Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-05-28

ling with March were 9S,112 pounds,
against 2259,735 pounds in the corre-
spending months of the preceding year,
MODERN ASSASSINATION.
| Perhaps it is unjust and at least use.
less to expect sense of personal NOR
atty Of an officer ana partaker of the
profits OF a corporation that deliberate
lily weakens for gain the steel rails
upon which the lives of thousands and
hundred of thousands Of railway trav-
elers are riskeh day by day. Theret
was time within the memory OF living
men when the manufacturer who woul
deliberately put human lives in danger
to secure larger profit would have felt
a murderer and have been looked upon
as an assassin. Nowadays we have
heard physicians complain OF drug
adulteration that renders their efforts
Ito save life futile; we are informed by
1.-THE chemists of arsenic and copper In
the canned peas: Of morphia in cigars
and cocaine in catarrh cures; drowning
women and children, have chltched at
life preservers loaded with iron to the
iprofit of the manufacturer; it Is not
astonishing then when the charge is
made plainly and without evasion that
| the steel mills are turning OUT scamped
rails that break and main and STAY
thousands to pay the dividends that
enable steel magnates to buy actresses
I in the, matriomnial auction.
The Railroad Gazette, a periodical
that speaks with authority on railroad
questions, says:
1t is perhaps safe to say that there Is
no more striking example in this conn-
try of the dangerous and harmful pos
sibilities of great corporation than
that which is now being afforded by
!, the United States Steel Corporation in
| its attitude toward demands for sound
rails There is no individual, or COM
| bination of individuals, which knows
better how to make good trails than
does the United States Steel Corpora
| ton, with its splendid army of experts.
Nevertheless, it knowingly makes rails
| which break of below the point where
! high phosphorus and impurities are
| found specifications, as furnished by
railroad companies, are totally disre-s
garded, and rails, especially in the new
| and heavier sections are furnished
with spots in them so full of impurities
and so brittle that they must of me-
cessity break when subjected to the
strain of traffic The steel company
knows this quite we'll The railroad
companies also know tiquite we'll. The
| steel company declines to take cogniz-
anceN Of the fact, because this would
mean considerable reduction of output
aItho no important loss of material.
| The railroad companies fail to take q
firm stand because, in the interests OF
1.-The tremendous traffic, which they de-
Irive directly and Indirectly from the
| steel companies, they have not yet
dared to do so.
| Two points here are specially note
worthy: first, the criminal willingness
| of the steel corporation and the COM
panies allied with. it to manufacture
rails that cost human life; second, the
|
the part Of many high railroad officers,
to ignore the plain truths that are be-
ling brought before them by their SUI
perintendens and chief engineers.
1t is obvious that such state of af-
| fairs as this cannot continue. for pub
llic safetyis involved. Since the year
| 1901, it has been impossible for rail-
road companies to have their spech-
cations adhered to. The tremendous
| increases in rail breakages during these
! five years, when the steel corporation
has had the matter in it's own hands,
| are well shown in a tabulation of rails
broken and taken from track in New
York state. During January, February
and March, 1907, 1856 rails, rolled in the
previous year, were broken and taken
from track in the state of New York
T as against 20 rails, rolled in the year
1901. which broke during the same per-
/ iod This record may be directly
lcharacterized as disgraceful-a dis
grace to the reputation of the rail
manufacturers, who are fully able to
remedy the known defects il they wish
to do so. The only answer which the
rail manufa cturers haYe, brought
| against the charge is that traffic has
| grown materially heavier in the last
| few years, and that track structures,
ballast. ETC.. are insufficient for the
strain which is put upon them, with
the result shat high spots and. low
spots occur in the track, causing
breakages which cannot be avoided.
1t Is to be hoped that the railroads
exposure OF the methods Of steel man
'ufacturers may bring about the re-