overcome to some extent by the use, on short lines, of a small metal container. The container is filled with fare receipts by the office issuing them, and after being locked is delivered to the conductor. It is made to fit the pocket and its patented feature is intended to prevent the conductor issuing the passenger a receipt which differs in amount from the audit stub.

Secret inspection has been found a necessary adjunct of mechanical safeguards. The simplest reports of inspectors usually consist of" on and off " records. The inspector or inspectors travel the full length of a conductor's trip and, unknown to him, keep accurate count of the passengers who get on and off at each stopping place. In order that these reports, when honestly prepared, may serve as an accurate check upon conductors, there must be a comprehensive system provided, which will automatically furnish the auditor with the same record of passengers "on and off" from the conductor's standpoint. The following plan is outlined, as a skeleton which may be filled in with details peculiar to different companies.

Each person who rides should give the conductor something for which he must account to the auditor. This may be cash,

a ticket, trip pass, or coupon. If the somewhat cumbersome plan of issuing a receipt for each ticket and pass as well as cash fares is followed, the conductor's work will sometimes be increased beyond his power to handle it all properly.

Presuming that fare receipts are issued only for cash paid, conductors are instructed to write upon the back of each strip of coupons collected, the points between which the passenger traveled. If an employe presents a card pass he should be required to affix his signature to a slip filled in by the conductor, showing the zone through which he traveled, in addition to pass number. The fare receipt will be punched with the amount paid and names of stations for which the fare was paid. The tickets will, in themselves, show the zones covered by passengers using them and thus the record in this connection is complete.

The tickets, coupons, etc. for each trip are placed in a separate envelope by the conductor, and are received in the office of the auditor. If he is informed that an inspector has covered certain trips, the conductors' collections for those trips are tabulated, showing the number of passengers accounted for as having boarded and left the car at each station. These reports are compared with the inspectors' reports and if inspector and conductor

are equally careful and honest, there should not be the slightest difference in the figures.

It would not be practicable to have an inspector reporting each trip, even if the expense were not prohibitive. Some of the steam railways have, in a measure, solved this problem by the use of train auditors. These are men chosen for their peculiar fitness, good character and thorough knowledge of the tickets and other forms of transportation used on the entire system. They may be young men trained in the office of the auditor. The regular conductor is familiar with operating conditions on his division, and looks after the train operation only, the train auditor collects all fares. Train auditors are frequently shifted from one division to another, and comparisons are made of their collections.

Interurban railway conductors using fare registers are subject to check in another manner. The auditor checks against

STATEMENT OF DIFFERENCES IN CONDUCTORS' REPORTS

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FIG. 3.-Actual size 9′′ wide and 11" high.

each other, the collections actually turned in by the conductor and the conductor's record of collections. The conductor's record consists of the paper taken from the locked fare register at the end of each day or trip, by a man employed at terminal points for this purpose. It follows that if the conductor has carefully rung up each fare collected, on the proper indicator, the actual collections and the register reading should be the same, if the register is in proper working order. Experience has proven that the differences are apt to be frequent, but usually nominal in amount. The auditor makes up a statement (Fig. 3) daily of these differences, termed "overs and shorts," and for comparative purposes they serve as an index to the efficiency of conductors. Some railroads use a merit system in this connection, posting the standing of conductors on bulletins at carbarns and other places where employes congregate, thus creating friendly rivalry for efficiency percentages.

CHAPTER VI.

TICKETS AND TICKET ACCOUNTING.

When a ticket, good for transportation, is sold by an agent of the carrier, it is almost a certainty that the cash received in exchange will find its proper place in "passenger receipts." This is frequently the prime reason for adopting a system fraught with labor for the accountant.

In order that passengers may purchase transportation in quantities, at regular or special rates, round-trip, commutation and excursion tickets are used in great variety, with satisfactory results.

City companies selling tickets at the rate of six for twenty-five cents, or at some other reduction from the ordinary cash fare of five cents, find it convenient to furnish the tickets in strips of the smallest number sold at one time.

When passengers are allowed to travel over two or more divisions for one fare, transfers are issued by conductors or transfer agents. The privilege is often abused by passengers, and the millions of transfers handled during the course of a year, offer opportunities for irregularities on the part of conductors. The transfer should be simple and require few punchings. Roads using large quantities usually have the date, upon which it is valid, printed in bold type on the transfer's face, and different colors are used for each line. The conductors' numbers may also be printed or stamped upon the transfers, for future identification.

The form of ticket used most extensively in "local" interurban service is the small card, single and round trip. These tickets are of regulation size, made to fit the tubes or grooves in station ticket-cases. The station at which sold, and likewise the destination, are printed upon the ticket. When it is stamped upon the back with the station dating stamp, it is ready for use without further work on the part of the agent. If it is a round trip ticket, it is perforated in the middle and one coupon is used for the trip each way. In order that conductors may

handle quickly, the return trip coupon is identified by having a band of dark or contrasting color printed across it. Each card ticket is numbered, and the same thing is true of every other form of ticket used in interurban service.

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The travel is so light between some points that it is not worth while to have a stock of tickets printed with the names of these stations or stops. In place of card tickets, "book tickets are used, so called because furnished to agents in pads or books of fifty or one hundred.. The book ticket is printed on safety" paper of some standard grade, and has the railway's name, and other data printed thereon. Blank lines are printed instead of station names, and the agent writes the name of his station and the destination, upon the ticket, before stamping with dater. In all forms of book or coupon tickets, an "audit stub" is attached to the ticket as printed. This is filled in by the agent as the ticket is sold, and usually accompanies the report of ticket sales that he renders the auditor. It is quite important that these stubs be compared with the tickets as they are lifted by conductors, otherwise agents might sell tickets to one destination, reporting them as having been sold to another, lower-fare, station, pocketing the cash difference. The same style of ticket with different wording may be used to take care of special excursion and reduced rate sales, with a time limit specified. The date sold is stamped on the back, and the face of the ticket may provide for a day limit, or be limited to return not later than

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(date)." The "going coupon usually has a printed statement to the effect that it is not good if detached from the return portion. The station dating stamp impresses the station name as well as the date, upon the back of the ticket, and this fact is used to advantage in printing tickets. Instead of a blank line being left on book or coupon tickets for name of the selling station, the words "station stamped on back" are printed in its stead. When the agent at Webster sells a ticket to Fairview he has but to write the word Fairview and stamp the ticket, which then reads Good for one trip from station stamped on back to Fairview." It is necessary that he stamp both coupons of round-trip tickets, and the audit stub always.

A form of ticket that is popular with some interurban railways is the tear" ticket, that is torn from the audit stub by

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the agent (or conductor) selling. This ticket has an advantage over the ordinary book ticket," by reason of the audit stub peculiar to it. All the names of the stations on a division are printed in geographical (station) sequence down the ticket and its audit stub. The contract or other data is printed at the top of the ticket which reads Good for one trip from the station stamped on the back to the station shown (in bold type) at the bottom of this ticket." Thus, when the agent tears the ticket from the stub, he does it so that the station at bottom will be the name of destination. The audit stub sent to the auditor is self-explanatory and as it can not be manipulated does not require such close comparison with the ticket lifted by conductor. If this form of ticket is used, agents at stations not terminals must be provided with two forms of tickets, having stations printed in reverse order for the different direc→ tions. If this were not done, the ticket could be manipulated as readily as any book ticket.

When transportation is sold to a point which requires the passenger to travel over two or more divisions to reach his destination, coupon tickets are used in many instances. The tickets are in skeleton form (station names left blank) when furnished to agents, names being filled in as tickets are sold. One coupon is provided for each division traveled over. This arrangement gives the conductor a ticket for the passenger carried, and is easy to audit.

It is sometimes impracticable to sell coupon tickets and in these instances the use of a slip sometimes called continuous train check" is found useful. This is issued by the conductor on the first division, who thereupon takes up the passenger's ticket. The check given passenger is punched with date, junction point, destination and other detail required and the number of the ticket taken up is written upon it. These checks are changed in form from time to time and are carefully audited to prevent irregularities.

There are many other forms of local tickets used, such as mileage books, coupon books, commutation tickets, scholars' books, chartered car and corpse tickets, all of which have distinctive features, but do not present difficulties in the way of auditing.

The ordinary interline skeleton ticket is quite similar to the inter-division skeleton ticket heretofore described. A modi