A " goods agent " must necessarily have passed through all the branches of the traffic department, so as to be able to direct his subordinates. Generally it happens that after passing through the various offices of a large goods station—time inquiry office, the invoice office, the accounts office, and the claims office—he is placed in charge of the goods department of a small country station, and then after he has learned the ropes he is drafted co a rather larger station, and so on. But very rarely is a goods agent given the entire charge of a station—indeed, the writer knows of only one such case, and that happened at a small station on the south coast. The position fell vacant, and representations were made to the company by the inhabitants of the town to promote the goods agent, and this was eventually done. But. station-masters, as a general rule, are those who have had a life's experience in the booking and parcels offices, and graduated for their positions much in the same way that the goods agents qualify for theirs.
The rate of pay of these various officers varies in accordance with the size and importance of the station to which they are attached. For examp!e, a canvasser's salary may be anythina. from 1?E20 to .p300 a year, and a station master's salary from /150 to £1600 a year, with house, &c., included.
On the line, as off it, specialisation is the order of the day. This is far from saying that a man should specialise in one particular subject to the neglect of allothers ; for of a truth—and as has been shown— to get on on the railway one needs it thorough grasp of all the ramifications of railway work. Still, he who specialises at his particular task, and cultivates himself in other directions meanwhile, is the man who succeeds.
There are many avenues of knowledge open to the student. Those clerks stationed in London are fortunately placed, being able to attend the evening classes at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where lectures by well-known authorities are given on such subjects as the following ; "'Tie History of Traffic Legislation, and Parliamentary Action in connection with Railways"; " The Traffic Relations of Railways to other Railways and the Public "; and " The Law of Carriage by Railway." Similar lectures are given in many of the other large railway
centres for the edification of the railway staff; but those who cannot attend any of these classes, by reason of•their being stationed elsewhere, need not fear that they are suffering from a peculiar disability, for during the winter months the most important of the lectures given at the London School of Economics and Political Science are published ad verbatim in the Railway New (price 6d. weekly), so that he who wills to know can do so. There is no excuse for ignorance, for in practically every public library authoritative works, such as Macnamara's " Law of Carriers of Merchandise and Passengers by Land," Brown & Theobald's "Law of Railway Companies," are to be found. For home study the student cannot do better than procure Disney's " Law of Carriage by Railway," published by Steven & Sons, price 7s. 6d. net. This is one of the most useful books on the subject published, and is written specially for the student. But railway work cannot be learned from text-books—which is not belittling such works, or in any way retracting what has been said. Make no mistake ; text-books are valuable adjuncts ; but knowledge gained from practical experience and personal observation and research is the most reliable and valuable to the individual, and he should therefore cultivate the habit of seeing things—those things, that is to say, which interest and concern him as a railway man—in their true perspective.
From what has been said, the reader will have gathered that life on the railway is based on the law of gradual evolution and the survival of the fittest. True, it is a far cry from junior clerk at 61:'2O per annum to general manager at i'5000 per annum ; and so it is from the workhouse to Westminster, both of which have been accomplished. But between both starting-points and final goals there are many lucrative positions which are not to be despised. Gm. B. LISSENDFN.
Author of " Railway Matters and Row to Dtal 7rith Them," and "The _Railway Passover's bandlawk," ctc.