Arizona republican., 1903-05-24
PHOENIX. ARIZONA, MAY 24, 19O;
Mexico to Deal Justly With the Rail'
 road lien.

EO00 tCus
 Railroad men throughout the United States will be glad to learn that at last their brethren in Mexico are to have just treatment at the hands of the Mexican authorities. President Diaz has decreed the abandonment Of the system of arrcsting conductors and engineers and throwing them into prison for every accident that results in personal injury to somebody. Rail- road employees and the public generally in this country are familiar with the custom which has prevailed in Mexico heretofore. IT an accident happened no matter how innocent the train hands were, they were promptly ar rested and hurried to jail, and were usually held "incomunicadQ" for sev- eral days. Release always came tar dily. The fondness Of the natives for the railroad track as bed has become a jest with Americans. but the conse- quences resulting therefrom have sell dom contained the elements of jest. If a paisano, overcome with mescal, and sleeping on the track, was struck by the train on a curve, all the protests of the engineer and conductor that the accident was unavoidable went for nothing. But to jail they went. and usually for a prolonged period.
 The fault lay in the system of pro- cedure, and not in the Mexican courts of justice. In fairness to the Mexican judges it must be said that almost without exception the accused railroad men have been released when trial was finally reached. But Imprisonment for weeks or months, even when there was a reasonable certainty of acquittal finally, had unpleasant features suffi- cient to make railroad employees look upon the train service in Mexico as somewhat more exciting than the most healthy nerves called for. At one time, not long ago, nearly every train-crew on the Nogales- -Guaymas line of the Southern Pacific in Sonora was in jail because of unavoidable accident on the line-accidents which as a rule were caused by contributory negligence of the natives.
 President Diaz at last became con- vinced that there was something wrong with the system of dealing with these accidents, for he found after careful investigation of the records covering many years that the trials of the inn prisoned railroad men almost invaria- nI Ia After careful consideration, therefore, he has directed the department of jus tice to advise all the district judges in the republic as follows:
 "The citizen president of the republic, taking into consideration that, as a general rule. railway accidents are the unintentional acts Of the locomotive engineers and conductors, and that at the utmost they are seldom adjudged guilty of more than trihing neglect, which tends to demonstrate that ordin- arily the offense, if any, is slight; that: it is neither rational nor credible to presume that these accidents are the result of malice aforethought, because the engineer could never be exempt from personal danger. That as the judicial investigation in such cases al- most invariably ends with the declara- ton of non-culpability of the employees. 1t is fair presumption that ordinarily the arrest and Imprisonment of said employees for such offense is unjustifia- ble; that: nevertheless, as 1t Is the duty of the judicial authorities to investi- gate the liability of those employees who may appear immediately responsi- ble for such accidents and in extraord- mary cases to order the detention of such persons, yet this duty can be made less oppressive by granting to the individual release under bond, so ar ranging that actual detention is never caused, except in cases when the pre- sumption of guilt is strongly supported, and even in such cases the investiga- ton should proceed with the utmost ac- tiyity, in order that decision may be reached as early as practicable and the annoyance resulting from the appar- ently necessary detention thereby be mitigated as far as possible.
 Tn view of the above considerations, the citizen president of the republic is pleased to decide and to recommend that you, in the cases of railway ac- cidents, do not cause the arrest of the company's employees. except when the supposition of guilt of said employees be so sufficiently sustained as to make such measures appear indispensable That even under the last mentioned supposition, release under bond shall be granted wherever the offense will admit of such proceeding, as in the ma tority of cases wherein the offense will be not greater than ordinary negligence and that in cases of this nature you should proceed without a moments de- lay to declare as quickly as may be done under the law, the penal liability of said employees"
 In effect. the Mexican law and pro- cedure will now be substantially the