The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-04-29
TRESPASSING
 EVIL PERSISTS
A Heavy Toll In Human Life Shown By the New Ha-
 Ven's Figures.

I The New Haven Railroad is not ! afflicted by the genus hobo to the extent that some railroads are. Yet i in the last three years 442 persons 1 have been killed and .Ss4 injured while trespassing on that railroads property. Many of those injured were maimed for life
 In the majority of cases these per i sons were not tramps at all They were persons using the railroad right i of way as a convenient highway, gen i erally to make a short cut, or boys or young men stealing rides on 1 freight trains to get to places quick 1 ly. The sacrifice of so many lives in i this manner, the crippling perma- nently of so many able bodied work { ers,' is a distinct economic loss to the l comm unity and is the penalty paid l either for a, lack of laws on the sub l ject pr for the non-eneforcement of l existing laws.
 1 Figures compiled by the New Ia- ven for recent years show that in l 1912 152 persons falling under the l class of trespassers were killed and 108 were injured; in 1913, 172 were ] killed and 16O injured; and in 1914, 118 were killed and 126 injured. i During these years the New Haven, in common with other railroads, has | been making a persistent effort to 1 curb the trespassing evil and avert this loss of life, but without avail, | v
 6 Summer brings the heaviest sacri- flee of human life in this manner, the mortality rising, through the 1 spring months as regularly as the l temperature. For, example, in the month of January of this year on. the New 1aven's lines four rrespass- CTS were so killed; in February, eight. and in March, fifteen, gain of a1- most 100 per cent. in a month. Fac 1 tory operatives and farm hands, per sons whose lives can i'll be spared 1 by the community appear to yield to 1 the temptation to walk on the rail road tracks and thus put their lives in peril most often when the world is at it's brightest and best
 The problem this brings up is g. national and not a local one and has been so emphasized for. some years. From 1901 to 1910 those killed in this manner in the country numbered
 5O,025; the injured, 5S,427. The fa- talities in a. single year, 1913-5, 55S l-were more than those of the battle II of Bull Run. And these were per 1 sons killed who had no business to :, be in danger.
 l These figures are. the more strik- II ing when compared with the fatali-
 ties in other countries In Great sBri-
 tain, in these same years, only 4,4S4 IF persons were killed and 1915 in N jured. Those who have carefully
 studied the subject insist that this
 great discrepancy is due to the fact
 that in Great Britain and generally II throughout Europe it has been for
 many years the custom for the au-
 thorities, realizing the value of
 these lives to the community, to en- f force strictly the laws against rail-
 roadt trespassing
 If you walk along railroad in
 England, believing you can thereby
 see the country better or get home
 more quickly, you are arrested and taken before a local magistrate, who fines you $10. In. Canada you, can be fined up to $50 and imprisoned |l for two months, and there, too, the
 law is strictly enforced. In France unless you have a permit you cannot walk the tracks without great danger of being fined and even jailed; In
 Germany the penalties range up, to
 $25.
 Only thirteen States in this coun- try have thus far followed the ex- ample of these European countries in having laws forbidding such use o1
 railroad property. These States are l E Maine, New Hampshire, Massachu sets. Rhode Island. New York. New Jersey, Wisconsin, Virginia, Delaware \ Georgia, Missouri, Minnesota and Washington. The penalties prescrib- 4 ed range all the way from $5 fine
 and 10 days in jail in Maine to $500 ' fine and a year in jail in New York -3 Il two New England States which. al
 present have no such laws, 1egisla. ton of this character is now pending Il Connecticut has had g. law prohibit. i ing lettering about railroad station
 or grounds, but the legislation nov pending would amp1ify this by fix. $ ing a penalty of from $10 to $100 ol s Imprisonment for not more than 3( days for railroad trespassing of any kind. In all the other states whose a Legislatures are in session this veal similar legislation has been introduc < ed, with the object of saving thou
 sands of lives that are needlessE
 thrown away year after year.
 But, according to those who hav'
 studied the matter abroad, it is not st
 much the character of the laws ther, & dealing with, this subject as thei1
 rigid enforcement by the local au > thorities which has resulted in re
 ducing the death tool over what i M is in this country. It should be sait IT