Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1912-12-27

Philadelphia Rec
ord. Officially
these men are known as inspectors
of safety appliances. Under the law
they are expected to note whether
railroads are working their employees
more than 16 hours a day and if the
cars are equipped with self-couplers,
and their trains-freight and passeu-
ger-with automatic brakes. The in
Vestigation of accidents, also, is an
important part of their business.
Two inspectors are permanently
stationed in each of the IA districts
which stretch across and up and down
the country. They read the newspa-
pers for reports of bad accidents. and
when one occurs they hasten to the
scene and get the facts, shielding no
one, neither the railroad nor its train
men, switchmen or telegraphers, If
found culpable Often they are or
dered into action by telegram from
Washington. Among them are those
who have been locomotive engineers,
conductors, superintendent, train dis
patchers and trainmasters. At re-
cent civil examination of men hope
ful of becoming inspectors only Al
passed out of \ about 900 appli,
cants
Over the Inspectors and chief
among them in skill, activity and in
telligence is H. w. Belknap. once a
telegrapher, and later brakeman
and a conductor. An inspector must
have had eight years of practical ex-
perience on a railway. Mr.. Belknop
came to his Office after a service of
IA years. From the track and from
the train he brought to his work an
everyday knowledge of signals, of time
tables. and of rules and orders and
likewise of the human elements which
must be reckoned with in the opera
ton of railroads. He is compact
and hearty man and goes straight to
the point of everything. His eyes are
keen, his mind is quick, and he can
talk like a lawyer when such Ian
guage is necessary.
This is a big and disputed ques-
ton" he answered, when | asked him
to name the principal causes of acct
dents on railroads. my own opin-
ion is that most accidents are trace
able to man himself. rather than to
machinery, broken rails and defects
in roadbeds. We print bulletin
every three months giving the facts
about serious casualties. Here are
the bulletins covering six months of
last year and the first quarter of this
year. Go through them and you will
find the detailed reports of 48 acct
dents, 80 of which were collisions and
% of the 80 were head-on collisions
Orders were disobeyed, or wrongly
given, or signals were disregarded.
Only man is censurable under such
circumstances.
THE bulletin contains reports of
none but the worst accidents. There
were 1874 accidents of that kind dur
ing the first three months of this year.
Men grow careless or they try to make
up lost time and trains come togeth-
err. Then there are hundreds of de-
railments every year-rails or car
wheels break or the tracks give way
in weak spots. The Lehigh Valley
wreck near Manchester. N. Y, in
which 20 persons were killed and 62
injured, was occasioned by a new rail
that was effectively manufactured.
Against my off-hand views on the
subject of accidents l am willing to
put the sworn testimony of r. C. Rice,
general inspector of transportation on
a leading western line, who has said
that excessive speed was the cause
of about rs or 80 per cent. of the
catastrophies in the last few years
quote Mr.. Rice, because he is accu-
rate, technically. Every man In the
train service of railroad is geared
up to his highest speed physically and
mentally The boy who calls a train
man out of bed is in hurry. From
the time he gets up until he is
through with his work the trainman is
pushed by spoken word and orders by
telegraph. Americans in all walks
of life are speed crazy. Moreover
want to say right here that the rail.
road managers themselves sensation.
ally demonstrated to the public that
the 1000 miles between New York and
Chicago could be travelled in Is hours
The people didn't know ANYTHING
about 1t until they saw 1t done"