The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-05-26
THE SOUTHERN INSULTS PUBLIC
INTELLIGENCE.

INTELLIGENCE.
Not content with its criminal negligence
whereby ten persons were injured and the
lives of all its passengers were jeopardized
by rotten. cross-t ties, the Southern Railway
insults the intelligence of the people by
circular which was made public yester-
day.
In these circulars signed by &C. H.
Ackers, General Manager of the South
ern Railway, Washington, d. c. re-
ward of $500 is offered for the arrest and
conviction of the party or parties who
by the felonious placing OF spike or other
obstruction on the track" caused the
wreck OF the passenger train near Ra-
leigh last week.
There is not single person of the
thousands who visited the wreck who docs
not know there is no warrant for suppos-
ing that any person or persons 'felonious-
ly' wrecked that train. 1t is an insult
to common intelligence to put forth such
a transparent scheme to evade punish
ment for criminal negligence The exist
ence of rotten ties on the track is due to
criminal negligence and the Southern Rail
way officials cannot escape the conse-
quences of negligence by this transparent
bluff. The engineer of the wrecked train
disposes of this bluff, for he said that very
afternoon 'there was nothing on the
track"
1t is no new thing for the Southern
Railway to try to put the sins Of its own
stinginess and negligence upon some un-
known "felonious person. In some cases,
where only few people knew the truth
it has succeeded. But in the case of the
Raleigh wreck, where almost all Raleigh
saw the rotten cross-ties and some people
counted over two hundred in short dis
lance the bluff will not work.
The people of North Carolina will re-
member that this was the trick employed
in the Bostian Bridge wreck. There was
a great hue and cry raised by the rail-
road that some vicious person wrecked
the train, while the testimony of most OF
those who saw the track before it had
been repaired, was that it had been
caused by a rotten cross-tie. In order to
lend color to it's story of the wrecking by
some bad person. one or two men, said
to be suspected OF the crime, were put in
jail and great parade was made Of their.
arrest. Most of the Statesville people
saw through the scheme, but it fooled
many. What was the result? The men
suspected escaped from jail-some people
said the Southern Railway folks were glad
of their escape and some intimated that
it was exactly what they wanted. At any
rate they displayed no zeal in capturing
them and putting them back in jail and
of course, they were never apprehended
or tried. But the arrest had served their
purpose and confused the people as to the
readiness to be arrested at Raleigh, so
the Statesville farce can be repeated?
So long has the Southern Railway run
rough shod over the people Of North Car
Dina that they have a thorough contempt
for their intelligence, as the offer of this
$500 reward shows. They have taxed them
III passenger and freight tariffs upon
value of $4,000 per mile, paid tax on a
valuation of $4,000 mile and less, kept
UP a paid hue and cry against those who
demanded simply what is right and fair
and deluded some people who wouldn't
think and investigate; they have by free
passes, etc, silenced public officials, and
otherwise exerted an influence disastrous
to the real interest of North Carolina