Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-12-28

Anew Point To An Old Law.

The grand jury OF New York has found
Al Indictment for manslaughter against
Charles w. Pierce, superintendent of the
Brush Electric Light company, in caus-
Ing the death by electricity Of Henry
Harris, clerk in store who was killed
while carrying into the store from the
sidewalk q show case whose top touched
. low hanging electric light that was
not properly insulated. The jury finds
that Piercc's duty as superintendent was
70 zee that the electric lamp was prop
erly hung and that its insulation was
perfect.
No objection can be reasonably made
to the soundness Of the proposition that
anyone who by his neglect causes the
death Of another, may be held acc9Yrtto
able therefor to the criminal lawted s5S {
this objectleg tflHtiits !. !. not habitually
ao9s, ~nen the criminal is the employo
Of a corporation (which doubtless Is due
to the fact that the fault Is the corpor-
atoms rather than the officers, and the
corporation directors are not held re-
sponsible, because of the condition Of
public sentiment which treats their
very culpable neglect with q degree Of
forbearanco that it Is hard to account
for.
Who will deny the abstract propoei.
tlion that the directors Of tho Brush
Electric Light compauy,in maintaining
wires conveying death dealing amount
OF electricity, are the real parties re-
sponsible for the deaths they cause; and
that the superintendent, whose failure
to uote u defect In the apparatus was
the Immediate cause of the fatality, is
guilty ia much less degree than are
those who entrusted to him thing
that no ordinary oaro would make safe I?
When the case Of this superintendent
comes before jury and 1t appears that
he had no knowledge OF the lack Of
insulation In thls lamp and that
he could not have knowledge at
every moment Of the state of every
part Of the many miles Of wires and Of
tho many hundred Of lamps under his
eharge, it will say that tha fault 10 In
the dangerous system that was given to
! this mans superintendence, and that
the really guilty parties are the men
who established II and who maintain 1t
for their gain.
i It l. high time that tho directors of
public works should be held to criminal
responsibility for their failure to estab.
lish and conduct them In manner that
will be - safe as the existing condition
Of human knowledge can secure. This
indictment In Now York is In tho right
direction; when the superintendents
fA!l into the tolls, the directors cannot
ungor long behind. Suppose that tho
railroad superintendent should be In
dt,ted for loss Of life caused
by his failure to provide safeguards
that would have avoided 1t he will
\ show that this neglect was In the rail-
road directors. What then could save
them from Jail, under the new recog.
milton Of the old law that makes men
criminalIy liable for the fatal conse-
qucnces Of their neglect to conduct their
business with reasonable precautions
against such disasters? How many rail-
road directors would be out Of Jail to-day
II this law was applied to the conso-
quences Of their failure to put safety
couplers upon their freight cars? Brake.
men are daily slain upon the best and
richest roads In the country, In going
between cars in order to couple them
together; when there are many well
known devices that render such dam
gerous exposure unnecessary. A failure
70 promptly provide such couplerupon
every car, as soon as its utility was dis
covered, is certainly such neglect
upon the part of railroad man
Hgemeut Us to make the con-
tinued slaughter Of its brakemen a
criminal act on their part. But as
brakemen are cheap and plenty, new
men standing ready in crowds to I'LL the
dead mems shoes, the slaughter
goes en-, and the last conception Of duty
that railroad manager has is the pro.
lection of the lives OF his employees.
The passenger, who is able to reach the
railroad treasury In case Of its neglect,
has greater attention given to his safe
carriage; but there is nothing to spare
In the interest shown even in him.