The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-04-25

HldIh III the shape OF a 1atal dCCluenI 10
| its credit. For many decades the month
| Of March has been considered the worst
month in the year for fatal railroad &C
cidents, and reliable records will show
| that she has we'll earned this reputation.
! This state of things was. no doubt.
brought about principally through the
! season of the year and its effects upon
newly built roads. Frost would be leav-
| ing the ground about that time Of the
year and roads completed and operated
| the fall previously would be called upon
| by Mother Nature to stand a strain that
| hastily constructed roadbeds were mot
! equal to- Hence cave-ins and washouts
| fell to the record Of March.
The year 1893 had hardly begun opera
| lions before the great wreck on the Big
| Four Jan. p occurred. In that wreck,
| it will be remembered, thirty-two were
] killed and thirty-six were injured. win
| this appalling inauguration of accidents
! the record Of disasters was kept up
| throughout the entire year with such
| peTsistency that the believers in bad luck
| came to believe the figures 1898 We're i'll
! omended.
Last Years Terrible Record.
The record of the year recalls the
worst days of Mississippi steamboating.
when lives We're recklessly sacrificed TO
speed. and the time when the wrecks of
! the frail sidc-whecl steamers on the AT
lantic ocean brought death to hundreds.
Since Jan. /. 1893. until Dec. 81 of the
same year twenty-eight severe disasters
| have occurred on the railroads Of the
| country. This is by no means all the
| collisions and derailments from which
] death and injury have resulted. but il
! includes the principal ones. Adding up
( the totals of deaths and injuries we find
| that 232 people were killed and ca i'm
! jured This is az appalling record, and
may well excite a painful interest i'm the
| travelling public's mind.
| In conversation recently with we'll
| known railroad official, reporter
| preached the subject Of the disastrous
| record Of 1893 as regards railroad travel
| The official said:
The years record was undoubtedly
| the worst in my memory, but l know IL
| will result i'm great good. Many things
| were brought out through the mis-
| fortunes, and where they can be pre-
| vented in the future prepare lions look
| ing to that end have already been i'll
| augurated. Many of the disasters oc-
! CURED to worlds fair trains. but the fact
| that this class of travel was seriously
affected is no adequate reason why II
| should be SO. on most of the railroads
where extra. service was necessary by the
| travel to Chicago trains were no SO fire.
quent Z thc doubling or treblinS OF
| them need have resulted in crOwding.
! The cause IN my mind. FOR the great
| list of accidents can be traced 20 the
| parsimoHy Of a majority of the western
| roads. The overworking of employees
| from the lack of train service is one &c
| suit of economy. but a more WeiShty re-
| suit was the i'm competence of those en-
| ployed. The desire to cut down expenses
! led 10 the employment of men lacking
rio
| derstand and execute orders. and who
| were hired simply because they could
he hired cheaply. II is an undeniable
| fact that two of the most prominent
| roads i'm the East, roads that have
always had the least trouble with their
employees on account of wages. We're the
least sufferers in the way of wrecks last
| year.
The Battle Creek Horror.
Let me cite the horrible Battle Creek
(AIich) accident as the natural result Of
hiring incompetent employees The engin-
eer and conductor did not seem to I'M
derstand the orders given them and were
unfit to carry them out. Fancy any of
our old engineers pulling away from
station wnen they didn't understand an
order. They would have stayed there a
week under the same circumstances.
The lack of system on many roads is
also accountable for some Of the years
horrors. Past immunity. from criminal
prosecution has made several companies
careless. They know they can be mulcted
in damages to a certain amount for
every person they Kill or injure. but be-
yond that they are safe from danger
Investigations generally end in nothing.
or, if a verdict is brought in, a prosecu-
ton in the courts of the employees or of
the officials Of the companies rarely or
naVar talxas placp The frttSf Of roo crroo
a majority Of the railroads is that pub
lie Indignation Will soon blow over, and
generally they calculate correctly This
is a result brought about by the general
belief that accidents will and must hap
pen, but the extreme to which this idea
may be carried is not taken into consid
Grafton.
You very well know that the rail-
road passenger business of the country
is rapidly picking up. The enlargement
of a tremendous depot-that is ii was
so considered five years ago-in a neigh
boring city, substantiates this assertion.
and the railroads that have an entrances
into the city of New York or reach near
by water fronts are simply swamped by
their passenger traffic The wear 1909
will show that there were 75O. 900 600
passengers transported, and of these one
in each 1000, 900 was killed and one in
each 100000 was injured. This is a COM
paratively small number, it is true but
the ldCl IeHldlIS lnaI II. Is an increase
over 1892, and that it should not have
been so large. There are thousands of
competent, Woodworking men EMPLOYED
by the railroads who are conscientiouslv
trying to do their duty. 1t is a pity
that the effort they are making to ele-
vate their calling and win the confidence
of the public should be defeated by the
parsimony of some of the companies and
by the lack OF system with which many
roads are run.
To Prevent Disasters.
1.-THE recent meeting i'm New York Of
the officials connected with the Ameri-
can railway association to discuss the
best method of preventing disasters that
result in the loss of life and limb on the
rail is proof that the warning given by
the great number of casualties occurring
i'm 1898 did not pass unheeded. and that
the public have at least satisfaction I'm
knowing that their interests were dis
cussed jointly with the companies repre-
scented. 1 attended that meeting. and
although can not tell tales out of
school, / can at least say that there
were several very warm speeches made
and reflections cast that caused several
Of the western representatives to squirm
I'm their seats. There were Isl roads,
oprating 131, 900 miles of track. repre-
scented at the meeting. and it was self
evident that the action we took therein