The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-01-11
The WestpOrt Wreck

To the Editor of The Farmer, Sir;
A group of New Haven gentlemen
who constitute the chamber of com
uerce of that ancient city, recently
sat about a banquet ia BILE. their round
bellies with good fat capon lined
and their systems we'll fabricated with
rare vintages, and solemnly resolved
their belief that they (New Haven
Railroad rnanagers) are capable ana
efficient officials. honestly endeaVor-
anE to give full measure OF quick anu
safe service to the communities they
serve They then made a solemn ap-
peal Gas they deolared) to the sense
of fair play and justice of the pup-
nc to give consideration to the New
Haven road when it rs assahed by
men whose purposes are not wholly
clear, but seem at times and IN pla-
ees to be tinged with personal feel1ng
and political influence, rather than
for the purpose of aiding in con-
e%ructNe policy to better railroad OPP
Grafton and in some instances appar-
emily wiling to destroy without Civ
ing in place of. what iss destroyed
better service"
Ye Gods 1t is euphonious enough
70 have been composed in the yellow
building in New Haven, and taken not
OF the griddIe to be served as des-
uert to the august chamber of COM
merce-
throughout the State. that these sub
stantiaI New Haven gentlemen, pos
sibly due to the oft expressed views
of a certain brilliant and popular New
Haven journalist, have long looked
with abject admiration upon Mr.. Mel
lens great toe, calmly and stoically
closing their eyes to the culpable neg
lf<ence of the New Haven road that
resulted in a succession of horrible
railroad disasters within year in
Fairfield County in which human life
was taken under the most pitiful and
revolving circumstances. These New
Haven merchants resolved that the
Kew Haven road was all that was to
be desired They even ignored the
efsazreeable fact of Mr. Mellen's re-
cent Indictment by the Federal Grand
Jury in New York for his plain Vio-
Iation of the anti-mopopoly law, in
having taken into the railroads NAV
ali the transportation facilities of the
people of New england by land and
sea -
II these saosstasKtaa NgN Haven gen
tIemen had-any one of them-been
the husband, or father, or brother of
any one of the women on the ill-fat-
ed Pullman train that went off the
tracks at Westport on October 3, 1919,
and who were left to a slow roasting
death, they might well pause in their
sleek and over-fed contentment to
talk a little plain common sense.
Imagine an interrogation PROFOUND
ing the following interesting and
pointed questions to the New Haven
Railroad
4 Did your Federal express leave
the tracks at Bridgeport on the fate
fal Eleventh day of July, 1911, carry
ing human beings to their death be-
cause of an obsolete and abslIrdly
short crosS-over at the scene of tn at
disaster2 t'.-
2 DID the coroner after investi-
CATION inform you of the utter made
quacy of these No. 10 cross-overs?
g. Did the Interstate Commission
come on from Washington and make
q careful investigation of the disaster,
and did their experts declare that the
cross overs maintained by you were
insufficient and dangerous, and were
YOU then advised by the highest au-
thority furnished by our Government
that in the future, to avoid the dan
ger of relying solely upon the human
element in the cab with all its falli-
bility and weakness), you should eth
er stop your trains before taking such
short cross-overs, or to replace them
with longer and up-to-date cross
overs. such as in use all up
to-date railroads, such as the PennsyI-
vania. New York Central, and other
railroads?
/. Did you ignore and treat this
recommendation with contempt?
TO the same short, antiquated, and no
toriousIy defective cFoss-overs?
s. II you had hardened to the rec
concentration of the coroner, and the
Federal Interstate Commission after
the wreck of the Federal Express,
would these lives have been forfeited
at westport, on October 3, 1912.
T. Did you place the lives of these
passengers in the hands of engin-
ser who in his previous service had
ignored signals set against him ?
s. Did you through corrupt lob
BY at Hartford, at the session of 1911,
defeat an effort to so amend the Pub
lie Utility Law as to give it the pow
eT free from doubt, to order addi-
tionaI brakemen on trains?
9 Had it become a notorious fact
that your trains were not manned by
"a sufficient number of brakemen?
TO- Were there only two brakemen
on the long Pullman section that car
Inflated express?
required to leave the train after the
train came to a stop to signal? One
up the tracks and the other down the
tracks?
H. Were women passengers left
helpless and unprotected in the Pull
mS1 with brs KEENAN, or guard to
aid them in making a rescue?
t3.@Was a woman tfor-whose death
the prosecutions for granddaughter
held by heavy timber upon one an
kIe. and did she piteously call for
help?
IA Was the volunteer rescuer to
49, Eha aane=1ad unable to ind ev-