The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-08-19
The Latest Railroad Disaster-Who Ii
Responsible and What II To Be the
Curer

Vnc AeIest RAILROAD R1Saster-WhO II
Responsible and What Il To Be the
Cures
This morning we give further particulars of
the railroad disaster which took place on Sat
urday night on the Chicago and Alton Rail
road, between Willow Station and Lemont, at
q point distant some eighteen or twenty miles
from Chicago 1t is one of the worst cases of
which we have any recollection, and it carries
us back to Carr's Rock, to Angola and to
other scenes of equally painful memory.
Coming SO suddenly on the heels Of the
Wawaset disaster and of the recent smash on
the Hudson River Railroad, and occurring at
o season Of the year when q large and most
important section Of the American people are
literally living on the steam car or on the
river boat, this latest disaster is fitted to in
awaken the most serious apprehensions.
Is this state of things to continue?
Is our Summer travelling, which is. with this
people, so much of necessity, to become an
annual source of sorrowP Are our railroad cars
and our steamboats, heneeforth to be regarded
as so many Internal machines The Hudson
River Railroad affair was bad the Wawaset
business was shocking; but this fresh railroad
disaster is in many respects worse than either.
In the case of the Wawaset the company was
greatly to blame for carrying SO many
more passengers than the law allowed; and
the seventy-fve dead bodies, not to speak Of
the sufferings of the unfortunate victims and
the scarcely less poignant sufferings Of the
almost equally unfortunate relatives, reveal
the CHASTITY fruit produced by the cupidity Of
the owners. It was sad and wicked bust
ness-all the more sad and all the more
wicked that not one of US con tell how much
We are at the mercy of equally constituencies
scoundrels and how near we are, every one
of these Summer days, to the same melancholy
fate. The terrible event Of Saturday night
has robbed at least twelve persons
Of sweet life, and that without any
note of timely warning, while some thirty-fve
are seriously injured, not few Of them
life The cause Of the catastrophe-tor we
cannot call it accidents plain and intelligi-
BILE to the merest child. The conductor of the
freight train is, no doubt, greatly to blame He
knew that if he could reach the switch before
the passenger train he could do SO by the
merest chance. He knew that collision was
possible, and he knew also that the lives Of
many unsuspecting persons were put by his
rash act in the balance of seconds rather than
minutes Of time. It was not necessary for
him to be in such hot haste. He created the
difficulty and then braved it like mailman.
He put on the steam and rode to death and
ruin. The conductor cannot certainly be held
guiltless but what shall we say of the station
agent at Lemont? Mr.. Huston will find it
difficult to exculpate himself. He knew that
the passenger train was due and that if the
freight train could reach the switch first it
could only be by sort Of miracle; and yet
he allowed the freight train to start. No
doubt he will have much to soy in his
own vindication. He will tell us that
he expostulated, but expostulated in vain.
Before he can be held guiltless he must give
good and satisfactory proof that the conductor
of the freight train put on the steam and
moved on his perilous and destructive way in
direct opposition to his positive orders. In
this case, however, as in all those which have
gone before, responsibility will. in all likeli-
hood. be shifted from shoulder to shoulder
the station master will blame the conductor,
the conductor will blame the station master,
the public mind will be bamboozled by con-
ficting testimony, the guilty will escape un-
punished and steamboat and railroad compa-
MES will go on in their work of slaughter with
impunity.
What is to be done? We recur to the ques-
tons with which we started. Are we to re-
main at the mercy of these soulless corpora
tons? Is this wholesale slaughter to con-
tinue and no one be held responsiblep It is
not so in monarchical Europe Why should it
be so in republican America? five have laws
to punish the offenders the laws should be
vigorously and without any show of lenity
enforced. If the laws existing are not equal
to the situation let our legislators do the
needed work-let laws be enacted adequate to
all such cases. It is not our opinion that
the nero punishment of agents of companies
will rid US Of the evil To our gigantic rail-
road and steamship monopoles what signifies
the Imprisonment of station master, tho re-
moval Of q conductor or the disqualification of
an engineer Such sacrifices are SO easily
made that they can afford to be Indifferent,
and to go on proudly pocketing rich revenues
and recklessly running human life. Let the
laws be levelled at the managers and owners,
not at the paid hirelings; let the penalty be
made in every case equal to the offence, and
the reckessness will be discontinued, the evil
complained Of will cease. We see no reason
why the companies should not be. held re-
sponsiblc for the life of every passenger they
carry, or why they should not be compelled to
pay down O given sum for every life lost