Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-18
THE SMOKE LAW
Efforts to Bring the Railroads
Under Its Operation.
COMMISSIONER MCFARLAND
Spoke in Advocacy of That PROPOSE
ton.
COMMISSIONER MCFARLAND
HE URGED ELECTRIFICATIoN
Quoted From Electrical Engineers ana
Railroad Officials to Sustain
His Contention.

The Senate committee on the District Of
Columbia had hearing today on the House
bill which provides that the smoke law
shall apply to steam railroads in the Dis
trict of Columbia. Commissioners Macfar-
land and West were present, and so were
| representatives of the Baltimore and Ohio
and of the Pennsylvania railroad compa-
MES. There was very full meeting of the
| committee. there being present Senators
! Galiinger Dillingham;. Hansbrough. Scott
| Burkett, Alice, Blackburn, Gearin and
Whyte.
| The hearing was of great interest, al
though all the railroad representatives took
/ the position, for one reason or another. that
| none of the various measures proposed in
| order to do away with the smoke nuisance
| on the steam railroads was practicable The
| members of the committee asked a good
| many pertinent questions to develop the
| position of the railroads, and when the
| meeting was closed, while a great deal OF
information was gathered. 1t appeared that
| little or no progress had been made so far
as developing any plan that the railroads
would be willing to accept is concerned.
Mr.. Macfarland spoke at length sustaining
\ his position that II was reasonable for the
railroads to comply with the smoke law.
| Commissioner West briefly said that he
| concurred heartily In all that Mr.. Macfar-
| land said.
Mr.. Macfarlands Statement.
| Mr.. Macfarland's statement follows:
Upon inquiry l learn that at this time
| the approximate. average number of loco
| motives in daily use in the District of Co
| lumbia is at least 2O5, This is the num-
Der used by the Philadelphia. Wilmington
| and Baltimore tPennsylvania), Baltimore
and Chic Chesapeake and Ohio, Washing
| ton Southern and Southern.
"Any one can see the volume of dense
| smoke which these4 locomotives constantly
pour over the capital. Every one can see
\ the effect upon the Capitol and other public
and private buildings and upon the parks
| and streets. The union station itself. which
will be the finest in the country, Is endan-
gered by the smoke and gases of the steam
locomotives.
Moreover, our own citizens who have
spent so much time and money in improv-
ing their plants SO as to bring about the
compliance with the Smoke law now so
general among those affected by IL, have
right to complain of the injustice done them
by permitting the railroads to go scot free.
Since the smoke law was sustained by
the highest court. after the prolonged liti-
CATION which followed its enactment, fines
and collaterals forfeited for violations of Ii
have, up to last Saturday, amounted to
S12 30 and probably ten times as much has
been expended in rearranging and equip
ping plants to meet the laws requirements.
The efforts of the District government to
enforce the law and of the persons anected
to comply with 1t have been largely sue
cessful, but the purpose, the abolition or
the smoke nuisance, has been defeated oy
the railroad locomotives, which have all
along made the greater part or the NUS
ance.
Railroads Pleaded Impracticability.
ty,4 tI,a
railroads in November, the best way to end
the nuisance is to substitute electric mo-
tors The railroads plead in effect that this
was impractcable at the present time, and
gave no intimation of when it would be
practicable If it were true that it was
impracticahle, nothing more could be said.
But the railroads themselves have tully
demonstrated that 1t Is entirely pracucaple
The electrification of railroads has passed
the experimental stage. The railroads have
shown that it is economical and efhclent
In New York city and vicinity the New
York Central and the New YORK, New
Haven and Hartford have already done all
that we ask of the railroads for the DIS
trict of Columbia. and the pennsylvania
railroad which has so large part in all
the railroad traffic here, is about to follow
their example in New York. The Pennsyl-
vania railroad also is at present operating
an electric railroad across the state OF
New Jersey from Camden to Atiantlc Clty.
The Baltimore and Ohio railroad has for
ten wears successfully carried it's freight
trains through Baltimore by electric mo-
tors What man has done man can do.
1.-The identification of the railroads with
in the District of Columbia (probably be-
ginning at Baltimore, Washington Junction
and Alexandria, would not only eliminate
the smoke and gases, flame and steam,
which of themselves made accidents worse,
sometimes helping to bring them about
but would greatly help to prevent accidents.
If, for example, the Baltimore ana ONO
NJ bran
even from Rockville to Washington. with
the necessary and inevitable electrical block
connections, the terrible Terra Gotta dlsas-
ter, more fatal than many battle, couio
not have occurred.
A Railroad Revolution.
william Maver, jr., member of the Amer
lean Institute of Electrical Engineers. in a
comprehensive article entitled Electrified
tion-A Railroad Revolution in the Deem
Der Review of Review, says:
The safety of the travelling public can
be better safeguarded by electric traction
than by any other known means of rail-
way locomotion. Thus II would be quite
practicable to so arrange the blocks OF an
electric railway that as a train passed
from one block into the next 1t would cut
off the power in the block behind. so that
collisions would be next to impossible. 1t
would also be practicable, by suitably ar
ranging the power circuits Of electric
railway, for the operator at a tower sta
ton to cut off the power from any block
into which a needless motorman might
have entered in the face Of warning sig
nails "
Mr. Macfarland then furnished 1ch men,
Der of the committee with copy of Mr..
Mavers article, with the latest information
as to what has been done in England. He
also presented abstracts of similar publica-
tons on the subject, including articles by
railroad men and electrical engineers. In
doing this the Commissioner stated that he
wanted to emphasize the fact that these
ideas are not speculations by theorists
Mr. Macfarland then quoted an article In
the Electrical Review of September 3, 1904,
in which, w. ]. Wilgus. vice president of the
New York Central and Hudson River rail-
road. says:
/" The electrifcation of the passenger traf-
fc of two of the most important railroads
in the world for distances from twenty-five
to thirty-fve miles, radiating from a ter
minus In the greatest city of the western