The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-02-15

{ with German. Italian and Alsatian
 trucks. An engine constructed. for high speed expresses may be set to pulling
 heavy load of iron rails. American locomotives made for get-there-quick pas senger work are used to haul an inter
 minable row of heavily-laden German
 flat cars. constructed especially for drag
 ging cannon to the front
 The French railway authorities point out that 5000 railroad employees were killed during the war, while many have returned sick and disabled. It has been
 necessary, they say, to replace them
 by half-trained men. Every kind of job
 is now given to applicants who are less fully qualified than in pre-war days
 many have been on probation months in, stead of years. The very engine-drivers
 are hurried into their posts before they
 have done the usual >*time."
 Careiessness on the part of railroad
 employees IS one of the causes of acci-
 dents nowadays In the war. railroad men showed marvellous courage and pres ence of mind Alone in his car, the eh- gine-driver would go into the very jaws
 of death. and when he fell his fireman would take his place and go on amid storm of bullets.
 I shall never forget going by train into
 the battle of the Marne at the beginning of the war The engine-drver, deter
 mined to get the regiment intrusted to him up in time decided to run the mil itary train over a branch line without lightsl As he proceeded through the denee darkness of the night he did not
 know where the enemy was, and when doay dawned stray bullets had to be lodged To the sound of breaking glass and under a shower of iron splinters he went stoically on. And this was only an everyday specimen of the valor of
 French railway employees.
 During the war retired men of great
 experience ana advanced age returned to do their bit on the railroad. This
 did not accelerate the traffic, but it meant a minimum of accidents on that part of the lne
 i When the armistice came overworked Iai,waymen like other patriotic iapor- CTS felt that the time for a little rest
 had come The elder men, too, applied for. their pensions. Unfortunately, the
 naragers were too ready to let the old
 men go. and forced by French law to
 give the former employees. lately with the colors, their pre-war jobs, they did not
 trouble to inquire too closely whether
 they were fit for their work or not. Many
 had been starved in German prisons. others were still sick, sor partially dis
 abled, but they returned to work all the same.
 The greater number of accidents Is due to drivers not noticing or being un-
 able 10 see the signals, say the com
 panies. Ar invention by a Frenchman
 that will, by a contrivance on the wire less telegraphy system, make engines whistle automatically when the signals are set against the train, Is to be intro dUced on the French state railways with in the next six months.
 Meanwhile in spite of accidents, peopfe .n France are travelling more than ever. Everyone seems in a feverish haste to get somewhere else, Business that has been waiting until the war was over must be settled, important family at- 1 fairs need arranging. Some people, too, arc merely travelling for amusement, Ow- 1 ing to the difficulty of finding accommo- dations and coal in Paris, many people are living outside the capital and come in daily The trains that leave for the suburbs are damned to the, doors. Men travel on tic steps, and hang from the stairs that lead to the roof seats, while | those in possession of these points of vantage, hold their ground against all corners.
 The companies have reduced the mum Der of trains, but the public, replies by travelling more than ever: Rumors of discrganizatior. on the lines, newspaper headlines, that report "the daily railway Scciden, oo not cool the traveiing en- | thusiasm in the least. The French have got very careless of human life during | the war, and they are bit inclined 10 1 look upon the reports of accidents as an 1 Unworthy goy ernpent maneuver to Keep 1 .nem at home and prevent them from spending tnelr- money.
 I iCopyrng, i9lS.)