them as have been 10 years in the service shall be pensioned when retired.

8. Officers and employes between sixty-one and seventy years of age, who have been 10 years in the service and who have become incapacitated, may be retired and pensioned.

9. In case an employe between sixtyone and seventy years of age claims that he is, or should his employing officer consider him incapacitated for further service, he may make application or be recommended for retirement, and the board of pensions shall determine whether or not he shall be retired from the service.

11. The terms "service" and "in the service" will refer to employment upon or in connection with any of the railroads operated by the company, and the service of any employe shall be considered as continuous from the date from which he has been continuously employed upon such railroads, whether prior or subsequent to their control or acquisition by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company.

12. In computing service, it shall be reckoned from the date since which the person has been continuously in the service to the date when retired. Leave of absence, suspension, dismissal followed by reinstatement within one year, or temporary lay-off on account of reduction of force, when unattended by other employment, is not to be considered as a break in the continuity of service. Persons who leave the service thereby relinquish all claims to the benefits of pension allow

ances.

13. The pension allowances authorized are upon the following basis: For each year of service an allowance of 1 per cent. of the average regular monthly pay received for the 10 years preceding re

tirement. Thus, by way of illustration: If an employe has been in the service for 40 years and has received on an average for the last 10 years $50 per month regular wages, his pension allowance would be 40 per cent. of $50, or $20 per month.

14. The company will in each year make an appropriation of an amount not to exceed $50,000 in payment of pension allowances for such year. Whenever it shall be found that the basis of pension allowances shall create demands in excess of the $50,000, and as often as such conditions may arise, a new basis ratably reducing the pension allowances may be established to bring the expenditures within the limit of the fund, and the decision of the board of directors in establishing such new basis shall be absolutely conclusive. Notice of such new basis shall be given before the beginning of the year in which it may be decided to put the same into effect.

15. When pension allowances shall be authorized, pursuant to these regulations, they shall be paid monthly, during the life of the beneficiary: Provided, however, that the company may withhold its allow ance in case of gross misconduct on his part.

and its retired employes, and that they may continue to enjoy the benefit of the pension system, no assignment of pensions will be permitted or recognized.

20. The acceptance of a pension allowance does not debar a retired employe from engaging in other business, but such person can not re-enter the service of the company.

21. No person inexperienced in railway work over thirty-five years of age, and no experienced person over forty-five years of age, shall hereafter be taken into the service: Provided, however, that in the discretion of the president persons may temporarily be taken into the service irrespective of age, for a period not exceeding six months, and that this period may be extended, if necessary, to complete the work for which such persons were originally employed: Provided, also, that with the approval of the board of directors, persons may be employed indefinitely, irrespective of the age limit, where the service to be rendered requires professional or other special qualifications.

Note the last rule given, Rule 21, wherein it says: "and no experienced person over forty-five years of age, shall hereafter be taken into the service: Provided,

however, that in the discretion of the president persons may temporarily be taken into the service irrespective of age, for a period not exceeding six months, and that this period may be extended, if necessary, to complete the work for which such persons were originally employed: Provided, also, that with the approval of the board of directors, persons may be employed indefinitely, irrespective of the age limit, where the service to be rendered requires professional or other special qualifications.

What does this last rule mean? Does it mean that a man who has reached the age of forty-five years is capable and efficient to fill a position for six months, but not longer? If such is the meaning of Rule 21, how is it that "this period may be extended, if necessary, to complete the work for which such persons were originally employed?" What is the meaning, also, of that portion of this rule which says: "Persons may be employed indefinitely, irrespective of the age limit, where the service to be rendered requires professional or other special qualifications?"

positions to the entire satisfaction of the company and the public? The writer believes that it does require professional and special qualifications to fill either position, that of a locomotive fireman or a locomotive engineer successfully. He believes that it requires skill of the highest order, and he believes that a man in either of these positions becomes his best only after years of experience.

Mr. F. L. Johnson, in Power, a leading technical publication, says:

"This old age question keeps bobbing up in my mind and I am constantly asking: 'How old does an engineer have to be to begin to retrograde; and by what method does a thirty-year-old superintendent, who hardly knows the difference between the engine and the boiler, arrive at the conclusion that at the age of thirtysix or thereabouts an engineer begins to go down hill?'

"If an engineer is content to see the wheels turn and the belts go, and looks for nothing further, it does not matter what his age is, he is too old for a new position; but for an engineer who keeps abreast with the times; one who today is

erating expenses suffer increase for this reason."

Would this general manager employ an experienced railroad man should one apply to him for a position on his road? The writer ventures to say that there are hundreds, yes, thousands of experienced railroad men in the country who have been forced into other occupations through the nearsighted "age limit" in vogue on many of the railroads. Is it not beginning to dawn at last upon some officials that this "age limit" has been carried just a little too far? Is it not a confession on the part of this general manager, who says, "in time these men become experts," that his company can hope to obtain its most efficient service only from its old and experienced men? There is an old saying that "in time all things right themselves," and the writer sincerely hopes that the "age limit" may be one of them.

The

"Suppose that George H. Corliss, Edwin Reynolds, Charles T. Porter and a host of others had been laid on the shelf at the advanced age of thirty-six by some high-collared superintendent of twentyfive or thirty, whose chief qualification for the position was the number of his father's shares of stock in the concern. Constitution of the United States fixes an age limit at which men may begin to serve their country in the halls of Congress, and curiously enough a man is old enough to become President just one year before he becomes too old to be employed as a clerk on some of our railway systems."

A few of the newspapers are publishing statements to the effect that railroad men of the present time, particularly engineers, firemen and conductors, are being "roasted" through a belief charged to the general manager of one of the leading trunk lines, to the effect that trainmen are inferior to those of a few years ago. This general manager is reported to have said that "the tremendous growth of railroads in recent years has exhausted the supply of experienced men who thoroughly knew the railroad business. A big percentage of the present personnel on every road has been promoted after service of one or two years. In time these men become experts, but at the moment the op

The average number of men employed in the coal mines of the United States during 1902 was 518,307, and the average number of days made by each man was 197 for the year. This was in contrast to the previous year, when an average number of 485,544 men worked 216 days each. Of the 518,307 men employed in 1902, 148,141 found occupation in the Pennsylvania anthracite mines and the other 370,166 in the bituminous mines of the country. The average number of days worked by each miner in the anthracite field was 116, the average number made by each worker in bituminous mines was 230. These figures were naturally an increase over those of 1901 in the number of men and the days shown for the bituminous mines and a decrease in the returns for the anthracite mines. During 1901, an average number of 145,309 men was employed in the Pennsylvania anthracite fields, and 196 was the number of days of each man's activity. On the other hand, only 340,235 men were employed in the bituminous mines, and they represented an average of 225 working days each.

The above figures are taken from Mr. Edward W. Parker's report on the Production of Coal in 1902, soon to be published by the United States Geological Survey in its annual volume on the Mineral Resources of the United States. Significant also are the figures which have

been compiled to show the average daily and annual tonnage per man.

The annual production per man in the anthracite region in 1890 was 369 short tons. The average tonnage per man per day was 1.845 short tons. In the bitu minous region it was 579 short tons per man per year, and 2.56 short tons per man per day. In 1901 the anthracite employes produced an average of 464 short tons per man per year. The average production per day per man was 2.37 short tons. The average production of bituminous coal per man in 1901 was 664 short tons. The average tonnage per man per day in the bituminous fields was 2.94 short tons. The average efficiency, or daily tonnage per man, in the anthracite region has decreased from 2.50 in 1899 to 2.37 in 1901; the bituminous average has decreased from 3.05 to 2.94. On account of the long period of idleness in the anthracite region in 1902, that year does not form a fair basis for comparative statistics. It shows, however, the lowest tonnage per man for the year for the entire period since 1890. Compared with 1901 the yearly tonnage per man in 1902 shows a decrease of 40 per cent. The decrease in anthracite production was 38.8 per cent. On the other hand, increased efficiency is shown in the labor performed during the time the mines were operated, from the fact that the daily tonnage per man increased from 2.37 to 2.04. The benefit secured by the average bituminous coal miner from the idleness of his competitors in the anthracite field is exhibited in an increased tonnage per day, from 2.94 in 1901 to 3.06 in 1902, and in an increase from 664 to 703 in the average tonnage per man for the year.

It is suggested that the machinemined tonnage for each State may have some possible bearing upon the average tonnage shown for each man. In

to 905 in Maryland for 1902. The daily tonnage per man was lowest in Texas, for both years, namely, 1.38 and 1.43. It was highest in Maryland, 3.66 in 1901 and 3.74 in 1902.-From information sent out by United States Geological Survey.

Trade Unions and the Law.

The Railway News, London, England, in commenting on the celebrated Taff Vale decision, says:

"The sound principle established by the Taff Vale case that a trade union is a body possessing obligations as well as privileges has been decisively reaffirmed in the action brought by the Denaby and Cadeby Main Colleries against the Yorkshire Miners' Association. There was no doubt that the men had struck work illegally, and in breach of contract. It was, in fact, admitted by the association that they had done so. The question to be decided was whether or not the strike was a bona fide proceeding on the part of the men themselves. The finding of the jury was that the strike was of a different character, and had been instigated by the agents of the association, acting as such, for the benefit of the association, which subsequently ratified what they had done. That the men responsible for the strike belonged to the local branch of the association, and that the central body at first refused to recognize the strike, though it subsequently did so, were obviously side issues which could not in any way affect the plain principle that trade unions, equally with corporations and private individuals, must be held liable for the acts of their agents. It would, indeed, be intolerable if a body of workmen, as such, could, by combining together, obtain quasi-corporate privileges while relieving themselves of the ordinary legal obligations incumbent upon the general body of their fellow citizens. The Denaby and Cadeby case, like the Taff Vale case, makes it quite clear that any such class privilege is totally foreign to the law."

The heathen sat in darkness in many parts of the world until the exportation of American petroleum began. There are remote towns in the interior of China where the name of America is hardly known but where the tin boxes containing petroleum that are brought from the treaty ports are hailed with delight as vehicles of light and warmth, the true gospel of life. For over ten years the export trade of the United States has been increasing steadily and rapidly. The years 1901 and 1902 have been unusually prosperous ones in the annals of the in

dustry. The exports of petroleum and its products in 1902 amounted to 1,064,233,601 gallons.

This large amount was less, however, by 14,840,918 gallons than the number of gallons exported in 1901. On comparing the separate exports for the years 1901 and 1902 it will be seen that there is a considerable falling off in the naphtha and illuminating products in 1902, and an increase in the amount of crude, lubricating, and residuum products. The great increase in the crude productions is in the fields of the Southwest and West, and

it is not surprising, therefore, that 18.430,353 gallons of crude petroleum were exported from Texas ports during the year 1902-a quantity that represented nearly 13 per cent. of the total crude exported from all ports.

Fuller details concerning the exportation of oils from the United States may be obtained from Mr. F. H. Oliphant's report on "The Production of Petroleum in 1902," which is soon to be published by the United States Geological Survey. -Press Bulletin, United States Geological Survey.

I stood upon the sidewalk and reviewed the passing throng

The Allied Printing Trades passed by, a splendid set of men,

With flags and banners flying, how sweet

the bands did play

It was a scene that once a year occurs on Labor Day.

The thousands who were looking on kept

up a constant cheer

have stood together when

The outlook seemed extremely dark, and

yet they never flinched.

But pulled together with a will till victory was clinched.

The people had a welcome for the men who built the town

they did appear.

I thought while gazing on the scene, I'm

thinking yet today

often won renown.

I thought as they went marching by, I'm thinking yet today

march on Labor Day?

ing every trade

a person good