New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1864-07-18
THE EBIE yHTRDEE.

THE EBIE MURDER.
We print elsewhere particulars of the awful
collision On the Enc L. r. last Friday, and we
es, attention TO them. The portion Of the
road on which it occurred has bnt single
tack. 4 special train carrying % Rebel prls-
oners and l25 Union guards Lad LETT Jersey City
1t o'clock Friday morning, auG preceded in
SAFETY as far as Shohola-a station about twenty
miles west of Port Jeryis, where the double
t.rck ends. Coming east at the same time was
A regular coal train. lis conductor stopped az
LGcAawBxen, the station next west OF ShoEola,
and inquired of the telegraph operator whether
the track was clear to Shohola, and was told al
trains then due had passed. He thereupon
started his train at fifteen miles IN hour, and
after running mile or two at that rate over
road which constantly pierces defles and bends
in sharp curves, came suddenly upon the special
train, also moving rapidly. And in one terrible
moment the two trans lag in ruins, and of their
passengers Ga were killed, l20 wounded.
The system of running trains on single
track by the aid of telegraph is very simple
one, if faithfully lived up to. As each
train passes & station the operator at that
station telegraphs to the operator at the
next the moment OF its passage, and each
enters the date il book kept for that
purpose. In this case, when the special train
left Shohca the operator at Lackawaxen was
informed of it, When, therefore, he told the
conductor Of the coal train that the track was
clear 10 Shohola be knew, or was bound to
know, tha. it was not clear. and if the account
given our reporter by the local superintendent
is true, the blame for the collision rests spe-
cielly on the telegraph operator. He is said to
have fed, taking his book with him.
But the main responsibility belongs not to
the guilty wretch VINO fees but to the managers
Of tho Eric Railroad Company, who, so far as
we hear, have not vet fed. Il is you, Messrs.
President, Directors, anu Superintendent, who
murdered sixty -icurmen On riday morning last,
at IL o'clock-yOu who manned and crushed
and mangled hundred and twenty human
beings-you who ore reSpon ,bic for the regula-
ton of a road on which collisions occur with
| frightfll frequency, and with such dreadful re-
suits. 1t is bu. a few days since We were i'm
PEELED to comment on what was al but dis
aster more appalling than this, and We then
made public the studously concealed fact that
eight or nine-what are called-acc.dents had
occurred on this road within ii fortnight.
So We are informed by one who passes regularly
over portion of the line. 1hey 10 not come
to the public ear because the telegraph line on
the Erie road is owned by the Erie Company
and worked or not worked rs the interest or
caprice of the managers dictates. Needless to
say that little information about accidents Is
! permitted to traverse its wires. We know OF
one case in which a collision had detained a
train coming to this city; the fact was known
to friends waiting in the Jersey depot-known
also that lives had been lost-yet the names
were not sent, and no message Of inquiry was
allowed 10 60 TO the scene Of the disaster. I'LL
the remains of the train reached the depot, that
alarmed ard anxious crowd Of friends was lett in
suspense. Such is the system.
Therefore we charge this disaster on the
managers Of the road. The telegraph is theirs,
theirs the system on which it is worked, the
selection OF operators theirs The tone among
employees, the morale in reference to care the
degree Il vigilance e1scted from them, the con-
sequence to them Of collision, their personal
responsibility 70 the Superintendent, and his TO
the Directors-all these vitality important mat
ters rest in the control Of the managers-Presi-
dent, Superintendent, Directors, and the evil
dence of their guilt is the shameful regularity o;
disaster. They con make the road safe; they
do not, ard because they fail to do it we hold
up their guilt before the public. We denounce
the management OF the road as criminally negli-
gent, and the men who are responsible for it
should be made amenable to the law by indict-
ment-not merely by civil cotton for damages.
Until thai is done there can be no safety for the
public; 10 just puaishmenl Gor the guilty.
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