New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-08-19
1BE PERJLS OF TRAVEL.

lt Is understood OF course that when rail-
road collision occurs somebody is to blame,
and he must be sought out by the press and
visited with condign punishment; that when
a steamboat accident takes place there has
been some violation of law, or that the occa-
sion furnishes an illustration OF the inetiiciency
of existing statutes that must at once be
amended; that when a steamship goes ashore
there's wrong somewhere, which the press
must seek out and for which it must demand
immediate remedy and redress; in short, that
whenever anything happens on sea or shore,
by steamer or on the rail, by when
life, limb, or property is imperiled or de-
stroyed there 3 something that calls either
for more legislation or more efficient enforce
ment of existing statutes And yet with all
our watchfuiness of railroads and steamboats,
and our readiness to meet eN cry new emergency
with specific statute, there is never any
lack of steamboat and railroad tragedies In
our current news. They keep happening, and
even the vigilance of the press in tracing the
causes and adjudging the blame, and the
readiness of legislatures to enact stringent
laws for each occasion, cannot save us from
the daily recurring perils of travel that envi-
ron and beset US.
We might, perhaps, abandon steam carriage
by land and water and betake ourselves to
the canal boat and the stage, but even then
we should not be entirely safe. For doubtless
people would die of old age or cholera NOR
bus, or some such epidemic on the packet, and
all the intellect of our legislators would DE
set at work then in entirely new channels 10
devise statutory enactments against the lapse
of time on the canals and the furnishing 10
Messengers of cucumbers and Holsters, and other
such products of the tOw-path And as Tor the
stage-why, there's no safety In stages
One upset the other day IN the Whit"
Mountains, killing some OF the passen-
gers and manning others. And IL Illus
trates the tendency of the average man
to rush to the Legislature upon every occasion
that calls out grief or resentment, that Ill
the case of the stage accident the cause is at
tributed to improper slowing and overlooking
of baggage, which made the vehicle top-heavy
and caused the upset. and of course there Is
n call for legislative remedy. Fortunately
there is no Legislature IN session, or the de-
mand would be crystallized into statute
limiting the number of passengers ana
amount of baggage to each and perhaps ap-
pointing a commission to superintend the
loading of stages.
Perhaps by and by we shall make up our
minds that there are uncertainties In the
world against which even prOhibitory enact
ments do not run and that while we are In
duty bound TO exercise sound discretion and
reasonable care for ourselves and others, there
will always be some things happening against
which human foresight and even the wisdom
of the Legislature and the press are unable to
provide. The disposition to scrutinize care
fully the causes which lead to disasters OF the
kind referred to, and to hold those who serve
the public in such relations to rigid
accountability, is proper enough, and
no doubt contributes largely to the general
welfare but the tendency of our people is to
carry it to extremes, and create more mischief
by over-legislation than would balance all the
good results attained in making locomotion
safe and agreeable. Public sentiment can ac-
compish some things more effectually than
statute laws; and it is well enough to be on
our guard against whatever leads lis to depend
foo little on ourselves and too much upon the
OtoNa