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FIG. 3. RAISING TALL POLES IN CLOSE QUARTERS, USING ENGINE POWER BY MEANS OF WINCH MOUNTED BACK OF DRIVER'S SEAT ON POLE TRUCK

is involved and secures all necessary permits from city or county authorities. He then writes explicit work orders covering the work to be done and gets out construction drawings which show all operations clearly, including small details such as guying, double arming, etc., together with an accurate bill of all material required down to bolts and washers. On all new work pole stakes and grades are located by a transit man.

On receipt of work orders and drawings, the time-keeper orders out the exact bill of material shown on the drawing, and it is loaded on the line truck the night before, together with the proper tools. The foreman and crew are then able to leave headquarters in the morning in time to be on the job at 8.00 A.M., supplied with the correct material and instructions in complete detail. By these means practically nothing is left to the judgment of the foreman, and his entire time may be devoted to getting the work done efficiently. The construction superintendent with his general foremen are then able to apply their abilities toward supervision and bettering of methods for maximum economy.

A small stock of bolts, insulators, etc., is carried under lock and key on the truck, to care for breakage or slight changes in plans, and on completion of the work the crew foreman fills in on the construction drawing bill of material the exact net amount of material used by him, which must balance with his original requisition, less the returned material shown on his credit slip at the storeroom. He also indicates on the drawing any changes which may have been made in the plans, so that the drawing then becomes an exact picture of what was actually done. The time-keeper checks over this returned drawing and straightens out any discrepancies. When the work orders and drawings are finally returned through the engineer for a second check and thence to the accountant's office, they carry the correct story of the plant changes involved and the exact cost thereof.

The Puget Sound Power & Light Company maintains a highly perfected system of perpetual inventory record and evaluation of plant, which is of great value for many purposes. The system of planning and executing construction work described also makes it possible to maintain such records at the minimum expense.

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Used for replacing or removing wire and cable, using engine power through built-in winch on standard line truck. Old wire is reeled up for shipment as removed, and where replaced, the new wire is pulled in by pulling out the old wire.

PERE

BY H. A. LEMMON

ERFECT SERVICE is electric energy always available without interruption at a constant standard voltage.

From El Paso we operate a street car line into Juarez, a little city just across the Rio Grande in Mexico. About ten years ago relations between the two countries were somewhat strained. Our army had dropped a few shells into the Mexican city, and if there were any Mexicans who were lying awake nights consumed with love for their American cousins, they very effectually concealed that passion.

Operating our street cars across the two international bridges was attended with difficulty-with adventure, in fact our cars had a way of losing their windows on the journey, and our conductors of coming back without any cash, but plenty of torn clothes and black eyes and explanations. There were reasons why we determined to keep going, and selecting car crews was quite an important task.

Employed on the El Paso lines was a conductor, named Jim Burleson. Burleson hadn't attracted any particular attention. He was just an ordinary, quiet, peaceable chap, with a dry sense of kindly humor, who attended strictly to the business of the company and made it his own business. Someone suggested placing Jim on the Mexican line. He took it as all-in-the-day's work.

He didn't know much Spanish, but he learned to say "Gracias Senor" and picked up a few more words, until he could exchange a sentence or two of amiable banter with every frowsy senorita and dirty Mexican kid who ventured to get on his car. Mexicans and Americans, they all looked alike to Jim, and all received the same kindly treatment. He came home with the cash, with all of his windows intact and with no black eyes, and because he did these things he just dropped out of sight, as it were. No one paid any attention. to him. He didn't figure in the day's news one way or the other.

And then one day Jim Burleson contracted pneumonia. Forty-eight hours later he was dead. The newspapers of El Paso recorded Jim's passing away in a four-line conventional *From a paper, "Public Relations," read at the Convention of Managers of New England Companies, New London, Connecticut, by Mr. Lemmon.

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THOSE ATTENDING THE RECENT CONFERENCE OF NEW ENGLAND MANAGERS OF STONE & WEBSTER COMPANIES AT NEW LONDON

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