The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1873-08-05
Extracts from the New Z Tork Papers.

In an article on "COlllSlOns with Ffaight
Trains" the Times says:
There has been no cause of fatal railroad
accidents more persistent than that arising
from the careless and reckless way in which
the time of freight and passenger-trains is ad-
justed. The slow-going freight train has pos
session of the track only on sufferance. 1t
has to dodge lightning express here, and
await the passing of a maiEtrain there; it
gains the right of way on certain portion of
the track only after specified time of wait
ing, and all the calculations on which its
timetable is drawn up assume that every
siding can be reached without hitch, and
every switch adjusted with equal certainty
and promptitude. The finer these calcula-
tions are made the faster can an enormous
tlaffic be carried on a permanent wav of yery
inadequate extent, and the more tempting
will become the opportunity of concealing
enormous dividends under an artificially-ex.
panded stock, and of cheating the public out
of dne return for extensive franchises and
liberal guarantees. But it is possible to shave
too close OIL timetables as well as in other
matters. The sluggish freight-train is apt to
break through the symmetrical arrangements
of ingenious managers, and the heads that
puzzle over the regulations for its devious
progress are apt to become impatient or con-
fused over their task, and to adopt some per-
ilous initiative OH their own account.
A glance over the record of the so-called
accidents" of last year affords numerous il
lustrations of these statements. In February
there was collision, with disastrous results,
on the Rockford, Rock Island and st. Louis
Railroad, all because the conductorof freight
train mistook his time for going ON by about
four minutes. In July fhere was another IA
tai collision on the Pittsford and Auburn
bran ch of the Central Railroad, because
coal-train which ought to have waited at
switch, preferred to go on, and so came in the
way of the Baltimore express. In October
there occurred the terrible accident on the
Eastern RAILROAD, at Seabrook, owing to
switch being misplaced, ''by some person un-
KNOWN" of course, and to the night-express
from Bangor being thereby sent crashing in
to a freight train standing on siding. In
the same month passenger-train ran into an
empty coal-train on a branch OF the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad pear Bordentown. Then,
about the close of the year, there occurred
the collision near Bergen Tunnel between
the Erie express and frelght-train which
was in process of switching"
In double loaded leader the World dis
courses ofthe Democratic party and its allies
which are the Liberal Republicans and the
Farmers. Oranges, of the former it says:
What is Liberal Republicanism 1t is Re-
puOuCUNtSM minus 1cuefdi OranL. IL is no.
torious that Messrs. Greeley, Sumner, Trum-
bull, Schurz. Banks, Gratz Brown, Farms
worth, and the rest, would not have seeded
from the Republican party last year, if they
had believed there was any chance of defeat
ing Grant in the regular Republican National
Convention. 1t was personal hostility to that
new recruit, and not waning confidence in.
much less renunciation OF, Republican princi.
pies, which inspired that revolt. Mr.. Gree
ley, or Mr.. Sumner, or Mr.. Trumbull or Mr..
Banks would gladly have accepted the regular
Republican nomination if he could have got
il, and have fought and traduced the Demo-
cratic party, with all his former zeal. They
hated Grant and we hated him; and this com
mon personal hatred was the bond of union
IN the coalition last year. Now, 1t is quite
impossible for tire Democratic party to dis
solve and enter a new organization OF which
the basis is Republicansm minus Grant. 1t
would, be sinking of all that is valuable and
distinctive in Democratic principles. And
yet this is what the handful of Liberal Repub-
licans have the audacity to demand as the
condition of united action.
The article then proceeds to tell us what
Democracy Isl:
Democracy, as distinctive political tenet,
rests upon profound conviction Of the ca
pacity of man for selfgovernment, and an
equally profound sense of the constant ten
dency of political power to steal from the
many to the few, 1t is the chief aim of the
Democracy TO curtail and circumscribe the
sphere Of governmental action. Democracy
does not look upon man as a wild beast that
needs keeper, or as slave that needs a
master, or as child that needs leading-strinns.
but as an intelligent being, capable of sel.-
direction. The Democratic party Of this
country has always been distinguished rs The
party which denies to the Federal Govern-
ment all authority to which it cannot make
out a clear title; the party which has opposed
Its exercise Of conceded powers ip such