The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-05-09 00:00:00

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SATUR D AY, MAT 9, 1874.

THE RAILWAYS AND THE PUBLIC.

The fact that a Royal Commission has been
appointed to enquire into the cause of rail- '
way accidents will be regarded with satisfac-
tion by the public generally. Travelling is I
no longer a luxury which can be enjoyed only
by those who are called the well-to-do classes
for now that third-class passengers are en- i
laded to travel by express trains, the plea-
sure of moving about is one which can be en-
joyed by the humblest portion cf the com-
munity. T.1,-, -gnin, the price at which ex-
cursions are advertised. tempts many to ven-
ture upon o!:.• line? vilm would not otherwise
/cave their home. Sometimes these excur-
sion trains, being necessary additions to the
ordinary traffic, are not sufficiently provided
for in the arrangements, and some of them
have cisme to grief in a terrible manner. It
is not, however, the holiday seekers who suf-
fer mutilation and death upon our iron high-
ways. Witness for instance the appalling
calamity to the Irish limitedmail, which took
place upon the London and North Western
Railway, at Abergele, on the 19th of August,
1868, when it came into collision with some
trucks laden with petroleum which were being
shunted upon the top of an incline. The
foremost carriages of the mail were set on
fire, and 33 first-class passengers were instan-
taneously burnt to death, their bodies being
charred to such a frightful extent that even
the sex of the victims was nnrecognisable.
On the 16th of November, 1860, thellimited
mail from Scotland ran into a cattle train
being shunted at Atherstone, and nine per-
sons were killed. On the 16th December,
1864, there was a collision in the Blackheath
tunnel of the North Kent Railway between
a passenger train proceeding at the rate of
forty miles an hour and a ballast train creep-
ing up the tunnel on the same rails. Five
persons was killed upon the spot, and the
injuries to the living was numerous and severe.
Few have forgotten the fearful collision of
the 25th of August, 1861, in the Clayton
tunnel of the Brighton Railway, when 23
persons were taken out dead, and 176 a ere
mutilated. On the 4th of September, 1860,
there was a collision at the Helmshore station
of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, in
which ten passengers were killed and 77 were
injured. We shall allude to only one more
of these almost forgotten memories, and that
is to the appalling calamity which took place
on the South Eastern line near Staplehurst
on the 9th of June, 1865, when through the
neglect of a platelayer a tidal train ran off
the rails; ten of the passengers were killed
and twenty others frightfully maimed. M.
Charles Dickens was one of those who es-
caped, but received a severe shock to his ner-
vous system, and that very day five years—
on the 9th of June, 1870—he died.
Now, in most, if not in all of these instances
the calamity might be ascribed to prevetable
causes. The negligence of a signalman or
some other inferior official causes the loss of
a dozen or a score of lives, injuries more or
less severe to a hundred survivors, and dam-
age to rolling stock to the extent of many
thousand pounds. Yet so tender is the law
with such persons that in few eases can any
punishment be awarded for manslaughter,
unless the neglect can be proved to be wilful.
True, in the Staplehurst accident the care-
less platelayer who mistook the time at which
the train would arrive, was convicted of man-
slaughter, and sentenced to nine months'
imprisonment, but even he had his sympathi-
sers, who declared that it was a shame to
send the poor man to gaol, seeing that he
never meant any harm. Many will, however
be inclined to believe that if any unfortu-
nate postman, convicted of purloining a money
order, gets five years' penal servitude, a
seventh of that period without hard labour
is not too much for a negligent person who
carries death into nearly a dozen homes, and
maims scores for years if not for life.
If the enquiries of the Royal Commission re.
stilt in a recommendation for a more strin-
gent law for dealing with culpable neglect
and carelessness, the proposed change will
meet with the acquiescence of the puplie at
large.
There is another point of view from which
railway:accident must necessarily be regarded.
There is, we fear, little doubt that under the
existing system everything posible isnot done
to ensure the safety of the traveller. New
inventions are too ofter not brought into use
because of the expense which would be in-
volved in their application. Shareholders
invest their capital in railways, not for ben-
evolent purposes, nor with the disinterested
view of maeing the general public a little time
in getting from one place to another. They
take shares in the hope of receiving dividends.
and if costly schemes are constantly to be
applied to the working of the lines, it is im-
possible that the undertakings can be as re-
munerative as the shareholders expect. A
Board of Directors coming before a half.
yearly meeting of proprietors and explaining
the reduced dividend by the statement that
a new set of interlocking ignal or a double
set of servants had run away with the money,
would be very likely to raise what is com-
monly called ' a hornet's nest" about their
ears. This is perhaps natural enough for
those who invest their coin in a railway,
just as they would in a foreign loan, and
expect a certain return for it. But it should
be remembered that railways have now the
entire monopoly of our means of travelling.
It is true enough that there is no law to pre-
vent the running of coaches or of stage wag-
gons, but no one is sufficiently insane to run
such vehicles in competition with the iron
horse, and even if he were, he would get no
patronage. Whether or not the state takes
over the railways as it did the telegraphs,
the public mast have adequate protection for
life and limb whilst moving about the coun-
try in the only means of conveyance which
the companies have left to them.

THE IRON TRADE.

if !Ilona ths district by 18,000 tons per
week. The iron trade is exceedingly quiet.
A leading ironmaster thus succinctly de-
scribes the " situation":—"No orders on the
books; no orders coming in; and no profit
upon the little that is being done." That '
this is the experience of many ironmasters
jnst now there can be no doubt, but it is
equally true that there are some exceptional
case. if not of aetirity, at least of something
• a degree better than absolute stagnation.

There was a large attendance at the
weekly meeting of the iron trade, on Thurs-
day, prompted chitty by a desire to learn
the result of the conference between the
eoalowners and their workpeople on the
wages queetion. Strong hopes were enter-
tined by the ironmasters that some arrange-
ment might be come to for the early reopen-
ing of the pits, so as to relieve the wa,lts of
the iron trade, which is now sadly embarras-
sed by the scarcity of coal, but as neither
men nor masters came prepared to make any
concession, the meeting separated without
coming to any conclusion. Less dissapoint-
meat was felt at this result, or absence of
result, than there otherwise would have
been, owing to the very genral convicti on
of empleyen both in the iron and coal trades
that the strike must soon csaust itself for
the want of funds, seeing the large number
of colliers who are ow at play in all parts
of the country; and in that event it was
pretty plainly intimated that further re-
duction of wages would be enforced, in order
to bring prices down to the level necessary
to win back trade. Meantime business, alike
in iron and coal, is confined within the liar-
roweat limits. There is less absolute depres-
sion now than a fortnight ago, owing to the
recent distribution of a few urgent and long
deferred specifications, chiefly for the best
brands; but comparatively few of the works
are making more than half-time, and many
of them are altogether closed, nominally for
want of coal, but really to a great extent for
want of orders. There is a little more en-
quiry for common iron in connection wit Ii
some of the local hardware manufactures,
and the makers of nail rods and nail sheets,
hoops and angles for bedsteads, and rooting
sheets for galvanising, are comparatively
well employed. Prices are unchanged at £lO
los. for uninartc.al ditto. Pig-iron may be
had as low as .f.d. lbs. for the commonest
quality, but on the whole there is more
steadiness in this department than a fortnight
ago.