The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1913-10-04
THE DAILY WALK TO DEATH.

THE DAILY WALK TO DEATH.
The interstate commerce commission
informs us that last year IA persons
were needlessly killed every day in the
United States because they used the
railroad track for highway and that
the average daily sacrifice during re-
cent years has been 1912. 1t is a grim
record, indeed. And all needless. too!
We daresay that Vermont has contribut-
ed her full proportion to the daily
slaughter, because the aggregate of lives
lost in Vermont during a year is apal-
hing. 1t may be advanced as an argu-
ment that legislation is not needed to
| prevent the use of the railroad track
as highway or sidewalk that most Of
the lives lost are Of tramps and ne'er-do-
wells, whose sum total of contribution
to the worlds betterment is not large;
but that statement is not supported by
the findings of the interstate commerce
commission. Instead of the majority of
the lives sacrificed being those of per.
sons of negligible importance in the eco
nomic and social order, it has been
found that rs per cent Of the persons
the community in which the fatality
occurred and that about so per cent OF
that number were wage-earners. These
figures are from the best reports obtain
able and are not theoretical. Therefore,
they are worthy of consideration in one
of the greatest problems of the pres.
emit day. When it is considered fur
Their that the death of that SIS per cent
of residents means probably the depri-
walton of families of their chief source
Of support and thr1ists those families
very often upon the town, city or state,
the great economic waste becomes all
the more depressing.
To aid in the prevention of that
economic loss, not to lose sight also of
the suffering entailed, the state of New
York and others have statutes making
It a misdemeanor to walk on railroad
tracks; but we fear that it is a statute
honored in the breach, for we find the
New York Sun urging greater enforce
ment OF the law, as follows:
1t is easily credible that few arrests
in each town, followed by heavy fines
or imprisonment. would convince the
people of the state that they ought TO
avoid the railroad tracks. The railroads
ask public cooperation in their crusade
to save lives. They want the children
warned in the homes and schools to keep
off the tracks, and the parents to teach |
by example as we'll as by preeept. They |
want the headstrong commuter to walk
in the street and not put himself in |
front of the locomotive. They want fac |
tory hands to 90 home by the highways, |
and small boys to play elsewhere than |
under the trucks of freight cars.
In the above there is valuable sug
gestion for such states as have not stat
utes constituting it misdemeanor to
walk on the railroad track; it is for
ltdNdiBlS anu Pr~~N3bS " lhNteiNdAc III bHO
children the danger of the practice. Par
ticularly is it possible for the school
teachers to do great deal of good in
this respect. Right here in Barre, for
instance, where the school buildings are
scattered and the children, in going to
and from their homes come to railroad
tracks, there is chance for the teach
ers to do a good work in warning their
charges of the danger Of remaining on
the tracks longer than is absolutely nee
essary in crossing. Those early lessons
are bound to develop new sentiment
in community and when universally
given will 60 long way toward reduc-
ing those terrible figures of IA lives
needlessly lost each day of the year in
the United States.