The Twin Falls times. [volume] (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1905-1916, 1911-12-05
ADDRESS AT HARVARD.
Director of Maintenance of Hartman
Lines DELIVERIES Interesting Address.

or the close of the educational year at
Harvard was an address delivered by
Mr. Julius Kruttschnitt, director of
maintenance and operation of the Har
riman lines, before the graduate school
of business administration. Mr..
Kruttschnitt took for his text Eff
cheney of Public Service of the Rail
way" He spoke of the railway as "a
machine designed to manufacture
freight and passenger transportation;
it makes ten miles and passenger
miles"
Mr. kruttschnitt believes that the
manner in which this machine does it's
work is of great interest to the public
because the railway renders it's SER
vice to the public and from the public
derives its franchise.
After pointing out the difference in
efficiency between American and for
| eign roads, greatly to the advantage of
our own lines, Mr.. Kruttschnitt went
into the matter of what he denonan-
ated THE accident record of manu-
factories of transportation" Along |
this line, he said:
"One thing which not a few persons
consider strong evidence that our rail- |
ways are inefficiently managed is
their accident record. 1t is true that
casualties to persons are more num-
erous on American than on European
railways, but there are reasons for
this which those who criticise our rail- |
ways are apt to overlook In his book
entitled Safety of British Railways, -
Mr. H. Rayner Wilson, good author
ity, has expressed the opinion that the
real reason for the bad accident rec
ord on the railways Of the United
States is the inherent love of Ameri-
cans for taking chances and their lit
tie respect for discipline or rule. Mr..
W. NJ Acworth, a high authority, in
speaking of the British railway en-
ployee, says he is more amenable to
discipline than the shifting and often
even foreign force employed on our
railways. On the average fully so per
cent of those killed in railway acct
dents in the United States are tres
passers on the railways property.
Trespassing is prevented in European
countries by strict laws strictly en-
forced The large number of trespass-
ers killed in this country is evidence,
not of the inefficiency of the railways,
but of the inefficiency of government.
Furthermore, because of the greater
density of population and therefore of
traffic, the railways of the loading
countries Of Europe have much
larger amount of double track than
those of the United States, which
greatly reduces the danger of COLI
sion If laws against trespassing were
enforced here as they are abroad and
the railways of the United States had
as large net earnings per mile as those
of Europe, travel could and would be
made much safer here than at present.
AS | have already shown you, however
the net earnings of the railways of the
United States per mile are only 49,,
sos, while those of the German roads
are $4,S16, and those of the British
roads, S9,127.
However, contrary to general be-
lief, great progress has been made by
the American roads within the last
two decades in making transportation
| safer, and this has been done notwith-
| standing the number and speed Of fast
| passenger trains, to which most of the
| fatal accidents are attributable, have
] been increased; that the density of
| traffic has been largely augumented
and that the rapid growth of business
| has made necessary the employment
| of numerous inexperienced men and
| the promotion to responsible positions
/ in train service of others with less eX-
perience than would ordinarily be put
| in such service.
owing to acts of Congress reQuir-
ing reports Of individual casualties,
the statistics of the Interstate Com
| merce Commission regarding them are,
] for recent years, extremely complete.
They We're much less complete in ear
/ lier years, as then the carriers had to
make only annual reports; and there
is no question that many minor injur-
I toe tpI tla rf
persons injured escaped notice and
| were not included in the earlier re-
ports. The ratio of injuries to fatali-
ties reported in 1889 was As; in 1899
ST. and in 1909, nearly II. 1t is fair
to assume that the ratio between in
| iuries and fatalities remains reason
| ably constant; and the fact that the
ratio between those reported have not
remained constant, justifies the be-
| lief that in earlier years a smaller pro-
| portion of injuries was reported than
is now the case. | believe, therefore
that the only way to arrive at a cor
rect conclusion as to the relative safe
ty of travel at present and in past
years, is to ignore the statistics as to
injuries and to make comparisons only
between numbers of fatalities, every
one of which necessarily has been re-
ported
''The statistics indicating the ratio
of passengers killed to passengers
hauled one mile demonstrate that on
the average in 1909 passenger could
travel 1000 times the distance around
the earth without being killed; or to
state the matter another way, he could
ride at the rate of go miles an hour
for 22O years without having a fatal ac-
cident Similarly the figures giving
the ratio of the number of employees
in service to the number killed show
I that on the average an employee could
work for 637 years before being killed
"As we must all rely on the Stats
teal reports Of the Interstate Com
merce Commission for our information
about the results of operation of the
railways as whole, | wish to call at
%0 co. 30 ~