The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-02-15

possible to get a judgment against a
railroad for loss of life. The railroads
had really rather kill man than merely
MAIN him, because they usually suffer
more for injuries than from deaths.
o. eff / ship a carload of stock to Kan
sas City, and send my son along to
take care of it, and the train is wreck
ed, and the stock is killed, and my son
too 1 can file my claim for the value
of the stock and get paid without a
fight, but when 1 try to collect dam
ages for the death of my son, find 1T
almost impossible. The railroad has the
law fixed up so that it is next to- inn
possible to get judgments.
1.-The result of this bill will be to
make railroads more careful about kill
ing people, and allowing these terrible
wrecks to continue.
The railroads have in their possession
scores of methods of avoiding wrecks:
knows nothing about. because the rail-
roads have bought up the patents and
simply allow them to wait for some fu-
'ture time to make them useful. 1t costs
money to put in devices for the protec-
ton of the lives of the passengers, and
the railroads figure that it is cheaper
to fight damage suits than to protect
the public. There would have been
very few deaths in these recent wrecks
which have Mortified the country if the
railroads had been required to use
steel cars in all passenge- trains. There
would be very few such collisions If
double track and block signal systems
were put into general use. 1t is this
idea of saving money that makes so
many terrible wrecks possible
Lawyers know that there is no suit
so hard to win a suit for damages
for the death of a person in railroad
accident. Usually the person who comes
to the lawyer with such a case is a poor
widow or mother, who has no money
to fight such cases. The lawyer knows
that he will have to fight four or five
years for judgment, and then get only
a small sum, so he requires that he be
given % or so per cent of the judgment
for his fees. 1t isn't much of a fee,
either, and it does not amount to much
for the widow. That is why the bill
provides that the railroad company pay
the lawyer when the verdict is against
the company.
action except as it might survive from
the dead mans right to sue for the in
Jury. This law gives the live people a
right to sue for the death and if the
man leaves no heirs the county of
which he is a citizen can sue, so that
even If man has no friends he still
has protection.
'sThe idea of this law is to teach
men to respect themselves and to put
a respectable value on human life in
the hope that the railroad manage
ments may learn to respect them and
put some value on human life. When
tracks and block systems and steel
cars and electric appliances to stop
trains that have gone by places where
they should have stopped, and many
other things that railroad managers
could use if they would put their
money into those improvements in.
stead of spending it in politics and
stock gambling.
This bill would make the verdict
the real value of the mans life just as
for a horse or pillow or a promissory
note. 1t gives exemplary damages for
killing a man just as it does now for
killing a calf or breaking an arm or
putting a man of the train, If the evil
dence supports it.
eff a railroad MORALLY wounds a
man it becomes its business to see that
the man gets decent treatment under
this bill
This bill also fixes it so that when
a railroad is tried civilly for killing a
man, the statements of it's employees
who did the killing may be proven as
the railroads admissions.
In fine, the bill simply provides
that human life shall have nearly as
much protection as animal life or any
other property under the law and the
hope is that 1t will have a tendency to
induce the railroads to make a greater
effort to quit killing people, Life
ought to be much safer in Kansas than
it is in Chicago as far as railroads are
concerned. but in fact the railroad
death rate is nearly twice as great in
Kansas as in Chicago.
THE bill is not RADICAL it simply re-
stores to the people some of the rights
that the railroad attorneys, by persist
ent lobbying at the legislature have ia
ken away. It simply places the life of
man somewhat on a parity with the
life of a steer. Tt will be A hard hin
to pass, and possibly the session is foo
far gone to expect much at the present
time, but at least 1t may arouse public
interest in the needs of the case. and
create a public demand for a bin -
this kind at some future time
There was fight of considerable