Daily Republican., 1881-06-20
Safety In Travelling.

Safety in Travelling.
In another column will be found al
article setting forth the need OF cal
coupler, and the struggles and final sue
,cesses of Mr.. W. V. Perry in inventlng
one which is believed will meet the
case and save thousands Ofhuman lives
The Railroads cenering in Chicago a
CITY wide awake and always ready TO
lay hold of every good invention, seem
inclined to adopt and use this coupler
as the best that has beeu invented II
may be possible that it may yet be I'M
proved upon by experience, put the
thing is it seems to me the present
want to such an extent that its general
adoption by all railroad companies
should only be question of time anu
capacity to manufacture enough to sup
ply the cars used If the Perry OF any
other coupler that proves be COM
plete success, all hesitation to adopt
them by railroad companies should De
met by vigorous legislation, to insure
safety to the lives and limbs OF paSsen'
gers and employees upon railroads Inc
same care and supervision should be
exercised over railroads, steam engines
and cars as over steamboats,. During
the excursion season the Captain OF the
steamer Clyde, stood by the gang way
of his steamer and carefully counted
all who came on aboard and why
Because the government demanded that
the vessel should not carry over one
thousand people and there was 1ne OF
one thousands dollars to be inflicted II
this rule was disobeyed. This precau-
ton was used 70 save human lives Ill
case of accidents, such as occur some
times with overcrowded excursion
steamers, and the supervision was eXer-
cised by the United States. If this
principle works good with steamboats,,
why cau it not be applied and why can
it not work as well if applied to travel
by railroad ? Every steam vessel is re-
uuired by national law to be inspect
ed and to be provided with certain
number of life boats, life preservers and
RATS, and many other requirements are
exacted so that there may be entire
safety. We cannot see why the pr!nci-
pie cannot be applied to railroading.
Railroad engines and cars should be
rigidly inspected and proper officers
should see that they beprovided with life
saving appliances. 1t is serious matter
to continually hear OF the killingof large
numbers of brakesmen and the mutila- |
ting and manning Of others simply for
want of car coupler that will require |
no risk of human lite to adjust in the
coupling of cars. Life is precious and
should not be carelesSly laviShed and
sacrificed when there is no need for it
1t is true that the United States govern
ment has not the same authority over
railroads as over STEAMBOATS, aud cOnse-
guently could not enforce railroad com
panies TO adopt a safety car coupler if
they did not see proper to do 50, with.
out trenching upon States rights, but |
each State III the Union has that power |
and the right to regulate railroads, and |
if two or three States-say New |
York, Pennsylvania and Illinois Were
to pass law that no car should pass
over the railroads of those States unless |
supplied with a safety car coupler, the
reform would be accomplished at once,
for there are hardly any cars in any OF
the States of the Union that do hot pass
over the railroads OF these States. OF
course there may be no monopoly about
this. 1t would simply provide that ev-
cry car should have safety coupler
not Mr.. Perry's nor Tommy" Greer's,
nor any other thai has been invented,
but a safety coupler that will save
the lives and limbs of the employees of
the railroads and insure safety Of travel.
If there is better coupler than Mr..
Perry's let it be adopted, but now that
it has been fully demonstrated that a
coupler has been invented and put into |
operation that meets the requirements
of the times there should be no heSita.
tion in applying it to all the railroads
in the United States.