Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-12-09

tendents investigate accidents far enough
TO place responsibility on particular em-
poyes at fault and TO exercise discipline.
In such Investigations a. times the signal
engineer-if the road has one the superin-
tendcnt Of motive power. the chief engineer
or other ofiicials may take part.
hut when all Is said and done. how do
these secret railway company investlga-
lions compare with such a thorough going
piece OF work as Major Pringle's investlga-
ton Of the Salisbury disaster in England
II is well enough for your train masters
ana division superintendents to find what
engine runner or conductor or iagman was
at fault for a collision. or even what APP
pllance was effective in causing or pre-
venting a wreck; but what railway COM
pany goes beyond this? Can our corre-
spondent report one such Investigation in
which II was found-and reported-that the
fault OF the bottom was defective method
of operation or defective appliance whose
continued use may have been due to ig-
norance or prejudice or worse, of q general
manager or a president or perhaps OF men
even higher up who run railways from the
financial side and not from the operating
side? We have no desire to indict rail-
way arrangements; but surely any one can
see that the present system of railway
company Investigations of accidents Is
pretty nearly equivalent TO setting a man
to investigate his own acts-or the acts of
his superiors.
In the second place our correspondent ad-
mit5 that railway companies keep secret
tho results Of their Investigation and by
this admission he really proves that the
present plan OF letting the railway compa-
MES investigate the accidents themselves is
a failure. What is the object Of investiga-
ting these railway accidents? Surely the
one great object ought to be TO diminish
the liability Of their recurrence. To in
vestigate to see wherein a brakeman or
conductor or engineer Numbered and to
punish those at fault by suspension or
discharge may be we'll enough 80 far as 1t
goes, but cannot our correspondent see that
It does not go far enoush2
We want Investigations that will lay bare
the whole matter in relation to every seri-
Gus railway accident; that will make clear
the lessons which ought to be learned from
1t. and, most important of all, that will
bring home these lessons to the whole body
Of railway officials and employees.
The railway companies may make their
Investigations ever so thorough but so
long as they adhere TO the secretive policy
and eonflne the knowledge of the circun-
stances Of an accident to a chosen few OF
their own officials so long will accidents
from the same old causes occur again and
again with such monotonous regularity that
the railway officials and even the public
become hardened to them, and, we regret
to say IT, obliviOus to the lessons they
ought to teach.
Our correspondent has referred to the At
lantic City disaster. II illustrates well the
point we wish TO make, The West Jersey
& Seashore railroad officials doubtless made
their own secret investigation, as our cor
respondent says. Its results are known,
confidentially, to a number of the higher
officials Of the Pennsylvania Railroad sys-
TEN. Possibly few officers Of other roads
may casually learn In time OF the actual
results of that inquiry. But for every rail-