The San Francisco call., 1905-08-21

with railway employees who are killed or
injured. Only seven of them figure as
being killed by train accidents. To
other causes variously classified are at
tributed the deaths of 400 The grand
total = of the official report, which is sup
posed to include all casualties on rail-
roads shows 1,059 killed and 6,2S8 injured
By some statistical hocus pocus ninety
nine deaths that. appeared in the prelim-
mary report have been dropped out, and
the number of those injured has been
diminished by over 12000.
/ have before me another Board of Trade
report. which is supposed to summarize
all the casualties on British railways be-
tween the years 1874 and 1903 inclusive
The first table purports to give in con-
densed form the statistical information
that is of interest to the general public.
1t contains record of the number of per-
sons killed ''in train accidents exclusive
of season tickets).'. By season tickets
Is, of course. meant season ticket hold
ers." They correspond to what on Ameri-
can railways called commuters.
In 1J3 according to a footnote in the re-
port, which is all the mention they are
honoied with, there were 6lS,OOO OF them
travelling on British railways: Why ia
talities to this numerous class should not
be included. in the Board of Trade re-
turns no one knows. They are not elm
mated from reports of. accidents on
United States railways In fact, accord
ing to grim Jest. they take delight In
killing them because they save money on
their unexpired tickets But here COM
muter, killed on a train. does not count
He fills no place in the railway death roll
TWENTY-THREE A YEAR.
Excluding the commuters. according to
the table above referred to, in the thirty
years which it covers. British railways
have killed only CO. passengers. That av-
erages a fraction over twenty-three a
year. These figures are regarded as pos
sessing an authoritative value which in
in these sceptical days is seldom accord
ed to the statements of Holy Writ. They
are everywhere cited as conclusive proof
that the British railways are the safest
in the world and in this respect vastly
superior to those of the United States.
Yet, as matter of fact, their only
value lies in the evidence they afford of
British official meudacity. AS statistics
they are utterly worthless and mislead-
ing. For instance, according to the lead
ing table under consideration-always
excluding the commuters who do not
ccunt-not a single passenger was killed
by railway accidents, I'm 1901 on British
railways. The same return contains
large number of Chinese puzzle tables,
which hardly anybody scans, assuming.
of course. that they have been correctly
summarized in the first comprehensive
table. One of them is headed, Number
of passengers killed in the movements of
trains (excluding tain accidents and sea-
son tickets). According to this table /
lind that there were 135 passengers killed
in 1901. by what process of reasoning a
differentiation is arrived at between pas
sengers killed in train accidents" and
passengers killed in train movements"
it would be utterly hopeless to attempt
-
ferring that the first table of passengers
killed in train accidents includes only
those killed on trains that were station
ary Or perhaps more logical asSump-
ton would be that the first table records
only the number of passengers who were
accidentally killed, while the other table
gives the yearly, totals of those pas
sengcrs who were killed by railways
under circumstances that could not be
described as accidental.
VAGUE REFERENCES.
On consulting other tables in the report
find that in this same year-1901--when
lie was declared that not a single passen-
ger was killed lin railway accidents"
there were twenty-threc passengers killed
ION railway premises from causes not
connected with the movements of rail-
way trains" In another table, vaguely
headed 'Other Persons, which includes
people killed at s'level crossings" others
who met death while ION business at
stations and sidings' and others who had
the misfortune to be run over while
..trespassing on line So more deaths are
accounted for, in that year.
A similar process Of minimizing fatal
tiles and injuries with regard to railway
employees is adopted. There were only
eight of them killed by train accidents
in 1901 according to this grotesque COM
pilation, which is dignifed by the name
of a Board of Trade report. But diligent
investigation among the subsidiary tables
shows that "493 employees were killed that
year in the movements of trains exclud-
ing train accidents" An additional
fifty-four met their deaths from causes
rot connected with the movements of
trains"-boiler explosions and such like
disasters presumably. Here is total of
1877 actually killed in 1901 who do not ap-
-,o..r In the 6eurcs IN which the claims