The New York herald., 1865-01-09


a country needs for its own wants, and help
besides to feed many other countries. With
our varieties Of latitude, climate and soil, there
is hardly anything which can be made to
yield TO skill and labor that Is not produced
here. Our Pacific seaboard and Western terri
tories are teeming with gold and silver; the
Central States are rich in coal and iron-not
to say anything Of the petroleum Ell Dorado
the whole West Is cereal garden, out of which
the hungry multitudes Of hundred nations
might be fed. Cotton, sugar, tobacco and rice,
equal to the consumption Of half world, pour
in from the Southern States; wool is grown In
abundance on the Western prairies, on the
pastures of the Northwestern States, and in the
New England States, while the frontier regions
on the Northern lakes give their tribute of lead
and copper
With such resources 1t is impossible long to
retard the enterprise which will be devoted to
manufactures. Not only will native capital be
invested, but foreign spectators will find 1t
their interest to embark their means in the
manufacture Of cotton and woollen goods,
taking advantage of all our facilitics-of pro-
ries, of our cheap coal and immense water
power. Thousands of the skilled artisans Of
England are ready and anxious to emigrate to
this country as soon as stimulus is given to
manufactures. The war is furnishing that stimu-
lus, and before five years of peace has refreshed
the land the United States will be the largest
manufacturing as well as the most fruitful
producing country in the world.
RAILROAD DISASTERS AND How TO PREVENT
TnEM.-The frequency and fatal character of
railroad disasters of late render 1t imperative
that some cogent measures should be taken to
prevent their occurrence. It is not impossible
to accomplish this, for most of the collisions on
record, whereby human life has been sacrificed,
are not the result Of accident, as they are
alleged to be, but of gross carelessness and
indifference to public safety. Within few
days we have had to announce three railroad
disasters of a serious character-one in which
the boiler of q locomotive exploded in the very
heart Of Jersey City, and smashed in the roof OF
house; another collision between two trains
In the tunnel ofthe same city, in which case the
coroner's jury administered weak reprimand to
one ofihc railroad companies; and the latest one
that we hear of occurred on the Michigan Central
road on Tuesday, when two trains, rushing at
full speed, came together and demolished each
other.
Now it is evident that the verdicts of coro-
ners juries are worthless for the prevention Of
these disasters. There are three ways by which
we would suggest that their recurrence may be
avoided. First, the State Legislatures should
enact penal statutes which would spread a
wholesome terror among the managers Of rail-
roads; next, the national government should ap-
point inspectors Of railroads. who would have
no State interests to subserve, and whose duty
it would be to exercise arigid supervision over
the management ofthe railroads, their employees,
rolling stock, time tables and rails. In many
Of the late disasters several soldiers lost their
lives, or were hopelessly mutilated. 1t is the
duty, then, Of the government to interfere, if for
no other reason than to protect its troops while
being transported from one point to another.
The third method is for every one who is injured
by a railroad accident to refuse all compromise
with the company and bring an action for
damages. II too often happens that people
accept a small sum from some agent Of the
company in cases where, if they laid the matter
before jury, they would get four times the
amount and the railroad company would re-
ccivc lesson that they would remember In
future.