POLICING THE RAILROADS.
Engineers build railroads and are largely represented in their
management, but both in building and operating them they are dependent,
at one time or another, upon some kind of police protection. Indeed,
there are railroads that could not have been constructed at all without
the aid of either soldiers or policemen. The Trans-Caspian railroad was
built largely by soldiers, and is still superintended by the war
department at St. Petersburg rather than by the minister of ways of
communication. The Siberian line is, in parts, the result of the work of
convicts, who were carefully watched by police guards, and the Russian
civil engineers in Manchuria have needed the protection of Cossacks
merely to survey that end of the road. In Germany, practically all the
railroad officials, from the head of the engineering department down to
the track-walkers, have police power. The conductor of a train, for
instance, can put an obstreperous passenger under arrest without waiting
until a station is reached, and resistance to him is as serious an
offence as is resistance to the ordinary _Schutzmann_.
In Europe, it was seen, when railroads were first coming into use, that
police efficiency, as well as that of the technical railroader, would be
required, if the properties were to be well managed, and it was secured
at the start. Before the railroads were built it had been made plain,
after long experience, that even on the public turnpikes policemen were
indispensable, and the authorities decided to employ them on railroads
as well. The protection of life and property is a very serious matter in
Europe, where precautions are taken which in the United States would
seem superfluous. It avails nothing in Germany, for example, for a
director of a company to excuse the loss of money intrusted to his care
on the ground that he thought he was acting in a businesslike manner.
Inspectors, or commissioners, are appointed to see whether his
transactions come up to the standard of what is considered businesslike,
and if they find that he has not exercised good judgment, although there
may have been nothing intrinsically dishonest in the way he has managed,
his bondsmen frequently have to reimburse the stockholders for the loss
that his mistakes have brought upon them. It is the spirit of
carefulness behind such a precaution as this which goes to explain why
the Germans have the systematised police surveillance of railroad
property referred to. Much of this surveillance is in the hands of the
municipal police and rural constabulary, but the fact that the majority
of the railroad officials have police authority shows how much
protection was considered necessary to manage the properties carefully.
In the United States the idea seems to have been that the engineers and
managers could be relied on to get out of railroad investments all the
profit that was in them, and that the assistance of policemen could be
dispensed with except as watchmen. It is true that, for a number of
years, railroad companies have had on their pay-rolls what are called
"railroad detectives," but up to a few years ago there was not a
well-organised railroad police force in the United States, and yet there
is no country in the world, at the present moment, where railroads are
more in need of such auxiliary departments. A great deal of money would
have been saved to investors, and not a few lives would have been
spared, had the American railroads seriously taken up this police matter
in the early days of their existence, and until they do, say what one
will about the luxuries to be found on American trains, and the speed at
which they run, American railroad properties, in this particular at
least, are inferior to those of Europe in management.
The purpose of this last chapter is to call attention to the
inadequateness of the police arrangements now prevalent on nearly all
railroad systems in the United States, to show what has resulted from
this inadequateness, and to interest railroad men and the general public
in police organisations which will be equal to the work necessary to be
done.
To bring out clearly the defects of the prevailing railroad police
methods in the United States, it seems appropriate to take a concrete
case, and describe the situation on a railroad which I have been over as
a passenger and as a trespasser. It employs about sixty men in its
police department, and is one of the most tramp-infested roads in the
country. The maintenance of the so-called detective force costs the
company about forty thousand dollars a year.
By way of illustration, I will give a resume of conversations that I had
respectively with a detective, a tramp, and a trainman that I
encountered on the property. Each of these men was representative of his
class, and spoke his mind freely.
The detective had started out in life as a brakeman, but his eyesight
became faulty after a few years, and he got a position on the police
force. He had just passed his fiftieth year when I met him, and was
heavy, unwieldy, and inclined to be lazy. His beat consisted of forty
miles of track, and he generally went over it in a passenger train.
I asked him whether he found many tramps on passenger trains. He was not
supposed to devote all of his time to watching trespassers, but they
were so obviously a nuisance on the property that it struck me as
peculiar that he did not ride on trains where they were more likely to
be found.
"No," he replied, in a drawling voice, to my query, "I don't find many
tramps in passenger coaches; but I know where their camps are, and
several of us raid 'em every now and then."
"I should think you would want to ride more on freight-trains," I went
on, "and catch the trespassers in the act, so to speak."
"I'm too heavy to fool around freight-trains; besides, I don't want to
have a knife put into me. Some o' them tramps are mighty quick on their
feet, and if I went at 'em they'd have a razor cut in me before I could
turn round."
I asked him why, in view of his age and heaviness, he did not try to
find employment in some other department of the road more suited to his
abilities. Railroad companies are often very lenient with employees of
long standing, and give them easy positions in their old age.
"This is the easiest department the road's got," he returned. "Besides,
I'm my own boss."
"Don't you have to make regular reports to any one?"
"I go to the trainmaster's office every morning for orders, but he don't
know much about the business, and generally tells me to do as I think
best. We men haven't got a chief the way the regular railroaders have."
"Who is responsible for what you do?" I inquired.
"Nobody, I guess, but the pres'dent o' the road."
"How do you spend your time?"
"Well, I go to the trainmaster in the morning, and if he hasn't heard of
anything special, like a car robbery or an accident where there's likely
to be a claim for damages, I stay around the station a while, or go down
into the yards and see what I can see. Sometimes I spend the day in the
yards."
"What do you do there?"
"Oh, I loaf around, keep the kids away from the cars, chin-chin with the
switchmen 'n' the other men, keep my eyes open for fellows that there's
rewards for, eat my dinner, an' go to bed."
"Why don't you try to break up the tramp camps?"
"We do try it, but they come back again."
"Don't you think you would probably be more successful if you raided
them oftener?"
"Yes, I guess we would; but, you see, there ain't any one who's running
the thing. When an order comes from the superintendent to make raids we
make 'em, but he don't send in that order more'n once in three months,
an' the rest o' the time we do pretty much as we like."
"How do you think things would go if you men were organised and had a
chief? Would better work be done?"
"Better work would be done, I guess, but it would be a darned sight
harder work," and he smiled significantly.
My tramp informant was an old roadster of about forty, who had "held
down" the railroad in question for a number of years. I asked him how
long it had been an "open" road,--one easy for trespassers to get over.
"As long as the memory of man goes back," he replied, with a suggestive
flourish of his hand.
"Are not some divisions harder to beat than others?"
"Once in awhile a division'll get a little horstile, but only fer a few
weeks."
"How many tramps are riding trains?"
"I don't see all the trains, so I can't tell you; but I never seen a
freight yet that wasn't carryin' at least five bums, 'n' I've seen some
carryin' over a hundred In summer there's most as many bums as
passengers."
"Is there much robbing of cars going on?"
"Not so much as there might be. The blokes are drunk most of the time,
'n' they let chances go by. If they'd keep sober, 'n' look up good
fences, they could do a nice little business."
"Do the police trouble you much?"
"When they round up a camp they're pretty warm, but I don't see much o'
them 'cept then. 'Course you wants to look out fer 'em when a train
pulls into division yards, 'cause 'f yer handy they'll pinch you; but
they ain't goin' to run after you very far. I've heard that they have
orders to let the bums ride, so long as there ain't too much swipin'
goin' on. The company don't care, some people say."
The trainman that I interviewed was a freight-train conductor who had
been in the employ of the company over twenty-five years. I asked him
whether he had instructions to keep trespassers off his trains.
"I got the instructions all right enough," he said, "but I don't follow
them. I'm not a policeman for the road. I'm a conductor, and I only draw
a salary for being that, too. When I was green I used to try to keep the
bums off my trains, but I nearly got my head shot off one night and
stopped after that. It's the detectives' business to look after such
people."
"Do you see much of the detectives?"
"Once in awhile one of them shows up on my trains, but I've never seen
them make any arrests. One of them got on my train one day when I was
carryin' fifty tramps, and he never went near them."
"What do you think ought to be done to keep tramps off trains?"
"Well, what I'd like to have done would be for the United States
government to let all us trainmen carry revolvers and shoot every
galoot that got on to our trains. That'd stop the thing."
"Do you think the company wants it stopped?"
"I don't know whether they do or not, but I wish to God they'd do
something. Why, we men can't go over our trains at night any more, and
be sure that we ain't goin' to get it in the neck somewhere. It's a holy
fright."
I have quoted these men because their testimony may be accepted as
expert. They know the situation and they know one another, and they had
no reason to try to deceive me in answering my questions. In addition to
their remarks, it is only necessary, so far as this particular road is
concerned, to emphasise the fact that the forty thousand dollars a year
which the company spends for protection of the property are not
protecting it, and are bringing in to the stockholders practically no
interest. The police force is entirely lacking in system; many of the
men are too old and indifferent, and the property is littered up with as
miscellaneous a collection of vagabonds and thieves as is to be found
in a year's travel. This is neither good management, nor good business,
and it is unfair to a community which furnishes a railroad much of its
revenue, to foist such a rabble upon it.
A more or less similar state of affairs exists on the great majority of
the trunk lines in the United States. They are all spending thousands of
dollars on their "detective" forces, as they call them, and they are all
overrun by wandering mobs of ne'er-do-wells and criminals. There are no
worse slums in the country than are to be found on the railroads.
Reformers and social agitators are accustomed to speak of the congested
districts of the large cities as the slums to which attention should be
directed, but in the most congested quarters of New York City there are
no greater desperadoes nor scenes of deeper degradation than may be met
on the "iron highways" of the United States. A number of railroads are
recognised by vagrants and criminals as the stamping ground of
particular gangs that are generally found on the lines with which their
names are connected.
Every now and then the report is given out that a certain railroad is
about to inaugurate a policy of retrenchment, and the newspapers state
that a number of employees have been discharged or have had their work
hours cut down. The best policy of retrenchment that a number of
railroad companies can take up would be to stop the robberies on their
properties, collect fares from the trespassers, and free their employees
from the demoralising companionship of tramps and criminals. To carry
out such a policy a well organised railroad police force is
indispensable, and as I have made use of a practical illustration to
indicate the need of reform, I will advance another to show how this
reform can be brought about.
There is one railroad police organisation in the United States which is
conscientiously protecting the property in whose interests it works, and
I cannot better make plain what is necessary to be done than by giving a
short account of its organisation and performance. It is employed on
the Pennsylvania lines west of Pittsburg, and in inception and direction
is the achievement of the general manager of that system.
As a division superintendent this gentleman became very much interested
in the police question, and organised a force for the division under his
immediate control. It worked so successfully that, on assuming
management of the entire property, he determined to introduce in all the
divisions the methods which he had found helpful in his division. There
was no attempt made, however, to overhaul the entire property at once.
The reform went on gradually, and as one division was organised, the
needs and peculiarities of another were studied and planned for.
Suitable men had to be found, and there was necessarily considerable
experimenting. The work was done thoroughly, however, and with a view to
permanent benefits rather than to merely temporary relief. To-day, after
six years of preparatory exercise, the "Northwest System" has a model
police organisation, and the "Southwest System" is being organised as
rapidly as the right men can be found.
The force on the "Northwest System"--and it must be remembered that this
part of the property takes in such cities as Pittsburg, Cleveland,
Toledo, and Chicago, where there is always a riffraff population likely
to trespass on railroad property--is made up of eighty-three officers
and men. The chief of the force is the superintendent, whose
jurisdiction extends to the "Southwest System" also. He reports to the
general manager, and is almost daily in conference with him. For an
assistant to manage things when he is "out on the road," and to relieve
him of road duty when he is needed at headquarters, he has an inspector,
a man who has risen from the ranks and has demonstrated ability for the
position. Each division has a captain, who reports to the division
superintendent and to the chief of the police service. This captain has
under him one or more lieutenants and the necessary number of patrolmen
and watchman, who report to him alone. An order from the general
manager consequently reaches the men for whom it is meant through
official channels entirely within the police department, and the same is
true of statements and reports of the men to the general manager.
Practically everything is run according to a well-understood system, and
this is the secret of the department's success. Day in and day out every
man on the force knows what he has to do, and expects to be called to
order if his work does not come up to what is desired. Hunting down
trespassers and thieves is but a part of the routine. The property is
patrolled almost exactly as a large city is, and the men are expected to
make reports about such matters as the condition of frogs and switches,
switch-lights, fences, and station-buildings, to do preliminary work for
the department of claims, to keep the property free from trespassers, to
protect the pay-car, look out for circus and excursion trains, and
generally make themselves useful. They are all picked men, and have to
come up to the requirements of the United States army as regards health
and physical strength. Their personal records are known for five years
previous to being employed on the force. They constitute for the general
manager an invaluable guardianship. He has but to press the button, so
to speak, and within a few hours the entire police force is carrying out
his instructions. Through it he can keep in touch with a thousand and
one matters which would otherwise escape his notice, and he can order an
investigation with the assurance that he will get an exact and
trustworthy report within a reasonable time.
Such is the organisation. Its performance, up to date, has consisted in
cleaning up a property that, seven years ago, as I know from
observation, was so infested with criminals that it was notorious
throughout the tramp world as an "open" road. To-day that system is
noted for being the "tightest shut" line, from the trespasser's point of
view, in the country, and the company pays seventeen thousand dollars a
year less for its police arrangements than it did in 1893 for its
watchmen and detective force. These are facts which any one may verify,
and it is no longer possible for railroad companies to explain their
hesitation in taking up the police matter in earnest on the ground that
it would cost too much. It costs less, not only in the police
department's pay-rolls, but in the department of claims as well, than it
did when detached men, without any organisation and direction, were
employed, and the conditions at the start were very similar to those on
railroads now known to be "open." It is to be admitted that the rabble
which formerly infested this property has in all probability shifted to
other roads,--gangs of this character naturally follow the lines of
least resistance,--but it would have been impossible for it to shift had
other railroads taken a similar stand against it; it must have vanished.
The time must come when this stand will be taken by all railroads. For a
number of years there has been no more valuable contribution to the
business of railroading in the United States than the demonstrated
success of a railroad police force, and it is difficult to believe that
the benefits it brings can be long overlooked. The question of methods
to be employed will naturally occasion considerable discussion, and it
will doubtless be found that an organisation which suits one railroad is
not available for another, but I believe that the general plan of the
police organisation described above is a safe one to follow. It is
founded on the principle that the men must be carefully selected,
thoroughly trained, systematically governed, and the scope of their work
sharply defined. No police force, railroad or municipal, can do really
good work unless due regard be given to these very important matters.
For the benefit of railroad police forces which may be organised in the
future, the following suggestion seems to me to be worthy of
consideration.
The title "detective" should not be given the men. They are not
detectives in the ordinary sense of the word, and to be so called hurts
them with the public and with their fellow employees. Railroading is a
business done aboveboard and in the public view, and its police service
should stand on a different footing from that of the detective force of
a large city, where, as all the world knows, secret agents are
necessary. They may be necessary at times on railroads also, but there
already exist reputable agencies for furnishing such service.
The superintending officers of the force should be superior men. In
Germany a police patrolman has not the slightest hope of becoming so
much as a lieutenant until he has passed a very severe examination,
which practically implies a college education, and he consequently
realises that his superior officer is entitled to his position on other
grounds than mere "pull" or "seniority," and learns to have great
respect for him. A similar dignity should be attached to authoritative
positions in the railroad police, and to secure it able men must be
employed.
The superintendent of the service should be as supreme in it as is the
superintendent of a division. If he has been chosen for the position on
account of his fitness for it, the supposition is that he knows how to
fill it, and there should be but one superior to whom he must answer. I
bring up this point because on most railroads the police arrangements
are, at present, such that almost every head of a department gives
orders to the "detectives." On some roads even station agents are
allowed to regulate the local police officer's movements.
Whether an American railroad police can be organised on as broad lines
as in Germany, where practically all the railroad officials have police
authority, is a question which cannot yet be definitely decided. The
conditions in the United States are very different from those in
Germany, and it may be that the sentiment of the people would be against
giving so many persons police power; but I think it would be
advantageous to experiment with the track-walkers, crossing-watchmen,
and gatemen, and see whether they can be incorporated in the railroad
police. Great care must naturally be exercised in picking out the men to
possess patrolmen's privileges, but an examination, such as all German
railroad police officials have to pass, would seem to be a precaution
which ought to secure safe officers. If such an arrangement were made,
the railroad police would admirably supplement the municipal police and
the rural constabulary, and the requirements, physical, mental, and
moral, of the examinations to be gone through would have a tendency to
elevate the morale of the men, not only as patrolmen, but also as
railroaders.
In conclusion, I desire to point out the opportunity of teaching by
example which I believe the railroad police of the United States are
going to have. Unlike the municipal police, they are free of the toils
of politics, and ought to become exemplary. Their methods and efficiency
will not remain unnoticed. The day that the railroad companies succeed
in ridding their properties of the vagrant class which now troubles
them, and thousands of this class begin to take up permanent quarters
in the cities because they are unable to travel afoot, the public is
going to make inquiries as to whence this undesirable contingent has
come. They will then learn what a police force can do when it is not
officered by political appointment and when it is made up of men who
have been trained for the task imposed upon them.
A good thing cannot for ever go a-begging. Six years ago it seemed as
impossible that a railroad could be cleaned up morally, as the one I
have described has been, as it now seems that American cities can have
police departments independent of politics. The trouble was that no
railroad had taken the initiative. Ten years hence, I venture to
prophesy, the railroads of the United States will not be the avenues of
crime that they are at present. Some day a similar reform in police
methods will be attempted and carried through in one of our cities, and
if the railroad police have done their work well, and remained true to
honest principles, not a little of the credit will belong to them.
End of Project Gutenberg's Notes of an Itinerant Policeman, by Josiah Flynt