The National tribune., 1907-01-03
RAILROAD ACCIDENTS.

RAILROAD ACCIDENTS.
The shocking accident on the Balti-
more & Ohio last Sunday evening in
which monster engine drawing seven
empty coaches dashed thru a local
| train killing possibly so and wounding
scores more stirs the people of the
country with alarm over what seems
to be the increasing frequency OF these
catastrophes. There seems to have
been absolutely no excuse for it nor
for any of the recent tragedies of the
rail which have startled the community
and brought mourning to numberless
homes Still worse, if possible, is the
| feeling Of insecurity and trepidation
which they must infuse into everyone's
mind as to the possibilities of even a
short railroad trip. We are the greatest
travellers in the world. and it is desir-
able that travel and free interCommuni-
cation between all our people should be
encouraged with every safeguard
| thrown around it. Railroad running is
the employment of mechanical forces
according to well-known and absolutely
| operating laws. Every operation con-
nected with it is as certain and immuta-
BILE as the law of gravitation. There
can be. therefore. no such thing as an
accident. Whatever happens is in obe-
| dience to law. and is in direct con-
sequence of something else that is done
Therefore, a catastrophe is from the
| first, and can be nothing else, due to
some ones fault or some vicious fea-
ture of the management. Tt can be
nothing else. In the olden times, when
men travelled by land and sea, it was
well enough to talk about the "acts of
| Cod" when storms and wrecks de-
stroyed life. Such a thing has abso-
lutely no place in railroad management
Wherever man is killed by collision
or otherwise 1t Is simply murder, due
| to some mans criminal negligence or
violation of absolutely known laws. The
to have been culpable to the last de-
gree. local train crowded with pas
sengers was standing on the track, when
the other train, coming up al full speed.
struck it in The rear and cut thru it
| like a knife thru pastehoard, killing
and mangling as it rived the frail local
coaches.
There Is simply no pNssible grounds
| for equivocation or justification, and
some one or more We're guilty of abso-
| lutte murder. The ordinary pleas of
mistakes Of judgment and failures to
do things that should have been done
will not mitigate the harshness of this
verdict. When men take charge of the
lives of their fellow-beings as railroad
men do they assume a special responsi-
bility far g, cater than that of men in
the ordinary vocations of life, and any
negligence. any failure to take the prop
1 er precautions, Is criminal in the high
est degree. We can no longer afford
to pass over as lightly as we have been
doing these terrible tragedies. Our civ
ilization demands that we throw the
most strenuous safeguards about the
lives of our people, and make anything
which endangers them a criminal act
of the highest culpability. We should
inaugurate at once system of stern
insistence that wherever there is rail-
road accident some one should be held
guilty Of deliberate murder and pun
ished accordingly. This insistence
should begin with the higher officers OF
the company. who are probably the
most responsible because of their par
simony in the matter of employment
and Of bringing into the service Of the
road, at low wages, men Of defective
character, who are untitled for their
duties and whose continuance in the
railroad service is fraught with con.
slant danger to the passengers. Nothing
less than this will meet the strong need
of the day for the utmost safety in rail.
road travel.