The times., 1899-06-01

A little more than year ago there was
a good deal of talk about the horrors of
war. and the iniquitous conditions which
compelled men TO volunteer to fight for
their country. and. if necessary, to be
wounded or killed. Mayor Jones. of To-
ledo. Ohio, thinks it is time the attention
of the public should be called to the hor-
rors of peace.
He wants a law passed compelling rail-
ways 10 support the cripples whom they
make If man is killed in the perform
ance of his duties as an employe of the
railway. through no fault of his own, he
those dependent upon the man, just as
the Government would had he fallen in
battle He believes that the railway
ought TO compensate man who is inca
pacitated for earning his own living
through some accident due TO the indif-
ference or greed of the corporation. If
the company does not wish to adopt safety
couplers and other devices which make the
life of the employe as safe as possible, he
thinks it should be responsible for the
consequences.
The killing and manning of men through
carelessness or deliberate neglect of neces-
sary precautions on the part of the rail-
way is common. but not quite common
enough to attract great attention among
those who do not study the subject. The
casualties are spread over a large area.
and little is said about them in the news
papers. But when one comes to examine
| the statistics, they are startling. At Get
tysburg the casualties amounted to one
out of 110. In our railway service. each
year, they amount to one out of 1oS. We
lose, from that cause alone, every year
proportionately many more men than were
killed in the battle of Gettysburg.
But the very people who declaimed so
loudly. not long ago-and some of them
are still declaiming- the horrors of
war. are violently opposed TO abating these
horrors OF peace. They say that that would
be interfering with private affairs. But it
has been well said that when a man runs
big business his private affairs are
usually somebody else's private affairs too
II makes quite as much difference 10 the
brakeman, and the brakeman's wife and
children and parents whether he is killed
! in the performance of his duty as 1t does
TO the capitalist whether his dividends are
one-eighth of one per cent larger than
they were last year. But the brakeman
cannot help himself and the capitalist can.
That is all the difference Moreover. if the
empIoye is killed. his people do not write
letters to the papers telling what they
think of the business policy which caused
his death. His name is not printed in a
list OF fallen heroes" He is only one
more man killed by accident"
The railway business is not the only one
which claims more victims than the Regu-
lar Army in time of war. There are
death dealing trades There are busi-
nesses which create special diseases. which
sooner or later incapacitate the sufferer
for work. Suppose our soldiers-even one
regiment OF them-were enlisted for SER
vice in a desert country whence a large
percentage of them would return blind
and helpless for the rest of their lives.
Would not there be an outcry? Yet the
men who work in badIy-lighted buildings,
where artificial light in daytime is a
necessity. not only are afflicted with
semi blindness. but they transmit TO their
children predisposition to that trouble.