The herald., 1893-10-25
RAILROAD doRRoRs THE ORDER OF
THE DAY.

rightful railroad accident is not an
nounced by the overland dispatches.
Some of them are unattended by loss oi
| life, but others, like tie Battle Greek
tragedy, are marked by great mortality
and made thrilling by the peculiar and
unspeakable agonies of the doomed peo-
pie. In the latter case che complete
telescoping of two cars was Immediately
followed by blaze which roasted the
poor passengers who had been pinned
in their places by the debris. How
frightful and at the same time pathetic
was the story of the poor woman who
had been hauled half way out of win
dow, but then was found to be wedged
fast to the car by her lower limbs. The
men who were trying to rescue her were
compelled to leave her to her horrid
fate when the flames burst through the
opening in which she was wedged. She
died martyr and a Christian in full
view of the great crowd, who were com.
PEELED to witness her last agonies, but
impotent to save her.
Here let us pause and ask why the
triumphs of modern science are not
availed of to prevent the possibility OF
q scene so appalling? The fire was the
result OF using oil lamps in the cars. If
they. had been furnished with electric
lamps the FIRE could not have occurred,
valuable lives would haye been saved
in this instance, and the accident at
Battle Creek would have been shorn of
hslf of its terrorE.
1t is a noticeable fact that nearly all
the recent railroad accidents have taken
place on trains going to or coming from
the worlds fair. and that they occurred
in densely settled part of the country.
It is inco nceivable that the companies
are allowed to operate in such localities
on single track. II they were COM
PEELED to double-track their lines there
would be no possibility Of collisions,
and the safety of travellers would be
infinitely increased in the thickiy set
tied states. The Interstate Commerce
commission could render great service
to humanity by securing q general law
that would compel these railway cor
porations to double-track their roads.
They should also insist that in all pas
senger trains the electric lamp should
take the place of the dangerous oil
lamp. The deadly coal stove should
also be discarded, and all passenger cars
provided with heating pipes supplied
with steam from the locomotives.
There is great laxity somewhere of
care for human life in the operation of
railroads in the United States. The
statistics show that between twenty and
thirty Thousand train hands are either
killed or MANNED every year by the old
coupling method. There has been
bill before congress for several years to
compel the companies to furnish their
cars with self-adjusting couplers. which
would do away with all risk to the
hands in performing this dangerous
duty. The corporations have had influ-
ence enough with congress to stave off
from year to year this humane legisla-
ton, 30 that the work of killing and
manning goes on. Some ten or dozen
patent couplers have been invented,
any of which would subserve the pur-
pose of coupling the cars without risk
to the train hands. But the cupidity of
the companies is greater than their hu-
manity, and to save the cost of furnish
ing the cars with one of these inventions
they have successfully lobbied against
the bill that would compel them to
avail themselves of safety automatic
couplers.
1t is not to our credit that we permit
human life to be trihed with as it is by
the railroad corporations. and it is
burning shame that we should permit
the safety of travellers on railways to be
considered for moment against the
cost to the corporations of supplying
every improvement and invention that
will guard and render more secure the
people who entrust themselves on their
trains.
The Interstate Commission could we'll
pause in their work of adjusting rates
for while and take up this more i'm
portant subject.
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