Omaha daily bee., 1889-10-20

or tnat tle meeting Will prove as dlSaSterouS
to the company as IL proved unfortunate to
the passengers Railroad men, as rule,
admit that the practice of making too close
connections at points on the same line with
trains moving In opposite directions, is q Dad
one, and one that sooner or later must result
as did II in the wreck at Gibson. Practical
operators state that at least five minutes
difference should exist between train arrivals
under such circumstances. Then If a train
be belated, in either instance, a special
order, giving the right to the track to either
train is made necessity and the trainmen
in both cases are thereby made aware of the
fact
l.. ). Coifin eX-rGllroad commissioner of
Iowa, incorporates the following in his plea
for protection to railway employees, life and
limb, copy of which was forwarded to this
paper:
'It 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 be
an actual saving and economy in operating
railroad, for without considering the delays,
| expenses and damages arising from continual
wreck, the sum of money paid out annually
by the railroads TO partially alleviate the suf-
fering of these III ured men and their fami.
lies is greater than the cost Of the safety ap-
pliances.
"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 ascertaning
the practicability of using the automatic
couplers and brakes on freight 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 10 tnat
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 insensible to the dan
gers 10 life and limb to which our citizens en-
gagged in the railroad service are continually
exposed, and they are made TO stand before
the public as heartlessly weighing the terri
BILE suffering from loss Of the lives and limbs
OF railway men, together 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 10 be not only prac-
tical but in the end economical.
No matter how humane the general officers
and management may be, or how willing to
put on these life ana limb saving appliances,
they are powerless to do so only as the boards
OF directors vote to appropriate the money
for this special purpose.
All who are 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 for
| dividends" They are very slow TO listen
| to anything from these managing officers that
| calls for a considerable present outlay of
| funds These presidents and general man
| ayers want TO be reinforced when they go
| before the boards by a 'publlc sentiment" or
"thus saith the law.n While some of the
| roads are doing something toward applying
| these safety devices, our appeal is TO boards
OF directors and managers OF all railroads
and 10 the legislatures. both state and ma
tlonal, to give this humane subject their first
| consideration.
Tho great bomb to bo thrown by Chief
| Arthur into the meeting of tho Brotherhood
| OF Locomotive Engineers, as indicated by
| dispatches from Denver has, thus far, tailed
| to naterialize. The dispatches announced
| that the chief would make a clean breast of
| the burlington matter; that he would state
| Just why the brotherhood failed to carry
| the day. But little credence is given the
| reports. Members of tue brotherhood here
| state that Chief Arthur has nothing TO un-
bosom in connection with the Burlin gton
strike, aud the less he has TO say concerning
1t the less reflection will be cast upon himself.