Bluefield evening leader. [volume] (Bluefield, W. Va.) 1906-1911, 1907-02-05
DOESN'T WONDER
AT WRECK HAVOC
GRAND CHIEF STONE DECLARES
ROADS RUN TOO MANY AND
TOO FAST TRAINS.

Warren s. Stone. grand chief OF
the Brotherhood OF Locomotive En-
gineers. says that. in his opinion.
the demand of the travelling public
to ride at high rate OF speed was
largely responsible for many OF this
country's disastrous railroad acct
dents. He added that similar disas-
tiers are bound to occur unless the
speed of many OF the so-ealled ely
ers" is materially reduced.
cit is not the excessive speed it
self OF the fast trains that is re-
sponsible for the accidents" said
Stone. but the greatly augmented
congestion OF the railroads which
the fast trains necessarily entail
With the immense amount OF busl-
ness that is offered TO the railroads
at the present time there is not
big system in the country that would
not have about all the traffic II could
safely handle II It did not operate q
single passenger train on its lines.
LAS IL is. the freight trains have
20 get over the road as best they
can. trying to get to terminals as
nearly on time as possible, but be-
ing delayed every few miles by hav-
ing to get out OF the way OF the
many passenger trains which come
flying along the road in both direc-
tions. often at the rate OF sixty miles
an hour.
"a fair example of the conges-
ted condition of the railroads OF this
country at the present time was
shown a couple of weeks ago at the
conference that was being held In
Chicago between the committee OF
general managers OF forty-seven
western roads and the engineers In
regard to wages. etc. The general
manager of one of the western sys-
TINS stated that on the day previous
on one section Of his line, 900
miles long. for every nine miles of
track there was a freight train com
ing east and mixed in between all
those freight trains were fourteen
passenger trains flying in each
direction.
"Now that is single track line
and the conditions that day were
nothing unusual from any other day
so YOU can imagine what kind OF Il
checker board tho dispatchers on
that road have to work with.
with so many freight trains fol-
lowing each other as closely as they
have TO under such conditions ana
their crews trying to keep out OF the
way of fast passenger trains that
are constantly flying in between
them. It is no wonder that accidents
happen.
'No operating official of any rail
road ever put on a fast passenger
train unless the public demands If
and for every IA train that is pm
on the congested condition OF rail
road IS increased, because every 9th
er train on the line is delayed by hav-
ing to keep out of the way Of the
flyer
MANY persons have charged the
responsibility for the railroad wrecks
to the carelessness of the engineer
In charge of the locomotive. but
such an accusation is sheer nonsense.
In collision the engineer is in the
most dangerous part OF the train
and If anyone is killed or hurt he IS
usually the first victim. There is no
more reason to believe that an en-
gineer Is DESTROYS Of committing sui
eide than any other human being.
"An engineer realizes the great
danger he Is in every moment he IS
on duty and you may be sure that
he takes every precaution he pos
sibly can against accident as by so
doing he is guarding his own life as
well as the lives OF his passengers.
Even If there were nothing else the
death roll OF engineers would be suf-
ficient to keep the men i'm charge Of
locomotives alive to their danger.
The records Of the Brotherhood Of
Locomotive Engineers show that last
month twenty-six members OF our
order met death in discharge Of their
duty, almost one engineer killed on
his locomotive FOR every day OF the
month. while thirty-seven died nat
ural deaths and four were totally
disabled.