Los Angeles herald., 1907-05-14
WE|ONER BLAMES
RAILROAD TACTICS
DECLARES MISMANAGEMENT
CAUSED DEATHS
Believes Many of the Injured Could
Have Been Saved If Special
Had Been Hurried to
Hospitals

Los Angeles is mourning today foi
the Shriners who went to their death
in the wreck of a special north of Santa
Barbara Saturday
In the place of the red fez which has
distinguished the Shriner for the last
ten days there is now only tiny bit of
black Grape enshrouding the emblem on
the lapel of each mans coat.
Today every flag in Los Angeles is at
half mast, and where week ago there
were revelers in every hotel and on
every street corner today there are
silent, sorrowing men and women.
The return of the Los Angeles
Shriners who went to Santa Barbara
to lend aid to their stricken brothers
has only served to increase the gloom.
These men have brought with them re-
ports of the suffering at the wreck so
filled with horror that those who heard
them yesterday turned away, heart sick.
On the special which left Los An
geles Sunday morning carrying Past
Imperial Potentate Alva P. Clayton and
his party went Potentate Motley Flint
and Perry w. Weidner.
Horror lndescribable
Mr.. Weidner says the horror at the
scene of the wreck is indescribable.
He visited the dead and dying and
took what messages of comfort he could.
1t is in condemnation of the railway
company and what he terms the COM
panys mismanagement that Mr.. Weld
ner is most vehement.
1.-THE wreck was terrible thing, but
its horrors were many times multiplied
by the treatment given the victims by
the railway company. The Los Angeles
office claims that all territory north of
Santa Barbara is outside of Los An
geles jurisdiction, and disclaims all re-
sponsibility.
II do not know with whom the re-
sponsibility rests, but 1 do know that
some one ought to be made to answer.
Some one ought to be made tell why
the train bearing the injured men and
women should have been sidetracked
two hours. while the regular trains were
allowed to pass. Some one is answer
able for the lives of the men and women
who died on the way to Santa Barbara.
They should have had first attention,
and their train should have had pre-
cedence over all other trains. Think
what those two hours were to the in
Jured. They must have seemed an
eternity.
Await Agent
'The agent in charge of the train. a
representative of Special Agent Nc
Cam, was killed, and 1 have been try
ing today to find Mr.. Mccain, but /
have learned that he has gone to Santa
Barbara. 1t is for him that everything
is waiting in Santa Barbara, as the
train cannot go on until he arrives"
For thirty days Shriners all over the
country will wear mourning, and as
soon as the delegates from the various
temples arrive in their homes memoriaI
services will be held.
Al Malaikah temple of Los Angeles
will soon hold a memorial service.
OF the festivities of Fiesta week moth.
ing is heard. In all circles where there
are Shriners it is of the wreck they
talk, and this tragedy seems to have
blotted from all the memory of the
happy days.
The information bureau at the temple
was closed yesterday, but Ferd K. Rule
in charge of the information bureau dt
the Alexandria hotel, gave information
to several hundred people. Telegram.
by the hundred poured into the Office
and they came from all parts o.
America.