New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1865-07-03
SATCRDAY'e MURDERS.


only two-snd, according to such accounts
"a we have, only one man killed outright, two
or three MORALLY wounded. and an indefinite
number seriously injured. We ought not to
omit what the railway directors will consider
much more serious matter-that good many
cars and other corporation property were In.
lured, and We have no doubt the corporation
concerned in these disasters regret them,
for they are expensive. The consolation " the
ingenious minds of superintendents and presi.
dents is that it Is cheaper on the whole TO keep
their roads permanently in poor running order
cheaper to do little numbering than a little
repairing--cheaper to pay for a few shattered
cara and limbs than to hire a. extra signal
man, than to replace rotten slespers by sound
ones. than to relay tracks that are dangerously
near to each other.
The "socident on the Hudson River Rail.
road at Irvington may be the fve.hundredth or
tho fve.thousandth that has occurred within
five years from similar causes. The switch was
wrong. Why was the switch wrongf Because
the Company would not pays man to keep it
right-would not pay dollar and half day
to save hundred passengers from the probable
chance Of destruction by an accident" Says
an account: " The place where the accident oc.
Cured isabOut three hundred feet from the depot
and the switchman. whose duty it was TO be at his
post, was absent attending to other dsties at the
depot" Ofcourse be was, or If no had not been
absent Saturday, no would have been some
other fatal day. A man cannot always be in
two places at once-even if he be q Hudson
River Railroad employee. The case could
hardly be better stated than by this laundering
reporter. II was tho switchmsn's "duty" TO
be at the switch, and II was his "other duty +"
to be 800 feet off at tho same moment. The
Irish English Of the reporter may 10 pardon.
able; but the worse than Irish laundering
Of the corporation, the meanness, the
stupidity, the murderous psrsImony Of the
corporation which pnts one man to do
the duty Of two or three, at the
risk OF such catastrophe as this Of Saturdays
not pardonsble. But the public pardon it-by
still pstronising the road that murders its pas.
sengers, the Legislature pardons it-by afixing
no adequate penalties for the crimes 1t commits;
above all. coroaers' juries applaud and encour.
sge corporation and corporation servants alike
by the quasi-judicial immunity they contrive to
extend over both. What can We do about 1t I
The President and Superintendent and Di.
yectors Of the Hudson River Railroad who
read this article will echo the question with q
chuckle: What can press or public do about it !
Well, perhaps not much to-day, nor tomorrow
- not this accident nor the next; but some TO-.
day" will arrive, some accident, or some dread
full succession Of catastrophes will find their in
svitable result In an outburst Of popular indg.
nation. which may even provoke Q legislative
enactment stringent enough to make Il the
policy Of the railroads TO stop their wholesale
homicides for the benefit Of their stockholders'
pockets. 60 lauah on, 4essy, Presidents, Su-