Evening star., 1922-08-12
Blaming Dead Engineer Seems
Easy WAY Out.

Because the coroner's jury first re-
turned an open verdict" only to
reconsider at the demand Of that Of
fetal and amend its decision holding
the engineer, killed with thirty
seven others. to blame for the fatal
wreck at Sulphur Springs, Mo-, there
| is suggestion of impatience on the
part of a number of editors, who
point out that blaming the dead
man" has been a favorite method
Of avoiding placing complete re-
sponsibility for many railroad wrecks
of the past.
There also is a general demand to
know why the automatic train con-
troll that was ordered by the Inter-
state Commerce Commission cannot
was intended. The proneness of hu-
nanity to err is admitted and GER
tain papers point out that If 1t was
true that Engineer Matthew Glenn
actually was reading orders thrown
to him shortly before the accident,
block signals shown against him.
the automatic control would have
acted and would have saved the VIC
Tins
The verdict blaming Glenn. the
Syracuse Herald says. does not ap-
public is concerned. Such q verdict
obviously is the easiest way and, of
course, sometimes the only way, to
assess the blame. The public inter-
est in safety in transportation clearly
REQUIRES a stronger agency Of CON
easily Influenced by personal or local
considerations A few years ago
railroads and transportation corpora
tions started a campaign for safety
first 1t produced good results But
this big question cannot be left en-
employees. If it were, the 'blame-it-
on-the- -dead-man' policy might be
even more generally used. A stronger
arm of public control to prevent such
disasters is needed"
It was "a resolution passed by
Congress sixteen years ago. the
Providence Journal recalls. which di-
rected the Interstate Commerce Com
mission to Investigate and report on
suitable devices" automatically to
stop trains when signals were ig-
nored. The Journal admits that the
war appears to have postponed" an
intention to introduce the control
system on a large scale and repeats
that collisions Of this sort will con-
tinue to occur until automatic train
control devices are installed to pro-
tect against human failure"
1t should be remembered, the Water
town Stanard points out, that dead
men are beyond the power Of human
punishment, and dead men usually
are blamed for tragedies. When the
railroads are equipped with devices
that automatically stop trains when
the block is set against them this
type Of accident will be averted. The
finest block system in the world does
not prevent tragedy unless the hu-
man element Is as infallible as the
mechanical. In this case it appears
not to have been. Automatic stop
ping devices on railroads will be a
legal requirement very soon."
So far as the verdict blaming En-
gineer Glenn Is concerned, the Pitts
burgh Dispatch argues that 1.-The jury
may have had evidence justifying
this return. but the reports raise a
question whether there was not con-
tributory negligence elsewhere" The
new orders only three miles away
from the scene of the wreck and that
''at the speed he is reported travelling
when he snatched the order he would
have covered the three miles and
Reading the order at that speed at
night it may well have been that he
missed tho signal. But what of life
or death orders given so near the
danger spot under such circun-
sponsible, the Buffalo News thinks. it
was another case of taking chance
to make up time. In the last two
years there has been q decided fall
ing Off in numbers OF fatal accidents.
But much remains to be done. There
still remains the human eQuation to
control. It seems to be constitutional
with Americans, in whatever service,
to take q chance"
The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette,
however, holds that there is clearly
something rotten and weak in the
railroad management OF the United
States that must account for the fre-
quency of serious wrecks in which
many lives are lost. These accidents
are rare in Europe and commonplace
in the United states. They are al
ways followed by an tnvestig tion.
four days sensation and In the end
nothing happens. Lives are really
u