The Topeka state journal., 1898-01-20
ONE LIFE FOR 100 MILES.
Garry $4,000 Million People Each
Year One Mile Before One
Life is Lost.

I am not seeking to minimize the aw-
fulneSS of taking one human life; but I
ask whether these figures show any
lack of care on the part of the rail-
Ways-Whether the railways deserve
credit or blame for carrying 5000 mill
lion people every year one mile before
they lose one life?
CO. Employes-The number of en-
plOyes of the railways killed last year
was 1851. 1t is a dreadful total That
is just about one life for every 100 miles
of line operated in the country.
One life for every 100 miles of road
operated! Suppose that you, Mr.. Ed
itor, and some of your friends, were to
build railroad 1OO miles long, employ
ing about 450 men (Which is the correct
averageO would you feel sure that you
could operate that road for the whole
year round, day and night, rain or
shine, heat or cold through thunder
storm and blizzard and frost, without
the loss of life of one emplOye? Re
nembe what the conditions are-trains
continually in motion in either direc-
tiOn-sOme express passenger trains
laundering on at so miles an hour, some
pOnderous freight trains, backing and
heaving onto sidetrackS and over
switcheS-blinding storms ObScuring
signal Ights-ice and snow numbing
hands and feet-the metal of the rails
and bridges expanding in the summer
sun and contracting in the winter cold,
making joints open and close, Straining
bolts and spikes and screWS-inViSible
defects inside the metal of a Wheel-tire
- -. NN~@-o ~---0
-undiscOVerable obstacle perhaps no
more than a few grains of sand) that
may choke the operation of some part
Of an engine and cause eXpIOSlOn-and
behind it ALL common human frailty,
which, somehow ineXplicably, once in a
while, makes the finger on the tele-
graph key click a message wrong or
the ear that hears it fail to read it
right-that makes a yardman, his
thoughts wandering for a moment, sig
nal wrongly, or makes the best engi-
NOR 0lT TaC a a WI no 10 IA iCT1
is fatal, or forget an order that he
should remember, or fail to look for a
signal the missing of which means
death to himself and others. Think of
all this; think that it is going on night
and day from January to January, and
then says it strange that once some
of line, in those 365 days. that little
thing viii happen which will cause the
death OF one employer
Last year the trains on the railways
of the United States ran So2, ,941, ,252
miles, and of that amount 81, ,53S, ,SS3
miles were run at passenger speed. One
employees life was sacrificed for every
431 thousand miles. Think again what
it means to move a heavy train 100
miles or 10 miles or 1 mile-the stopping
and starting-the loading and unload
irg-cOupling and uncoupling-bac packing
ard witching-multiply that up to 900
miles and then that again up to 431
times l 600 miles. Remember that
more than 100000 miles were run at
Remember that it means that a train
was run 1900 miles every day in the
year-just so miles for every hour of
ayIight-week-d days and Sundays-au
the year round. Think of it as only
one train so moving and keeping NOV
ing necessarily at so miles an hour
from the stroke of midnight that sees
the new year in, to the stroke Of mid
night u months later, thct tolls the
old year out. Is it strange, ask again
that somewhere. somehow. one in