The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1872-05-30
Cur Railroads and Their Reckless
Management.

From the Pittsburgh Iron World and Manufacturer
The reckless management of railroads
in this country has long formed theme
upon which it delights European visitors
to "spread themselves" when they write
letters to the papers. Nor is there usu-
ally much exaggeration in the letters
on this subject contributed to the Lon
don Times and other such journals by
the British traveller, who fears not to
tempt fate by trusting himself to the
uncertain mercies of our railroad corpo-
rutions. Figures, which "cannot lie,"
show strange and humiliating facts re-
garding the comparative rates of acci-
dent by rail in this country and in
Europe. Of course terrible calamities
have occurred bothin England and on the
continent of Europe, by accidents to
railroad trains, but one may read over
all the European papers week after
week, nay, month after month, without
once encountering such detailed horrors
as are brought home to the American
public by the American papers, in their
almost daily reports of awful catastro-
phies upon the lines of railroad through
out the length and breadth of the land.
So callous have men become, from long
custom, to these terrible announcements,
that they will merely skim the column
containing the details and, having as
certained from the list of sufferers that
no friend of theirs has been killed or
injured, will quietly fold away the paper
and dismiss the awful event from their
minds.
Nevertheless, there is a spirit abroad
Just now that sets thinking men to ask
themselves whether this sort of thing is
to last forever, and whether the fearful
holocausts of human life recorded day
after day are indeed to become an
American institution, and fixed order
of things, from which there can be no
appeal. An absurd idea, this, in a
country which, above all others, is sig
nalized by the remarkable inventive
powers of its inhabitants, whose inven-
tiveness indeed, may be said to have no
limits, and to have been carried into all
departments Of mechanism and skilled
labor. And yet, this, perhaps, only ag-
gravates the slur but too justly cast upon
us Americans for having suffered steam
power to reach the point to which it has
now arrived, without having devised
commensurate means whereby the risks
arising to human life and limb from
that power can be mitigated if not al.
together removed.
A move in that direction has at last
; been made, and, if the travelling public
know what is for their own interest
they will see to it that this move shal
| have fair play, and that no consideration
of expense shall be admitted as an ex
cuse from any greedy corporation who
may decline to avail themselves of thu
idea originated in it. To all intent
and purposes, the conditions of railwa,
, travel professionally known as "tele
!, scoping" and oscil alton are in a fai
! way of becoming obsolete by the intro
l duction of trussed platforms, compres
. sion buffers, and automatic couplers, in
y ventions by which perfect immunit
: from the two causes of railroad crashe
u referred to is secured. Both of thes
. models of smashing up railway train
: are due, solely, to the defective kind c
!, l. coupling hitherto used upon our rail
{ road lines. A gentleman who for year
:. past has been connected with railroads
7 introduced some time since new an
. original method of coupling cars, whic
Il completely obviates all the causes tina
u u gave rise to the telescoping and oscilla
8 ton of trains. On some roads trusse
{ platforms, compression buffers, and au
y tomato couplers have been in use fc
=, eight years. and the result justifies tn
u statement that the companies usin
= them have profted immensely by thes
u inventions, while the loss of life an
J limb upon the railroads on which the
: were used has been reduced to a ciphe
! BY the use of the new platforms an
- buffers telescoping is simply rendere
u impossible, while the new mode OF couI
J ling the cars connects them in such
: way that the trains move smoothly ol
q without any of that disagreeable al
!, dangerous lateral motion known as O
: cillation.
u = Here, then, by inventions that appe'
' to be very simple indeed, when we kno
all about them, the fears and anxieti
hitherto inseparable from railroad trav
Is in this country may easily be set at res
l. 1t is incumbent on all railroad corpor
le tions throughout the country to ado
y these inventions without the least della
IS A days delay, and another holocaus
l. which would have certainly been pr
+ vented by these simple precautions, mt
10 occur. The managers OF the Pennsy
IL vania Railroad have talked of adoptir
n the invention. Let them see to it tn
e. this is at once done, else the recoil of {
N outraged public may be too much t
thnm