This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910. Excerpt: ... CONSERVATION OF MEN We who are here today are a small part of the great army of men working for the North Western Railroad. We forty-thousand men working for the North Western are a small part of the great army of men who are working on all the railroads of the United States. The North Western Railroad like almost all great enterprises, started in a small way, with a handful of men and about one hundred and ninety miles of track. That was fiftyone years ago. Today we have forty or fifty-thousand men, eight thousand miles of track, fifteen hundred engines and I will not attempt to say how many thousand cars. The business of the company has increased every year with a few exceptions during this fifty years, the force of men employed has increased nearly every year, but the thing that has increased out of all proportion to the business and to the number of men employed, are the accidents and the personal injuries. This is not only true of our road which we claim to be the best road, where we claim to have the best men, but it is true of all the other railroads in the country. Now, it is because of this enormous increase in the loss of life occasioned by these railroad accidents, because of the enormous increase in personal injuries which do not result in death, because every fifty minutes there is some man killed on the railroads in the United States, and thirty per cent of them are you men, and while I am talking here today there may be a man killed on our road; because every five minutes there is some one injured on the railroads in the United States, and eighty per cent of them are you people; because every fifty minutes some one is injured on the North Western Railroad and eighty per cent of them are you people; because every twenty-four hours in every d...