Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-07-06
BRITISH AND AMERICAN RAILWAYS.
some Features OF the Former Put 4"
strong Light.

some Features Of the Former wv ="
stronG Light.
The recent wreck OF a passenger train AT
Salisbury, England. in which q number OF
American tourists Fere killed and injured,
renews discussion OF the merits OF railroad
mana cement in Great Britain ana the
United states and lends present Interest 10
a comparative review by Ray Morris IN the
July Atlantic. Mr. Morris says In part
III were asked to name the character
istics which. from the standpoint OF the
casual traveller. made British railways most
unlike American railways I should reply
unhesitatingly. Hedges and the Board OF
Trade. Each OF these terms Is somewhat
symbolic, az used. The hedges. perfectly
trimmed and laid out like the boundaries
Of a model garden. suggest the neatness
and careful exactitude that pervsdes the
service. They may fairly be made to stand
for the polteness OF the employees, the
railway servants" as WELL for one does
not expect to nnd rude servants in an old
fashioned garden The traveller does not see
the Board Of Trade, but he Is surrounded
on all sides by its handwork and watched
over by it's inspectors. Specifically the
Board Of Trade as a British railway char
acteristic stands for the broad masonry
station platforms the overhead bridges
from the up-line TO the down-line, the alb
sence Of grade crossings the efficient sys-
tenn OF block signaling aud the careful IN
spection and report following even the most
insignificant accident More broadly, II de-
notes the great British Public opinion. that
may be inefficient. but Is always honest and
coura geous, and carries an influence
whether Il expresses itself In the share
holders meeting or in the columns Of the
Times-that has no parallel in this coun-
try.
THE Board Of Trade IL branch Of the
government and its railway department Is
concerned almost solely with public safety.
It views public safety broadly; II will not
permit any new line TO be opened for traf-
hc until it's inspectors have passed on II;
and the inspectors require compliance with
almost countless arbitrary requirements
that entail a tremendous expense on the
railway company, and have. in considerable
part, no real bearing on safety. Many OF
these requirements are traditional rather
than expedient: 10 railways were to be built
de novo in the year 1906 IL IL certain that
the Board OF Trade would be immensely
shocked, II not insuted. at the suggestion
that a 1OO-ton locomotive should rely on
wheel fanges less than one and half
inches deep TO keep II on the rails, at
speed OF seventy miles an hour. But the
traveller who is not a shareholder has no
occasion 20 worry over excessive safety.
and he can feel assured that every British
railway on which he is permitted to travel
has. passed a rigid examination at the
hands OF one of the most critical exam
lining bodies in the world.
srut. l. Ifxs
prised to see that our safety measures are
enforced primarily by the newspapers; he
is scandalized to learn that the cause OF
some Of our worst accidents Ia never
known, and hence that preventive measures
do not follow. For example, the Mentor
wreck. on the Lake Shore. Is sim unex-
planned, after incomplete and unscientihe
examinations made by coroners' juries and
the inefficient State Railroad commission.
THE upshot Of a comparison between Eng
lish and American railways is that each
country has provided itself with the sys-
tenn that, broadly considered, answers its
own needs best, and that. when all cir
are taken into account, neither
has much to learn from the other. Certain
great defects stand out In each; English
railway financing and American railway
are both deserving of censure.
Yet these defects are quite explainsble in
their outgrowth from the physical condi-
lions at hand, and they are not amenable
to any off-hand remedy. Likewise. GER
tain points OF special attFactiveness, such
as the English baggage system and the
of trains, and the American
luxury Of through travel. have arisen from
a complicated set of local circumstances
and could not be transplated unless all the
we're transplanted as well.
Most forcible OF all is the impression
gained by such a study that the essential
belief, the very creed and doctrine OF one
country, as regard the economics Of its
railway working, may not be 20 much ss
discussed in another. where the same ulti-
mate problem IL gotten at in wholly diff
ferent way.
British railways do not have presidents.
and there is nobody in the of1cial roll
whose authority exactly corresponds to
that OF the American chief executive.
The chairman, often titled and usually
layman, nnds his chief duty in presiding
over semi-annaI meetings and answering
the extremely pertinent questions put TO
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