The Cairo bulletin., 1913-09-26
u. s. Power to Act.

GRITTY.
U. S. Power to Act.
The report makes these points in
addition to those listed before.
The government has the power to
compel the safeguarding of traffic
over this line if the railroad will not
do it.
The direct cause OF the wreck was
the failure of the tram crew to obey
the rules.
The rules are ineffective.
The officials made no effort to en-
force the rules.
The discipline on the road is weak.
The signals are antiquated
The Man failure begins higher
up"
The operating officials cannot
evade responsibility for infractions Of
the rules.
From the instructions issued by the
officials the employees have gained the
impression that economy, efficiency
and schedule time are as important
as safety
There is lack of supervision Of en-
ployes and of train operation.
There are no distant signals.
There is no rule requiring engine
men to reduce speed in fogs
Signals Often Disregarded.
In thrty-two months the New
Haven had 152 cases of enginemen
disregarding danger signals and 1uI
cases of improper tagging.
In reports of this commission of
the investigation of previous acci-
dents on this railroad, says the re-
port, defects of management neg
lect of obvious precautions for safety
Ineffective rules and those not suffi-
GENTLY enforced high-speed trains
closely following one another with
out adequate safeguards, dereliction
Of duty on the part of certain en-
ployes, as well as general weakness
of discipline, have been announced
and condemned
Attention is called to the delay by
the directors in taking steps to end
the disasters.
The directors do not seem to have
acted upon the subject until October
IT, 1912, which was after the West
port wreck, which followed that at
Bridgeport on July /, 1911.
Order President to Inquire,
They then ordered the pres dent
of the road to investigate the compe-
tency of the locomotive engineers
and proposed to improve the safety Of
passenger travel
The president was never appar-
emily called upon nor was any other
official OF the railroad to present to
the directors any result Of such
searching investigation as had been
authorized, or 10 get any information
as to what particular action had been
or was to be taken to conduce to
greater safety.
The directors assumed 10 dispose
Of their responsibility on this subject
by a vote depositing it i'm bulk upon
the pres dent
Then the commission points out
why it held responsible for the late
disaster the men Of millions who are
named as maEicians of finance"
1T is not necessary here to at
tempt to outline the technical rule Of
law governing the obliagt.on Of diree-
ttors as trustees OF the corporation.
for the aggregate body of their stock
holders and for the public. Suffice
it to say that there can be little doubt
that this legal Obligation is more
strong than seems to be the generally
accepted belief of men of large for
tune to aecupy many positions of this
character.
Directors Are Responsible
The rule is that where a corpora-
ton is handling agencies dangerous
10 life its directors are required to
exercise such reasonable supervision
over the management of their COM
panys business as win result in the
observance of the utmost care on the
part OF the sUhordinates. Directors
py law are not mere figureheads. nor
are their duties confined to the mere
direction of the finances of the cor-
poration. Their duties are such that