Public Relations - Our Job By L. A. REEVES This is the fourth in a series of editorials by company executives designed to point out better and easier ways of doing the job. In the following article, L. A. Reeves dis- cusses public relations. 00 many people have tried to define "public rela- I have heard some of our employes say, "People want Lions" by using grandiose verbiage . two dollar the service we provide. We furnish good transportation T words. Consequently, the business of public rela- at a lower fare than do many other companies. Is it tions is regarded as a strange, complicated profession, and therefore really so necessary for us to spend so much its directors are looked upon as people who do mysterious time cultivating friends for the company?" My answer things. to that is: Just ask any person who holds an elective office. But, public relations is neither mysterious nor compli- He spends much of his time making friends, for he knows cated. Before going any further, let us see what Webster that the more friends he has the surer he is of reelection. has to say about the word "public" and the word "rela- But there is one important difference between a transpor- tions". "Public" basically means people; while "rela- tation worker and an office holder. The latter is up for tions", Webster tells us, is dealings. There it is, as simple election only every two, four, or six years. He, in many as that: dealings with people. instances, concentrates on winning votes at those times Never a day goes by but that each of us as individuals only. But you and your company are "up for election" has some contact with other individuals. It is true that every single minute of every day the whole year around. some of us do not have as many business contacts with For, every minute someone is deciding whether to use the public as do trainmen and coach operators, for ex- our service or to drive his private automobile. Upon the ample. But none of us lives to himself alone. We all results of these decisions and others like it, depends the have contacts of one kind or another: with relatives, success of our jobs. neighbors, trades people, civic organizations, clubs, with Here is a yardstick to apply to any contemplated course acquaintances we meet in church, on the bus or streetcar of action in furthering good will: If it will offend, irri- —all of whom we meet both on and off the job. tate, annoy or displease, it isn't good public relations. With each contact an impression is made, either favor- But always remember in your efforts to win friends able or unfavorable. So, public relations is fundamentally and please people, never overstep the bounds of dignity, good manners. truth or good taste. As a person, each of us desires to impress favorably. This, then, is public relations boiled down to the sim- Likewise, as an industry, all of us collectively value high plest terms—no two dollar words. Sincerity and good regard. manners win friends. Therefore, the result of good manners—or public rela- No article of this length can do more than deal with tions—is twofold: Our friendly and courteous actions win the simplest fundamentals of a subject as broad as public friends for ourself as well as fOr our company. Public relations for the Los Angeles Transit Lines is the com- relations, nor can it point out all the ways in which clerks, trainmen, coach operators, accountants, elevator oper- bined good efforts of all of us. ators, dispatchers and all others, who go to make up our You may ask then, "What part does advertising and vast organization, can contribute to good public relations. publicity play in creating good public relations?" It is Nonetheless, an understanding of public relations will just another medium of forming our friendly contacts. help us in the years ahead when competition from other Let us say, for example, like writing a letter. For an forms of transportation becomes keen. This knowledge impression of good manners is formed just as surely from must then be translated into the action of everyday prac- our writing as from our personal contacts. So it is, also, tice. with advertising and publicity. In the years ahead, good public relations will be more The Los Angeles Transit Lines advertises in newspapers and trade publications in order to attract patronage and important ,than ever before in eliminating misunderstand- ings, winning friends and making it possible for all of to make you and your company more favorably known. us individually, for transportation companies throughout Naturally, all of us wish to live up to the good impression America, and for business generally, to perform the tra- formed through this factor of public relations. We, the ditional function of supplying jobs and producing the employes, want to back up what the company says about world's highest standard of living. us and itself. Remember, we are important parts of the company. The public will not believe the company's ad- Let us practice good public relations—that's our job— vertising very long if we publicize, for instance, that our yours and mine. Let's make our slogan, "Safety, Cour- employes are courteous and efficient when some of them tesy, and Service" mean what it says. Let's go places may be discourteous and inefficient. with the Los Angeles Transit Lines . HE transformation that the Los Tons and tons of asphalt were rolled of 'movement. Second, cleanliness. T Angeles Transit Lines has un- smooth to pave every inch of the The simplification or assembly dergone the past year can storage yards. New benches and a line movement was accomplished by really be called Transit-formation. new lead sink were added to the bat- moving the service station from the Cars and coaches have received a tery room. The offices were redec- center entrance on Sixteenth Street beauty treatment which is the talk of orated in the company colors, and to the west end of the storage yard. the town. The buildings and the of- most important of all, the old brick From this entrance, all coaches move fices have been streamlined and beau- wall, which hid the garage activities forward—always forward—from the tified too. A notable job of transit- from the eyes of passers-by, was torn gas pumps, through the washer, to the formation was done at the garage. down and eighteen hundred feet of garage, paint shop, or their proper This streamlining of the garages wire fencing put up in its place. place in the storage yard. and storage yards, now knovyn as • W.W.L. Craven, Superintendent of Division Two, was an undertaking Automotive Equipment, who has The reverse gear is used only to which took nearly six months to com- charge of the garages, introduced spot the coaches in their respective plete. Over two thousand gallons of two more features in this making. storage places. Doors have been cut paint was used to brighten up every over process. First, the simplication in the Fifteenth Street side of the building. Garage ceilings were paint- garages so that coaches can roll right cd a bright aluminum, the walls a Above: Three transit pilots march be- off the pits without backing up. This fore a formation of coaches down center simplification of movement has al- coach white with a base of green, of main yard. and all floors were done in terra Below: Before and after picture taken ready saved hundreds of man hours. from the same spot. Picture at left was cotta red, even the floors of the pits. made in 1940. (Turn Page) ( 1 ) ( 2) As for cleanliness, the grease has properties. gone from the floors and pits, and all (2) Although the offices are in the mechanics wear gleaming white cov- same place, above the garage, the eralls with "Los Angeles Transit surroundings have been redecorated Lines" embroidered on the back. and a new tile floor covering has On these pages are some photo- been laid. Shown here is part of the graphs of the Home Base of our office force. From left to right, they transitliner fleet together with the are W. Erhardt, Tom Casey, Marjorie Guardians of the Fleet. Coleman, Dorothy Nelson, Jaunita Mangrum. (1) Chief guardian of the transit- Theresa Ryan is secretary to liner fleet is W. L. "Red" Craven, (3) Superintendent of Automotive Eq'uip- Mr. Craven. Miss Ryan came to the ment. It is said of Craven that he Los Angeles Transit Lines from the has been in the coach business so Hawaiian Pineapple Company in San long that high octane gasoline and Francisco. Diesel fuel run through his veins. (4 & 5) Typical of the transit- ( 3) "Red" started maintenance work in formation are these before and after the days before they had pits. He shots. The picture at the left shows service hoses on the three islands. has driven buses and he has operated the old filling sttaion, and the one at The pumps can deliver 150 gallons his own bus business. "Red" came the right shows the new de luxe super ner minute. The gear oil is furnished to the Los Angeles Transit Lines service station. Over one half million by an air pump operating from a from Jacksonville, Florida, where he square feet of concrete were poured to 50-gallon drum, and the lubricating had charge of the Motor Transit pave the service station and the floor oil is also pumped from underground Company, a National City Lines of the adjoining electric washer.