Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-09-21

The meeting of railroad officers called by the
railway commissioners to consult in regard Il
the best means of preventing such catastrophes
as that at Revere, was held on Tuesday. Mos
of the roads in the state were represented b,
one or more of their officers. The feeling Seems
TO have been general among these officials tina
the commissioners had been guilty of imperti
nence in inviting them there for any such pur
pose. General Stark of the Boston and Lowell
road, and Judge Clifford of the Boston ana
Providence road, took occasion to protest
against the circular of the commissioners, which
they thought was calculated to alarm the pub
lie mind. A committee of railroad officers, con.
ssting of John H. Clifford of the Boston and
Providence road, D. Waldo Lincoln of the Bos'
ton and Albany road, j. B. Winsow OF the
Boston, Lowell and Nashua, William Merritt of
the Boston and Maine, and d. L. Harris of the
Connecticut River road, was appointed to act
with the commissioners.
1t was stated, and the statement commanded
general assent, that the proportion of railway
disasters in Great Britain and Ireland, taking
the population into account, is as seven to
one compared with that in Massachu-
Sets and that in the four years after 1866,
out of one hundred and twenty-one millions of
passengers carried by the steam railroads of
Massachusetts,, not one passenger remaining in
his seat had lost his life. 1t is very gratifying
TO know that the business of our railroads has
been conducted so successfully in this respect but
the fact remains that at Revere there was fear.
full slaughter which might have been prevented
and that similar disaster may occur any day
on other roads which employ no other precau
tions than those in use on the Eastern road. II
Is the terrible disaster which alarms the public
mind, and not the appeal of the commissioners fol-
the adoption of the best safeguards against a
repetition of it. The alarm, while it exists, is
not only natural, but wholesome, since it incites
the public to insist that those who have the live:
of thousands constantly in their keeping, should
supply for their protection all the resource
which the most exact administration and tn
latest results of invention and science can SUI
ply.
1t is hardly time yet to quiet the gener,
anxiety, for no one has yet been made to suff,
any penalty for his share in causing the Revel
slaughter, nor has the public an
assurance that the management of tn;
railroad, or of Others, will be change
for the better in consequence of the disclosure
there made. Mr.. Alley of Lynn even tried
smooth over the shocking carelessness whic
caused the calamity at Revere In the face of til
verdict of the cOroner's jury, and of the fac
plainly developed by the testimony, he toe
pains to say that he could not see how NJ
Prescott, Mr.. Rowland, or Mr.. Brown, the er
gineer, had been at all to blame, and they ougl
not to be held up TO public censure. "Nobod
to blame" is the stereotyped verdict in such case
but this was an exception so far as the coroner
jury was concerned. The public indignation VIZ
so strongly aroused, that we hoped the yerdit
would be followed up to its legitimate cons
quences. The mawIish tenderness for wron
doors which Mr., Alleys remarks indicate, is to
prevalent. 1t sacrifices the public welfare to
mistaken sentimentality