The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-11-06
A Plea for Railway Employees.

50 Sttlu ne W wv oi'tsnS e'
snake. The Sabbath would not he
needed only as mans good required it.
Hence if no man there would be no
Sabbath. Let us first then endeavor to
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
Railroad Gazette, published in New
York, issue of April 26 last, is found
this statement IA calculation based
upon accident returns in the reports OF
State commissioners indicates that ev-
ery year some 200 able-bodied men
are killed, and over 10000 injured in
the discharge Of their duties as employ
es of the railroads of this country"
The statement stands unrcfuted.
This, of course, includes deaths and in
|juries from all kinds of railroad acci-
dents. My special purpose at this
time is to call attention to only two
causes, or kinds Of accidents, resulting
in death and injury to train men, those
that come from coupling and uncoup-
ling cars, and from the continued use
of the old hand brake on freight cars.
What part of this great number of q
700 killed and 10000 injured yearly
comes from these two causes alone in
the nation at large, I am not able at
this writing to say, but I can funish
reliable statistics as to this matter as
far as the State of Iowa is concerned.
ut may be proper to say here that the
writer was one of the railroad commits
sioners 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 casu-
alties 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 hand brake alone,
2, ,426 strong, able-bodied men, and the
great majority of them young men.
When these reports from the rail-
roads commenced we had about 1000
miles of road; we now have little
over 5000. The report of the commits
sioners for 1883 shows 352 killed and
injured by these two causes alone in
this State last year.
shall carry every honest-thinking
reader with ME when I ask them if
they ever now see brakemen on top of
passenger cars handling the breakes =?
Cr how often do they hear or read of
brakeman being killed in coupling
passenger cars? Why this: Simply
because these cars are equipped with
safety or mechanical couplers and with
power brakes which latter are controll-
ed by the engineer in his cab.
It is now proven beyond all shadow
of doubt that automatic couplers and
power brakes are as practically applic-
able to freight as to passenger cars,
and would prove to be al actual saving
and economy in operating a railroad,
for without considering the delays,
expenses and damages arising from
continual wrecks, the sum of money
paid out annually by the railroads to
partially alleviate thesufferingo of these
injured men and their families is great
er than the cost of the safety appli-
ances.
1t is with the public to say whether
this shall be done or not. So common
is this killing of brakenen the public
have come to think it an inseparable
part of railroad transportation. Must
these poor fellows by the thousand
yearly be sacrificed on the altar of the
penuriousness of owners of railroad
property?
1t is almost beyond belief that the
public has sat still and allowed this
terrible price to be paid year after year
and made no protest. The time for
any excuse is now past. Time was
when an engine without a "driver
braken on could be called finished and
put to work OH the road-an almost
unmanageable thing-not so now.
Time was when freight cars without
automatic couplers and power brakes
could be called finished and be put to
service, with all their death dealing ap-
pliances-not SO now.
The great humane and Christian
public, when once aroused by knowl-
edge of these terrible facts which dis
grace our railroad age, will not longer
sit still and allow cars to be built four
fifths wood and iron and the other
fifth the mangled flesh and broken
bones of these train men engaged in
railroad service.
There is not railroad director in
America that would for all the rail
roads in the nation do duty as Il brake
man one single night on the top of
these trains. Why! 1t will be looked
back upon as one of the most inhuman
things Of this civilization, to compel a
human being to tie exposure as is done
every day and every night in ten thous-
and cases, on the top of these fast mov-
ing, swaying trains at all hours Of the