service accounts. In addition to the actual accounting of car service, the statistical work of this department is considerable, as car distribution is very closely watched on the Harriman Lines, of which the Union Pacific is a constituent part. CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC RAILWAY ORGANIZATION The head of the accounting organization is the comptroller with a general auditor reporting to him. Reporting to the general auditor are three auditors and the heads of three departments. The freight claim department on this road is in the accounting organization. There is an assistant claim agent with a chief clerk and office organization similar to that shown as typical in the chapter on the freight traffic department. The car service accountant reports directly to the general auditor and has charge of all accounts relating to car service, switching reclaim, per diem, and relations with other railroads arising from the use of cars of the home and foreign lines. The station agents' accounts are in charge of a chief clerk in the general auditor's office. The traveling auditors, who make the station audits, are under the direct supervision of the chief traveling auditor, who reports to this chief clerk. Each of the three auditors has an assistant with a chief clerk, to whom the department heads report. The different divisions in each auditor's department, which are in charge of these department heads, are not shown in Figure 27 as they are practically the same on all roads and are shown in detail in Figure 26-Union Pacific Railroad-such as vouchers, statistics, revising, rechecking, filing, and interline accounts. The train auditors report to the assistant auditor of passenger traffic. It will be noted that the auditor of disbursements has district accountants and traveling time accountants reporting to him. These accountants check up division and district offices in the same way that the traveling auditors check station agents. At irregular intervals they check these division records of vouchers and pay rolls, the traveling time accountants confining their check to the pay rolls and the district accountants to all other expenditures. The great extent of the territory covered by the system probably explains the necessity for this close supervision of expenditure by the general office of the accounting department. CHAPTER XVIII MISCELLANEOUS DEPARTMENTS REAL ESTATE AND TAXES The railroads are very large owners of real estate and in consequence pay large sums in the way of taxes on account of such ownership. They also rent or lease much of their property to corporations and individuals having transportation connection with them, and in turn rent or lease real estate from corporations and others under some circumstances. The real estate and tax agent is charged with the supervision of all matters pertaining to these subjects. In some instances there are separate officials for real estate and taxes, but usually supervision is vested in one officer. The real estate agent is the custodian of all original copies of deeds, releases, leases, maps, and records of real estate. He prepares a descriptive list of all real estate owned by, leased by, or leased to his company. He examines and approves all deeds, leases, and agreements relating to real estate before they are executed and recorded, and attends to the actual recording of such documents. Purchases and leases of all property are negotiated by him. He furnishes other officers of the company abstracts of any real estate documents required in the conduct of their departments. He prepares for each state a separate list of real estate subject to taxation. He examines all assessments for taxation, special assessment taxes, water rents, and other municipal charges. He examines and certifies the correctness of all bills against his company for purchase of real estate, all taxes and other assessments, state or municipal, against the property, rents for property leased by the company, interest on real estate mortgages, and all other charges and expenses incurred on account of real estate owned or leased. He collects all rentals or charges due his company from others, remitting such receipts to the treasury and reporting all such transactions to the comptroller. INSURANCE DEPARTMENT Some of the larger companies have an insurance department which is operated on about the same basis as the ordinary insurance company. The several departments are charged a percentage on such structures as would ordinarily be insured, and the money so obtained is set aside to create a fund from which structures destroyed by fires may be replaced. The larger the system (and the greater the number of risks), the nearer the approach to the conditions. under which the insurance companies operate, which is a large number of widely separated risks. The insurance companies charge a higher rate than the average fire loss of the territory in which they operate; the railroad company's insurance department saves the profit of the insurance company. Where large and costly structures are owned they are usually insured in outside companies, just as insurance companies reinsure such risks. Even the larger systems cannot afford to do without either the insurance in regular companies or insurance funds of their own, as fire losses would cause violent fluctuations in expenses or even financial embarrassment in the case of very serious fires. The department usually provides for inspection and instruction to prevent fire losses, and such structures as shops, freight houses, and docks, are provided with fire-fighting equipment and sometimes with fire companies organized from the company's own forces engaged at or near the particular structure. TESTING DEPARTMENT The testing of various materials and railroad supplies is assuming great importance. The Pennsylvania Railroad has just completed new laboratories and buildings for testing purposes. The organization and working of the department of tests is given in an article by Mr. C. D. Young, published in the Railway Age Gazette, of July 2, 1915, from which this account is written. The Pennsylvania Railroad has found that the quality of the material purchased for use in track, bridges, cars, and locomotives must be carefully scrutinized. Control over the quality of supplies is secured by the aid of specifications, which are based upon careful consideration of the materials available for the various uses of the railway, and by research work tending toward the development of new materials and devices, or improving those which are in general use. An organization with laboratories at a central point is essential in promoting the work of thorough inspection. Physical Laboratory Among the machines and apparatus that compose the equipment of the physical laboratory, are the following: Five universal tension and compression testing machines, one of 1,000,000, two of 300,000, two of 100,000-pound capacity. One vibratory endurance spring testing machine of 75,000pound capacity. One 43-foot drop-testing machine. Two vibrating staybolt testing machines. |