Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-07-10
aancaster fntelligencer.
TUESDAY EVENING, JULY 10. 1888.
A Public Wrong.

"A L
Judge Boyer, at NOrristown, has re
fused the Injunction asked for by the
Reading railroad company to forbid the
laying of branch of the Pennsylvania
railroad upon Lafayette street, In that
town. The decision, We understand,
was based upon the ground that the
special injury threatened to the Reading
railroad company did not warrant the
Injunction but yet the decision goes In
effect further, in that it declares that the
road bed of street may be occupied by
a railroad company because of the neces
sites of commerce.
We hope that the time is at hand
when our roadways will receive ade-
quate protection from the courts or the
Legislature against the impudent en-.
croachments of railroads. If the law is
as laid down by Judge Boyer, then the
relief must come from the Legislature.
But we do not believe that he has cor
rectly stated the law. 1t may be the
law, as it will be construed by the
supreme court, for there is no telling
what that tribunal will decide. But it
is not the law, as the sense of the people
will decide it, that a railroad may be
laid upon the bed of a street that was
laid out for the convenient passage Of
men and horses and wagons SO as to de
prive the men and horses and wagons of
that free use of the roadway which is
their prerogative. These rights of the or
binary uses of roadways have long been
trampled upon, we know, clear as they
are. The power of the railroads has
secured them the privilege from the
courts and Legislature of crossing road
ways at grade and at speed, with sim
pie warning from their whistle. This
has been given them under the plea of
its necessity and it would be a good
plea if true one because necessity is
not to be withstOod. But it is not nee
essary that railroad should cross an
other road at grade. It. can always be
taken above or below it, and always
should be. The user OF the road,
whose ancient right has been
interfered with by this modern
invention, is entitled to lie protected
against any interference with his right
which is not dictated by an absolute
necessity. He has not received such
protection. He does not even receive
damages when he is injured at a crossing
unless he can prove that he stopped and
or in fO
avoid the accident. Such is the responsi
bility imposed upon him by the wise men
who enjoy as supreme court judges free
passes and other distinguished favOrs from
railroad companies. The day of the tar
rying of such men on the bench is wan
Ing fast, and soon the places that know
them will know them no more, nor any
of their kind.
When that time comes such law as
that which Judge Boyer would give us
will be condemned. 1t will not be de
clared to be a necessity of commerce
that railroads be laid upon and along
the streets of a town. its engines and
cars to run side by side with the
horses and wagons and men who form
erly enjoyed its exclusive use. The rail
road is very we'll. 1t is necessity but
it must be laid down SO as to infringe
the least upon ancient rights. 1t is well
that the Pennsylvania branch should go
through Norristown but it should 60
through above its streets or below them
not on them. If it is raised so high as
not to interfere with the passage be
meath of the tallest wagon, then there
will be no unnecessary interference 10y it
with the streets of NOrristOwn. Build
ing its abutments where they will not
ObStruct the use of the roadway and
raising its ssuperStructure so as to be out
of the way, the courts and the Leg stature
may permit railway to go through a
town and along or across road without
unnecessary injury of driver for whom
the roads and the streets were laid out.
The borough authorities of NOrristOwn
probably agreed to give the Pennsylva
MIA branch the privilege of using the
roadway of its street but those author
tiles have not or ought not to have that
power. City councils are not uniformity
nor even ordinarily wise, nor always hon
est. They may not give the birthright
of their people away. This town of
Lancaster has suffered long from the
stupidity and supineness of its authori
ties IN facing railroad oppression
when the railroad was yet in its
infancy, the Philadelphia railroad
was drawn by our ancestors frori the
line around the city to which it has just
returned, and the cost Of grading the
track into the city was paid by it to Sc
cure the entrance into its centre. That
folly was excusable in that early date in
railroad experience. But since then il
has been repeated in the permission
given to the Reading railroad to traverse
one of the city streets through its whole
length a privilege that ought never to
have been granted, and that would be
uncomfortable if the traffic over the road
was great. And now the Pennsylvania
railroad has been allowed to take its
line along the edge of the city
making no provision for bridges where
tho city streets, unlaid out, cross
it, and crossing the many turnpikes
it meets at our gates either at grade OF
by bridges whose abutments stand faE
into the roadway, where the railroad
CROSSES above or whose Superstructurp