The New York herald., 1872-09-18
Steamboat and Railroad Accidents.

become O household word throughout the civ
ilized world.
Steamboat and Railroad Accidents.
By lucky accident the hundreds of pas
sengers on the steamer Dean Richmond on
Monday night all escaped with their lives.
Had two or three scores Of them been scalded
or burned to death, or torn into fragments by
the explosion, or forced to drown to escape
more horrid death, it would have been but
natural occurrence. Almost every day the
public reads the sickening details of some
wholesale slaughter, the legitimate result from
the cheapness with which life is held in this
land of hustle and inordinate haste to get rich.
Our safeguards to protect the public and
especially the travelling public, are of the most
meagre description, hardly deserving the name.
We allow railroads to disregard the most
obvious requisite for safety-double tracks,
threatening every train with deadly collision.
The companies must pay large salaries and
make large dividends even on watered stock,
swollen far beyond their actual capital;
so all these measures which should pro-
tect the public, the passengers and employees
are neglected. No sufficient fences keep strag-
Cling humanity or animals off the tracks, no
careful guard watches the line, no fagmen or
signalmen protect the thousand road crossings
where stranger is liable to be run over with
out warming by locomotive seen too late for
escape. On some of our roads fifty or more
trains daily thus endanger lives in ways which
would not be tolerated in European countries
but we submit to it as matter Of course. Our
passenger steamers sail with defective boilers
and rotten hulls, with lifeboats which will not
exclude water and so slowed that they are sure
to swamp when launched in time of danger.
The readers of the HERALD will bear in mind
the almost helpless condition of the Bienville,
burning up because of worthless fire appara-
tus, over sixty miles from the nearest land,
and sacrificing some twenty lives by boats that
would not float. They will not forget the case
of the ill-starred Metis, whose loss drowned,
perhaps, seventy PERSONS though another
steamer was within hail at the time of her
collision. Disaster is the direct result of such
recklessness and incompetence as these nara
tives disclose. In another case, that
of the sinking steamer Bristol, only accident
prevented great loss Of life. She struck
sailing vessel in Newport harbor and sent her
to the bottom. Without ascertaining the
extent of her own injury she made the New
port landing and ! started M on for Pgoyyidepnce.
Finding she was sinking her captain run her
on the beach, so as to save the lives of those
on board. Had she been going in the oppo-
site direction no such convenient beach would
have offered succor, and her passengers would
have met their fate as did those of the Metis
These are not exceptional cases. They are
only those in which well-known causes have
already wrought their natural and deplorable
results. Others will have their day tomorrow
and next week. Imagine the scene of con-
sternation on the Dean Richmond, every
soul expecting the next minute to hurl him
into eternity. Yet last nights despatch says
the Richmond started on her return trip
from Albany with the usual complement of
passengers, the accident 'being of no con-
sequence" We must expect these frequent
slaughters till we have far more stringent
laws and o more rigid enforcement of all
the requirements for public safety. 1t
cannot be otherwise. Rotten boats will sink,
cracked boilers will explode, and unmatched
steamers will strike vessels crossing their
track. Trains will overtake carriages driving
before them, will wreck other trains meeting
them on the same rail, will run into opened
drawbridges, and bolt the track when invited
by switches set wrong. So We may open our
morning papers in assured certainty OF finding
the record of fatal catastrophes.
There is most urgent necessity for laws to
prevent these misnamed accidents. But the
almighty dollar can yet stave off all such legis-
lation. A new member, fresh from the people
and full OF honest zeal for reform, charges him
self to set the ball in motion. Before he goes
to Washington he elaborates bill. Once in
his seat he shows it to an older colleague, who
has been in the Congressional mill long
enough to know the routine and to learn the
value of his position in securing from wealthy
corporations q far larger subsidy than his
official pay New member must have aid and
advice how to push his bill. Old rat gives him
such aid as is sure to kill it, and is roundly
paid for the job. So, year after year, the lust OF
gain smothers needed legislation, and the long,
suffering public continues to be murdered by
hundreds and thousands, while nobody Is
legally to blame None OF our river, lake,
sound or ocean steamers are properly
equipped to protect the lives Of those they
leopard. Our land conveyances are not bit
better guarded from causing death than tho
steamers. On all sides we are threatened, yet
the claims of stockholders pockets are more
potent than the fear Of death with which they
menace the entire community.