The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1889-10-20
PLEA FOR TRAINMEN,
Need Of Sunday Rest and Life
. Saving Appliances.
Whniiy Unnecessary Sacrifice OF Human
Beings. Owing To Desire far Divf-
dens for Stockholders.
Is Cofsn y,r, 49, :.

L s. Ccfsn. Fort Des,ge. IL
WIN you permit me to appeal through
your columns 10 Christian and humane
pubic for united effort TO remedy two
great wrongs done 10 a very deserving and
now indispensable class Of public servants.
refer 10 the deprivation of Sunday rest
aha lis privileges 10 railway men. and the
iask OF suitable and reasonable safety APP
psianees on engines and freight cars. caus-
ing BY this lack in this nation an untold
amount al death and suffering TO frainmen.
especially To brakesrnen and yarumen
The Sabbath was made for man. so
said He who spake as never man spake.
The Sabbath would not be needed only as
mans good required it. Hence il no man
there would be no Sabbath. let as FIRST
then endeayor 10 stay this great loss of life
and limb TO railroad men and then secure
TO these saved men the Sabbath.
Note these startling facts. In the Rail
road tsazetfs. published in New York. issue
OF April % last. is found this statement "A
calculation based upon accident returns in
the reports of state commissioners indi-
Gates that every year some ,, 20 able bodied
men are killed aud over a0.0f injured in
the iii scharge of their duties as employees
OF the railroads of this country"
This statement stands unrefuted. This,
OF course. includes deaths and injuries
from all kinds Of railway accidents. My
special purpose at this time is to call atten-
ton 10 only two causes. or kinds of acct
dents, resulting in death and injury to
trainmen. those that come from coupling
and uncoupling ears. and from the contin-
he'd ~ fhp al .h~nE ,e,l. q
cars. What part of this great number of
eco Killed and ao,oo injured yearly
comes from these two causes alone in the
nation at large, am not able at this writ
ing To say. but | can furnish reliable Stats
tics as TO this matter as far rs the state of
Iowa is concerned. Ut may be proper TO
say here that the writer was one of the
railroad commissioners of this state for
nearly five years.)
Our commissioner law has been in force
for ten years. This law requires railroad
companies to report all casualties and
their kind to the board. In these ten years
there have been killed and injured in this
state by the link and pin coupling and
mandrake alone, :, i26 strong. able-bodied
men. and the great majority OF them young
men.
When these reports from the railroads
commenced we had 4 .000 miles of road we
now have little over 5000. The report of
the commissioners for 1883 shows 352 killed
and injured by these two causes alone in
this state last year.
We have in this nation now rising $50, 900
miles OF railroad. Ii the same death rate
and injury holds all over the nation as in
Iowa land We have reason to believe 1t is
grcater) there are not less than $500 Of
these young men ground to death under
the cruel iron wheels or caught between
the cars and more or less crippled Tor life
each year in this country.
This is indeed fearful statement, and
one the general public will be slow to be-
lieve just because of its awfulness. Never
theless il is too awfully true. am under,
rather than over the true facts. Railroad
experts tell me should make my calcuIa-
tons on the number of engines in use,
rather than on the miles of road in the
state. There is good reason for this. Then
again Iowa is temperance state. Her
railroad men are almost universally tenn
perance men. Our trains are handled by
sober men. but be that as it may, here are
the astounding facts, $50 either killed or
injured in the state of Iowa last year. and
on this most favorable calculation. 6,6U1 i'm
this nation by these two causes alone. But
why single out these two things, viz, the
old link and pin plan for coupling cars and
the old hand brake for controlling the
trains?
OF course | do this for purpose. | am
aware of the fearful import of my words
when | now deliberately say that for all this
inexpressihle suffering and all these tragic
deaths to these brave men there is now no
valid excuse. 1t is wholly unnecessary and
can almost all be prevented.
/ shall carry every honest thinking reader
with me when ask them if they ever now
see hrakemen on top of passenger ears
handling the brakes2 Or how often do
they hear or read OF brakeman being
killed in coupling passenger cars2 Why is
this? Simply because these cars are equip
ped with safety or mechanical couplers and
with power brakes which latter are con
trolled by the engineer in his CAB.
Ii is now proven beyond all shadow of
doubt that automatic conplers and power
brakes are as practically applicable 10
freight as 10 passenger cars, and would
prove TO he an actual saving and economy
in operating a railroad for without consider
ing the DELAYS, expenses and damages aris-
ing from continual wrecks. the sum OF
money paid out annually by the
railroads to partially alleviate the
suffering of these injured men and
their families IL greater than the cost of the
safety appliances.
While on the railroad commission the
writer spent weeks. yes months, on expert
mental trains with the abiest railroad ex-
perts for the very purpose OF ascertaining
tire practicabiiity OF using the automatic
couplers and brakes on freight cars, and
as said above, every doubt was removed
and 80 admitted by the railroad ex-
perts. who, as a committee from the
National Master Car Builders association
had these experimental tests in charge. and
they so reported 10 that body. Here then
is the point wish 10 make emphatic be-
fore the public mind.
This ..absenteeism" in the ownership Of
our railroad property as rule has the
effect ef making these owners insensible to
the dangers 10 life and limb IL which our
citizens engaged in the railroad service are
continually exposed, and they are made to
stand before the public as hear;iessly weigh
ing the terrible suffering from loss of the
lives and limbs OF railway men, together
with the crushing grief 81 wives and
mothers, against the few paltrv dollars Of
outlay il might take Ia equip their engines
and freight cars wish the safety appliances
now admitted 10 he not only practical bat
in the end economical.
No matter how humane the general Off
GERS ard management may be. or how wii-
ling 10 pat on these life and limb saving
appliances. they are powerless to do 20
only As the boards oi directors vote ~ appro-