Charles DeLano Hine

Charles DeLano Hine

Charles DeLano Hine (March 15, 1867 – Feb. 13, 1927) was an American civil engineer, lawyer, railway official, and Colonel in the United States Army. He is credited for acknowledging the study of organizations as a separate fields of study.[1] In 1912 he wrote, that organization has been termed a "smaller sister of sociology."[2][3][4]

Life and work

Born in Vienna, Virginia, Hine graduated from United States Military Academy, West Point in 1891, and served as a lieutenant in the 6th United States Infantry. Subsequently, he graduated from Cincinnati Law School.[5]

Leaving the Army to enter railway service, he worked as freight brakeman, switchman, yardmaster, emergency conductor, chief clerk to superintendent, and trainmaster. When the Spanish–American War began in 1898 he quit railway service and participated in the Santiago campaign as a major of volunteers. After the war he re-entered railway work, and was trainmaster and later general superintendent. Subsequently, he did special railway work in various staff positions for both large and small railways in the United States, Canada and Mexico.[5]

He was for a time inspector of safety appliances for the Interstate Commerce Commission. In 1907 he assisted in the revision of the business methods of the Department of the Interior at Washington, D.C. Then he was receiver of the Washington, Arlington & Falls Church Electric Railway. In 1910, as temporary special representative of President Taft, he outlined a scheme for improving the organization and methods of the executive departments of the United States government. Meantime, in July, 1908, he had become special representative of Mr. Julius Kruttschnitt, director of maintenance and operation of the Harriman Lines, and had entered on a study of the needs of the operating organization of those railways and of the means that should be adopted to meet those needs. The result of this work was the adoption by most of the Harriman Lines of the unit system of organization. On January 15, 1912, Major Hine became vice-president and general manager of the Southern Pacific Lines in Mexico and the Arizona Eastern, having about 1,600 miles of railway.[5]

Work

Modern Organization: An Exposition of the Unit System, 1912

In the 1912 article "The unit system on the Harriman Lines" in the Engineering Magazine Hine wrote:

Organization has been termed a smaller sister of sociology, the science of human nature. Industrial organization, including that of transportation and commerce, reflects and typifies in a greater or less degree the sociological development of a people."[6]

His series of articles were republished in the 1912 book, entitled "Modern Organization: An Exposition of the Unit System." In this work Hine also stated:

The greatest present need is an antidote for the unwillingness of men to profit by the previous experience of others. It would be amusing, were it not so expensive, to watch the gropings of many corporation officers for methods to test efficiency. Ignorant of fundamental principles, intolerant of outside suggestions, unable to detect the analogy in other undertakings, they repeat the expensive experiments of the past.[7]

A 1913 review in the Journal of Accountancy stated that Hines was "a firm believer in the personal equation in industry, commerce and all departments of business. Basing his argument to a great extent upon the successful operation of the unit system as applied on the so-called "Harriman lines" he goes step by step through the ideal method of management and operation to what he considers the practical solution of the difficulties which he encounters."[8]

Selected publications

References

  1. ↑ Yehouda Shenhav. "From Chaos to Systems: The Engineering Foundations of Organization Theory, 1879-1932," in: Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Dec., 1995), pp. 564-565
  2. ↑ C.D.L. Hine in Engineering Magazine. Vol. 42 (1912), p. 481
  3. ↑ The Bent of Tau Beta Pi. Vol. 8 (1913), p. 6
  4. ↑ Haridimos Tsoukas, Christian Knudsen (2005). The Oxford Handbook of Organization Theory. p. 186
  5. 1 2 3 Hine (1909, Foreword)
  6. ↑ Engineering Magazine, Vol. 42. Jan. 1912: 481-487.
  7. ↑ Charles DeLano Hine. (1912) cited in: Robert Scudder Denham. The A-B-C of Cost Engineering. Denham Cost-Finding Company, 1919. p. 66
  8. ↑ The Journal of Accountancy, Vol. 15 (1913). p. 76
Attribution

This article incorporates public domain material from: Hine, Charles De Lano. Letters from an Old Railway Official: Second Series. His Son, a General Manager. Vol. 2.

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