New-York tribune., 1891-03-07

cases of Mr. Depew and the others. MIR. Nlcoll
| afterward said that the subject would be placed
| before the Grand Jury at as early date as pos
sibIe lie said that it would be difficult to prose-
| cute the directors of the New-York, New-liaVen
and Hartford Railroad Company who lived IN Con
necticut if they kept out of this State but he had
! no idea that they would take advantage of their
non-resdence The officials could be prosecuted
under Section 7Os of the Code of Criminal Pro-
| cedure
| MR. DEpEw PROTESTS AND EXPLAINS.
| Chauncey NJ Depew told Tribune reporter
| that he was surprised that the C0rohers JURY
| composed of business men, should siVe such
verdict. What they propose" he said. us that
the directors, as well as the people Immediately
in contact with the accident. should be held re-
sponsbe for the accdent-tor murder III lacu.
| That is their proposition. If any OF these senIe-
men ever sat on any Board OF Directors OF Iuul- M
| way company they ought to know that wnle
| the Board of Directors are the hnal authority,
| yet, as a matter of fact, the expert business OF
| operations of the road are matters that boaru
| of Directors cannot attend to, and II they aU-
! tempted it they would make a failure OF IL. Inc
| stockholders elect Board of Directors to manage
| the affairs of the company. 1hey look ai.eI ~; ns
| finances and provide the means for furnlshing
it with equipment and with such things as the
officers and engineers and superlntendents anu
managers, who are experts, and whom they en-
plOy. recommend.
4" | do not think there ever a case where a
| Board of Directors OF a railway company nave re-
fused TO purchase or supply what the expert peo-
pie who are employed for that purpose recon-
| mend them to get.
DUTIES OF DIRECTORS.
a Board of Directors selected by the body OF
Stockholders to look after their interests can neces-
sarily know nothing about signals or methods Of
car-heatng or the power of electric lights ana
the penetrating possibilities of colors in fog or
smoke or darkness but they employ the very best
talent known or found and pay very high salaries
for it, to inform them on these questions, anu
when the directors have done that they have done
all that Board of Directors can possibly do.
AS TO the ventilation of the tunnel
which evening paper says We OughC
To bc indicted on-wc have tried for years
TO ventiiatc the tunnel more thoroughly. and have
been denied permission by the public authorities.
We have had constant struggle TO keep the
ventilation have.
They say we ought TO be hanged for murder be-
cause We have not electric lighting IN the tuhnel
Well the Board of Directors had the testimony OF
men who were c0mpetcnt-they were competent
themselves 10 speak on such sublects-that IL
would confuse the engineer; and Notwithstanding
the recommendation of the Grand jury, III IN tne
face of such testimony they had adopted electric
lights in the tunnel. and accident had occurred
every one of the directors would have been in
dictcd for manslaughter because they had done
thing which experts had told them would lead
to just that result.
ABOUT STEAM HEATING.
$50 far Us heating the cars is concerned there
is no railroad man IN the United States who be-
lieves that. up to the present time, steam-heatng
is any better or safer than the best and most i'm
proved kind of heating by stoves. Steam-heating
came into this Statc-I think it exists, if at all.
in ONLY one or two other StatcS-under great
pressure Of public clamOr. The NewiOrk Central
Road, soon as the law passed which gave the
authority and also assumed on the part of the
Legislature the responsibility, obeyed the law
and adopted steam-heating. | have conversed
since this accident with railway men who were
in my office yesterday from all parts of the United
States. and the Gblcst and most expert men there
are in the business and they say that. in the
present condition of heating by steam, they are In
constant terror of what may happen
The conditions are exactly these. You get
stove OF the latest improved PATTERN. The
coal is put in at the top. The coal is Dramatically
sealed inside. The stove is anchored down to
The floor. that II cannot be knocked over: and
then il is confined in an iron or "A zinc pen, with
iron door. The car is not heated directly
from the stove but from hot water, which runs
through pipes all around the car, and the water
.s heated by the stove. The only accident that
can possibly occur Is that the stove in collision
shall bc smashed as TO set fire to the car.
Collisions very rare in proportion to the
number of trains that run and the number
Of people who travel They are so rare that the
accident companies all make fortunes out of
nsuring men for So 600 for - cents. The New
Haven road. for instance, in | think eighteen
years has had no accident from stoves, although
it carries l2,OOO,OOO people year.
WHAT HE FEARS.
"Now against your chance that there may D"
n collision, that in collision this stove may be
smashed SO rs to set fire TO car. you have on
the steam heating this other chance. The steam
comes from the boiler, and the pressure IN the
ears is controlled by valve. The steam
in the boiler has $50 pounds pressure
and the inhaling of il VIII kili a
human being IN ten seconds. III the NaINc shouiu
break and the whole force of the steam IN the
boiler 20 through the raln IN thirty seconds there
would not be person alive IN any one OF the cars,
and the train would haul up at the next station
perfect far rs the Tram was concerned, puI
Fortunately no such accident has occurred
as Yet with loss of lite, but in my own car about
"a month ago the steam coil burst fortunately
was in the rear and 50 | got Out immediately II
that had happened at night, and had been in
bed, | would have been found there dead i'll the
morning from nhaling steam.
In the Grand Central Depot yard the switch
ing of Il ear ON to a train in some way broke the
valve The steam escaped into Wagner sleeping
car, in which, fortunately, no one was, ana the
force of il was such that It broke al OF the Plate
glass mirrors, which are quarter OF an men
thick the platc-glass windows, and took the var
nish of the car II any one had been IN th't
car ne would have been dead in hvc seconds
In an accident on the Lchgh Valley Road some
passengers | was informed. found in ear
dead, though the was uniniurcd. They were
sitting in their seats as if nothing had happened
They had inhaled the escaping steam
STILL AN OPEN QUESTION
"All these things prove that, Notwithstanding
theories and popular convusions on questions
which nearly concern the lives of the travelling |
public and that is the life of everybody II is |
still an open question what is the safest method |
of heating passenger car.
Some of the newspapers talk as II the managers |
of the railway did not care whether the passengers
on their road were killed not, and as If they |
did not care how often accidents occurred ana |
Indifferent as to the nature of thein ana ab-
solutcy Indifferent as to the methods for guarding
against accidents or providing for the safety OF
passengers. if any expense were involved
The utter abSurdity OF this is readily seen
when il is remembered that in the competitions
of railways and the different lines that exist by
which people can get into Ncw-lork and out or
it each line eNhaustS every effort 70 make It's
road attractive to the travelling public. To do
that it adopts every appliance II decor2tes ITS
ears without regard to expense. II furnishes the
highest rate of speed consistent with safety, and