Omaha daily bee., 1907-02-21
PROTECTING RAILWAY EMPLOYEES.

PROTECTING RAILWAY EMPLOYEES.
The action Of Attorney General Bo-
naparte directing that suits be institu-
ted against about a score OF railroads
for violations of the safety appliance
law serves as final notice to railroad
companies that dilatory tactics, de-
signed to avoid compliance with the
federal law on this point, will be toll
Grated no longer. The law was passed
years ago, in response TO demands
from trainmen and labor organizations
throughout the nation, but the rail-
roads succeeded in bringing pressure
upon congress which secured a num-
Der OF postDonements of the date for
making the measure operative That
time has long since expired, but a
score or more of the railways of the
country have as yet failed to comply
with the provisions of the act. The
Interstate Commerce commission has
reported seventy-eight violations of
the law and the attorney general has
decided to begin prosecutions.
In face of the record that twice as
many trainmen were killed or injured
in 1906 as in 1895 and that there was
sn increase of nearly 100 per cent in
the number of passengers killed, based
on the number of passenger miles, in
the same ten-year period, the action Of
the Department of Justice would ap-
pear to be eminently just, If tardy, in
using every precaution authorized by
law to reduce the growing total of
human slaughter in the operation of
the steam railroads of the country.
Reports submitted to the Interstate
Commerce commission show that for
the year 1905 one employee of the
operating departments of the railroads
was killed for every All employed and
one injured for every twenty-one en-
ployed. Among the trainmen, one was
killed for every 1913 employed and one
injured for every nine employed. In
1895 one passenger was killed for
every 2,984,832 carried, while in 1905
one was killed for every 1,375,S56
carried. In 1895 one passenger was
injured for every 213,651 carried, and
in 1905 one passenger was injured
for every 70,655 carried. In other
words, 1t is only half as safe to travel
on steam roads now as a decade since.
Safety in the operation of American
railroads is about the only feature of
American development that shows re-
PROGRESSION instead of progress in the
last ten years.
The solution of this problem must
lie with the railroads of the country.
II will not do for them to argue that
they are carrying about eight times
as many passengers as they did ten
years ago, In face of the fact that
the percentage of killed or injured,
compared with the number carried,
has nearly trebled in that time. Amer
lean people travel more each year and
will continue 10 do so as the country
becomes richer and more densely pop
ulated. Their care and safety and the
protection of the men who operate the
trains constitutes a tremendous re-
sponsibility and the railway managers
must show improvement over the rec
ord OF the past ten years or confess
incompetency. No plea, however, of
inability to meet existing conditions
and emergencies will be accepted by
the American travelling public so long
as railroad managers fail to take \ad-
vantage of every opportunity for the
adoption of safety appliances, whether
prescribed by law or made possible in
other ways, calculated TO protect the
lives and limbs of their employees or
Messengers