The Topeka state journal., 1898-01-20
OTHER PERSONS KILLED.
Fatalities Among Those Not Passen-
gers Nor Employees.

90 Now we come to the last cate
cory, of other persons''-not employees
or assengers-WhO were killed during
the year. OF these there were A. 4O6
persons killed in the United States last
year-mOre than twice as many as We're
killed of employees and passengers COM
bined.
Who are these "other persons?" It
would be impossible to enumerate all
the varieties of ways in which their
lives are lost, but the great majority of
them fall roughly into four classes,
viz:
% Those who are killed at stations,
by trying to board or alight from a
train when it is moving, by missing
their foothOld and falling between the
platform and the wheels, by endeaVor-
ing to cross the tracks from one plat
form to another in front of a moving
train.
% Tramps who are stealing rides
whose presence is unknown, who ride
in the darkness beneath the cars and
who are only discovered when they are
dead.
90 Those killed at highway cross
ings.
a. Persons walking on the track.
In the first place L would say that the
protection of all of these is much less
directly under control of the railway
company than is the protection of the
passengers and employees. For the
hauling of passengers and the safe
guarding of employees, the company is
we have seen that it does not fail in
the responsibility.
Over these "other persons the COM
pany has no control. Perhaps your
readers do not know how the interstate
commerce commission classifies those
''other persons" 1t divides them into
two classes, viz: Those ''trespassing''
and those mot treSpaSSing." Those
"trespassing" are those killed in places
where they have no business to be
who are there in violation of the law;
including tramps who are stealing rides
and persons walking on forbidden pOr-
tions of the railway right of way. OF
the whole 4 406 ''other persons" killed in
the United States last year, how many
We're ''trespassing?"
Just 8 81. That is to say, that Ou%
of every % persons killed, 10 were killed
because they were already breaking
the law and were in places where the
railway employees did not, and could
not, expect to find them.
If a farmer, Throwing some heavy ar
ticle-nO matter what-intO his hay loft
strikes and kills a tramp who is hiding
there is the farmer to blame for the
tramps death? If a sneak thief gets
into a hotel and hides Gas has occur
red) in the space at the bottom of the
elevator shaft and the elevator man
not knowing any thief is there-runs
the elevator down to the bottom and
kills the thief, is the hotel or the ele-
vator man to blame for that death? If
a StOWaway hides in a VeSSePS hold and
when no one knows that he is there a
pile of goods is thrown upon him and
he is killed, are the men who are load
ing the ship to blame? When on a
dark night a tramp steals under the
body of a freight car, and no one know
ing he is there, the car is suddenly
jerked and he is crushed, are the rail-
way men to blame?
If an engineer in the darkness runs
over a drunken man lying asleep and
invisible upon the track, five miles
from any station, is the engineer to
blame?
Whena pedestrian walks on the track
with his head down and needless of en-
gine whistle and bell-when the engi-
neer does all he can to stop the train in
time and fails-is the railway to blame?
In England (and less effectively in
other countries of Europe) these acci-
dents, it is true, are largely prevented;
but how?
In the first place the railways of
England cost about four times as much
to build as the American lines. 1t is
some times claimed that American
railways are over-ca pitalized and that
their stock is watered. But the capi-
talization of England railways is four
times as great for each mile of road.
With that enormous capital Engllsh
companies so protect their trains and
right of way that the public cannot
reach them except through the narrow
CRATES at the stations.
Along every foot of their lines are
high stone walls on either hand, stiff
hedges and wide bitches or steep en-
bankments. a member of the public
riding or driving cannot cross a track
at any place he chooses. He must fol-
low a road q mile or two or three one
way or the other till he comes to
bridge or other public crossing In most
stations man can only reach the plat
form by going through the station and
then by a narrow wicket to the plat
form.
He cannot pass that wicket without
showing a ticket. Friends Ito see you
off, or loafers are not, as a rule, al