The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-29
ELECTRICIAN TENDERS.

The whole country is agitated over the
failure of electrician companies to pro-
vide tenders which shall put stop to the
terrible slaughter of human beings which
this method of urban transportation has
introduced. Mass.meetings are being held
and violent denunciations are made In
Brooklyn over 100 persons have been
killed and 500 injured, some for life.
In Philadelphia 100 lives have been lost,
and San Francisco has a considerable
record. 1t is generally charged that the
whole trouble lies in the fact that efficient
tenders might be devised and that the
operating companies refuse or neglect to
provide them, deeming it more economical
to settle damage cases than adopt ex-
pensive tenders. If this is true it is merely
matter of the city authorities requiring
them to show some respect for human
life
The whole case involves many consider
atoms. Electric cars were introduced for
two reasons-one because they are eco
nomical, and the other because they are
capable of all rates of speed from very
slow to very fast, and that it can be easily
regulated. 1t is in this last reason that
the danger lies; the companies will run
their cars at the highest speed permitted.
In doing this they are merely catering to
the American habit of speed and the de-
mand that it be supplied. Hence, in a
broad sense, the people themselves are
responsible for the dangers of the trolley.
In Europe, where the art of living is better
understood, and where people take time to
live, these dangers are unknown.
Rr1t
fixed demand among US, it is necessary
that we accept the fact and guard against
its dangers. A fender which will pick up
a man instead of rolling him underneath
the car must be one that strikes an average
between the speed of the car and the abil-
ity of bone and muscle to escape the i'm
pact without injury. 1t would be difficult
to imagine fender. however ingeniously
contrived to be gentle and yielding, that
would either pick up or thrust aside
human being without doing serious harm
when the car is running at high speed
When the companies declare that fender
travelling sufficiently close to the ground
will inevitably catch on the pavement and
be wrecked, it is easy to answer that if the
forward end of the fender, Of whatever de-
sign or however near the ground it may be,
is furnished with rollers they will carry
the fender safely over the pavement's inc
qualities. In short, it is easy enough to
devise fender which will bear a rational
relation between the speed of the car and
the resisting ability of human being;
but there is limit of speed beyond which
there must be an extraordinary ingenuity
that can overcome the weaknesses of flesh
and bone
This brings us to a consideration of the
fact that surface roads must have cars rum
ming at speed not exceeding four miles
an hour, and even then guarded with the
most ingenious tenders that modern en-
cheering skill can devise. or rapid trans
portation must be run on overhead or
underground lines. AS overhead lines are
very much cheaper, they might answer
until we are sufficiently advanced to re-
gard the public welfare as being superior
to the private interests of those who as
sumo to secure it.
Que of the most difficult problems that
American municipalities have to solve,
even where they are honest, is to measure
the worth of private enterprises which, in
the pursuit of private gain, offer public
convenience. There is so much of inven-
ton and originality among our people, and
so strong desire to advance and improve,
that the invitation to fraud and rapacity
is exceedingly strong. When to this is
added the prevailing willingness of NUM-
cipal governments to be influenced by the
various powers which lie behind the pri-
vate interests, the difficulties which the
public must encounter might be expected
to be numerous and oppressive. That the
public is so well served as it is under these
conditions is a matter of pride and con-
graduation. But this does not relieve the
public from accountability for the acts of
its servants or the conduct of those who
are permitted to serve the public in any
capacity.