The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-07-27
THE CORONER'S FINDING.

HE OONOI<EN D rlINDAl\0.
 The finding of Coroner Wilson with respect to the wreck of the Federal Express will commend itself to all who read carefully the instrument in which his views are expressed. with the reasons therefore. The general feeling of distrust with which the finding has been received grows out of the practice of secret inquests, which the coroner has unfortunately adopted against precedent in this county. The average citizen, reared in the faith that a democracy thrives best, whose affairs are conducted in the light of publicity, is naturally reluctant to believe that any good thing can flow out of a proceeding so abhorrent to his republican instincts as the star chamber inquiry into railroad wrecks is.
 It is perhaps unfortunate, too, that the coroner did not see fit to make his finding of criminal carelessness l against the very persons who are in fault He might also have issued his own warrant for the arrest of those persons. although there would have been no impropriety if he had left the matter of experimenting the accused to the public prosecutor.
 But finding of criminal negligence against the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad does involve an elementeof hne esrtaihty.bae .so
 Doubtless most lawyers will be will ing to agree that the finding is equiv alent to . finding against the direc- tors Of tho corporation.Ge@But a find ing of criminal negligence against the corporation lacks the certainty that would attach to a finding against the directors, and it opens a way for a prosecutor to evade responsibility if he should desire to do so, not that we : assume that Prosecutor Delaney de- sires to evade responsibility, for he seems to have made it clear that he will proceed in the direction which the coroner has indicated.
 Manslaughter is crime that in volvess intent tu 1t is a degree of mur- der, from which the element of malice is lacking. It may arise from great carelessnees in doing a lawful thing, or from the careless or reckless doing of an unlawful thing. It may arise >from doing things which ought not to be done. or from not doing things which ought to be done.
 The criminal negligence found by the coroner is a negligence of omission. The corporation charged with the neg ligence as a part of its business oper- ated heavy trains at high speed. The theory upon which the coroner pro- ceeds is that it was the duty of the corporation to know the danger at- OROA train. and to take all reasonable pre- cautions to make such operation safe. But the corporation maintained a short switch, put in at an acute angle, which was dangerous to a fast train unless the train should be slowed down to a very low speed. There are in use throughout the railroads of the country crossovers that are specially constructed to make the passage of trains from one track to another safe, even at high speeds. It is the con- tention of the coroner that the cor poration should have known this and should have installed such a switch, to facilitate the operation of fast trains at least
 The evidence as adduced by the cor oner opens a wide field for reflection, and permits the public view of prac- tical railroading as opposed to paper railroading, differing in this from the finding upon the wreck of June 6.
 It was the custom to instruct en- gineers ito makeb up time.iJly Attention is called to a bulletin in which en- gineers and firemen are warned that they must not fall behind schedules, or lag when, trains are late
 Railroad men we'll understand the meaning of such instructions So do readers of this newspaper. for such orders have been interpreted by a former railroad man in an interest ing letter, reviewing the wreck of the Federal Express. This authority as- serts that many rules which seem to be for the protection of passengers, are actually for the protection of the officers of railroad corporations. ThAY --o not rules to be followed in prac- tical railroading, but rules to be pre- scented st6t the attention of public of- ficials, coroners, prosecutors and courts, for the vindication of the of