The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-07-12
NO VOICE FOR
 ENGINEERS WITH NEW HAVEN ROAD
Officials Decide That Here
 after Where Safety Is Concerned Company Will Be Sole Power on Rules.
New Signal System Between South Norwalk and Stam- ford-Distant Signal Set -Back-Act on Commerce Boards Report of Recent Wreck.


 Wreck.
 I The executive committee of the New EorAz, New Haven and Hartford Rail road held a meeting in the board rooms at the Grand Central station in RSeT York yesterday and discussed ev- lery phase of the report upon sthe road made on Wednesday by the Interstate kCommerce Commission.
 For three hours the committee went Ovsr the full report All the members of the committee were present They are Charles s Mellen, president of the fVgIlAzm Rockefeller, Samuel Rea, president of the Pennsylvania Rail- road; James S. Hemingway Edward 6diIHgzn. Charles F. Brooker and lEidney w WinsioW
 The session, which began at 1 tocAock. was private, but afterward MT MeIIen's executive assistant gave but a statement in 9Thfch he said that hhe subject of the discussion had been hhs report Of the Interstate Commerce iCou1Tn1sston, written by Commissfoner Prouty- The executive committee de- rided not to make public any phase lof their discussion yesterday, but it yFas announced that yesterdays -ses- zzion will not end the matter for the RSeW Haven, it will be referred by
 
 board of directors at a. meeting on next Thursday At that time some of kheRr conclusions and answers to the matters which the Commerce ComrniSs- Bion found reason to censure may be made public
 It 1s understood that the executive Committee did not take up the con Eemnzzion Of the railroad which was krnbod5ed in the special report of In kertsase Commerce Codnmissioner Mo bChord. which covered the Stamford iFvrecl and which was made public ton Thursday- This was left for Clin- hon L. Bzrdo, general manager of the heompazy. to answer
 Manager Bardo said that there will soon be a meeting of the management with the engineers to discuss that fea- Mure Of Commissioner McChord's re- bort which has to do with the e11l- ploymenf of spare engineers on pas Eenger trains There will also be a meeting of the operating officials of 4he road to consider the report and ffhe recommendations of the Commerce fCoun1nission relative to the Stamford accident Mir Bardo said:
 Immediate steps will be taken to i2Dring the operation of the railroad up to the standard recommended in 1he commissions report
 One feature of the Commissioners report has already been acted upon E'or many months the company has been working upon a plan for chang ang the signal system between South nSorwaik and Stamford from a manual tcontroIled lock and block system to an automatic block system This sehange was neeessitated by the cleo trification of the line east of Stam- dord-
 Under the new system the distant -$ignal is placed 5000 feet east of the home signal. twice the distance rec
 
 This change has already been made. The report of the commission in regard to the assignment of engineers confirms the views of the operating O -icials that this is a personal re- Eponsibiiity devolving upon the man. agement and one that could not be delegated or safely made the subject Df an agreement with the engineers, since the engineers are too prone to exercise the power of the organization For their acts
 This being the case. the engineers scan have no voice in the rules made ny the company, if those rules are considered necessary for the safety of lthe public.
 .-Tf5e Interstate Commerce Commits IsIon in its report upon the financial affairs of the company stated that the New Haven passenger service. aside l9rom safety Is distinctly better than Lhat of any railroad coming to New sTork The officials of the company have always believed that the trains iare operated under as safe, if not Eafer, conditions than any other road an the country and the record of train Incidents upon the New Haven rail road would seem to warrant this view. "'In the last ten years the company 1has carried over 755, 100000 passengers and has had but six train accidents an which passengers have been killed. The total number of deaths resulting from those six accidents is only twen- ty-nine- The passenger traffic of the New Haven railroad is the densest of any railroad in the country.
 However, the company desires to increase the safety of the traffic to Ehe fullest extent The recommends kfons of the Interstate Commerce Eonnnission handed down as a result pf the Westport and Bridgeport acci- nsnts have either been adopted or are being adopted as rapidly as practi- FabIe-
 "A large number Of new all steel Ears are now on order and the cross | k~ers are being heightened as fast as | possible. The same diligence will be | kaken in regard to the recommenda- Hons of the commission on the Stam- lord accide1t'' We are offering extraordinary values i