The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1914-05-17

is a fearfully wasteful process.
| The result of the most expen-
sive railroad system is the low
est freight rates that there are.
The world has moved beyond
| the creed OF effort for efforts
| sake.
there was an annual loss from prevent
able causes of over 100000 lives. The
means of preventing these deaths were
well known. but public opinion did not
| seem to warrant their general use. Men
| were sacrificed in the railroad service
and in industries by many thousands
! annually, and in particular certain dis
eases prevailed to such an etxend that
one of them was popularity known as
| 1.-THE great white plague" The nation had
at a period but shortly before passed
| through a great war in which several
hundred thousand were slain. and the
gratitude of the country toward those
who had fallen in its service was evinced
by monuments throughout the land and
the survivors had been literally PEN
stoned Yet the fact that every year at
about the period of which We write.
quite as many people died needlessly as
were slain in the aforesaid contest
awakened little popular excitement.
Like any other generalization, the above
suppositious quotation from future his
torian contains elements Of falsehood.
We do have societies for the suppression
OF disease, our boards of health are be-
coming efficient, preventive medicine is a
growing science, coming into widespread
application. We are holding our en-
ployers in active industry to a stricter
account for human life and limb. None
the less. the slaughter goes on and our
thinking has not been sufficiently effective
yet to stop IL to any controlling extent
We are not cruel; we abound in mercy
and in kindness, yet we have the largest
murder rate of any of the great civilized
peoples. We deplore lives lost in war and
in speech regarding the horrors Of strife.
Yet, while one must sympathize with
those who have lost dear ones by the
few who are slain in battle, are We as
eloquent and active as respects the many
that are slain in industry We mourn
the nineteen of Vera Cruz, but in the
first three months of this year there were
slain several times that number In the
industries of Massachusetts, without great
pubic grief. and the grisly list of dead
from automobiles in the streets Of New
York makes our occupation OF Vera Cruz
, look relatively like a pleasure excursion.
Expenses Of Disease.
Possibly there is no special news value
in a poor chap being struck down at
lathe or killed under a hammer or
crushed between cars. OF course, 1t hurts
his family just as much as IL he had
bullet hole through a uniform. There is
still less news value in the quiet passing
out of life of a son or daughter from
tuberculosis. An assault from which
either died would make better story.
Yet the annual cost to the nation of
tuberculosis would more than pay the
expense of both army and navy. Here,
again, one must not generalize without
caution. We do have workmen's compen-
sation acts, and there is an awakening
seuse of social solidarity. Nevertheless /
doubt II either State or nation are as
yet sufficiently effective in their thought
on these matters to provide at once, let
US say, as many millions for public health
as we would provide for railway in
Alaska or for additions to our navy. 1
approve both the railway and the naval
additions, but it seems to me effective
thinking would place at least as great
weight upon the value of our men and
women.
Turning to another phase Of our subject
let us go, IL you will, to some station on
one of our best railways and watch the
freight trains go by. Here will be found
one of our best examples of practical
effectiveness. Standing there by the
track one may learn a lot Of lessons II
things are looked at with an open mind.
It will be discovered. for example, that
wise expenditure is the truest economy
and that the so-called economy" which
means absence Of spending, is a fearfully
wasteful process. Look at the way the
track beside which We are standing is
ballasted. It is set in stone some eighteen
inches thick. See how closely the ties are
spaced under the rails-eighteen or even
twenty to the rail. Look at the design
and weight Of the rail itself and the
method of securing ii in place.
All of these simple things have been
the result of large outlay and of long
evolution. AS the train goes by, IL you
had time to see. you would find the loco
motive had been going through a like
growth which had never for one moment
ceased, and still progresses. Within the
lifetime of the youngest of US here, type
after type of locomotive has come and
served its purpose and gone and been
succeeded by a more efficient form. The
same is true of the cars-nay, 1t is true
of the minor appliances both on locomo-
tives and cars, the tracks. the wheels,
the axles. the trucks, the smaller access
series upon the engine-al of these are
the product of evolution and experiment
and outlay Look at the men in the cab
and the caboose As such services go,
these men are well paid: that is to say,
they are the best paid men Of their class
in the world. You viii hunt in vain in
any competing industrial country for men
doing such work who receive such pay.
1t is well that this is so. 1t adds to our
social values to have this so. So we will
now sum the whole thing up.
The Costliest Construction.
Here we have the costliest form Of con-
struction and the most expensive equip
meht and the highest paid operatives.
What is the result? Stop a moment
before you reach conclusion and think
how your answer must traverse whole
volumes of superficial thinking and dis
cussion. State the facts again, lest a
mistake be made. Here Is the most
highly paid labor of its kind in the
world. Here is the most elaborate and
costly equipment Of its kind in the world.
Here Is at least as costly a structure
as exists In the world. Yet the out
come is the lowest cost Of service of