The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-10-05
''The Price We Pay" For Speed
 On Railroads


 Charles Edward Russell
 Proves DestructiVeness of
 American Railroading
 That the American railroad is not equipped for safety and that the chief source of the Ar2e erican railroad peril IS defective equipment is the amazing statement made by Charles Edward Russell in the Hampton-C Colum bia II magazine in an article entitled, Speed, the Price We Pay in Lives for a Thing We Do Not Get.'' Tn the last 10 years the American rail roads have killed and injured more persons, the writer says, than were killed and injured in the entire Civil war, one of the bloodiest wars in his- tory. Here is a list of passeAgers killed in each million of passengers countries of the wor1d:r
 France .......... .02 in each million Belgium .05 ' :. '' Austria ......... or " Great Britain and
 Ireland .07
 EGermany .08 = I" United States .... .51 2" :" Regarding the poor equipment the writer says:
 Our railroads were thrown togeth- CT in mad haste and with but one idea. The projectors had invested money in them; with an insane avid- ity they wanted to get something to run wheels upon so that they might have immediate profits. Tn the pur- suit of that purpose the death lists have been multiplied and the coun- try has been spotted with the maim- ed and the halt
 Among the clumsy and barbarous contrivances that resulted from this mad craving for instantaneous profits is the crossing of other railroads and of public highways at the grade. It is a staggering fact to contemplate, but after all these years and all the modern development of the business, this murderous practise is still the rule and safer crossings are the ex- ception. do not know how many grade crossings there are in the Unit ed States, but the number must ex- ceed 100000. Not alone country roads are crossed in this haphazard manner, but with very few excep- tions our railroads enter and leave all towns and even cities at the level of the streets.
 When one reflects that this is still the case in New York city, where a railroad occupies long, busy and crowded avenue in populOus region; in bustling, growing cities like Syra- cuse and Denver and in thousands of progressive towns of smaller size; and that no agitation nor effort .avails to abolish these anomalies, one is tempt ed to despair of the whole situation. If the people of an old,s established and highly civilized community like Syracuse are willing to have express trains hurting every few minutes l. x1s~ op4~, ,osy eSfx, 1{cx I,n Ia seems slight that the whole country will ever be sufficiently aroused to demand railroad safety"
 In defense of the engineers who, if they areA not killed. are thrown in jail after the wreck, the article says:
 "It is but shallow to blame the en- gineers for these things; they are but the victims and often the protesting, unwilling victims, of the system. The track facilities are too small, the single track will not carry the traf- fic, the engineers are required to do the impossible, the first requisite is that by taking appalling chances they shall overcome the deficiencies of equipment and get through accord. ing to schedule. So they bang ahead, sometimes in safety and sometimes rolled up in a rear-end collision in which their own escape is practically impossible. It is dreadful business,
 
 the United States.
 "On July Il of this. year one of the famous fast express trains of the country was wrecked under condf- tions that illustrate all of these com ments. The engineer ran through his signals, but it appeared from the testimony that he was behind time and circular issued the day before to engineers by the division superin- tendent reproved them for. not mak- ing up lost time. There appeared to be no reproof for disregarding sig nals when necessary to. make up time.
 s'The construction of the road was so obviously faulty that sthe coroner went to the unusual length of con- demning it, placing upon it the cfier responsibility for the accident There was a 'cross-over' at an angle too short for safety, yet over that death and crowded trains. A rule of the company forbade engineers to take this 'crOSs-over at high rate of speed, but the testimony showed one of these tacit understandings that where trains were delayed, time might be made up by violating just such rules
 "In this particular accident IA per- sons were killed and 40 mangled. The railroad is one of the oldest in the United States; also one of the best re- puted and most heavily capitalized. Sometimes there is another reason why the engineer runs through the signals He does not see them be- cause he is physically too exhausted to see them. He has been on duty so long that his faculties are numb and he is dazed and incurable. Then some day he goes through signal that is really significant and with some of his passengers he is crushed in a wreck.
 'In all the discussions of this sub ject, nobody seems to write the en- gineer's side. Yet, after all, he be- ing most exposed to the resulting perils, his view ought really to come first If you could get it free from the ban of concealment that his en- ployment lays upon him, you would have something that would open your eyes"