Los Angeles herald., 1908-05-04
vention recently held In Washington.

vention recently held In washington
D. G.:
"Be it resolved, That the congress of
| the United States be requested to enact
| law to compel railroad companies,
| both steam ard interurban electric
roads. to protect tracks by an automa-
| tic block system to be approved by the
| Interstate commerce commission, GER
tain number of miles to be protected
each year until all the main track lines
shall be so protected; and be II turtner
Resolved, That the members OF TINS
association pledge themselves to ask
the assistance of the senators and rep
resentatives of the several states to
lend their aid in the passage of such
law; and be it further
Resolved, That the members of this
association pledge their most earnest
efforts to effect the passage of law
by each of the several states which
will accomplish the same end upon the
railroads of each state, to the end that
more perfect protection be provided
for the lives and property of the peo-
ple."
The interstate commerce commission
has issued accident bulletin No. "a,
covering reports for the year ended
June 80, 1907. This bulletin shows that
5000 persons were killed and 1926 in
jured during the past year by railroads.
These figures only include accidents to
passengers and to employees while actu-
ally on duty on or about trains. Ihls
Is an increase of 775 in the number
killed and 9577 in the number injured
as compared with the number reported
one year ago. The disastrous record
of casualties to passengers in train
accidents (410 killed. is due. in large
measure, to ten accidents which caused
the death of 291 persons.
Here is a sCmple of the many ter
rible wrecks that have occurred under
the manual block system:
Wreck on the Southern railway.
Shortly after a. m. on November
20, 1906, a rear-end collision occurred on
the Southern railway, near Lynchburg,
Va. The forward train was No 33,
known as the Jacksonville limited, on
the rear end of which was President
Spencer's pri ate car. The rear train
was No. 81 the washington and South
western limited; this struck the pri-
vate car. telescoping it, and fire broke
out In the debris. Six persons were
killed outright two died shortly after
ward and ten others were injured.
Those killed in the wreck were all oc-
cupants of Mr.. Spencer's car, and were
Mr.. Spencer, Gen. Philip Schuyler of
New York, Charles D. Fisher and
Frank r. Redwood of Baltimore (three
guests who were accompanying Mr..
SpeA-cer on :. hunting trip, D. w.
Davis, private dispatcher to Mr.. Spen-
cer Benjamin Boswell, an employe on
the car. One of the porters on Mr..
Stencer's car and the fireman on No.
81 died the following day from injuries
received.
Investigation developed the fact
that Operator Mattoax at Rangoon let
train No. SO into the block and dis
regarding the rules, failed to notify
the operator at Lawyers of this fact.
When the first section of No. 81 ap-
preached Rangoon, Mattoax asked the
operator at Lawyers for the block on
No. 81 This was given by the operator
at Lawyers, who did not know that No.
33 had gone iii upon the block. No. 30
broke down at the south end of the
curve and the flagman ran back to
protect his train, AS far as learned,
the flagman had proceeded about 800
yards when No. 81 was in view on the
curve. The fact that the flagman had
proceeded only 300 yards indicates that
he had waited until No. 81 was heard
approachin.: before starting back to
rlace his torpedoes, and emphasizes
the slight dependence that can be
placed upon flagman obeying the
existing rules"
GreateSL WcdkncSS
Automatic signals prevent such
wrecks even when the train dispatcher,
operator and fiagman fail in their du-
ties. Safety of trains should not de-
pend upon dispatchers and operators.
A railroad official in communication
to one of the leading railway journals
says: 1.-THE greatest weakness of the
train dispatching system. which the
writer frankly admits and deplores, is
that the dispatcher directs, but never
has been authorized to control train
movement. Before relegating the sys-
TEN to the limbo of has beens,' or con-
demning it as hopelessly inadequate. it
may be worth while to try to discover
it's latent possibilities. He-the dis
patcher-has put out orders to be de-
livered by operators, and they have
failed to display signals for delivery or
neglected to deliver. He has himself
issued conflicting orders. only to dis
cover, when too late. that they invited
disaster"
The dispatcher will continue to be a
necessity in the operation of trains, but
their safety must depend upon modern
automatic block signals.
Numerous coroners' juries have ex-
pressed themselves in vigorous Lam
guage while placing the responsibility
for wrecks that could and should have
been avoided.
Coroner Charles S. Comfy while
making return of his findings in the