Evening star., 1912-07-15
The Crime of the Railroads.

II a business man finds one of his en-
p1oyes trifiing with the funds he inter
poses a check to stop the pilfering. II
at some crowded place a person is pushed
of the edge Of declivity and injured or
killed stout railing is usually erected as
O safeguard. In almost all Of the activi-
ties of life the positive warnings are
Needed and steps are taken to prevent
repetitions Of disaster. Not so. however.
IN the transportation world. Scores
upon scores of times the fact has been
demonstrated that II is unsafe to trust
the running of trains exclusively to
human agencies, that signal men will
make mistakes that dispatchers will suf-
fer lapses OF memory and that engineers
will take chances in running past signals.
with the result of collisions costing heavi-
Iy in lives. Yet. although the remedy for
such a dangerous condition lies at hand
In the adoption Of form of automatic
cutoff. positively stopping train that
enters a prohibited or occupied block. the
railroads Of this country refuse to adopt
It, on the ground that it is unnecessary
and that 1t would interfere with the mot
ing of the tpaffic.
Within the past two weeks there have
been three rear-end collisions. costing a
total of about seventy-five lives, at Glib
son. n. Y, on the "Lackawanna"; at Ligo-
nier, Pa, on a small mining road: apd at
Hinsdale, Chicago. on the Burlington =
All of these We're of the strictly prevent
able type and all were due to a lack of
efficient signaling and train stopping. The
Lgonier wreck may be cast out of the cal
culation as this line is not we'll organized
or heavily travelled. Both the Burling-
ton and the Lackawanna, however, are
supposedly well equipped and manned
and represent a high type Of American
railroad efficiency. Yet on these roads
all the safeguards failed and in each case
train was either admitted to or intrud-
ed upon block of track on which a pas
senger train was standing
Congress could do nothing SO highly
conducive to the public welfare as to pass
Immediately, without further investiga-
ton to demonstrate need that is already
plainly evidenced by rapidly recurring
tragedies, an act peremptorily requiring
the railroads Of this country to adopt
some form of automatic train stop as a
supplement to the block signal system and
. positive preventive Of collisions Surely
the need has been sufficiently proved in
this past fortnight, through sacrifice of
nearly fourscore of human lives. the re-
sponsibility for which lies directly upon
railroads on which three collisions have
occurred
Coroners juries may place the blame for
these fatalities upon this or that official
or operative. upon engineer or signal man
n trnt A,-x,r N,IN TD,,x III
rests with the directors of the railroads
themselves. who have turned a deaf ear
to the inventors who for years have been
trying to get them to adopt device
which would in the past two decades have
saved probably 5000 lives and an immense
amount of property.
A reference of this question to the in
terstate commerce commission or to any
other body for investigation and report
will be mere temporizing that is almost
certain to cost heavily. Head-on and
rear-end collisions are sure to occur as
long as reliance is placed upon the people
In the signal towers and the engine cabs.
II the railroads could be trusted to move
even In their own interest, II not in the
interest Of the public, by making certain
against these collisions which cost them
enormously in damages. Congress might
wait longer before acting in this matter.
But II is assured that until they are
actually forced the railroads will not
adopt any device that will interpose an
obstacle against fast train operation and
the taking of chances for the sake of
maintaining schedules. To defer longer
to the railroads in this respect by per-
mitting them to run this risk shifts the
responsibility for these heavy sacrifices
OF life from the corporations to the law
making body, which can meet this matter,
II 1t SO desires. in twenty -four hours, and
thereby remove a stain from the Ameri-
can civilization.