Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-15
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RAILROAD DISASTERS

NM l1I1 SllOCkiilB TeBuldTlly LHe rail-
w roads report the daily disaster
and more innocent lives are
snuffed out and no one is to blame.
Again the roads running into Los An
geles afford the usual "man for break
fast" and all the people can get in
answer is: I'VE are at loss to under
stand how the derailment occurred" :"
The following from the Review of Re
views is so condensed and effective in
this relation we give it in full:
Rather more than death every hour
of the day on American railroads, and
ten persons MANNED for every sixty
minutes is something a people not
scared against slaughter should find to
trouble sleep until it is remedied.
Every ninety minutes there is derail-
ment or a collision. During year
there is one of these accidents for
every sixteen miles of track. OF en-
ployes of railways one out of every
twenty-eight is injured every year,
and one out of 81 is killed, If this is
true of railway employees in general,
the risk in the more hazardous branches
of the business must be terrific. If the
people killed and manned were placed
along the trackage of the United States
at regular intervals there would be a
fresh grave every twenty-one miles
every year, and a cripple every two or
three miles. In twenty-one years the
gravestones would become milestones,
If the slaughter goes on, and the
manned would be within an ordinary
city block of each other along every
mile of right of way. Such battles as
Bull Run, Fort Donelson, Shiloh and
Gettysburg fill Us with horror and con-
sternation, as we hear or read of Win
rows of slain, streams running red to
the sea, and the sickening waste OF
human life. But for the year ending
March 81, 1906, the railways of the
United States killed and wounded 95,-
sol people, while the killed, wounded
and missing of both Confederates and
Federals for the battles of Gettysburg,
Shiloh and the first battle of Bull Run
all combined amount to the less heart
breaking total of 92,3O0 The worst Cor
best) of it is that other nations run
their railways without this daily car
mage. Why do not we?"
This blood-curdling showing is the
result of careful analysis of the sub
ject and makes concrete a scattered
wrong that must be righted speedily,
OF late months the aggregate of loss of
life in California alone has been enor-
nous, and no possible recourse can be
had by the people but the dubious and
halting legal suit for damages.
1t is more than likely a spike or
spikes were in rotten ties and allowed
the rails to spread or the ties needed
tamping and sunk under the great
pressure; but any or all of such causes
should be known to trackmen and care
fully removed. Right here comes one
of the prime causes for poor roadbed.
The roads employ cheap labor, and
drive it till it becomes rebellious and
careless. No law of inspection exists
outside that of the companies en-
ployes, and miles of road now cover this
state which any railroad man would
condemn If he were free from corpora
tion influence.
The interminable slaughter of inno-
cent people by collision and derailment,
and the evident inability or unwilling
ness Of the roads to check it form a
logical and powerful argument for gov
ernment supervision and control, if not
ownership of all roads.