PUBLIC RELATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY: THE "STANDARD RAILROAD OF THE WORLD" AND THE CRISIS IN RAILROAD SAFETY, 1897 1916
[AFETY SIGNALS," announced the Pennsylvania Railroads page two advertisement in the New York Times for May 19, 1916. The promotion explained that the Pennsylvania had invested $16 million in its signal system on the lines east of Pittsburgh, and went on to claim that "the signals which automatically protect our tracks both day and night constitute only one of the pro tective measures adopted by this Company." The copy closed with the company's new motto: "Pennsylvania Railroad: The Standard Railroad of the World" (Figure i).1 The claim that the "Pennsy" was the Standard Railroad of the World was something more than just advertising puffery; the company's managers really did believe they set the standards for rail travel. The Pennsylvania was the largest railroad in the world; in 1916 it carried 2.7 billion passenger miles or nearly eight per cent of the U.S. total and 10 percent of all freight ton miles as Mark Aldrich Smith College