Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-01-08
Who Is to Blame?
To the Editor of The Star:


In New York the court decides that in
the terrible disaster on the electric road,
in which a large number were killed and
many more injured, the manager or Of
fetal in charge, was not responsible. On
the other hand, in the Terra Gotta dsas-
ter In the District, in which forty-three
were killed and sixty-three injured, a
jury decided that the operatives were not
responsible
If neither the officials in charge nor
the operatives are responsible then who
is? Surely, somebody is, or ought to be,
and whoever is ought to be severely pun
ished. for 1t is wholesale murder and
nothing less.
The fact that damages may be recov-
cred from the railway companies is not of
itself a proper remedy, for that is SIM
ply fine on the innocent stockholders,
who are in no way responsible.
1t is high time that Congress and the
state legislat lures should give attention to
this subject, as the deaths and injuries
and something terrible. In a single year
near 10000 persons are killed, and about
900 injured; and the number increases
year by year. In the state of New York
alone, in the year ended June 30, 1905,
lon the surface steam roads there were
BOB killed and 1.961 injured. 1t is out
rageOus that such conditions should be
continued and little or no effort made to
remedy them.
According to reliable authorities, every
week We kill more people on our rail-
roads than are killed on the entire Ger
man system in a year. According to an
official of the archive bureau of the Prus-
sian railway administration the number
per thousand of the employees killed IN the
various countries the pest year was:
United States, 435; Switzerland 2o.3;
England, Ills; Belgium, IL; Germany, "a
OF the injured it was: United States. %: l.;
England. 1913: Switzerland, 50; Russia,
lis; British India 81; Belgium, Al
This is of the employees alone, and OF
the passengers the excess in the United
States is equally great. Congress and the
states have felt called upon to legislate On
the subject of rates for the transportation
of goods and passengers on the railroads.
and it would seem in view of the terrible
destruction of life and the injury to
human beings that il was time Tor them
to act vigorously on this subject. IL they
cannot, or will not do anything else,
they might at least adopt the plan sug-
gested years ago by the Scientific Ameri-
can, which was that a director or other
official should be dashed on the cow
catcher of all passenger trains as pre-
ventive of the railroad murders OF daily
occurrence
Recklessness. disobedience of orders and
lopen switches are the cause OF nine
tenths of all the so-called accidents. Inc
loss to the railroads themselves by the
destruction or locomotives, tais' ioohS
ETC., would more than pay for the en-
ployment Of thoroughly skilled operatives
in their stations: men to watch every
switch. all working reasonable hours, and
the adoption of automatic devices for the
prevention of accidents, OF whlcn Liiere
are many. If they will not do this volun-
tarily, then they should be compelled by
law to do it, and every individual whether
workman or official, should be held per-
sonaliy responsible. and punished by I'M
, oond 1Ong term for every
accident due to or resulting from theil
acts. At the same time the law should
nrovide the death penalty for the wretches
who derail trains or attempt to do 80: ana
life Imprisonment for those VINO hoia up.
~ attempt to hold up. trains Both Of
these classes are perpetual menace to
the community at large, and in seif-de-
| Tease the community is justified in put
ting them where they cannot repeat thelr
| crimes. w. - DOA'1S'