The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-04-16
Associations of Managers to Act
Against Offenders.
500 KILLED LAST YEAR
support of Public Is Sought in
Y Criminal Dealings.
Other Items of Interest in
Railway Circles.

Some idea of the seriousness of the
problem of dealing with trespassers
on a railroad is to be gathered from
the fact that the completed records,
now compiled, show that 500 men
were killed or died from injuries re-
ceived while in the act of trespassing
on the line of the Pennsylvania sys-
tenn during the year 1907.
These cases of trespass are not only
source of expense to the railroad,
but 1t is felt that common humanity
should prompt the most thorough
measures to eliminate this evil and
danger as rapidly as possible Ii
these men infest the company's
tracks and yards in such numbers,
they are certain to be killed or in
jured, no matter how careful the
trainmen may be. Yet they have no
business either as passengers or en-
ployes that requires them to be IN
the way of trains.
So important has this matter be-
come that the New York and Chi
cago General Managers associations
have taken it up. Officers of these
associations estimate that more tnan
half the 10000 people killed last
year on American railroads We're
trespassers Some of the state rail-
road commissions also are agitat1ng
this subject, and it is said that the
topic will be one of the important
matters of discussion before the next
annual meeting of all the state rail-
way commissions.
The Indiana commission has just
published an Accident Bulletin in
which these comments are made on
trespassing:
LAS to these persons killed on the
railroads while using these danger
Gus ways for footwalks and side
walks, we can only reiterate our firm
conviction that drastic legislation Will
be necessary to keep trespassers OH
the railway tracks. 1t is only fa1r
and Just to the carriers that they
should be allowed to use their prop
erty exclusively for railroad pur-
poses It is especially unfair to the
engine men, who on limited trains
are under the severest pressure to
perform their manifold work, that
they should be disturbed by persons
on the track who often appear un-
concerned and needless of the signals
and desperate dangers to which they
subject themselves.
1t is the contention of the railroads
that they constitute the backbone of
vagrancy Tramps cannot pursue
their occupation unless they steal
rides on freight trains. If they are
arrested, they are either put into the
lookup for two or three days or told
to move on This means that ev-
cry town mercy SIllllS It's Jul oCAi ~
another, and in return receives the
Migrants unloaded by third COM
munity. Thus the total number is
never decreased. In many cases To-
cal authorities refuse to make arrests
at ALL and if a tramp is put off
freight train, all he has to do is to
wait for the next one.
To abate these nuisances and to
stop the many accidents resulting
therefrom, railroads are seeking to
enlist the support of all state and
county authorities. If 1t becomes
noised abroad that a railroad tres
passer will usually get a heavy fine
Or the maximum term of imprison-
ment, this class will swiftly decrease
in number.
How extensive this evil is at the
present time will appear in the fact
that 4156 arrests for trespassing and
illegal train riding were made on the
right of way of the Pennsylvania rail-
road last year. During the same per-
iod ass men were arrested for lar
ceny. Larceny, of course. is an ex-
IRENE form of trespass. and the tres
passer frequently develops into a
thief.