The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-09-08
Il Of
.lROAD SERVICE 4:
subway Ace oaxetts Mskes conpar'.
son Of Accident Records, Which
10 Favorable to Steam
Lines
EAsTLAND THE RECORD
All the Raliways In the United States
together Never Killed 90 Many
In 4 Year AZ the
Eastiand.

IN the current issue Of the Railway
Ase Gazette. published today IN new
yor1, in an article, timely in It's com.
na1,ison between disasters on land and
"a. II holds brief for the efficiency
81 railroad service under private man
agement. giving stringent compa.l-
son with private greed In steamship
Tines. In part the article reads as
follows:
Accidents on the railways Of the
United States are too numerous, Dut
when som ething suggests compaIr
son between their accident record ana
the records Of other classes OF con.
Germs IN this country the record OF
No RAILWAYS is seldom found to be
10 had relatively as most people think.
When the lake steamship Eastland
turned over in the Chicago river re-
Gently about 1000 passengers were
drowned. Never in their history did
all the railways Of the United States
together kill that many passengers IN
ali ways in a year. In only two years
Of the last ten has the federal steam
shin inspection service compiled the
statistics Of steamship accidents SO
as to show separately the number OF
fatalities to passengers. These were
10s and 1914. In 1906 American steam
ships carried s3o,2s5,95s passengers.
OF whom 323, were killed IN accidents,
Gor i in, 1 ,021OO0. In the same year
the railways carried 1877 ,946,116 pas
sengers. less than one-half as many
passengerssin proportion as the steam
ships. In 1914 the steamships car
risd 31s.O94,317i passengers. OF whom
los were killed, ,or IN 3,o29,oo0. In
the same year the railways carried
1,053, 1873, 71Ss passengers. Of whom 265
were killed, Or In s97s, 900. Here
again, the railways were relatively
the safer.
'These statistics relate only to dis
asters' to vessels, which really should
be compared with train accidents. In
1906 the railways Killed only LAG pas.
sengers IN train accidents, or IN e.
465,0O0. and in 1914. only So. OF 1 In
12,390,0O0. The risk Of passenger
being killed In . train accident rs SOW
eral times less than the risk OF his
being Killed IN avesssl disaster. The
total number Of passengers carried BY
the Steamships IN the ten years 1906
the total number Of both passengers!
ana members Of crews Killed was s..
Oh. Tho total number Of passengers
carried bysthe railways was 9,15z. 160.-
TO, and the total passengers and en-
pluyes killed was $3.50. Tho steam
chips carried only 1865 percent rs
many passengers. and killed AT per-
cent a. many passengers and en-
piuyeee as the. railways. It IL not
pretended that these statistics are
strictly comparable. In view. however,
Of the fact that It appears to be COM
monty assumed that travel BY water
is safer in this country than travel by,
rail, they are interesting.
ut should also be considered IN
this connection that steamships have
been supposed to be subjected to the
strictest regulation IN the interest of
safey by the federal government.
Since government regulation cannot
prevent such steamship dfsasters a.
the General S1ocum and the Eastland
catastrophes, II 10 evident that tho
confidence Of the public that It win
greatly improve tho operation Of rail.
ways and other concerns Is based on
hope rather than on experience. There
are still to be found people who can
observe and remember, and who are
therefore about as willing to trust
their lives and limbs to such private
greed as was manifested by the own
ers and managers OF the Eastland as
to government bureaucratism, red
tape and general ineniciency. Our
governments need Improvement fully
as much as the business concerns they
are SO busy tnstructing in the ways
of virtue and efficiency"