Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-07-06
BRITISH AND AMERICAN RAILWAYS.
some Features Of the Former Pvt ="
strong dght.

/ some Festures Of the Former Put In
strona BGht.
The recent wreck OF passenger uein ~
| Salisbury. England. in which number OF
American tourists we're killed and injured,
renews discussion OF the merits Of railroad
managenent in Great Britain ana the
United states and lends present Interest TO
q comparative review by Ray Morris In the
! July Atlantic. Mr.. Morris says In part;
III I were asked to name the character
istics which. from the standpoint OF the
casual traveller. made British railways most
unlike American railways. l should reply
I unhesltatinEly. Hedges and the Board OF
Trade. Each OF these terms Is somewhat
symbolic. a. used The hedges. perfectly
trimmed and laid out like the boundaries
OF model garden. suggest the neatness
and careful exactitude that pervades the
service They may fairly be made to stand
for the polteness Of the employees the
I railway servants" as well. for one does
! not expect 20 find rude servants In on old
fashioned garden. The traveller does not see
the Board Of Trade but he r. surrounded
on all sides by its handiwork and watched
over by It's inspectors. Specncaly the
Board Of Trade as British railway CHAR
acteristic stands for the broad masonry
station platforms. the overhead bridges
! from the up-lne TO the down-line, the ab-
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 OF in the columns OF the
TImes-that has no parallel IN this coun-
try.
The Board Of Trade IL q branch Of the
government and its railway department Is
concerned almost solely with public safely.
1t views public safety broadly; It will not
permit any new line 10 be opened for traf-
nc until its inspectors have passed on Il;
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: II railways were to be built
de novo in the, year 1905 IL IL certain that
the Board OF Trade would be immensely
shocked. II not insulted. at the suggestion
that a lO0-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 TO 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
sarrL - d. at,,ro IHx.
prised to see that our safety measures are
is scandalized to learn that the cause Of
some of our worst accidents 10 never
known, and hence that preventive measures
do not follow. For example, the Mentor
wreck. on the Lake Shore. Is stiIl unex-
planned, after incomplete and unscientihc
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-
TEN that broadly considered, answers its
own needs best and that. when all cir
cumstances 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
carelessness are both deserving OF censure
Yet these defects are quite explainable In
their outgrowth from the physical condi-
tons at hand, and they are not amenable
to any onr-hand remedy. Likewise, GER
tain points OF special attFactiveness, such
as the English baggage system and the
punctuality of trains and the American
luxury of through travel. have arisen from
a complicated set OF local circumstances
and could not be trsnsplated unless all the
circumstances were 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 economies Of its
railway working. may not be % much as
discussed in another. where the same ulti-
mate problem is gotten At N wholly diff
ferent way.
British railways do not have presidents,
and there is nobody In the ofncial roll
whose authority exactly corresponds to
that OF the American chief executive
The chairman, often titled and usually a
!ayman fnds his chief duty In presiding
over semi-annSl meetings and answering
the extremely pertinent questions put 10