The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-11-12
The Government Called to Account 70
Non-Action.

Non-Action.
The Railway Age jumps on the govern
ment, state and national, for not stop
ping, or attempting to stop, train rob-
bling. 1t says:
THE frequency and impunity with
which train robberies are committed in
the United States constitute a crying dis
grace to state and national governments.
Although it is natural to say that the
railway and express companies should
take means to defend their property
against the midnight raids of desperadoes,
and though the peaceable surrender of
train-load of people 10 terrorism and
robbery by perhaps two or three masked
men seems surprising, yet as a matter of
law and justice Ii is the business of the
government alone to protect the public
highways and those using them, and to
incur every expense and danger in resist
ance to, and capture and punishment of
the contemplate wretches who attack
railway trains. But that government is
shamefully negligent and ineffective in
its duty toward the public in this respect
has long been notorious and is not less
/ true of late"
The Age gives a resume of the successful
train robberies perpetrated in the last
! twenty days of October and adds: Five
I robberies in twenty days; one every four
/ days; not a shot fred in resistance; not a
! finger raised by government to protect the
/ passengers, mails and express on the great
! railway thoroughfares of the country nor
to capture and kill the outlaws who I'M
] mOlested make these raids! Surely our
| lawmakers will now awake TO the necessi-
! ty of national interference with highway
| robbery of this kind which hitherto the
railways and express companies have been
left to defend against at their own cost.
| The Caldwell bill before congress, which
makes the crime of Obstructing or injur-
ing railway trains or tracks with intent to
rob or injure persons or property punisha-
/ BILE by death or imprisonment, ought to be
passed as soon as congress assemblies and
followed by such determined action by ma
tional authorities as shall crush out the
train robbing industry by punishment so
sure, swift and terrible that it shall never
! be revived.
within a few days the postal depart
| ment of the government has indicated
some interest in this matter by issuing,
| through the postmaster general, offers Of
| reward as follows:
lone thousand dollars for the conviction
of any person, in any United States court.
on the charge of robbing the mails while
being conveyed in a mail car attached to a
railway train.
"'Five hundred dollars for the conviction
of any person, in any United States court,
on the charge Of robblng the mails while
conveyed over any post route other than "a
| railway.
Two hundred and fifty dollars for the
conviction of any person, in any United
States court. on the charge of attempting
to rob the mails being conveyed over any
post route
This is a step in the right direction; but
prevention is better than cure and what is
urgently demanded is such display of the
power and intention of the government to
protect the railways Of the country, and
such examples of relentless pursuit and
punishment Of train robbers that there
shall be no occasion thereafter TO offer re-
wards for conviction because there will re
no train robbers TO convict"