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Description
This instructional book for porters, attendants and bus boys provides rules for safety, general instructions, passenger care, sanitation, car care, ventilation, lighting, and berth preparation. A letter from the VP of the Operating Department appears in the introduction stating that instructions should be applied to satisfy customers and make the train service popular. It acknowledges that the railway service's reputation relies on the efficiency of its workers and requires that they be obliging and courteous to all passengers. The book's foreword similarly emphasizes the importance of courtesy and kindness. The content of the instructional manual is a great example of how railroad companies put overwhelming pressure on their service employees to provide passengers with courtesy, kindness, and quality service. The rules in this manual are numerous and demanding and emphasize the strict expectations required of its workforce which was almost entirely Black. I will use this to show how the railway presented itself as a space where excellence and quality were norms at the expense of the "lower-class" workers required to work under enormous stress. In excellent condition. Source information taken from library catalog Publication partially scanned.
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