Litchfield enquirer., 1881-01-27
Color Blindness.

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 The hullabaloo raised by the railroads against the law relating to color, blindness has not terrified tue sRsilroad Commissioners, and by far tue most interesting part of their re- port is their Justification of that statute. Most of our readers will recoilect that, after 3 careful examination of the question. the last legislature pissed an act providing for exami- nations of railroad employees to test their ability to distinguish the colors used in rail- road flag and lantern signals. In ~pursuance of the provisions of this statute about 2000 men employed on the various raill oads in the state were put to the test Of the persons ex- amined about. sixty were found to have defec- tive perception of colors. The mode of ex- animation commonly used is this a skein of red or green worsted is given the employe, and he IS told to select from collection of differ ent colored skeins one or more of the same shade. If heecan do this successfully, he is not blind to that color. The worsted test is considered the safest, because there are those who, though they can see no difference in color between red and green, see some vari- ation in brightness which often enables them to tell them apart yet the difference, as seen by them, is perhaps too small to enable them to judge with that readiness and accuracy which the case requires. Indeed, out of twenty eight who were rejected on the worsted test by one examining physician, twenty -four were given new trial with the flags and lan- terms in ordinary use on railroads, and, of the twenty-four, tscenty one failed again.
 But it 90 happened, as the Railroad Com. missioners report "that among the very first to be found defective in color perception were one or two engineers of experience. standing, and official connections, and imnedidately the cry was raised, and echoed by hundreds in the State, many of whom were ignorant alike of the requirements of the law and of the meas liberties of an important class of our citizens were in danger" Railroad men prominent in politics procured the passage in the conven- tions of both parties of resolutions demanding the repeal of the law requiring examination of employees for color blindness And now, Judge Harrison, of Guilford, in the Second House, and his former law partner. Col Dex- ter Wright, of New Haven, of the ...Third House, are demanding the instant repeal of the law from the General Assembly just or- ganized. iea .aa
 The proposal, in view of the facts detailed ln the Commissioners report seems to us one of the most disreputable tricks of demagogism these days of disreputable politics have de veloped. Here ia proof positive that, till the statute went into operation, there were over sixty men, some of them engineers, employed on Connecticut railroads, who could not tell e red from green flag or red from green lantern, while it often happens that the safety of hundreds of passengers depends upon the employees ability to do precisely what the ex aminations prove he cannot do! Are millions of people to be subjected to unnecessary risk because the railroads are unwilling to dis- charge few old employees? The proposition is worse than absurd-it is criminal The simple truth is that two political conventions knowing nothing of the subject, were fooled into making blunder and that blunder is urged by demagogues as reason why the legislature, knowing this law to be necessary to the safety of the citizen. should commit the crime of repeating it from cowsrdly fear of fictitious popular clamor.