The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-05-02
THE RAILROAD MAIL CLERK.

Is.
 | Congress, after much hesitation on the i subject, has at last granted a lump sum l of $1,00O to the family of every railroad mali clerk killed in the line of duty 1 The law will extend its first benefits l to those who lose their lives during ! the present year, and from this time on 1 will bestow an equivalent of pensions,
 small though it be, upon the widows 1 and children of a class of Uncle Sams l employees which is exposed to eXtraordi- nary perilse. Indeed, there are no other l government serVants-barring soldiers and sailors in war times, perhaps whose occupation is nearly so danger | ous.
 l There is no other occupation in the
 world that is so perilous as that of our l railroad mail clerks. They number about 5000, and ordinarily they get something like s1,2O0 year, though l their pay varies somewhat with length
 of service. It is not much, considering l the fact that they, are constantly ex- posed to chances of death.
 During the last year, which broke the
 record for casualties, they were mixed 1 up in 900 accidents on the rails. Nine
 of them were killed, eighty-eight of 1 them were seriously injured and BOP of 1 them were slightly injured. This record was nothing very extraordinary, how eve. In 1901 mail clerks were caught in 825 accidents, in which seven were kill ed, sixty-three seriously and 229 Slight
 ly wounded. @
 | The variety of perils to which these | brave men are exposed is astonishing. A short time ago, in northern Ohio, a l tram of postal cars was derailed and l two of them were thrown into Sandusky bay, with ten clerks shut up in them. Their escape from drowning was al- most miraculous. On another recent oc- | casion, near Oswego. Kan, a train was blown from the track by a tornado and the postoffice employees were seri-
 ously injured. Another train on the Denver and Fort Worth line ran into washout, the mail car was tele~ scoped by the baggage car, the wreck
 caught fire and the imprisoned clerk
 was burned to death. In several re-
 cent cases postal cars have been held
 up by robbers and rddled with bull lets.
 Fire, water, wind and the robbers pistol are all dangers to be encountered by the railroad mail clerk. Inasmuch
 as they spend their lives in travelling, they are bound to be mixed up in &C., eidents occasionally, and whether they suffer or not is mere matter of chance. Quite commonly they do suffer,
 partly because the mail car is placed
 usually behind the tender, where 1t is
 reasonably sure in case of collision to
 be smashed to kindling- wood between
 the tender and the baggage car. Re-
 gently however, an effort has been
 made to alter this arrangement, placing
 the baggage car between the tender and
 the mail car. and thus 1t is hoped that
 the number of casualties will be fess-o
 ened.
 It is very strange and interesting
 fact that liability to accidents has
 greatly increased on the railroads of
 the United States, and is to-day greater
 than ever before, notwithstanding the
 marked improvements in methods of
 operating railroad lines. The reason is
 simply that lines have multiplied, grid
 ironing the country in every direction,
 while the trains run faster and more frequently. So, in spite of superior con-
 struction of roadbed, improved colli-
 sion-proof cars and the protection af-
 forded by the admirable block system,
 the number of accidents per mile of
 railroad has actually increased.
 Of this striking fact the record ot
 casualties in the railroad mail service
 affords proof, the percentage of killed
 and injured among the travelling postal clerks have steadily risen. Last year, as already stated, it broke the record,
 with a total of 399 killed and wounded,
 or just about per cent. of the entire personnel. At that rate, it would ap- pear that railroad postal clerk in twenty-five years of service is practi- cally certain to be injured at least once in an accident on the rail, while his
 chance of being killed during that pe-
 riod is about one in forty.
 Hence, the importance of providing
 some equivalent of pension for the fam lilies of clerks who lose their lives. This
 law now provides that $1,OO0 shall be paid to the widow or children of any