Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1906-06-20
THE WHISTLE NUISANCE.
An Unnecessary Noise That on'y
Serves to Wreck Nerves.

| Prof. Edward :. Morse the director Oh
| me peabody museum at SaieHl' ii"iS
received much attention from iiyseii
| as well as from others in different parts
| OF the country and while there IL sun
| a great deal of reformatory work 10 De
done along this line some progress mas
been made and the disturbing shrleks OF
midnight have been stopped III many
places
Carlyle in protest on this SUBJECT
has said: That which the world Tor
ments me in NEST is the awful coh1h-
sion Of noise. 1t is the devils own m
fernal din all the blessed day long, con-
founding Gods works and his crea-
lures. A truly awful hell-like com
bination, and the worst of II Is a rail-
way whistle like the screech OF 10000
| cats and every cat Of them all as big
as a cathedral"
Joseph Howard in one of his Globe
letters has also said: "Outside the deaf
and dumb asylum. there is not Il silent
| foot on Manhattan island. Our 3Ooo
| factories have 5000 whistles, our 5000
ears have 5000 gongs''
'rhcrc is no body of men, says Prof.
Morse. "Who recognize more fully the
nuisance of the steam whistle than the
honorable board Of railroad commits
sioners. for they are constantly remind
ed of 1t by the complaints which pour
| in upon them all over the state.
''In their 18th annual report the COM
miSsioners agreed with their prede-
| cossors in holding that the value of the
whistle as a danger signal is impaired
| nv its constant a crossing
signal. that such use inflicts a heavy
penalty upon the innocent to protect
| the reckless and undeserving. and that
| at many crossings the whistle is simply
| a needless annoyance.
1.-The mere fact that attempts have
been made to ameliorate the whistle
horror" continued the professor, lis a
proof Of its annoyance. The Belgium
railway authorities. DESTROYS of mini
MIXING the ear-spltting screeches of To-
comotive whistles. are making a
whistle with much softer tone.
"The New York Central has ordered
nOiselcss switching engines for its large
| freight yard. These are two-cylindeT
compound engines; they have neither
| whistles nor bells and they burn coke.
| Both noise and smoke are done away
with. Every railroad with city freight
| yards ought to be required by law to
provide such switching engines. There
are. Of course, certain communities,
and not always manufacturing ones.
| that apparently thrive on noise, or are
| too heartleSs to recognize the misery
| that can he inflicted.
1T seems incredible that Ithaca. n.
Y, a university town, should permit
| the Incorporate sounding of steam
| whistles on all occasions. Whistles
| are not only blown by every factory
but used for fire alarm signals, for
| weather reports, floods. and blow blasts
| an hour before the curfeW. and for
| every conceivable excuse a whistle is
| sounded that can be heard for miles.
| The banner city for this horror, ac-
| cOrding to reports of every one who
visits that city, is Milwaukee.
1.-THE brutality of a municipality
which allows this scourge can hardly
be conceived. Picture the condition of
| a people VIII" permit an irresponsible
hoollum to blow a steam whistle IS
minutes on the stretch without pro-
| test from the city authorities. and this
is what happened i'm Milwaukee.
Tor instance" continued Prof
Morse, warming up to the subject, 1.-The
Charles river dam is to be built. and
tive outlook points to a body of water.
10 be compared to the AlSter at Ham
burg, whereby two large lakes are
formed, the inner and the outer Alster.
hordercd by green grass, trees and
noble houses.
"With a law insisting that factories
shall make themselves less obnoxious
by suppressng the aforementioned
features, Boston and Cambridge may
add millions of dollars to their taxable
real estate: without such action any
comparison with the beautiful AlSter
becomes Supremely ludicrOus.
'If the factory whistle is necessary"
says Prof. Morse. "wlly do not all fac
tories sound it. 1t is never to call the
men to work. for they are already
there; it does not even signify the mo-
ment to begin work, as sometimes sew
eral minutes elapse after the whistle is
sounded before work begins. in other
words. only when the engine starts the
machinery the work begins.
''If necessary, why would not n
smaller whistle inside the building be
more distinctly heard than the high
one perched on the roof to disturb peo-
pie for miles around? If necessary
why is it that nearly 100000 railway
employees in the United States going to
their duties at different hours, night
aud day, do not require such signals?
How is it that great department stores
employing thousands in n vast number
of rooms require no Shrieking whistle?
"In Lowell there are 10 large cor
roratinns employing $4,000 people. no
whistle is required to call or dismiss
their employees. Only seven of these
have bells and three others have no
signal whatever.
"If a whistle We're necessary 1t
should be blown in oil these cases an
hour before work. in tim" to wake
them up-but mills practicing this sell
fish method infict a tremendous pen
atty on those who work later and have
right to quiet.
'"The reason why this SenseleSs null
sance should be stopped by the state
board Of health and not by local gov
eminent, is that one town stopping 1t
is affected by an adjacent town en-
ploying it. A factory in Beverly blows
an early whistle that wakes up many