St. Landry democrat., 1889-10-19
A Plea for Railway Employees.

To the Editor Will you permit me to
appeal through your columns to Chris
tan and humane public for united effort
to remedy two great wrongs done to very
deserving and now indispensable class of
public servants. refer to the deprivation
of Sunday rest and its privileges to rail-
way men, and lack of suitable and reas-
enable safety appliances on engines and
freight cars, causing by this lack in this
nation an untold amount of death and sui
fering to train men, especially to brakes
men and yard men.
"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 if there
was 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 Rail
road Gazette published in New York, issue
of April 26 last, is found this statement
ga calculation based upon accident returns
in the reports of State commissioners indi-
Gates that every year some 2, 200 able bod
led men are killed and over 10000 in
jured in the discharge of their duties as
employees of the railroads of this country"
This statement stands unrefuted. This,
of course, includes deaths and in juries
from all kinds of railroad accidents. My
special purpose at this time is to call at
tention to only two causes, or kinds Of &C
cidents, resulting in death and injury to
train men, those that come from coupling
and uncoupling cars, and from the contin-
ued use of the old hand break on freight
cars. What part of this number of 2, 700
killed and 10000 injured yearly comes
from these two causes alone, | am not able
at this writing to say, but | can furnish
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 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
there have been killed and in ured in this
hand break alone, 1926 strong, able bodied
men, and the great ma jority Of them young
men.
When these reports from the railroads
commenced we had about 1900 miles of
road, we now have little over 1000 The
report of the commissioners for 1888 shows
352 killed and INJURED by these two causes
alone, in this State last year,
We have in this nation now rising $780,
900 miles of railroad. If the same death
rate and injury holds all over the nation
as in Iowa land we have reason to be- Eve
it is greater) there are not less than 5000
of these young men ground to death under
the cruel iron wheels or caught between
the cars and more or less crippled for life
each year in this country.
This is indeed fearful statement and
ONE the general public will be slow to be-
lieve lust because of it's awfulness. Never
the ass it is too awfuIly true. | am under
rather than over the true facts. Railroad
experts tell me should make my calcula-
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
agEn Iowa is temperance State. Her
raa&5pad men are almost universally tenn
p@ nee men. Our trains are handled by
soksr men, but be that as it may, here are
tn astounding facts, 352 either killed or
inbred in the State of Iowa la st year and
Oh shis most favorable calculation, 600
in Mis- nation by these two causes alone.
BEs,why single cut these two things, viz:
the Ald link and pin plan for coupling cars
and the old hand brake for controlling the
trains?
OF course l do this for purpose. I am
aware of the fearful import of my words
when l now deliberately say that for all
this suffering there is now no valid excuse.
1t is wholly unnecessary, and can almost
all be prevented.
I shall carry every honest thinking
reader with me when l ask them if they
ever now see brakemen on top of passen
ger cars handling the brakes? Or how
often do they hear or read of a brakeman
being killed in coupling passenger cars :?
Why is this? Simply because these cars
are equipped with safety or mechanical
couplers and with power brakes which
latter are controlled by the engineer in his
cab.
1t is now proven beyond all shadow of
doubt that automatic couplers and power
brakes are as practically applicable to
freight as to passenger cars and would prove
to " an actual saving and economy in OPP
era<4ng railroad, for without considering
theAlelays, expenses and damages arising
froh continual wrecks, the sum of money
pail out annually by the railroads to parti
allS alleviate the suffering of the injured
men and their families is 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 ablest railroad ex
perts for the very purpose of ascertaining
the practicability of using the automatic
couplers and brakes on freigh! cars, and,
as said above, every doubt was removed
and SO admitted by the railroad experts
who as a committee from the National
Master Car Builders Association had these
experimental tests in charge and they so
reported to that body. Here then is the
point wish to make emphatic before the
public mind:
This "absenteeism" in the ownership OF
our railroad property as rule has the effect
of making these owners insenslble to the
dangers to life and limb to which our citi-
zens engaged in the railroad service are
continually exposed. and they are made to
stand before the public as heartl=ssly
weighing the terrific suffering from loss of
the lives and limbs of railway men, to-
gether with,the crushing grief of wives and
mothers, against the few paltry dollars of
outlay it might take to equip their engines
and freight cars with the safety appliances
now admitted to be not only practical but
in the end economical.
No matter how humane the general Off
GERS and management may be, or how will
ing to put on these life and limb saving
appliances, they are powerless to do so onl y
as the boards of directors vote to appropri-
ate the money for this special purpose.
All who are in any way familiar with the
temper of most boards of railroad directors
are aware that the great demand from them
upon the managers of their property is fol-
dividends" They are very slow to lister
to anything from these managing officers
/ that calls for considerable present outlay
of funds. These presidents and genera
managers want to be reinforced when they