New-York tribune., 1907-10-12
"GETTING THERE"

Why do so many accidents happen on Amer
lean railroads? Bad management is the usual
answer But those, whether many or few, who
doubt the correctness of this explanation may
! find a suggestion in the little episode at the
Grand Central Station yesterday. And perhaps
| even some of those who quick TO damn the
administration will he illumined by the behavior
| of the passengers on the local trains which were
prevented from entering the station for half an
hour yesterday forenoon by the derailment Of
a car at the end of an incoming New York, New
| Haven Hartford train. There was neither eX-
! element nor danger; everybody supposed the
! delay was due to a dlsarrangement of schedule
and switches caused by late trains But Amer
lean nerves could not stand the strain of n brief
! sojourn in a peaceful swtchyard After five
minutes OF waiting women and men Of high
and low degree began to pour out of the stalled
| trains behind the deraed one and the beseech-
! ing advice of the train hands to beware Of the
third rails and the yard engines which were
darting about with perilous frequency. fell on
deaf Somebody spied a 10-lnch plank
spanning deep hole and serving as a bridge
| by which workmen might pass from the switch
yard into the Park avenue highway. Then some
body said he had to meet Jones in twenty min
utes and away he went, over third rails, tracks.
| chasm and bridge. woman having an appoint
ment with her dressmaker followed gingerly.
! This WAS general signal 70 all hands. Seventy
year-old women with bundles trailed their skirts
and their steel shafted umbrellas over the deadly
third rails, children skipped merrly over the
danger fraught path, and everybody took huge
delight in the excursion, including the scores of
spectators in Park avenue, whose suspense and
| fascination suggested that they expected to see
somebody stumble and burn to crisp or else
| be manged by passing locomotive.
| 1t is certain that not one person out of every
| dozen who left the trains had an engagement
pressing enough to warrant the risk involved in
clambering to the street. II is certain that the
elderly woman who took her stand between two
| live third rails and explained to the conductor
who was hauling her back to the train that she
| promised her daughter over In Brooklyn to be
there for luncheon on time suffering from the
! curious mental disease epidemic in this region
She, like all her fellow passengers, could think
! of nothing save getting there" Hindrances
counted for nothing. and the end justified the
means OF escaping from the switchyard. Now,
| If seventy commuters on one local train take
great risks for trihng gain, is it not probable
| that q similar proportion of railroad employees,
| high and low, are prone to do the same thing?
| Crowdng steam, running past danger signals,
making subordinAtes work overtime, running too
| few cars. repairing tracks hastily-may not all
| these and like misdeeds be prompted by the
| blind desire to get thereto finish on time?
| But who is to blame? Not only the men doing
| these things but the great public that snarls at
| fve-minute delays and slow trains. These same
persons who take their lives in their hands for
no good reason imbue the railroad employees with
| their own spirit. This is not a soft impeach-
ment, but yesterdays incident makes it as pain