, Norwegian language, bookkeeping, physics, mechanics, free-hand and geometrical drawing, theory of construction, including drawing and practical work, and electrical engineering.

3. SWITZERLAND.-The railway companies, as a rule, only attempt to promote the education of employees by indirect means, such as grants to technical schools. There is no federal railway school, although the cantons and communes, which are the administrative bodies for public education, have begun to devote attention to this branch of education. There are two excellent technical schools open to railway men.

(a) The railway school at Biel opened August 1, 1891. It is suited for the training of the middle and lower grades of railway servants, but the methods of training provided by actual practice in the service, which obtained prior to the organization of this school, are still the more common practice. The Swiss roads rely upon the apprentice system, which is exclusively under their own control. The methods of the old apprentice system required a period of from 1 to 2 years of station service and 6 to 12 months for brakemen and shunters, and varying periods for other grades. In connection with the apprentice system of the Swiss railways they encourage their apprentices to attend public schools, night schools, and special schools wherever and whenever feasible. The Biel railways school received a grant of 4,000 francs from the Jura-Simplon Railway Company, which helped to found the school. Other companies contribute to its

work. The school is expressly intended to take the theoretical and practical training of station officials, station masters, telegraphists, clerks, and station inspectors; also guards and conductors, and also for the office clerks in the various departments. It has a regular 2 years' course, occupying from 35 to 40 hours per week, of which 12 hours per week in the first year and 24 hours per week in the second year are devoted to special railway topics, such as railway law, tariffs, telegraphy, signaling, permanent way and rolling stock, and first aid to the injured.

The remaining hours are devoted to language work, four modern languages being taught, and to general subjects. Three of the chief teachers are retired railway officials, and the faculty numbers 11. The regular attendance at the school was 118 at the beginning of the session for 1898-99. Thirty-nine pupils who completed their course in the spring of 1898 became at once unsalaried employees at the different railways, and in from 1 to 3 months were put on the wage list, thus testifying to the practical value of the instruction.

(b) St. Gallen Railway School, constituting a part of the St. Gallen Training School, was opened in 1895. It devotes less attention to technical subjects, and trains rather for employment in the central offices and for station and yard officials. Purely technical instruction for railway officials and engineers is given at the Zurich Polytechnic Institute and at the University of Lausanne, and also at the advanced technical schools of Winterthur and Burgdorf.

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The St. Gothard Railway, as indeed all the Swiss roads, lays great stress on the duty of the higher officials to look after the systematic instruction of all employees directly under them. A few extracts from the rules of the St. Gothard Railway illustrate this. "Every booking-office clerk, who has assistants, is expected to instruct them in their duties, and see that they learn their business." • The telegraph inspector has more particularly to attend to ** the training of the officials and employees connected with the telegraph service." "If a brakeman requires any explanation about any of the duties he has to perform, he is to apply to his driver, in the first place, and eventually to the chief of his depot." Instructions to guards and head guards specify the duty of instructing all ́men under them.

Traffic inspectors are required on their tours of inspection to ascertain whether their subordinates are perfectly acquainted with all the regulations, instructions, circulars, etc., that have been issued, and if they are not understood or have been misinterpreted to give the necessary explanations and elucidations. All employees of the St. Gothard Road are given full instruction in ambulance work and first aid to the injured in case of accidents and in the use of the sanitary materials which are provided everywhere. These lectures are given by the medical men of the railway staff.

While therefore laying emphasis upon the need of direct instruction of their employees by their own officials, the Swiss roads are also quick to recognize and support other institutions with similar aims which are started independently. The opportunities for the higher officials in connection with such public educational institutions as the Polytechnic Institute at Zurich are well illustrated in the following table of free lectures which have been given during the past few years

4. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.-The principal railway companies of Spain and Portugal have devoted considerable attention to the education of the children of their employees. In Valladolid, in the north of Spain, where one of the principal shops is located, the railway company has established a primary school for children of its employees. The graduates become apprentices in the shops, and the cost of the school is borne by the company. At Entroncamento the Royal Portuguese Company has shops and a school, the cost of which is borne by the sick and pension fund. This is also for elementary instruction for children of the employees from 6 to 15 years of age. Only a few companies have organized schools for the training of employees; such are the Madrid (Delicias) and the Lisbon (Santa Apolonia) schools, both intended to train guards, telegraphists, and train clerks for the traffic and locomotive departments and accountant's offices. The Lisbon school admits pupils who wish to become brakemen as well. The number of pupils taken is limited, and preference is given to the children of active, retired, or dead employees. Here instruction is given in traffic, tariffs, and station accounts; the instruction is given by the higher employees of the railway, who receive extra pay for this work. The courses take 3 months at the Madrid school and 6 months at the Lisbon school, and pupils who pass a final examination are taken on trial, and if satisfactory receive appointments in the railway service. The Amalgamated Society of Employees of Spanish Railways has founded a school at Madrid for training young men for telegraph and railway office work, and the school is under the patronage of the railway companies. Strictly speaking, however, no company in Spain or Portugal has organized any school for technical instruction, particularly for railway traction.

5. FRANCE AND BELGIUM.-Mr. Jourde's excellent report on these two countries, presented at the last session of the International Railway Congress, says that the general education need only be purely elementary, except in the case of inspectors and district officials. As to technical education, general opinion favors the acquisition of it by serving a probationary period at the particular duties of the appointment, but in the case of a certain class of employees, namely, the artisans employed in the shops, they should be men who have already acquired a thorough knowledge of their trade. Hence, three kinds of schools are necessary for candidates for employment by a railway company: (1) Primary schools; (2) higher schools; (3) apprenticeship schools for workmen. Something has been done by the railway administration in providing these three kinds of schools for the sons of their employees, a class which furnishes the best recruits for railway service. With respect to primary schools three systems have been adopted: (a) The direct management of the schools by the railway administration; (b) the granting of subsidies to schools attended by the children of railway families; (c) the founding of scholarships reserved for sons of employees. Secondly, with respect to higher schools, only the third method is in actual practice, although all three methods pursued in the case of primary schools might be, under certain circumstances, advisable. The French and Belgian railroads, however, do not control any higher schools or subsidize them, but do give, frequently, scholarships to the sons of railroad employees. Thirdly, with respect to apprenticeship schools for workmen, the French state railways utilize the public evening schools. The Orleans Company has established, in connection with its large workshop, evening classes for the teaching of physical science, applied mathematics, and mechanical drawing; likewise, the Northern Company has technical classes at La Chapelle, and lessons are given in drawing at their principal workshops. Other companies follow the same general method, and there is a general tendency not to lose any opportunity of affording workmen every chance of becoming first-class artisans. 6. ITALY.-Not one of the Italian railway companies has a complete scheme for the technical instruction of its employees arranged on a systematic basis. One company has afforded its employees every facility to attend courses, especially those in electro-technics, at the polytechnic schools at Turin. There is a school for firemen apprentices which was first established at Piedmont and a little later at Busalla, as early as 1853. Other schools were established later, and by agreement in 1885 the companies operating the three great Italian railway systems consented to maintain these schools, of which the following exist:

On the Mediterranean system, the schools of Milan, Turin, Alexandria, Rivarolo, Pisa, Rome, and Naples.

On the Adriatic system, the schools of Verona, Venice, Bologna, Florence, and Foggia.

On the Sicilian system, a mixed school for apprentice firemen and apprentice artisans held alternately at Palermo and Messina.

The instruction in these schools is both theoretical and practical and is given by the mechanical engineers of the companies.

The theoretical course takes 9 months and comprises the following subjects: (1) Arithmetic and geometry; (2) physics and chemistry; (3) the steam engine; (4) rolling stock; (5) traffic regulations.

The practical course consists in actual work as apprentice at the work of fireman for a whole year.

Apprentices are admitted between the ages of 19 and 26 years, on passing an examination in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and a test in practical work.

At the end of the course, and on the result of the examinations, those apprentices who are considered sufficiently advanced obtain a certificate of proficiency; the others are either discharged or allowed to follow the course again, according to the marks obtained; the most capable receive prizes in the form of savingsbank accounts opened at the company's expense.

The number of firemen prepared by the school is not sufficient to fill all vacancies, and other laborers are employed to act as firemen, but these can not compete for drivers' certificates till 4 years after their appointment as firemen.

In 1890 the Mediterranean Company established special schools for artisan apprentices in connection with their principal shops at Turin and Naples, the regulations for which were as follows:

(1) The instruction comprises both theoretical and practical training; the whole course extends over 3 years, according to a fixed schedule; (2) a maximum of 20 apprentices per annum, selected from among the sons of workmen and employees of the company, were admitted to the first year's course; (3) as soon as their names were entered on the register they were considered to be on the company's staff and eligible to benefit from the sick and benefit fund. After they had attended the courses for 3 years and had passed the final examinations, they were at once employed as artisans; (4) apprentices who failed to pass in the final examination might, nevertheless, be employed as workmen in the shops. This plan did not work well, because the pupils felt they were permanently admitted as employees as soon as they entered the school. New regulations, dated November, 1897, limit the number of pupils to 40, and provide for the admission of new pupils only every 3 years, so that the same pupils follow the 3-year course through. Pupils are no longer on the staff of the company, but may be appointed as artisans only after serving an 18-months' probationary period. Only boys from 14 to 17 years of age, sons of employees, are admitted to the school. They are paid a small wage from the date of admission. There is one private preparatory school for the training of employees in Italy, and this is partially subsidized by the Government. Italian railways encourage the children of employees to attend school by granting them passes to the nearest place where suitable schools are located. The Mediterranean Railway granted 3,000 such passes and the Adriatic Company 2,000 in the last 2 school years, 1897-1899. Primary schools have also been founded and aided by Italian railways, and two colleges, one at Ceccano and one at Veroli, have also been established through very liberal financial arrangements effected with the management of existing colleges at these places.

7. HUNGARY.-A rather novel experiment was tried by the minister of ways of communication and public work in Hungary, in the establishing of a new institution specially devoted to training men for railway service. This school is organized by the government minister and the managers of the various railway companies in the Kingdom. It is conducted and controlled by a board of inspectors, of which the under secretary of state in the ministry of commerce is president, and other members of the Governinent, and a representative from each participating railway administration, are members. This commission makes rules for the school, subject to the approval of the minister of commerce. With a few exceptions the professors may be chosen only from persons who have seen actual railway service, so that the work is essentially practical rather than theoretical. Pupils are divided into three classes. Regular pupils recommended by the participating administrations and those who present themselves for the complete course; private pupils who are already on the active staff of a railway and who are sent by the railway administration for a part of the course with a view to making up deficiencies and to passing the final examinations in the subjects taught at the schools; and lastly, voluntary pupils, who are also railway employees in actual service voluntarily attending some of the lectures and not required to pass an examination. The equivalent of a high-school education in this country is the standard required for admission to this school. Pupils must be at least 18 years of age. The required subjects of instruction are: The technology of railways, telegraphy, the working service, the commercial service, the geography of railways, the history of railways, railway legislation, especially as regards the fundamental laws of the constitution and the administration of the Kingdom, commercial arithmetic and railway bookkeeping, and also the description of articles of commerce; French and German are optional.