St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-10-03
ASCERTAINING IT'S VALUE.

The people of the state are gradu-
ally but surely finding out the value
of the railroad commission to the
state of Vermont, as has been pre-
dicted in these columns from the
start. Below are three press COM
ments from different parts of the
state, all appearing last week.
So far as it goes there is no fault
| to be fonnd with the commissioners
finding, of the Brooksville disaster
but in order to satisfy the public the
commission should have proceeded
one step farther and inquired wheth-
er the railroad company was not
blameable in running wild" trains
at all. 1t is argued by men of intelli-
gence that the railroad has no moral
right to send out a train with orders
| of that character, leaving the respon-
| sibility for the safety not only OF
| that train but of others on the road
entirely with the engineer and con-
! ductor of the wild train Middle
bury Register.
The report of the railroad commits
sioners upon the Brooksville accident
will be found in another column.
Like all reports of this board it finds
no fault with the road and perhaps
this is but right in this instance.
But we would like to inquire if some
railroad official did not urge engineer
| Gibson to go out with that fated
train after he had asked to be reliev-
ed because of lack of rest the day and
night preceding the accident? Is it
not true that engineer ChilsOn was
assigned an engine other than the one
| he had been accustomed to drive and
which was not in the best of order !?
Is it not true that although the no
tice ofthe running of the special train
was issued to all engineers and con-
ductors on the line there was no no.
tice of the running of such special
posted in the engine assigned to
| Gibson on that trip-his own notice
being posted in his own engine? Is it
not true that the notice was issued a
week or more before the accident
happened when Gibson was running
on another division of the road and
that no other and further notice was
given to him P st. Adams Sentry.
1t would be interesting to know
just how many commissions OF all
sorts and sizes, created by act of the
legislature, are now in operation in
this state. These toys are manufac-
tured to give 'snap" and little
cheap notoriety to cheaper politi-
clans, as a rule, and are simply an
imposition on the public. Il Hard
wick Gazette
FRENCH CANADIANS IN THE UNI
TED STATES.
(From Galignanis Messenger, Paris, France,
of September ~.
The st. Johnsbury CALIFORNIAN, one
of the best weekly journals in New
England, does not feel much conf
dence in the scheme for repeOpling
Vermont by Swedish immigrants. 1t
sees two serious practical difficulties
in the way. One is the fact that the
non-occupied lands are not owned by
the government, the state, or any
great corporation, which might sell
them at a fixed price, but by private
individuals, so that anything like a
concerted movement to occupy them
would at once create boom in real
estate that would discourage if not
defeat the scheme altogether. The
other obstacle is the fact that Yer
mont as well as the rest of northern
New England lis in effect already
mortgaged to another nationality"
the French Canadians. The Gale
DOMAIN says that these people ''are
coming into Vermont in great num-
bers. They already own a good
share of the farms in the northern
tier of counties, and are filling the
manufacturing towns with opera
tives of both sexes and laborers in all
departments of industry and trade.
When it is known that in place no
larger than ST. .Johnsbury (which had
but 5, 800 inhabitants in 1880 the
parish priest numbers his parish at
between 1900 and 1000 souls foreign
born or born of foreign parentage,
the increase of the Canadian element
in Vermont begins to be appreciated.
Considering that the Roman Catho-
lie authorities in Canada look upon
New England as their future country
and the home of their religion, that
they are bending every energy to
make it SO, and that statistics show
the French Canadian to be the most
prolific race on the globe, the St.
JOhnsburv paper feels warranted in
saying that Vermont has a mort
gage upon it that will be hard to
lift. - New York Nation, August