Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-05-15
RAILROAD CROSSINGS AT
GRADE.

The first duties of a government are
to provide for its own safety and the
protection of its citizens These duties
run all along down the different grades
or kinds of government, national. state
and town. The protection of life and
property is the great end in view, the
freedom of the people and the protec-
ton of their natural rights being as
sured. Their safety may, also, at the
same time, be one of their natural rights.
Our fathers declared that our Creator
endowed us with an inalienable right to
life, and our constitution and laws, fol-
lowing up the same idea, declare that no
person shall be deprived of lite or limb
except upon due conviction for certain
specified crimes, upon the verdict of a
jRry of his peers, or his own plea in
court of competent jurisdiction. This
is excellent in theory, sounds well when
read from declarations of independence,
constitutions or statute books, and is in
tended to have practical application.
We, in these latter days, have improved
upon the precepts and practices of our
fathers, and have put into operation
speedier and surer methods of depriving
persons of life and limb without resort
to court or juries. We do not class muir
der and suicide among these means, be-
cause, so long as mans nature remains
depraved, 80 long will those crimes be
committed and, in addition to these in
herent causes, the law has done all that
can be done, by legislation, to reduce
these crimes in number and to provide
for the punishment of the criminal.
Some of these new and speedy methods
of disposing of life and limb, without
notice or delay, were shown in the wreck
of the Atlantic, and in the more recent
bridge disasters at Rochester and Dixon,
and in the numberless railroad disasters
all over the country. These were di-
rectly ascribable to reckless mismanage-
ment, gross carelessness, or reprehensi-
BILE parsimony. To come nearer home.
We have in many towns of Vermont,
aud especially in the village and town of
Rutland, these new methods in opera
ton, or in readiness for operation, in
alarming profusion. We have two such
destroyers of life and limb in this village,
and they are suspended over US, like
Damocles' sword, only by single
thread. We refer to railroad crossings
at grade. There is one on Freight street,
and another over West street, near the
cemetery; and many have been the oc-
casions that we have been called upon
to record the destruction of human life,
the loss Of limbs, or other personal inju-
ries, 10 say nothing of hair-breadth es-
capes from similar casualties, at these
places. These accidents do not, and
cannot, occur in Great Britain, because
railroads are compelled, by law, to cross
streets and highways either above or be-
low the grade thereof that is,
they must either construct tnnnel
under the street, or cross by a bridge sc
much elevated above it, as not to inter.
fere with travel. The Massachusetts
system of requiring fag-men to be sta
toned at street crossings in cities and
villages does not meet the case, because
| the passage of trains, necessarily, de-
lays and interrupts the quick and safe
passage of teams and pedestrians. The
British method is the only true and safe
method, either for the railroad company
or the general public. Unfortunately
when the building of railroads was first
undertaken in this State, the vast major
ity of our citizens were unacquainteG
with the system, the construction OF
railroads, the rate of speed or, in fact,
with anything connected Herewith.
We doubt that, if they had been per.
fectly conversant with the whole sub.
ject, they would have made any provis.
ion whereby the cost of their construc.
ton would have been increased in the
least degree. Vermont was then almost
insulated from ''the rest of mankind
and was painting, so to speak, for rail
roads to put her into closer and speed
Ter intercommunication with the markets
of the world and her sister States. The
rights of the several railroad corpora.
tons, have become, probably, so vested
that il would be impossible to compel
them to remedy the difficulty. To the
towns, and towns alone, belongs the du.
ty of providing safe and convenien,
highways, and they are liable to respond
in damages for any accident occurring
through their neglect to provide the
same. In addition to this, is their duty
to provide for the safety of the people
For over twenty-three years, these dan
gers have stared the traveller, whether