The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-05-24

Among the pulplt tnomeS to-uhy THO ieeoon
of the Mill River disaster will probably
be ct least an incidental topic. A more
important subject could not be selected,
| for the breaking away Of the insufficient
structure called the Williamsburg dam
points out some phases of Christian ethics
which cannot longer be disregarded The
first of these is that the erection of insecure
structures of any kind is criminal and ought
to be punished as q crime. AS in the case OF
the Mill River reservoir, the cause is usually
traceable to parsimony on the one hand and
greed on the other. We are told that the mill
owners in this beautiful Massachusetts, valley
preferred the contractor who offered to build
the dam for twenty-five thousand dollars to
one who refused to construct it for less than
seventy-fve thousand dollars, thereby saving
fifty thousand dollars and losing everything.
This is the side of parsimony. We believe
that thorough investigation into the cost OF
the structure for which the contractor was
paid twenty-five thousand dollars would place
the actual outlay at less than ten thousand
dollars This is the side Of greed We
find the same kind of parsimony and
greed in the construction Of railroads and
bridges and great engineering works of every
description. We frequently hear Of railroad
trains being precipitated over entertainments
and of bridges giving way under heavily
laden cars. One day it is boiler which burst,
as in the case of the Westfeld. and the next
the laundering of heightened steamship in
mid-ocean, as in the recent disasters to the
ships of the French line. Every few days an
unsafe building topples over in New York
and Brooklyn, while the younger cities
have each year longer list Of calamities Of
this kind Indeed, SO loosely are immense
buildings of every kind constructed nowadays
that whole towns are in danger OF falling
before high wind. Palatial residences are
built in month and great showhouses for the
entertainment of the people are finished in
fortnight One very ridiculous person at Lam
caster, Pa, has built several houses in
day. Contractors employ bad workmen and
pad material because they are cheap and push
| their work forward regardless Of consequences.
1t is impossible to exaggerate the deficiencies
of American architecture and engineering,
and no words are too strong to denounce the
criminal loss of life and waste Of property
which are the direct consequences of these
parsimonious and greedy practices.
This is what Thomas Carlyle few years
ago called shooting Niagara" In his own
vigorous language he described modern struc-
lures of every kind as cheap and nasty. Any
one who would verify the aptness of these
words has only to look at the roadbed Of many
of our railroads or to recall the jolting memo
ries of jumping coaches and swaying bridges
in his experiences of railway travel. In every
part OF the country the traveller sees railroads
perched aloft on wooden legs, and no human
being can tell when the timbers will give way.
In this city nearly every tenement house is .
death trap not only for the inmates but for
splendid looking apartment house is sup
ported by props and in Broadway a number
OF houses, weakened by the removal of
adjacent buildings, are kept from falling
by wooden beams planted against them.
We have Superintendent of Buildings, to
prevent the erection Of unsafe structures, and
he has an attorney, whose special business it
is to enforce the law against those who violate
its provisions; and yet there are more insecure
edifces in New York to-day than when these
offices were created Officials no longer ap-
pear to think that they have in their keeping
a sacred public trust, but seem to regard their
Offices as places of mere personal emolument
and stepping stones to still better positions.
There is no telling how many dams there may
be in the country as unsafe as that in Mas
sachusetts, which broke away week ago and
let loose the food upon the unsuspecting in
habitants of Mill River valley. We are, in
deed, shooting Niagara, and, though there is
always death at the bottom, no effective meas
ures are taken to prevent the recurrence of the
disasters which follow SO closely upon the
heels of each other. Everything is cheap and
nasty, and, seemingly, there is no power in
the law nor sufficient virtue in the public adj
ministration to bring the necessary revolution.
We can recall to-day the horrors Of the
Westfeld disaster almost as wildly as on that
beautiful Sunday when the city was startled
! by the terrible story of the accident Even
in that case the law was not enforced, and no.
body was punished It is doubtful even if
steam boilers are any safer to-day than they
were before that fearful calamity occurred
The zeal in the inspection Of the boilers offerry-
boats and steam vessels generally and in large
manufactures which was displayed after that
event was relaxed as soon as the event itself
passed out Of the public mind An investi-
cation into railroad accident usually ends in
q mild censure Of the persons least to blame.
Nobody was ever sent to Sing Sing for build
ing deathtraps in New York Even in the
Mill River affair public indignation was first
directed against Spellman, because it was al
legged that he detained Cheney while the latter
was on his way to warn the villagers. The