Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-12-21
A USELESS SLAUGHTER.
The Terrible Loss of Life for Which thu
Railroads Are Responsible.

/ Railroads Are Responsible.
| No feature of American development
either receives or deserves more admir-.
ing attention than ouy railroad system.
The most cynical grumbler who raves
against our institutions has to face a
stubborn fact when he is reminded o1
them. Usually, he is frank and honest
enough to admit that he has only praise
to give them. - sF
The reports gathered from reliable
sources justify the eulogium. Last
year 80, 139 locomotives operated over
16S, 400 miles of track, dragging 1876
| GIL cars and more than 81 600, 200, 600 OF
freightage. :The expenses of this colos-
sal enterprise were 1871, ss7, 1898; 81, $50
per mile.
The shrieks of these engines. are the
| heralds of the commercial and intel
| lectual intercourse which YIELDS our
| vast territory into the closest union
| and gathers the wealth of the world
for the enrichment of every village in
the United States. Forests, fisheries
| and mines, thoughts that breathe and
words that burn, events making his
| tory, and that modern miracle, the
newspaper, all owe an incalculable
debt to our railways.
But really one is more than aston
ished, indeed deeply panied, to learn
| that the number of persons killed in
the last year was 1929; injured, 80, sS1.
To put these astounding and melan-
choly figures in another way: The
slaughter exceeded that of the war
of 1919. No solitary person can
pass by such statistics as these. They
enchain the most careless and move
the most Indifferent. It is great and
| damaging blot upon everybody con-
cerned that this useless slaughter
should be allowed it's annual massacre
unnotieed and apparently unchecked.
OF the killed, 1890, and of the in
Of these poor fellows lost their lives in
gallant attempts to save those commit
ted to their Charge;
All, this everyday heroism, how lit
tie it is recorded! Not many stored
urns and animated busts in our Pan
theons bespeak death endured
through duty nobly done. Granted
some were victims of their own
mistakes and careless methods, it will
remain the vast majority died through
no fault of theirs. Many war has
been fought and the victors welcomed
home by nation, in which the loss of
life has been Hess and their endurance
no more than that of this Moloch of
traffic and the noble conduct of those
who are its prey.
Railway companies are, as a rule,
wealthy-we1 able to provide every
continuance which decreases the dam
ger ever attendant upon rapid motion,
switching, etc. Should the lust Of
gold outweigh the love of life? Time
and again more than one president
has officially proclaimed against this
calamitous evil. Had their words been
needed, practically acted upon, many
a home now darkened with sorrow
through the mangling, manning for
lie or sudden death of the loved one
and the bread-winner would have been
happy and bright, nor filed with
anxious thoughts as to the future.
The public sentiment of this nation
will surely demand that the future
shall see no such toll of wasted lives
in railroading as the past year was
compelled to witness.-N. Y. Ledger.