The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1893-03-03
APPALLING MORTALITY,

APPALLING MORTALITY.
Human Lives Sacrificed to Corporate
Greed.
Whenever the details of serious
railway accident, near approaching
the fatality of the bridge accident at
Ashtabula or the collision at Chats
worth, ILL.,, are published a SILVER
goes through the country from one
end of it to the other and ever there
after the accident is called a horror"
always qualified. of course, by the
name of the place in which it occurred.
There are few members of the present
mature generation who have not heard
or discussed the Ashtabula or the
Chatsworth horror. Their occurrence
was followed by long so-called homi-
letics in the pulpit and press on
criminal carelessness in railroad man
agement, criminal execution of care
lessly worded rules and SO on for
quantity. It was not the quality of
the lives snuffed out in those accidents
or any other accidents equally horri-
BILE that provoked the discussions,
severe criticisms, ETC., but the guam
tity, and yet it is probable that the
number of people killed in both acct.
dents would not aggregate much more
than 100. Had casualties been dis
tributed at frequent intervals, killing
man here and there until the num-
Der of deaths equalled the number of
those who died at Ashtabula and
Chatsworth, they would probably
have each received the attention
ordinarily devoted to a newspaper
paragraph and have been forgot
ten.
In the last compilation Of statistics
presented by the Interstate Com
merce commission facts are made
known that make the Ashtabula and
Chatsworth accidents seem almost
trivial, says the Cincinnati Times
Star. They show that in the one
year ending June 80, 1890, 22,3
railroad employees and 4,2O6 passen-
gers and people trespassing on rail-
roads were injured in this country
alone, while 2,441 railroad employees
were killed and 1893 people classed
| as passengers, trespassers and non
trespassers were killed. This is an
average of about 100 day killed and
injured by railroad accidents in Amer
lea. The figures are appalling. Of
trainmen alone-that is, men who act
as firemen and engineers, as conduc-
tors and brakemen-1, $50 were killed
and ID, 172 injured. OF the passen-
gers killed in the period just named
there were 286, and 2,425 injured.
And these railroad accidents, be it
known, are increasing at an alarming
rate. Thus during the year ending
June 80, 1891, one employe was killed
for every 296, for the corresponding
period of the year before one employee
in 800 was killed. The increase in
the number of employees killed during
the year covered by this report over
the previous year is 9 per cent, the
increase in the number injured is II
per cent, while it is shown that the
| increase in the number of men taken
into employment is less than 5 per
cent.
The total number of railway en-
ployes in America is set down at
749, 301. Every year the average of
the men injured shows not less than
one in every thirty three. In the list
OF those trainmen killed, 262 have
been killed while coupling or uncoup-
| ling cars, 456 in falling from trains
and engines, eighty-one by overhead
n ,c{ -
ties among train men are confined to
| collisions, derailments, accidents at
| highway crossings, at stations, etc.
Nearly half of the entire number of
those killed was from coupling and
uncoupling, falling from trains and
from overhead distractions, every
one of which could have been avoided
if automatic couplers and air. brakes
had been employed instead of
the old fashioned murderous
| devices which still obtain
among the great majority of the
railroads of the country. If the air.
brakes were employed on freight
trains as they are employed on many
of the transcontinental trains there
would be no necessity for the mem
bers of the train crew occupying po-
sitions on the roof of cars. Falling
from trains and having their lives
knocked out by overhead distractions
would not then be to them an almost
common fate. If automatic couplers
were used, as has been recommended
in the presidents message, brakemen
would never be caught between the
bumpers of freight cars. The inter-
state commerce commissioners insist
that the comparison of accidents
which they make in their annual re-
port leaves very unsatisfactory i'm
preston, and with one accord they
are in favor of such legislative action
as will tend to arrest this awful NOR
tally in an army made up Of 749,301
men.