The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-05-09


were waste 0. time to enlarge upon the misera-
BILE folly Of erecting signal in such position
as to be invisible for the greater Fart OF the
time in approaching the point OF danger. If
there be q degree of negligence and careless
ness which approximates to malice it is surely
that which dictated the placing Of the signal in
question.
We have little to say to the directors of the
New Haven Railroad. Before God and their
consciences they are morally answerable Tor
the massacre Of forty-fve human beings. The
imperfections Of our laws alone protect them
from the punishment decreed against man
slaughter. We know that they will read these
lines with smile, and will throw down the
paper with pleasant laugh. They have i'm
brued their hands in no blood and have done
nothing more than their friends, directors OF
other companies, or steamboat owners, have
done over and over again with perfect mpu-
nifty. The law cannot reach them, and, revel-
ling in their security, they will dismiss the
subject, with no pang but the one which the
fear OF diminished traffic may possibly cause
Forty-f four deaths, through their negligence.
Encouragement or niggardliness, will not al
fict them half SO much as the prospect OF losing
as many dollars. Habit has made them callous
to newspaper attacks. and public execration
cannot affect the serenity of their tempers. A
few weeks patience, and they know that all
will be forgotten.
How long is this to last? During the brief
period which has elapsed since the lst OF Jan
uary no less than thirty seven railroad acct
dents have occurred in this country, causing
one hundred and twenty -three deaths. and in
fiicting serious bodily injury on two hundred
and eleven persons, being at the rate Of two
accidents per week, and nearly one death and
one-sixth fractures or severe Commissions per
day. As this is exclusive Of persons killed by
being run over or falling from the cars, we shall
be within the mark if we say that the average
mortality caused by the negligence, niggardli-
ness and sloth of the directors and officials Of our
railways is one life per day This is less, it is
true, than the mortality due to steamboat acct
dents nine ofwhich, causing two hundred and
nine deaths and fifty severe injuries to the per-
son, have occurred since the LIST of January,
1858. But the elements may very possibly
have had share in the latter. The former are
solely due to the hand of man. There are num-
berless railways on the world which do very
large business and on which single life has
never been lost. Nor do we see any valid rea-
son for attributing any share of the accidents
which occur on other lines TO inevitable misfor-
tune. We have never, in the whole course Of
cur experience, heard Of single accident on a
railway which might not have been averted by
ordinary care. precaution, and management
Accidents do occur and lives are lost be-
cause the directors and managers are lost to
every consideration but that of personal gain.
Avarice prompts them to employ inefficient men,
at low salaries, whose incapacity thrusts train
into the water or causes a fatal collision.
Avarice induces them to lay the rails down in
go sharp curves that-as on the Hudson Rive
Railroad, the New Haven road. and various
others-the engineer cannot see more than a
few yards before him, and children and even
men, who happen to be upon the track. cannot
sec an express train till it is upon them. Ava
rice forbids the repairing of bridges and via
ducts-the Harlem bridge swings and shakes as
the cars roll over it, and will continue to do 81,
until some day it breaks down and forty or fifty
lives are lost. Avarice suggests the size of the
windows in the cars, which utterly precludes
all hope of escape in case of accident. Ava
rice in short is the source and cause of all
those miserable economies in salaries, stations,
rails, grading. signals and cars which directly
occasion the loss of one human life each day.
If we would effect practical reform it is on
the avarice of directors that we must work.
Abuse they can withstand. censure they laugh
at-but they will feel keenly an inroad upon
their purse. Let us follow the example of the
Connecticut Legislature. and enact a law oblig-
ing railroad companies to pay sum Of money
say sl0,0O0-for every life lost on their line,
and railroad accidents would soon be thing of
the past. All other remedies are useless.
Dv.,1 Ill