American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-11-16
High speed and its Dangers.

The recent accident on the Great West
ern (Canada) Railway, though it may not
result i'm as heavy sacrifice OF human
lite as many of its predecessors, has az
least one significant feature which oughb
to attract the serious attention of tie pub
lie in general and railway managers IN
particular. According to the dispatch the
train-the Pacific express running be-
tween Detroit and Suspension Bridge
aoas haueling at the rate of fifty miles an
hour. The wing rail of switch near the
town of Beamsville gave way, and sent
five cars into the ditch. Three OF Pull
mans palace coaches, constructed Win
special reference to strength and safety,
were badly smashed; the track was torn
up for half a mile twenty or thirty pas
sengers were hurt, and it is thought that
at last half of them canIfot survive tneir
injuries.
T Now we-have no doubt it will be urged
thaS the breaking of the switch was some
thing So human foresight could have pre-
vented, and therefore nobody is to biames
except that patient Providence which mas
to bear the burden of so many OF mans
blunders and faults. The coroners jury
will render verdict based on this idea,
and there the matter will drop to be re-
membered again only when another accl-
dent of similar nature rouses the popu-
lar mind. In our opinion the true cause
of the disaster lies in the sentence we
too high a rate of speed, and the iron
which might, and in all probability would,
have sustained a force of twenty-five OF
thirty miles an hour, failed when SUBJECT
ed to the pressure incident to fifty !mies.
1t is an indisputable fact that railways IN
this country are not constructed WITH
the same care as in England, nor do
they for the most part, traverse
ground as favorable for safe and rapid
transit, nor is the track and the rolling
stock as carefully watched as among our
transatlantic cousins. Yet, OF late
years especially, the rivalry between COM
peting lines is so great that on many OF the
principal roads the speed is almost, if not
quite as rapid as is averaged in England.
On one of the main routes of which we
happen to know something, the schedule
time for first-class passenger trains IS
thirty-three miles an hour, and 1t is ire
quently increased to forty-five, fifty, ana
even sixty. This route, too, runs through
mountainous region, where the curves
are numerous and sharp, and where the
breaking of a wheel. axle, or rail would
hurl cars and contents to inevitable
destruction scores of feet below the road
bed. There is certainly danger enough
in rushing trains along over level coun-
try and on an airline at the rate OF mile
a minute or minute and a half, but when
this tremendous velocity is maintained
under the circumstances mentioned the
risk is altogether out Of proportion to the
benefits gained, and the management as
sumo heavier responsibility than they
can afford to bear. In this hurrying
btistling age, and particularly among this
proverbialIy restless and impatient AmerF
can people, time is precious and ought to
be economical to the utmost; but life IS
more precious than time, and there Is no
economy in wilfully tempting wholesale
slaughter. We are satisfied that fully
one-half of our railway accidents might be
averted altogether if there was law fix
ing the maximum rate of speed at thirty
miles an hour, and allowing that rate only
over a reasonably level and direct line.
But railways, like everything else, regu-
late the quantity and quality of supply by
the demand, and as long as the travelling
public insist upon being whirled to their
journeys end with the rapidity of light
ming, regardless of chances or co na.1
auences, just SO long will obliging rail-
way directors and superintendent accom-
modate them. So when the public are
occasionally massacred they must accept
the dispensatioh as one OF their own de-
Iiberate seeking.-EIch0ngc.