Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1913-09-13
DEMAND ALL STEEL CARS

result of the recent New Haven
wreck is that it has brought Con-
gress to the realization that the
government has no official statis-
tics on the number Of steel railway
coaches now in use.
Without such data Congress will
be hampered in its effort to pass
remedial legislation. Of course
bill can, and probably will, be pass
ed forbidding railroads to buy any
more wooden passenger cars but
without any official knowledge of
the percentage of cars now in use
which are Of wood, it will be diff
cult to sgt the number of years in
which all wooden cars must be re-
tired from service.
AS q result of this lack of infor-
nation, it is announced that the In
terstate Commerce Commisson will
provide a new form of report for
railroads to make-one which will
show the exact number o. steel
and wooden cars owned and in op
Grafton by each road. If this in
formation can be collected quickly,
the national legislature will have
the data on which to base legisla.
tion to be passed during the regu-
ular session next winter.
Figures from private sources
however are available and they
show that the use Of the steel car
has hardly yet begun. Practically
80 per cent of all railroad passen-
ger coaches today are Of wood con-
struction, ready to splinter and col
lapse in each wreck. OF more than
$1,000 passenger coachEs operated
on all railroads of the country, only
$500 are built entirely of steel.
And of these steel cars, one road,
the Pennsylvania, operates 2.872,
or nearly half Of the total all steel
equipment.
These are significant figures. in
dlcatiDg the peril to the American
travelling public today. Without
legislation it would be years before
these dangerous cars were all retir-
ed from service. Only one road has
seen the necessity for this sort of
equipment. Some Of the other roads
are still investing in new wooden
cars. although nearly all the new
cars being built are of steel.
The Pennsylvania learned about
two years ago that steel cars are
cheaper in the long run than per-
sonal injury lawsuits. A fast train
running between Philadelphia and
New York was derailed while rum
ming at speed considerably faster
than mile a mint te. Had the
train been composed Of wooden cars
it would have piled up and crumb-
led when the trucks struck the ties.
But this was an entirely steel train.
1t bounded along the ties for
distance of a mile or more before
momentum was lost and the train
brought to standstill. Among the
passengers there was not a single
serions injury. Most of the pass
enRers were entirely unhurt. Since
then the Pennsylvania has invested
$40,000,000 in steel car equip
ment.
MINE RESCUE AUTOMOBILES
Mine rescuing by automobile is
the latest Of Uncle Sans improve
ments. The Bureau of Mines has
just ordered high-power car cap
able of making speed of so miles
an hour over ordinary roads carry
ing IL rescue workers and their
equipment of helmets. pulmoters
and other apparatus. The car is
ordered as an experiment. but 1t is
believed that it will prove success
ful and that the rescue autos will
20 changing through the mining
villages just as the fire depart
ment and ambulance race through
cities.
The experimental car will be sent