The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1906-06-09
ACCIDENTS INEVITABLE,
THERE Is NO DEVICE WHICH
MAKES COLLISIONS lMPOS-
SIBLE.
There is Apparatus Watch Would
Tend to Make Them Rarer. but
the Expense Would Fr3hten the
Boards of Directors-Value of the
Book of Rules

Book Of Rules.
! To eliminate absolutely the dan
| ger Of loss Of lie on passenger
trains is enc of the great problems
OF the age" said John Ailer, who la,
been superintendent OF Equipment
on several big Western railroads. -
I II representative OF The New YORK
World.
TO eliminate to a mechanical Ger
tainty the danger OF collisions ~ pas
senger trains such rs occurred m the
Harlem viaduct Of the New York Cen
trail Railroad, when several lives
were lost, arouSas the deepest con-
Germ OF practical railroad men. but
as rule not that of the stschhol iers
New devices and equipment, cost
70 see their money spent.
Just how any apparatus could be
devised to make all collisions i'm
possible is more than | caa say, but
at comparatively small expenses all
cross tracks could be equipped with
stlle of automatic arrangement
such as is used Oh the express tracks
in the Subway; much danger could
be eliminated, but an inventor would
have a hard time getting a board Of
directors to vote to spend the money
necass AIRY to equip the cross tracks
of even tae smallest OF roads, and
if a board of directors We're asked
to equip a whole line with a block
system such as the Subway uses to
avoid rear-end collisions ami the
vasrant accidents OF obscure switches
they would probably ask for an e&-
animation as to the sanity Of tie mar
who made it.
Some day. after enough people
gress with nerve enough to pass a
national law making railroads equip
as nearly as possible every danger
point with the devices that are al
ready in existence, cost or no cost"
AS to whether there is any pract:-
cal method now in existence OF
equipping engines III such way as
to make collisions impossible many
practical railroad men were asked for
their opinion and experience.
H. S. Hayward, superintendent CT
motive power Of the Pennsylvania
Railroad, said:
II there was a practical mechan-
ical system of avoiding collisions the
Pennsylvania would have it. An IN
teligent board Of directors will con
slider the expense entailed BY loss of
life every time an invention or new
plan is suggested, and when it can
a new plan will save life they are
likely to be in favor of it as an
economy against the large aggregate
expense of one big accident
so far however, | have net heard
of anything that would make such
accidents as we speak of mechani-
cal impossibility. 1t is fair to state
that you can't make inaninate things
think, and an automatic track-stop
acting on air-brakes would cost more
probable, when all the transportation
systems of the country are 'electri-
fed and the work of re-equipping
roads goes on in way satisfactory
to the financial heads, it may be that
systems will follow at the
same time, and danger of collisions
will be reduced to a minimum; but"
and here the gray veteran of loco
motives sighed, and looked at a pho
tograph of a freight wreck on an OBJ
scure part of the system-'Tm afraid
that's a long way Off
Speaking from my experience,
would say that the book of rules |
beats any device that could ever be |
man who has just |
intelligence enough to follow the book |
If rules will never play part in
an accident except the kinds that |
are called unforeseen.
"The book of rules is the outcome /
Of the life work of many great rail
'oad men, and no engineer who fol
ows his book Of rules ever has an
accident made by himself
1.-THE fallibility Of man can never
De overcome by mechanical device,
10 matter how ingenious it may be.
"a conductor | knew was a sober
Ind straight-living man: he had been
uuning local freight for several
ears. For year he had had stand
ng order to go in upon a certain
side track when he was on time, and
wait for a passenger train to go past
hem in the same direction. One
light he got his order from the last
station to go on, snd when he got
. the side track the fagman ahead
opened the switch and the freight
moved in. When his caboose passed
'ver he got out and threw the