The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-01-12
Mrs. DePew Victim Of Nal DE Mer,
but Her Husband in Good
Health and Spirits.
RECENT TUNNEL ACCIDENT
PANAMA CANAL AND CONDITIONS IN
EUROPE DISCUSSED BY DEPEw.
New York Central Road willing to DO
Anything Feasible tn Protect Its
Patrons and Employees.

NEW YORK, Jan. 1f.-Senator Chauncey
NJ. Depew and his wife arrived from Eu-
rome tonight on the steamship St Louis
The senator was i'm excellent health and
spirits. but Mrs. Depew suffered much from
seasickness. Mr.. Depew talked entertain
ingiy Of his visit 10 France. and described
the trouble he had in having TO attend
three marriage ceremonies. Mr.. Depew is
chairman of the board of the New York
Central Railroad and he said OF the re-
cent tunnel accident:
Il never have come home before feeling
so shocked and sorrowful. 1 know the
tunnel well. and I also know that the tun-
mel has every scheme and device for safety
in it, The accident was due to the gross
careIessness Of somebody, and, although
don't want 10 criticise the engineer. can
not see how he escaped seeing the signals
in the tunnel As for the torpedo tests
that you say failed. I can only answer by
saying that no railroad man relies on tor
pedoes. The signals or semaphOres are the
thing and i'm the hundreds of tests that
have personally undertaken never saw
the time that | could not see the lights
Even suppOsing that the engineer did not
see the lights, he ought TO have stopped the
train anyhow. That is a castirOn rule of
the road, and Is posted up at the different
places with the rest Of the instructions
The engineer must have known where the
signals were, even suppOSing he did not
them. and the train should have been
brought TO a standstill at once. We tried
lighting the tunnel by electricity some time
ago, and the engineers complained that it
confused them with the signals and dimmed
the signal lights. Money is of no earthly
account, and there is no limit to what the
New York Central would spend TO make
the tunnel safe. No matter how perfect a
system may be there always comes time
when everything depends on the intelli-
gence of one man, no matter whether IL Is
electricity. steam or anything else
Senator Depew was asked what he
thought about the Panama canal and his
pean countries he had been visiting. Il
think the Panama route is better than the
Nicaragua, said he, land also think that
the price OF $40.0000 900 is reasonable. You
that canal. and it is the general belief that
S9oO0O.0O0 was spent on the canal and the
Test-well IL evapOrated.
France. / think will always be prosper
Gus The French people live among and
within themselves. You neve rhear of a
Frenchman engaging in any large enter
prfses or specializing to any great extent,
but with Germany il is quite different. /
am told that there are 100000 people out of
employment in Germany who are suffering
frightfully. The cause of Germany's cOndi-
ton IS its OvereXplOiting Of manufacturing
concerns
ITALY is all right. and the past year was
very prosperous one for that country
In England the ma Ority of the people
want TO finish the BOer war, no matter
what the expense may be and ROsebery is
trying TO reform the Liberal party"
The senator concluded by saying that he
would leave for Washington on Monday
and that he would take his seat in the SEN
ate Tuesday.