Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-06-18
Accidents and Care.

Accidents and Care.
| HARDLY any other two words in the
| language are more frequently or grossly
misused than the words accident and
| casualty. No allusion is intended to
diverse any antagOnistic theories of prov
licences, according to which there is no
place for accident or casualty in world
| in which nothing happens by chance
We Go not mean to go so deep when we
say that there IS seldom occasion for the
use OF either OF the words referred TO in
the sense in which it is commonly en-
ployed. "No deity is absent when pru-
dence IS present." was d Roman saving
founded on the observation that foresight
and care, as rule, protect their possessOr
even under perllOu8 circumstances. The
truth IS more obvious now than it was
when each department of nature and each
dlstlnct country OF even village were be-
lleved to be controlled by their own super
natural powers, often in conflict with one
another. In those days amulets, charms
and such like guardianship were relied
upon for protection against enemies which
no prudence could f0resee or any sagacity
ward off. Mere inferiority in mechanical
skill, and the defects of the artificial
physical agencies with which men
worked and travelled, were constant
sources OF danger in ordinary life and in
JourneyIng from place to place. Within
living memory, when the horse was the
chief instrument of locOmOtion over con-
siderable distances, the safety of travellers
was constantly dependant upon uncertain
animal terrOrs or caprices, and thus made
liable to accidents which no care or pru-
dence could wholly prevent.
Every one knows, we suppose, that
travelling is, or at least ought to be, safer
now than ever before. The steamboat
and the railway train, besides their other
advantages carry people over great
spaces with less risk to life and limb than
any other means Of lOcomotiOn ever used
"a truth completely established by statis-
tics. The disasters which have lately
overtaken so many ocean steamers can
not justly be reckOned among the natural
contingencies of the business, and are
generally referred to causes which may
De removed, and which should not have
been permitted to exist. If injustice is
thus done to meritOrious men, there is
no remedy that we can perceive, since
the conclusion is simply forced upon the
minds OF disinterested observers that only
incompetence or carelessness or both
could produce such results. Or, if this
conclusion seems exclusively harsh, one
may assume that the deficiency lay not
with the men in charge of the vessels but
IN the rules prescribed for their direction
and regulation by the companies they
served. Certainly there has been nothing
so unusual in the ordinary conditions
OF the voyage as to account for such
succession Of calamities to ships right
fully built, manned and commanded,
while the assumption of defective vigi-
lance IS sustained by the fact that men not
held to their duty by strict subversion al
most inevitably grow careless of sur
rounding perils as they grow familiar
with them.
This truth is strikingly illustrated by
the fact lately brought out by a New
Ork Investigator of railroad accidents in
this country, that twO-thirds of these So
called casualties among railroad en-
plOyes are the results of careleSsness. In
other words, men continually in or about
the trains after a little while habitualIy
expose themselves TO needless risks. To
great extent the same thing is true of
accidents to passengers. Either against
warning, even, they stand on the plat
forms OF the cars, or in getting on or get
ting off a train they voluntarily take
chances Of peril against taking which
many OF them would promptly and
earnestly warn others.
Writing of railway accidents, we must
mention that, according to the inquirer
just referred to, it is mistake to believe
that they are more common in this cOun-
try than in Europe Of railway disas-
tiers he asserts that larger number in
proportion to mileage has always occurred
IN England than in the United States,
and IN other European countries
accidents increase steadily with the
extension of the roads. The reason
OF the great number of accidents
IN England is found in the "a
pldity with which trains there run and
IN the close proximity with which they
succeed one another. The traffic and
travel are 50 enormous in proportion to
space that train follows train with the
slightest admissible interval, while they
run with speed seldom permitted on
this side Of the water. With us express
trains seldom run at rate Of more than
from twenty to thirty-fve miles an hour,
whereas an English express train on the
London q Northwestern Road makes fifty
two miles an hOur-close on a mile a
minute. Hence, in consideration OF the
great number of accidents, as well as of
the wear and tear of the road caused by
this rapid running, they are now agitating
the subject of getting rid of its necessity
by making additional roads.
How much want of proper care has to
do with disasters, both on land and sea,
IS, we suppose, apparent in the fact that
the disasters usually occur in rapid sue
cession. By their accumulation, with the
consequent public horror and indignation,
the responsible parties are frightened into
vigilance and no more serious calam1ties
take place until they have had time to
forget the past and to become once more
Indifferent to present peril.-Pi ttsburgh
Commercial.