Railroads were among the earliest U.S. industries to apply
modern management principles to their operations. Beginning in
the 1850s and 1860s, railroads were the first American
businesses to have a large number of salaried managers and an
internal organizational structure with clear lines of
communication, responsibility, and authority. These managerial
innovations, standard by the 1880s, were necessary to control a
large number of employees and offices scattered over a vast
geographical area. With the growing professionalization of
railroad management came a burgeoning professional literature.
Marshall M. Kirkman wrote prolifically about railroad
management. This excerpt from his multi-volume The Science of
Railways: Organization and Forces (1896) extolled the virtues of
military-like discipline in the running of American railroads.
The force that operates a railway is like an army. It is
methodically organized and drilled. It has its commanders, its
rank and file; its officers, sub-officers and privates. It