The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1897-03-12
OUR BOSTON LITTER.
Somebody Responsible For the
Awful Gas Explosion.

General Feeling That IT Was a Criml
Rather Than an Accident Howl
Regarding tvs Municipal Printing
Plant Pu J. Gets a dob One Glass OF
'Laborcrs where Disorlm nation Is Not
Possible -- Adm Riohmomd's Claim.
Mary Frcnch FIELDS Readings arOoISe's
Band Conc rts and Dramatic Notes.
| Murder is the taking of human life
with malice aforethought, while the kill
| ing of people without raice hyars sew
eral other names. AS there was no NAL
| ice, it would not he correct to say that
nine people were murdered and half a
hundred injured in this city on Thurs
day last, but that by criminal careless
ness all this resulted no one can deny,
and for it some one should be punished
and compelled to make financial repara-
ton. Gas had been leaking for days in
the locality of the terrible explosion, and
anyone with the power of scent not de-
stroyed by catarrh could not fail to
notice it. Many pedestrian commented
en- thefact, but felt called to Go no more,
aB all kinds of strange smells have re-
suited from the subway construction. If
ordinary people noted the escape of gas,
is 1t probable that the gas and other eX-
perts who were around there, as it is
stated, failed to discover the same thing?
Be that as it may, no remedial measures
were adopted and on Thursday a spark
exploded the magazine, and death and
general destruction followed.
Everybody asked "Who is RESPONSE
ble?" and various committees, officials
and. boards viii continue to ask the same
thing for some weeks to come. Without
discussing the probable result that may
be reached, it is not without my prov
ince to say that some one of the different
interested pa ties in the nature of things
must be guilty, and when the blame is
fixed should be made to meet the full
penalty of the law, civil and criminal.
Great corporations forget easily that the
public has rights, and it is only when
some great calamity cores to us that
they hustle to get on to the good side of
citizens generally. He'd they shown half
the alacrity in fixing the leak or having
it fixed that the parties involved now
show in swearing the blame OFF their own
shoulders, and thus incidentally on to
each other, tie sad fatality would never
have occurred. To fix the responsibility
and punishment is a work the author
tiles should diligently perform. This is
no time for withdrawing reports.
Concede if you will, as is claimed by
some, that corporations control Boston,
it's city government and a majority of
its officials, there still remains to our
citizens the right to live and in compare
tive safety We are not, or rather SHOULD
not be, obliged to walk over hidden re-
cesses filed with deadly gas that only
awaits a spark from an electric car or
any other source to blow tts into eternity.
Gas appears ready to superTede the cleo
trio car as an instrument of death, and at
the present speed will soon have no rival
in our midst
Perhaps no fairer expression of general
feeling regarding the terrible explosion |
can be quoted than to use the words of |
prominent divine, who on Sunday last |
uttered the following from his pulpit:
1T is very courteous of us to call that
fatal occurrence an accident An acct
dent is something that cannot be avoid
ed In this instance somebody seems to
have been responsible. I do not under
take to say where the responsibility lies,
for / do not know, but it appears that
if it had not been for somebody's care
lessness the calamity could not have
happened. It was more tran an acct
dent it was a crime. believe we may
never expect in our larger cities, our
centers and the centers
of other great interests. TO make com
pletely secure and safe the lives of the
people who come in cons ant contact
with these great enterprises. but we have
not done all We can do, and al We should
do. until we have seen to it that cur laws
are such as to properly punish the per-
sons respOnsi Die for calamities like that
# Thursday"
The howl sure to follow any important
move of the city has arrived. and is in
evidence regarding the municipal print
ng plant. A local newspaper openly
charges that Mayor Quincy bought a
gold brick when he purchased the
Eastman plant and that for his $50 900
he secured property that is really worth
out about One-ffth of that sum. Talk
n this direction has been heard among
printers and pressmen for some time.
md there may yet be an investigation
there seems to be no remedy
f the city got the worst end of the trade
t is all an experiment anyway. and If
We, as city, were buncoed it only
makes the trial of the scheme more ex-
,ensive.
In the meantime the printers who have
rot the endorsement of the members of
he Democratic ward committee in the
ward in which they live are being taken
N and given positions. without much re-
ard to the merits of the applicants as
ompositors. 1t is exactly as I pre- !
icted, "a pull gets a place" and that
lone will 90 far to destroy the value of
he experiment as a test of municipal !
ontrol An aggregation of employees !
Who have lost positions elsewhere by I
eason of unftness for steady employ
nent or dissolute habits will not demon I
trate the advantages of any project /
he scheme should have had a fair trial. L
The only absolutely impartial distri-
ution of work I know of in Boston is Y
hat employed in the choice Of team a
ters for the park commission. These d