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Using Information Technology 11th Edition Williams Test Bankinstant Download

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100% found this document useful (17 votes)
52 views48 pages

Using Information Technology 11th Edition Williams Test Bankinstant Download

The document provides links to various test banks and solution manuals for different editions of textbooks related to information technology and other subjects. It includes multiple-choice and true/false questions focused on communications, networks, and cyber threats. The content is designed for educational purposes, specifically for students and instructors seeking additional resources.

Uploaded by

gzaneinah
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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chapter 06

Communications, Networks, and Cyberthreats: The Wired and


Wireless World

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Communications signals represented in a binary format are said to be ________.

A. continuous
B. digital
C. sequential
D. analog

2. Each zero and one signal represents a ________.

A. bit
B. byte
C. kilobyte
D. megabyte

3. Which of the following is NOT an analog device?

A. speedometer
B. tire-pressure gauge
C. thermometer
D. smartphone

6-1
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education.
4. Signals such as sound and temperature, which continuously vary in strength and quality, are
said to be _________.

A. spontaneous
B. digital
C. sequential
D. analog

5. The ________ is a device that converts digital computer signals into analog signals so that
they can be sent over a telephone line.

A. printer
B. scanner
C. modem
D. digitizer

6. A person sending a document over a phone line by converting a computer's digital signals to
analog signals uses a ________.

A. printer
B. scanner
C. digitizer
D. modem

7. A ________ is a system of interconnected computers, telephones, or communications devices


that can communicate and share resources.

A. terminal
B. router
C. network
D. server

6-2
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education.
8. A network that covers a wide geographical area is called a ________.

A. LAN
B. WAN
C. MAN
D. HAN

9. A network that covers a city or a suburb is called a ________.

A. WAN
B. LAN
C. MAN
D. Internet

10. Networks are structured in two principle ways: client/server and ________.

A. intranet
B. host computer
C. extranet
D. peer to peer

11. A network that operates without relying on a server is the ________ network.

A. peer-to-peer
B. client/server
C. host-to-host
D. master/slave

6-3
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education.
12. A computer that acts like a disk drive, storing the programs and data files shared by users on
a LAN, is the ________ server.

A. file
B. web
C. host
D. mail

13. If an organization's internal private network uses the same infrastructure and standards of
the Internet, then the private network is a(n) ________.

A. extranet
B. intranet
C. LAN
D. MAN

14. A virtual private network may include ________.

A. a company intranet
B. a company extranet
C. a company LAN
D. any of these

15. A(n) ________ is a system of hardware and/or software that protects a computer or a network
from intruders.

A. VPN
B. intranet
C. firewall
D. protocol

6-4
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education.
16. A ________ is the set of rules that govern the exchange of data between hardware and/or
software components in a communications network.

A. host
B. protocol
C. database
D. packet

17. A mainframe computer that controls a large network is called the ________ computer.

A. slave
B. host
C. client
D. node

18. Any device that is attached to a network is referred to as a ________.

A. server
B. host
C. node
D. router

19. A ________ is a fixed-length block of data for transmission.

A. node
B. protocol
C. packet
D. backbone

6-5
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education.
20. A common connection device that connects computers to a network and that sends
messages (checks packets) between sender and receiver nodes is called a ________.

A. router
B. gateway
C. switch
D. bridge

21. To create larger networks, a bridge connects the same types of networks, and a ________
connects dissimilar networks.

A. router
B. gateway
C. hub
D. host

22. A device that joins multiple wired and/or wireless networks in a home office is a ________.

A. node
B. router
C. bridge
D. firewall

23. In an organization, all computer networks are connected to the Internet by a "main highway"
called a ________.

A. skeleton
B. backbone
C. gateway
D. router

6-6
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education.
24. Which of these is NOT a network topology?

A. ring
B. bus
C. hub
D. star

25. In the ________ network topology, communications devices are connected to a single cable
with two endpoints.

A. ring
B. bus
C. star
D. peer-to-peer

26. What kind of topology (layout) is used by a network that connects all computers and
communications devices in a continuous loop?

A. ring
B. bus
C. star
D. peer-to-peer

27. What kind of topology (layout) is used by a network that connects all its computers and
communications devices to a central server?

A. ring
B. bus
C. star
D. peer-to-peer

6-7
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education.
28. ________ is the most common and most widely used LAN technology, with networked devices
in close proximity; it can be used with almost any kind of computer. Most microcomputers
come with a port for this type of network connection, which uses cable.

A. Fiber-optic
B. Internet
C. Token ring
D. Ethernet

29. A communications medium is a channel; there are three types of wired communications
media. The one consisting of two strands of insulated copper wire, used by tradition
telephone systems, is known as ________.

A. twisted-pair
B. coaxial
C. fiber-optic
D. straight wire

30. What wired channel, commonly used for cable TV, consists of an insulated copper wire
wrapped in a solid or braided shield placed in an external cover?

A. twisted-pair
B. coaxial
C. straight wire
D. fiber-optic

31. A type of wired communications technology used to connect equipment in a home network is
the following:

A. Ethernet
B. HomePNA
C. HomePlug
D. any of these

6-8
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education.
32. What wired communications medium consists of dozens or hundreds of thin strands of glass
or plastic?

A. twisted-pair
B. coaxial
C. fiber-optic
D. straight wire

33. The ________ is the basis for ALL telecommunications signals.

A. bandwidth
B. electromagnetic spectrum
C. radio-frequency spectrum
D. wireless application protocol

34. The ________ is the range of frequencies that a transmission medium (channel) can carry in a
particular period of time.

A. bandwidth
B. electromagnetic spectrum
C. radio-frequency spectrum
D. wireless application protocol

35. What set of rules is used to link nearly all mobile devices to a telecommunications carrier's
wireless network and content providers?

A. LAN
B. WAN
C. WAP
D. HAN

6-9
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education.
36. Which of the following is NOT a type of wireless communications media?

A. infrared transmission
B. satellite
C. coaxial
D. microwave radio

37. What form of wireless transmission sends data to an AM or FM receiver?

A. broadcast radio
B. infrared radio
C. GPS
D. microwave radio

38. Which of these types of wireless transmission is limited to line-of-sight communications?

A. broadcast radio
B. broadband
C. microwave
D. WAP

39. Transmitting a signal from a ground station to a satellite is called ________.

A. broadcasting
B. high-frequency
C. uplinking
D. downlinking

6-10
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40. The highest level that a satellite can occupy in space is known as ________.

A. geostationary earth orbit (GEO)


B. high-earth orbit (HEO)
C. medium-earth orbit (MEO)
D. low-earth orbit (LEO)

41. GPS uses satellites orbiting at a(n) ________ level; they transmit timed radio signals used to
identify earth locations.

A. GEO
B. MEO
C. LEO
D. HEO

42. Broadband technology (wireless digital services) is also referred to as ________-generation


wireless services.

A. first
B. second
C. third
D. fourth

43. Which of the following is NOT a type of long-distance wireless two-way communications
device?

A. Bluetooth
B. CDMA
C. 1G analog cellular phone
D. 2G digital cellphone

6-11
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education.
44. What short-distance wireless standard is used to link portable computers and handheld
wireless devices so they may communicate at high speeds at distances of 100-228 feet?

A. Bluetooth
B. HomeRF
C. Wi-Fi
D. 3G

45. What short-distance wireless standard is used to link cell phones, computers, and
peripherals at distances of up to about 33 feet?

A. Bluetooth
B. Wi-Fi
C. HomeRF
D. WISP

46. A ________ attack disables a computer system or network by making so many requests of it
that it overloads it and keeps other users from accessing it.

A. worm
B. virus
C. denial-of-service
D. Trojan horse

47. A ________ is a program that copies itself repeatedly into a computer's memory or onto a
disk/flash drive.

A. worm
B. rootkit
C. Trojan horse
D. patch

6-12
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education.
48. Which of these is NOT a type of malware?

A. worm
B. virus
C. Trojan horse
D. denial-of-service attack

49. A botmaster uses malware to hijack hundreds or thousands of computers and controls them
remotely; the controlled computers are called ________.

A. robots
B. zombies
C. worms
D. logic bombs

50. Which of the following is NOT a way to spread a virus?

A. flash drives
B. scanning a picture
C. e-mail attachment
D. downloaded games or other software

51. Antivirus software protects files and computer systems in all of these ways EXCEPT which
one?

A. scans the hard drive for signatures that uniquely identify a virus
B. looks for suspicious viruslike behavior
C. goes out on the Internet and looks for viruses
D. destroys the virus

6-13
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education.
52. What is the science, often used in computer security systems, of measuring individual body
characteristics?

A. encryption
B. decryption
C. rootkit
D. biometrics

53. What is the process of altering readable data (plain text) into unreadable form to prevent
unauthorized access?

A. encryption
B. decryption
C. password
D. biometrics

True / False Questions

54. Analog refers to communications signals represented in a binary format.

True False

55. Signals such as sound and temperature, which continuously vary in strength and quality, are
said to be digital.

True False

56. A thermometer and a speedometer are examples of analog devices.

True False

6-14
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education.
57. Telephones have always been digital devices.

True False

58. A modem converts digital signals into analog signals so they can be sent over a telephone
line.

True False

59. "Modem" is short for modulate/demodulate.

True False

60. Capturing music digitally means that one has an exact duplicate of the music.

True False

61. A network is a system of interconnected computers and communications devices that can
communicate and share resources.

True False

62. The Internet is a WAN.

True False

63. A LAN is a type of network that covers a wide geographical area.

True False

64. Client/server networks and peer-to-peer networks are the same except that the first type of
network uses a mainframe and the second type uses only microcomputers.

True False

6-15
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
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LETTER XIV.

THE MANAGEMENT THAT BREEDS FROM ITS OWN HERD.

June 19, 1904.

My Dear Boy:—History repeats itself, and railroad history is made so


fast that we repeat ourselves very often. Mankind absorbs a certain
amount from the experience of others. In spite of the much good
that comes, the same old fallacies are followed, the same old
blunders are made. Within the last fifty years every road in the
country, at some time or other, has undergone at least one
reorganization and a corresponding radical change in personnel.
Always, after several new camels get their heads under the tent,
comes a newspaper pronunciamento that thereafter the
management will breed from its own herd. This inbreeding invariably
leads ultimately to narrowness if not to deterioration. The cousins
intermarry too often and ere long the road is breeding its own
scrubs.

Within the last five years every road in the country has gone outside
its own ranks for official talent. The oldest roads have had only a few
Leonard Woods and Fred Funstons, a president here, a vice-
president there. Other roads have changed officials so fast that one
is reminded of the traveler sojourning in Paris during the French
Revolution. He instructed his servant to tell him every morning what
the weather was, that he might know how to dress himself, and
what the government was, that he might know how to conduct
himself. What then of our boasted civil service; of the wonderful
administrative machines we build up and find wanting? Is the
principle wrong or is its application faulty? The earnest efforts of
able men, crowned by many partial successes, are sufficient
guarantee of honesty of purpose, of the necessity for something of
the sort that has been attempted. He who criticises, be he ever so
honest, must suggest a practical remedy or he soon descends from
the level of the critic to that of the demagogue or the common
scold.

Our trouble seems to be, not with civil service as an abstract


proposition, but with the type we have been getting. It is about Z-99
as compared with the real thing. It has too many flat wheels to run
smoothly. It must be jacked up high enough for new trucks and a
stronger kingbolt. True civil service presupposes maximum care in
original selection. It doesn't mean that we shall wait until the grain
and the coal begin to move before we figure on more crews. It
rather contemplates having available firemen in wipers, and willing
brakemen in clerks. Every superintendent believes that he is the best
judge of men on the pike. On every system are probably men who
can give him cards and spades, picked coal and treated water, and
then outclass him on such a run. If we leave the hiring to the
different trainmasters, master mechanics, or agents, we may have
mostly the Irish on one division, mostly the Dutch on another. If we
are going into this civil service business and are taking men, like
Federal judges, for life or during good behavior, let's have a long list
of waiting eligibles recruited for each division. Let's send around
periodically a car with an examining board from central headquarters
to size up the talent recommended by local officials. Put experienced
officials, a surgeon and an oculist on the committee. Show your
trainmaster that men who make it a business have more time than
he to keep dudes and cigarette smokers off the runboard and the
payroll; that the former have broader opportunities than he to
develop a high standard of requirements. Let the committee
encourage men already employed to demonstrate their fitness for
transfer to other departments or to heavier divisions. Let's change
ends with our rail and put it where it will do the most good. The
employment bureau, the recruiting office, or the civil service
commission becomes a necessity to every large organization. Some
roads have made a start in this direction, but it is only a start. To
work out the problem will cost us money. Yes, but less than we are
being forced to pay by some of the labor contracts we have had to
sign. It is not only more graceful, it is less expensive, this leading
instead of being driven.

The great trouble seems to be in this matter of civil service that we


have tried to accomplish too much in too short a time. An industry
whose existence does not antedate the memory of men still living
cannot hope to have struck the best methods already. Yet it can be
too cautious in building Chinese walls around its organization. What
we have been striving for is to cultivate a company spirit, to improve
the efficiency of the service. We have felt that the way to do this is
to make our men feel secure in their positions, to have them
convinced that the shakeup made by our advent is the last they will
ever experience. Have we not chased this rainbow long enough?
Should we not back up and draw some of the spikes we have put in
the connection switches? It is one thing to sit in an office and figure
that the importation of this one man ought not to make anybody
uneasy. It is quite another to make the thousands of men along the
road believe that we can stick to the original package. Blood is
thicker than water and the new man will have his relatives and his
followers or the followers of his friends. If he is too thin-skinned,
fear of criticism may prevent his bringing in some new talent that
would be of real benefit to his road. He is blamed if he does and
blamed if he doesn't. Whichever course he pursues there remains, in
greater or less degree, that uncertainty which is so demoralizing.
Remove this uncertainty, let men know definitely what to expect,
and you are over the hill and closer to the terminal.

The old-fashioned rule of promote two and hire one worked mighty
well on some roads for conductors and enginemen. In these days of
larger systems the ratio might be changed to three or four or even
five or six to one. If it were definitely understood that every so
often, say every fifth vacancy in certain grades of officials and
employes, a man would certainly be selected from outside the
service, I believe that we could remove the feeling of uncertainty.
We would in a large measure attain the result we have thus far
missed. We would build up organizations with enough fresh blood to
stand the test of time.

Brains and adaptability are not a natural monopoly. God Almighty


hasn't given any road a New Jersey charter broad enough for
incorporating a trust of the most efficient men. No, I am not a
populist or a socialist. I believe in trusts. They have come to stay
and ultimately to benefit the masses. Legislation will no more
succeed in destroying them than it did in preventing partnerships in
England where centuries ago it was thought for two men to unite as
partners in business was an unsafe combination of power. Education
comes by hard knocks and probably anti-merger decisions are worth
the inconvenience that they have caused. The sober sense of the
American people will tell them after a while that in attempting
constitutional and legislative interference they have not benefited
themselves one dollar. They will learn that forcing a change of
methods does not necessarily bring about a different result. They
will learn that in the long run they, the people, are the losers when
good capital is tied up; that they pay the price for unwise
competition. The railroads, the first great trusts, should be early to
realize that some conditions inherently forbid the elimination of
competition. Our prairies are too broad for an agricultural trust. The
range of the human mind is too great for any railroad to patent the
ability of its men.

This trust freight seems to make you full tonnage without cleaning
out all the rush stuff in my yard. You may cut off ahead of the rest
of the civil service loads and I will have a pony set on your caboose
when you pull through the ladder. Yes, I will tell the operator at the
yard office to scratch them off your consist. I shall have to run
another section and fill out with some cars of company material
which the construction department is kicking about. Please put up—
excuse me, display—signals until the dispatcher can get hold of you
at the end of the double track. By the way, if instead of "will display
signals, etc.," his order should read, "will signal, etc.," would it not
be shorter and, including flags, lamps, whistle and voice, be more
comprehensive?

Affectionately, your own

D. A. D.
LETTER XV.

MORE ON CIVIL SERVICE.

June 26, 1904.

My Dear Boy:—We were speaking of railroad civil service, so called.


As I told you before, our civil service is so far from the genuine
article that I always feel like qualifying the term in some way for fear
of being called in on the carpet for failure to cut the proper duplex.
It is a great big subject, worthy of the most serious consideration,
because it concerns men, not machines. Furthermore, it is a high
type of man with whom we deal or should deal. We are all so busy
that we say we concern ourselves with results. We all butt in too
much on details, usually along the line of our early training. Yet,
withal, we overlook some pretty long shots because we flatter
ourselves we are too busy to place small bets.

Even after we have wasted so much of the building season that we


give the contractor a bonus to rush the new line to completion in
time to hold the charter, wouldn't it pay us to have a care as to the
kind of men we let him work on our right of way? Next year, when
the grievance committees come up from the new division, we make
them feel that it means something, it gives them a stamp of honor
to work for our system. Why not begin a little farther back? Why not
hook up in the beginning so that our different departments can get
busy early in the game? Let the people who are to settle the new
country help build and maintain the road. Let the immigration agent
camp with the reconnoitering engineer. When the latter comes back
to locate or retrace, let the former be interesting colonies. Let our
own organization follow the surveyor's flag. Let's be our own
contractor and get back more of the money he disburses. Why let a
floating gang of Dagoes take so big a bunch of it back to sunny
Italy? Why not spend it ourselves so that its recipients will use it to
develop the country and hurry the origination of traffic? Let's handle
this coin both going and coming and cut out some of the empty
haul.

The political revolutions in continental Europe and the famine in


Ireland in 1848 brought to this country a high class of immigrants.
We gave them work and schools. They helped build the railroads.
Some continued on the roads after construction; others helped
develop the surrounding country. Our flag made them free, and
when civil war came they were among the bravest of its defenders.
To-day their children and their children's children, all Americans,
rank high among railway officials and employes. Perhaps all this is a
happen so; perhaps much of it is due to big, brainy men whose
policies were not narrowed by specialization in departments. We are
now doing little new construction. We should do it better than ever
and in the full sense of the word. Is it enough to pass it up to the
construction department?

Did it ever strike you that there may be many good reasons why
both officials and employes may desire to transfer to another road?
A young man, feeling the home nest too full, the local demand for
skilled labor too light, has struck out for a newer country. He makes
good. We find him in after years running an engine, working a trick,
or, perchance, holding down an official job. Death occurs at the old
home. Marriage brings new interests in another country. An invalid
member of his family needs a change of climate. An unexpected
development of a chance investment in a remote locality demands
occasional personal attention. The orphaned children of a relative
claim his protection. Any one of a dozen praiseworthy motives may
prompt him to make a change, provided he can continue to derive
his main support from the calling to which he has found himself
adapted.
Would he be able to transfer without beginning over again at the
bottom? Between the civil service of the companies and the seniority
of the brotherhoods he would find it like making a link and pin
coupling on the inside of a sharp curve. He would be lucky if he
could get a regular job on another division of the same system. Let
him persist in suggestions as to how the matter may be brought
about, and the average official, hidebound by precedent, will
consider him nutty, a candidate for the crazy house instead of for
another run. Who is the loser? Not only the man, but the company,
which should have the benefit of his wider experience, of his peculiar
interest in its territory, of the infusion of fresh blood which his
advent would mean.

Suppose an official has resigned for any good personal reason, or


because he couldn't reduce the size of the engine nozzles fast
enough to suit a new management. When he starts out to hunt a
job his brethren of the profession receive him with sympathy. They
promise to help him out. Each begs him to understand how
impossible it is for him to catch the pay car on that particular line.
Perhaps his informant has been on that company's payroll only six
months himself, but he waxes eloquent on the benefits of civil
service, on the desirability of making their own men, of overcoming
previous demoralization. This would be amusing if it were not a
serious business. Each seems to flatter himself that he got aboard
because of peculiar personal fitness, and inferentially denies such
attribute of genius in the man on the outside. As a matter of fact,
the recognition of outside talent is usually a consequence of
acquaintance, of happening to know the right man at the right time,
of having previously worked with the appointing official. All this
contains too much of the element of chance. When we reserve
certain vacancies for men outside of the breastworks and select
them in advance we shall get better results.

We have made our civil service frogs so stiff that our discipline has
climbed the rail. We know it is so hard for a conductor or an
engineman to get a job that we sometimes hesitate too long before
we make an example for the good of the service by discharging a
flagrant offender. If we knew that by and by he could hit on some
road the vacancy reserved for outsiders we would have the benefit
of the change. The man would learn a lesson, would not be
debarred from his occupation, and would give better service on
another road. Talk with your employes about this and you will be
astonished to find how many will fall in with this idea of leaving open
a door of hope by filling just so many vacancies with outside men.

Your official or your employe seeking a transfer or hunting a job will


be impressed with the fact that all assistance rendered will be with a
view to favoring him because he is a good, worthy fellow. He will not
hear it put on the ground that any company is fortunate to have his
services, that his future employers are being especially considered. If
he has known from boyhood the territory and civilization where he
desires to work, it will not be urged as a special qualification. Right
here is where the most of us fall down. We too seldom make our
subordinates feel that we are the gainers by having them in our
employ. We are too likely to make them feel they are lucky to have a
job. This may do for the indifferent men, but it puts no premium on
superior ability and loyalty. It renders a discharge, when made, less
effective as an example. You cannot treat all your men alike in all
things. In a few things, collisions, stealing, booze-fighting, for
example, you have to do so. In most things you must avoid
destroying individuality. You must build up personal pride in each.
Even sister engines of the same type do not steam or pull exactly
alike. Man, made in the image of Deity, has pride, brains and
courage to make more complex his disposition. Corporations have no
souls. Railroad men have souls and good red blood. Their
intelligence is an inspiration; their steadfastness, a psalm.

Affectionately, your own

D. A. D.
LETTER XVI.

THE SUPPLY TRAIN.

July 3, 1904.

My Dear Boy:—Blacksmiths' horses and shoemakers' wives


proverbially go unshod. A railroad puts up its poorest sample of
transportation in the routine handling of its own material and
supplies. Company stuff is moved and handled last of all; and
probably at maximum expense. For example, if we wish to ship a car
of wheels to division headquarters we load them after we are lucky
enough to get an available car. Then after proper billing authority
has been furnished we go through some more red tape, so that the
auditor may not confuse figs with thistles, revenue producers with
deadheads. When we happen to have a train with such light tonnage
that all excuses for moving the car have been exhausted it reaches
the yard nearest its destination. The master mechanic's office in a
day or two has pounded sufficiently at the yardmaster to get the car
set, usually several hours after it has been promised. It is not of
record just how much time and money have been wasted by the
mechanical department through not having the car when expected.

If our administration is unusually smooth we may be able to load our


scrap wheels on this same car. Usually, however, we wait until the
car has been hauled down the line before some office away off
somewhere gives disposition for the wornout material. Or, having
unloaded all the wheels, we wait until next week before we order in
another car, and go through the same performance to ship a couple
of pairs to some junction point on the same division. I will not bore
you with the expensive details of getting a car of ties loaded and
distributed, of how much time the sectionmen are worked to poor
advantage because the car or material failed to show up when
expected.

We, mounted on wheels, with transportation as our chief asset, let


our own business get it where the chicken felt the axe, where the
sharp flange caught the bum. It used to be more comfortable in the
old days. We could have the sectionmen do so many jobs without its
seeming to cost anything. The fact that we have learned better
makes me rash enough to believe that we may yet progress beyond
thinking that some of our own transportation costs little or nothing
because we do it with the local freight or a switch engine. We haul a
car clear over the division to pick up a few pounds of scrap paper;
provided, of course, the agents have not confused the day with that
for loading dairy line shipments. The weakness in handling company
material naturally leads to a distrust by other departments and a
desire by each to control the distribution of its own supplies.

Did you ever think in what a haphazard, hit or miss manner we


handle our traveling workers? The scale inspector is a very
necessary individual because freight revenue is a function of weight.
He is so valuable to us that, although the test car is a nuisance in
trains and yards, we haul him hundreds of miles to do a few
minutes' or a few hours' work. If he should try to do any other
company business; if he should repair furniture, solicit traffic, inspect
ties or examine interlocking plants, he would infringe on the
prerogatives of other men who earn salaries by riding much and
working little. Yes, I know we must have departments. Our great
task is to work them to the best advantage; to let them overlap a
little when business is dull, or where local conditions permit. We
should switch our departments together so that we can cut in the air
on enough to hold the train without going after expenses with a
club.
The employe who does not receive supplies regularly, whose
requisitions for stationery are arbitrarily cut, will try to get enough
ahead to keep himself from running out. When you take an
inventory you must figure on removing the temptation for everyone
to hold back full returns for fear of not rendering good service in the
future. With a lot of money tied up in supplies at central or division
storehouses our service often suffers, even accidents occur for want
of a lantern globe, or a few gallons of oil. The average local freight
crew has no more compunctions in replenishing the caboose from a
can of oil consigned to a country agent than did the slave in taking
chickens. It all belongs to the company. Massa's chicken, massa's
niggah. Some roads are now distributing oil to sections and to small
stations from a box car fitted with inside tanks and self-registering
pumps, a very economical arrangement. This car runs on the local
freight at fixed times. The next step has been to put with it supply
cars, handled by the oil man, who issues supplies and tools to
agents, section foremen and pumpers. A stationery car comes next
in the outfit. This progressive development is hampered in most
cases by adherence to the time-honored requisition. It does not
promote a good company spirit in an agent to haul by him a car
filled with supplies and deny him a much-needed broom, a comfort-
giving pane of glass, simply because a requisition has not passed
through the prescribed number of chief clerks' office baskets. Issues
are for the good of the service, not for charity. The best way is to
require a division official to accompany the cars on his division, hold
him responsible, and make his check good on our traveling bank. Let
the employe sign on a line in a book for articles received, just as an
agent receipts to an express messenger, and let the official
countersign once for all the employes on a page. Then you have the
economy and benefits of centralization without the demoralizing
interference with local administration.

The supply cars are only a beginning. The evolution must be a


supply and inspection train run exclusively for company business,
and to do every practicable kind of company business. It should
supply every department and pick up the surplus and scrap in each.
It should run over as many divisions as feasible, giving it time to
return and restock so as to cover its territory at prescribed intervals,
say every thirty or sixty days. This train should be manned by
monthly company men, preferably of the semi-official class. The
position of fireman should be part of the course of a special
apprentice. If no special apprentice is available for engineman, use
the man in mind for the next vacancy as road foreman. Let the scale
inspector be the flagman. For conductor have a coming trainmaster,
not afraid to pull off his coat to help adjust a scale or to unload a
keg of track spikes. Have an ambitious brakeman for train clerk,
whose records would replace requisitions and waybilling. For pilot
use the superintendent, the trainmaster, the chief dispatcher, the
master mechanic, the road foreman, the division engineer, or the
supervisor. Have as many as possible of those last named
accompany the train and give the division a rigid inspection. Pretty
soon you would find the general superintendent frequently hitching
his car to this train. Put the contents of the train in charge of a high-
class traveling storekeeper. On the ground the employe would
indicate his requirements, the division official would recommend,
and the traveling storekeeper, closely in touch with the management
and its policies, would take final action. Whatever happened to be
done, it would be right up to date, and in accordance with existing
needs. Arriving at a roundhouse, the train itself would spot a car of
wheels and a car of oil, taking care to reload scrap wheels and
empty oil barrels. In general do not issue a new article unless an
unserviceable one is turned in. The recollections of those present will
make fresher the record of expendable articles issued on a previous
trip. Long range requisitions, approved by distant authority, may
result in false economy, in a lack of clearly defined responsibility. The
essence of good administration consists in dealing with men and
things, in giving them greater value than their paper symbols. If love
for requisitions should still linger in the official breast, the proprieties
of such chaste affection could be preserved by going through all the
forms until their absurdity is fully demonstrated.

The supply train should have a car fitted up as a workshop in which


a handy man could repair station trucks, office chairs, lanterns,
switch lamps, etc., etc., and save shipping many miles for a new
part. Many tools and utensils would last longer if, in some such way,
they could receive the stitch in time that saves nine. Prompt repair
and interchange among various points should diminish investment in
reserve supply. An article should not have to be returned to the
place where previously used. Under present methods the return
journey may put it in worse shape than when first sent in. When
repaired it should be issued wherever it will do the most good.

Another car in the supply train should be a laboratory in charge of


the superintendent of tests or his representative, whose office would
thus get more closely in touch with division officials and with service
conditions. The scrap car, with its broken side rods, its worn-out
shovels, its twisted drills, might mean a whole lot in connection with
arbitrary theoretical tests.

With the train, on stated trips, should be the employment bureau.


Pick up candidates, haul them over the division. Talk with them, note
their adaptability in strange surroundings, see of how promising a
stretch is the rubber in their necks. Give them transportation back
home and, if desired, tell them to report again next trip for further
examination.

When your supply train has to tie up away from a night roundhouse,
let the crew take short turns as watchmen. Incidentally the train
might serve as an object lesson as to the endurance and capacity of
men, the length of runs, and the care of an engine. If your labor
contracts do not permit you to man your own train, do the necessary
toward an amendment of such unwise schedules.
The more you think of the increased efficiency of the service, of the
ultimate economy, of the smoother administration, the more you will
cuddle up to the notion of a company train. Experience will show the
wisdom or unwisdom of numerous details that will suggest
themselves. I have given you only an outline with a few samples of
methods to be pursued. I want you to think out the rest for yourself.
It is theory to-day, but the theory of to-day is the forerunner of
practice a few years hence.

Affectionately, your own

D. A. D.
LETTER XVII.

WHAT THE BIG ENGINE HAS COST.

July 10, 1904.

My Dear Boy:—The progressive president of a rustling railroad has


recently gone on record as regretting the too rapid introduction of
big engines. To which from many an ancient office, from many a
greasy roundhouse comes a loud amen. The fad for big engines, the
slavery to the ton mile, the rack of the comparative statement, have
cost the granger roads a pile of good coin. Procrustes, the
highwayman of the ancients, fitted all his victims to stone beds,
doubtless charging to other expenses the stretching of an arm or the
cutting off of a foot. Nowadays we get our brains warped and our
legs pulled just the same. The methods are more subtle, the
operations more graceful. Our equanimity stands for almost any old
thing, provided it is done in the name of progress, or is called a
process of analysis. Able men devote their lives to the solution of
problems of practical railroad operation, to making maximum net
earnings for their employers, only to be discounted by the financial
writers. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. The same writers
who, to hear them tell it, can save financial panics by sound advice
to the country bankers, who can instruct our Uncle Samuel how to
handle his navy, who can hurry Russian troops to Manchuria, can tell
us just how to run our railroad, just how many tons we should pull
per train. Invention is the handmaiden of progress. Inventors are
usually laymen or outsiders. Inventors and architects have to be held
in check to prevent development from becoming abnormal or one-
sided. The man who invented the air brake was not asked to come
in and take charge of all transportation. The men who design big
engines should not be allowed to forget conditions of track, territory
and traffic.

Railroads are run to make money. A motion to manage them like golf
links is never in order. The track is built for running trains. To the
man with too much ton mile on the brain the running of a train, the
very object of the road's existence, becomes a bugaboo. He will
sacrifice business, incur risks of other losses, rather than run a train.
In some cases this is all right, in others it is all wrong. There is a
happy medium which all of us should be allowed to work out for
ourselves, to suit our own conditions. The trouble is that we are
denied a sliding scale. All roads look alike to the critic, the reviewer
and the broker.

Roads of dense traffic with much low-class freight, such as coal,


coke, ore, pig iron, etc., to move, found it more economical to have
large engines and heavy trains. The nature of the business demands
a considerable supply always on hand. This permits waiting for full
tonnage for every train. A few cars, more or less, at one end or the
other of the line make no great difference to the shipper. These
roads usually have more than one track and an old solid roadbed.
This good thing of economical transportation was pushed along to us
of the prairies. Here traffic is relatively thin, the track with dirt ballast
is less solid, hauls are many times longer, and single track is the
rule. Moreover, we frequently have merchandise, implements,
machinery and other high-class freight in one direction, and such
perishable stuff as live stock and dressed meats in the other. A
dozen years ago we had developed a combination freight and
passenger engine, usually a ten-wheeler with fairly high drivers,
which handled such business promptly and profitably. We could take
out a Raymond excursion or a theatrical special one way, and
coming back make a fly run with belated stock for a distant market.
We may yet do the same with the compound battleship, but it will
first require alterations and a big expenditure on track. When stock
shows up you must get it moving. You cannot hold it to club trains,
as in the case of coal and pig iron. You miss the market and there is
a big claim to pay, to which the financial gentleman in New York
does not give sufficient weight when he makes his wonderful
analysis of our figures. It does not show up in grate surface, tractive
power, or weight on the drivers. It is not complimentary to our
wisdom that stock shippers have been compelled to invoke State aid
to force us to run stock trains regardless of full tonnage, to do what
our own best interests demanded. We should avoid the necessity for
even a just regulation of our affairs. It opens the door to much that
is unjust and undesirable.

The big engine has made us straighten curves, reduce grades, relay
rail, renew bridges, buy land, increase terminals, extend passing
tracks, abandon light equipment and increase wages. Its presence
on single-track roads has retarded traffic and has increased
expenses. It has torn up our track and increased the number of
wrecks. Its long hours and trying work have been an element of
demoralization among our men. The efficiency of our crews is limited
to the endurance of the fireman. This last condition must be
remedied by an automatic stoker—the most crying need of the
present. Supply usually keeps pretty close to demand and the
automatic stoker should not be very long in coming.

Yes, directly and indirectly, the big engine has cost us a lot of dough.
It is not an unmixed evil. It has its good points, to be sure. Some of
the new conditions it has forced would have come in time anyway.
Its advantages would be greater, its operation cheaper, if its coming
could have been broken to us more gently. It is now a condition, not
a theory, and we must do our best with it, regardless of our personal
predilections. Whether or not it has come to stay is an open
question. It probably has, but modified for higher speed, when all
conditions permit. We are not yet wise enough to know just what it
is costing us. Not even our own statisticians have had time to digest
fully the figures of increased equipment due to slower movement; of
increased cost of maintenance, both of track and equipment; of
unparalleled increase in freight claims; of higher wages; of
strengthened power of the labor organizations; of altered trade
conditions due to dissatisfaction with transportation; of changed
location of industrial plants; of the effect of reduced speed on water
competition; of the numerous conditions that go to make a railroad
so complex. In the language of the good old funeral hymn, some
time we'll understand.

We must make up our minds to prompter movement of freight,


which may mean increased speed. The people demand it and public
opinion is king. Here again the shipper steps in to help us out, for
promptness simplifies our terminal problems. The art of war has
been defined as getting the mostest men there the fustest. The art
of railroading comes to mean moving the mostest trains the soonest.

Affectionately, your own

D. A. D.
LETTER XVIII.

BE A SUPERINTENDENT—NOT A NURSE.

July 17, 1904.

My Dear Boy:—I am so sure that you will be a general manager


some day that I have been writing you a good deal of advice as to
matters that are above the control of a division superintendent. As a
rule, however, a man will fill any position better if he has a good
conception of the work that is beyond his own sphere. Some people
do not like to hire an ex-official for work subordinate to positions
that he may previously have held. They fear that the old
superintendent who gets aboard as yardmaster or dispatcher will be
a nuisance, that he will be all the time scheming for promotion, that
he may try to dictate to his superiors, that he will have too much
dignity to climb a side ladder, that he will be only temporary, that
they will soon be put to the trouble of breaking in another man. All
of which is narrow and shows in the aforesaid objectors a lack of
confidence in themselves and in their own organization. It all
depends on the man himself. If he is the right stuff he will take a
broader view for having been an official. He will appreciate the
difficulties of his superiors. His desire to make good should induce
him to put forth maximum effort. He may be able to get his men out
of ruts of many years' standing. It is so seldom that we get fresh
blood we should be thankful that circumstances permit us to get a
three-hundred-dollar man to work for one hundred. He may be only
temporary for that position, but if he makes us money we should be
willing to be incommoded later on. It is a selfish fear, this feeling
that by and by our royal selves may suffer the personal
inconvenience of having to look after a certain part of our machine
that we thought was running itself. Vain hope, this looking for any
kind of perpetual motion. We are paid official salaries to be big
enough to tower over such lazy feelings, over our own personal
disinclination to exertion. Let me repeat, once more, that for every
position you should have an understudy. Then if anybody drops out
through promotion or otherwise your task is a simple one.

A fact that none of us should overlook is that we all have superiors.


The president reports to the directors, and the latter to the
stockholders. The stockholder, big or little, is his or her majesty, the
citizen. Our superiors must know what we are doing. They will not
butt in and give us so many directions if we just keep them advised
of our progress. Your general superintendent is an able man, but
neither you nor he is a mental telegrapher. After you get the
surgeons called, the wreck train started, the general superintendent
should be the next man to have the wire. Tell him briefly what has
happened, what you have done, are doing and expect to do. If
conditions are such that it is wise for you to go to the wreck or the
washout yourself, wire him that you are on the ground. Don't think
this is enough, but every half hour or so tell him how you are getting
along. He will feel better and the officials above him will feel better.
You will feel better because, if they are wise, they will let you alone
and not bother you with instructions. Above all things do not try to
pass responsibility up higher by asking what to do. Tell the general
superintendent what trains you will detour, what equipment you will
need from other divisions for stub runs, what you have requested
your neighbors to do. War has been declared, the writs of the courts
have ceased to run. You are the general in the field and it is all up to
you. From the moment that you are wideawake enough to answer
the telephone at the head of your bed, your brain should be earning
your company many dollars a minute. As you slip into your clothes,
think connectedly where all available men and material are to be
had. As you rush over to the office, figure what the situation needs
to protect the morning suburban trains. When you see the train
sheet, tell the dispatcher what trains should be kept on time as long
as possible, what trains should be tied up to prevent a blockade.
Don't sit down and take the key, or act as call boy or for one second
forget that you are the superintendent, that the whole push looks to
you. The cooler your manner, the less hesitating your instructions,
the greater the confidence of your men in you and in themselves,
the better their work.

Arriving at the scene of trouble, size up the situation, reassure the


panic-stricken passengers, organize everybody present, give politely
all the information you have, how many hours passengers will be
delayed, what train will come to take them forward, when their
baggage can be expected. Be cool but sympathetic; alert, but polite.
In a few minutes your presence for good will be felt. Tell the
wreckmaster what to do first, but do not try to handle his men.
Resist the temptation to use an axe or shovel yourself. Do not shrink
from the sight of blood. Lead the relief parties, but do not try to be
surgeon or nurse. Let the others do the lifting of the killed or
injured. You do your work with your brains and with your voice. Be a
superintendent. Care first for the injured and the dead. Then look to
the comfort of the other passengers. Next in importance comes the
mails, then the express and the baggage. Do not give any grand
stand orders to burn cars or roll heavy equipment down the bank.
Think twice before you destroy more property. The line must be
opened, but conditions may be such that an extra hour or two will
not complicate the situation, and will save the company thousands
of dollars. Men often earn big salaries by the things they avoid
doing.

When the work has been organized, circulate among the gangs, give
each foreman a word of praise, tell them all that you have ordered
coffee and sandwiches, that the company also gives its men square
meals at wrecks. Arrange to feed your transferred passengers earlier
rather than later than usual. Do not hesitate to feed badly delayed
passengers at the company's expense. When everything is running
smoothly keep your mouth shut and your ears open. As the country
people come flocking in to see the wreck, as the roadmaster yells his
orders, you will hear some sweetheart ask her swain if that is the
superintendent who has such a big voice. When he shakes his head
and the wreckmaster roars to take a fresh hitch, she guesses again,
only to be told that the quiet man over there with apparently the
least to say is the boss of all. Soon many of the bystanders are
pointing admiringly at you as the master of the situation. When it is
all over, when, hours or days later, you lie down for a well-earned
rest, you will feel that you are a railroad man, that you are holding
down a job for which no old woman need apply. There is some self-
satisfaction in this world which outruns the pay car, which cannot be
measured in dollars and cents.

What I am telling you holds good for a trainmaster, a yardmaster or


whoever happens to be the senior representative present.
Sometimes it is better to send out the trainmaster and stay in
yourself to handle an already congested situation. Sometimes the
trainmaster is at the wrong end of the line and you must go yourself.
Common sense is a pretty safe guide as to one's course of action.
The principle to be remembered is to avoid interference with the
man on the ground. If it is a minor derailment which the conductor
is handling, do not rattle him with messages, with requests for
reports. When you examine your conductors on rules, include
questions and explanations which outline action expected in
emergencies. Forbid your dispatcher sending a stereotyped message
to get written statements of all witnesses every time a personal
injury occurs. Have your conductors, your agents and your section
foremen so drilled that they will keep the office informed and will
depend on themselves, not on the dispatchers, for such things. Your
rules, your organization, the instructions on your blanks will amount
to little if they are continually discounted by special messages. You
had better lose a set of reports than tear your organization to
pieces. When somebody falls down, discipline him in such a way that
the others will keep in line.

It takes patience and persistence, forbearance and firmness to drill


men to a high state of discipline. Disobedience and indifference can
sometimes be traced to unwise orders. The impossible or the
unreasonable is expected. There are too many bulletins and too
many instructions. Do not think a thing is done, an abuse corrected,
a condition remedied simply because you have given an order to
produce the desired effect. It is up to you to follow the matter to a
finish. You must know by observation, by inspection, by the reports
of your staff, that your order is being obeyed. The way to enforce
discipline is not to keep repeating the order. Except in rare cases an
order should not be repeated or a bulletin reissued. Weak men try to
strengthen their discipline by extravagant language in their
instructions. Do not say that no excuse will be taken for failure to
turn in these reports or to comply with these instructions. You may
be made to appear ridiculous, even mendacious, by a cloudburst, by
a holdup, by an act of God or the public enemy, as the old law
phrase runs. Vitality in expression is a good thing. It is useless
without vigor in enforcement. The latter does not depend upon the
kind of breakfast food you order in the dining car, but upon the
ginger in your administration.

Affectionately, your own

D. A. D.
LETTER XIX.

THE RACK OF THE COMPARATIVE STATEMENT.

July 24, 1904.

My Dear Boy:—You ask what I mean by the rack of the comparative


statement. I mean that, figuratively speaking, we are all pretty
securely fastened to the corresponding month of last year. What was
originally intended as a tavernkeeper's tab, as a rough check on
operation, has become a balanced ledger, a rigid standard of
efficiency. Time, even a short period, brings a sacredness to all
things. If we make a so-called better showing on paper than a
twelvemonth previous, we shake hands with ourselves and forget
how rotten we were considered just one short year ago. The ball
team that wins the championship and takes the big gate receipts is
the one whose members play for the side rather than for high
individual averages. The tendency is for our owners to expect us to
make base hits rather than send in runs which win games.

If in April and May we have a lot of ties on hand, we may not be


allowed to put them in the track because they will be charged out
before June 30, and make too heavy a showing of expenditure for
the fiscal year. So, with labor comparatively plentiful and the weather
comfortable, we wait until the new fiscal year comes in, until the sun
shines hottest on the track. Then, with farmers paying harvest
wages we have to offer more money. If we get the extra men the
heat lessens their efficiency. It is true we have probably had to pay
the producer for the ties, but if we fail to charge them to the final
account, we have a childlike confidence that they have not yet cost
us anything. The little matters of failure to utilize the full life of the
tie, of interest on the money invested, we dismiss with the thought
that trifling losses must be expected in the conduct of large affairs.

Maintenance of equipment as well as maintenance of way suffers


from too much comparative statement. Some new official pulls our
power to pieces to show us how they used to build up train-mile
records on the Far Eastern. The crowded rip tracks reflect the
tractive power of the big engines. Bad orders, the bane of a
yardmaster's life, the teasers of the traffic man's tracers, block our
terminals. Our shopmen and our car repairers, despairing of full
time, move away. Yet withal we are serene, for are not we operating
just as cheaply as they did at this time last year?

When I am in doubt, when I become mixed with the complexities of


our profession, I go back to my boyhood on the farm. From that
gateway as a basing point I can think out a rate sheet with fewer
differentials. The same common sense housekeeping which my
mother practiced will fit any railroad, however diversified its territory.
The same well-balanced management which enabled my father to
pay off the mortgage and extend his acres is suited to any railroad,
however complicated its financial obligations. The bigger the
proposition, the greater the need for sticking to homely basic
principles. We learned on the farm to expect about so much rainfall
every year. Whether the heaviest would come in one month or in
another, the good Lord never found time to tell us. We did the things
that came to hand, sometimes similarly, sometimes differently, from
the corresponding month of the previous year. If our crops were
short we did not starve our work horses. We sometimes found it
paid, even with a poor crop in sight, to go to the bank and borrow
rather than neglect the ditching in a wet field. If we made some
surplus money we did not blow it all in for tools and improvements.
We knew that the inevitable lean years preclude throwing the fat in
the fire. If we ran behind some year, we did some retrenching, to be
sure, but we did not lose our nerve, did not lose our faith in the
future.
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