The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-04-12
SEVEN BOYS KILLED
IN A week BY AUTOS
Some of These Victims Killed in
Sight of Their Helpless and Horrt
fled Parents.-News Broken Gently
to Others.

NEW YORK, April 12.-The great
fight that has been waged so long for
and against the railroads has brought
out many facts not publicity known
before. One of the most striking of
these facts is the one that shows
where the big railroad systems get
their big men from. The Pennsyl-
vania as also do some other great
lines, get their ties by growing timber
along the line, which from saplings
come to be sturdy trees from which
the ties and stringers for the tracks
are obtained. With so many ties wear
ing out and so many trees growing, the
managers are able to keep up the bal
ance without any very strenuous eff
fort.
So it is as to the men who manage
them. Once in a while, in order TO
get large amounts of capital, a mil
lionaire is put at the head of sys-
TEN to strengthen it financially, but
the muster roll of most of the rail
roads is filled with practical railroad
men who have come up from the bot
tom. Fitzergald, who as manager of
the Baltimore & Ohio, taught presi-
dent after president, was originally
water-boy. e. H. Hartman, the pres
ent railroad king, was first a clerk;
James J. Hill, king of the northwest,
vas at first clerk; President Harris,
of the Burlington, an office boy; e. B.
| Thomas, president of the Lehigh,
| telegrapher; President Brown, of the
New York Central a section hand;
President Murray of the B. e o. a
ticket agent; J. Harrahan, Illinois
Central, and Underwood, once switch
man. George F. Baer, president of the
Reading, who is the late nominee for
the coal worksrs was a printers
devil; Lookinn, of the Rock Island, a
brakeman; President McCree, of the
PENNSYLVANIA, a rodman; Mellen. Of
New Haven, and Toresdale, of the
Lackawanna, started as clerkss.
The railroads thus secured able men
by test far superior to that of the
civil service questionings. From one
position to another the coming presi-
dent or manager rose as the best
qualified man for the work to be done.
The example thus set by the railroads
and followed by most of the great en-
terprises is worth exploiting far and
wide.
One of the dailies makes a CHASTITY
exhibit of the ravages of the chauf-
feurs by grouping of seven young
sters, the oldest having been twelve
years of age, all killed within a week
in this city by swiftly speeding autos.
| Some of thest victims were killed in
sight of their Mortified parents; to
others of the latter the dreadful tale
was told as gently as possible. but the
shock of hearing it nearly crazed the
mother and father. The city tries,
as do the suburbs, by fines and ar
rests. But it would seem that auto en-
thusiasts would yield, of their own ac-
cord, and by the return of their senses
to the general sentiment of the COM
munity, and treat the public with prop
er respect, Civilization has been en-
gagged for about three quarters of a
century in making locomotive travel
as saftly as possible by fencing in
ing in the iron steed. With fences,
bridges. tunnels the locomotive has
been kept as far away from people
as possiblt. But the auto is allowed
to travel the unprotected, the drivers
seeming to think that it is perfectly
proper for them to outspeed it's rival,
the locomotive, along the unprotected
STREETS, while the great train that is
run by schedule, guarded by flagmen
and timed by wire, is hemmed in by
every device known to expert hui
manity. 1t must be that the mere
desire to travel fast has become ;
disease, and that every man who
buys an auto should Immediately have
a superman appointed over him to
suage him down to his proper limit.
The question is too large to be set
led by policemen and justices of the
eace.