The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1911-03-31
CHICAGO NEWS LETTER.

chicago, March 27.-Electric a,
ven as steam roads have been in.
'uoeu IN Indiana in mandatory laws
'us' passed requiring the installa
ION OF signal equipment TO safe.
Suarosuard the movement of trains.
according to bulletin of the
league for Public Safety in Chicago
the road which fails to install pro-
per signal equipment by January /,
l9l2, will be subject to a penalty OF
Sl,ooo Ter week. The railroad
commission is given authority to ex-
tend the time for installation If
sood reason appears and also to pass
on the form Of signals adopted, it
being specified that ANY other form
OF block or other signalling system
now or hereafter devised or used
which shall reasonably serve the
safety of life and property" may be
included under the statutory re-
qulrement. This advanced legislation
may be accepted as a model In other
states, and if it should be, the
steam and electric roads of the
United States would be compelled to
invest some 300,000,OOO in signal
apparatus. The enormous savings
to the railroads resulting from
property safeguarded train move
ment as we'll as the public need for
protection to life and property are
the reasons which caused the lndi-
ana legislature to enact this bill.
Copies of the measure will be put in
the hands of state officials togeth-
er With the reasons why the measure
should be generally adopted.
Faith in automatic methods Of
stopping trains when visual signals
are disregarded, which by chain of
circumstances recently cost
the life of a Chicago expert, Harry
H. Cade, at Batavia, N. Y, has been
justified by the coroner's verdict re-
garding the wreck in which he was
killed. The wreck was caused by the
failure Of following train to obey
signals to stop, the engineer having
become ILL., Mr.. Cade was
the killed. He was then re-
turning to Chicago from Albany,
where he had urged the merits Of
the Collord-Rohe devices which he
believed solved the problem of au-
stops without the drawbacks
found in all which so far have been
train Control Board of the Inter
state Commerce Commission. That
he should meet his death under cir
which the equipment he
had recommended would have pre-
vented was made doubly unusual by
the coroner's verdict which recogniz-
ed the same public need. 1t de-
clared: LAS to the means to be en-
ployed by the railroad company to
present the possibility of the recur-
renee of such an accident I recon-
mend the employment, if such be
and safe, of system by
which a train can be automatically
stopped in the event of the failure of
the engineman to observe a signal
set against him. The. equipment
by Cade included track
trips which, regardless of weather
conditions, in case of need produce
service braking of the passing train,
avoiding the dangerous emergency
stop, but accomplishing the purpose
in simple, direct way. 1t also
protects switches opening from main
tracks and registers in the engine
cab, for the enginemen's information
on the blacklist night, the location
Of the train.
The rapacity Of the loan shark of
and Illinois will be curbed
by bill now pending in the legis-
lature which has The endorsement Of
the Legal Aid Society and several
clubs and commercial organiza tons.
Persistent warfare has resulted in
pulling the fangs of the money loan
ers, who few years ago openly, and
even now in secret, levy tribute of
80 and 40 per cent on their victims.
An investigation has shown that
is invested in the loan
shark" business, Of which $780,
600 is invested by 1875 Offices in Chi
cago, according to the report made
to the Russell Sage Foundation.