The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1883-02-15
WHOLE NUMBER sz4.
Drowning and Burning.


The drowning and burning of the
travelling public was practiced with emi-
nent success last week by German
steamship company and an American
railway company. The press is naturally
very indignant, and demands to know
how long passengers will be carried on
steamers which are sure to sink if they
are run into, and on railway cars heated
in such a way as to insure the roasting
of passengers in case the train is wrecked.
Such inquiries are always made when
ever any great steamship or railway dis
aster takes place, but they never receive
any satisfactory answer. The drowning
of nearly four hundred people in the
German Ocean and the burning of
score of people in the California railway
accident were calamities that might have
been avoided by the use of proper means,
but it is extremely improbable that there
will be any Improvement made in the
construction of vessels or the heating OF
railway cars in consequence of them.
No matter how much ships that sink and
cars that burn may be denounced by the
newspapers, the steamship and railway
companies will pursue the even tenor of
their way just so long as no organized
and efficient effort to secure the safety OF
the travelling public is made.
The Cimbria was undoubtedly as well
built as most other ocean steamships.
That is to say, she had the usual worth
less water-tight compartments, which
are too large-with the solitary and oc-
casional exception of the forward com
partment-to be of any real service. So
long as steamers are provided with only
one screw the middle compartment, in
which the machinery is placed, cannot
be divided longitudinally, and must be
large enough to sink the ship in case it
is filed with water, and so long as pas
senger steamers carry vast quantities of
freight, which must be handled rapidly
at each end of the route, we need not
expect to see them provided with enough
water-tight compartments to render them
unsuitable.
1t is perfectly practicable to build a
ship with so many water-tight compart-
ments that she cannot be sunk. This
has been done in the case of the great
Italian iron-clad the Italia. She can be
cut into three or four pieces, any of
which will float for an indefinite period.
As soon as the freight and passenger
business are separated at sea as they are
on land, and as soon as the passenger
steamers are built with twin screws and
longitudinal bulkheads, such disasters
as those of the Cambria or City OF
Brussels will be made impossible.
This has not hitherto been done
simply because there is no organized
demand for it. Steamship companies
find it profitable to clirg to the old
methods in spite of an occasional loss OF
a ship, and the public forgets disasters
at sea almost as soon as they are over,
and exhibits no sign of discomfort with
steamers that are sure to sink like lead
when they are run into by other vessels.
Were there sufficient reason to suppose
that the public would patronize line OF
unsinkable steamers at prices which
would compensate the owners for their
inability to carry freight. such steamers
would be promptly built. If the travel
ing public is really determined not. to
be drowned it has only to convince
steamship builders to that fact and
unsuitable steamers will at once be pro.
vided.
The railway men continue to heat
their cars with stoves and to light them
with kerosene lamps, because the public
is at ordinary times perfectly satisfied
with stoves and lamps. Mr.. Vanderbilt
once tried the experiment of lighting his
cars with candles, but the travelling pub.
lie abused him for his alleged parsimony
and demanded 10 have the kerosene
lamps put back. Of course, when car
load of passengers has been roasted BY
an upset stove the railway companie;
are violently abused for heating theil
cars with stoves, but month after the
tragedy is over the public is again per
fectly satisfied with the stoves. A Goa
stove heats car to that unbearable de-
gree of heat that the travelling American
citizen demands. No other method ol
heating would satisfy him, for without
the sight of a red-hot stove he could moi
be convinced that he was comfortably
warm. Were the stoves to be taken ou
and the cars to be heated either witt
steam from the locomotive or with ho
water, the majority of passengers would
grumble. They would insist that they
were not warm enough, and that the
company was too parsimonious to pro
vide its cars with stoves. Of course, ir
time, even the grumblers would become
convinced that they could be comforta
BILE without soaring their eye-balls by
gazing on red-hot stove, but the re-
moval of the stoves would at first be 6
very unpopular measure. The railway
companies know this, and they natur
ally continue to heat their cars with
stoves. They are far too intelligent te
confound a temporary outcry made by
the press just after the occurrence of {
railway accident with the real wishes o.
American railway travelers.-M =
Times.