The Wilmington morning star., 1947-05-08
As Pegler Sees 1t
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER
copyright, 1947. by King Features
Svndicate. Inc.)

Syndicate, Inc.)
Railroad wrecks are now routine news
whereas, before the war, the companies were
able to boast, and did, of railroad safety by
comparison with the hazards OF avlatlon. Oo-
viously: the railroad men have lost control
and some committee of poor old Congress
must now intervene to find out what really
is wrong.
To the layman at the crossing one danger
Gus condition is visible to the naked eye in
the dilapidation of creaking, sagging, over
worked old freight rigs. They groan past,
their sides distended, their doors sagging,
the wheels groaning on the axles, deck-loads
of ties and lumber secured by flimsy scant-
lings held by nails and superstition, and as
likely to spill into the path of a fast passenger
train as to arrive where they are supposed
to go.
Railroads actually boast of the venerable
age of frail old men who certainly can't
be irreplaceable and, in good sense, ought
to be turned out to grass if only to encourage
alert young fellows to stay in the railroad
business. In two bad wrecks in the last year
the engineers were 70, surely too old to
make quick decisions at high speeds and not
strong enough anyway to stand the strain.
Ties are rotting, spikes are loose AMI bat
tered rails are tired and crumbling. In
spection and good maintenance ought to spot
this decay, but instead they give way and
reveal their decrepitude only in mournful
but more and more perfunctory accounts of
new disasters.
This condition hasn't existed since the ex-
detrimental days at high speed, and even
the bloody smashups of the matchbox pas
senger cars which aroused a campaign for
steel construction were less frequent than
the current wrecks, though they were more
brutal in their sacrifice of life.
The railroad men and the passengers and
-- :A:-a. - - c%,ybLor,, wa cf1,ril
determination to run trains faster than they
would 60 if the managers obeyed their in
telligence and didn't feel bound to out-speed
one another and compete with aviation. Inn
mediately after the war, and with their new
equipment only ION order,'' they cut many
hours off the schedules of fast passenger
trains on long hauls. knowing that their cars
were decrepit jalopies that ought to be
gentled, not abused, and knowing that their
track maintenance was never worse. This
was a time to be honest and explain that,
in the interests of safety, they would take
more time, not less, and to apologize for
sloppy. badly used coaches and sleepers IN
stead of talking dream-stuff about saloon life,
nurseries for the small fry; movies, and even
dancing aboard railroad trains. The pas
senger who is going somewhere has no right
to these silly Alterations.
If he can't spend one day or night Or two
or three in a row without access to a night
club or a luke tavern, if the parents cant
put up with their own brats and keep them
reasonably quiet and out of other peoples
space, let them stay where they are. The
steamship companies probably were respon-
sible for all this with their absurd catering
to the fastidious tastes of ordinary people
who were accustomed to no luxury at home
but, once aboard, were taught to regard them
selves as royalty and too precious and Ian
- 4L> L-r Ia fhnJr
own drinks.
The fast trains have exaggerated import
ance anyway. They are loss-leaders in many
cases. run for a meaningless prestige at the
expense of the passengers on the lesser
trains. l never could really understand why,
because l was riding on a big, prestige train,
called a limited. a flyer or. now, | expect
any day. a jet, | should be allowed to pass
George Spelvin, American, waiting there on
a siding for my royal highness. Because ne
is going only 100 miles, say, and l am going
l 900, Mr.. Spelvin has to creep and crawl
and put up with grit and Indifference. By
doing that to the short-haul trade, by making
them feel that they are basket-lunch and
business, the railroads have created
a lass-consciousnes among the bulk of their
passengers and made them sore, when every
railroad man ought to know that the last
thing he needs is more enemies.
Let us not argue the question of the light
and heavy cars. Some light cars have held
together in wrecks and the builders have
into print, even planting their paltry
publicity with the press associations, to boast
their crates didn't come apart. They
weren't so boastful though when one of them
was bent into U-shape in a bad smash ia
Illinois last year, and the railroad mentality
thai thinks it is good publicity to boast about
any phase of a wreck just shows how COM
monplace wrecks have become to the indus
try. The public isn't interested in reas-
sembling the dead and prying out the dying
from light cars or heavy, and the first
business of the railroad program should be
to keep the cars on the tracks. The pas
senger who gets there safe and even hours
later in an old-style, heavy Pullman still
has ali edge over the one who was rolled
down a gorge into a river in a stainless steel
CONNECTION with stripes on the outside.
Some railroad men argue, and they have
convinced many laymen, that speed has
nothing to do with any of these accidents.
That, Of course, further impairs confidence
in them because anyone knows that it takes
more time and space to bring a train under
control and d quicker decision to meet an
Anyone knows that the strain on the men up
front, the cars and the rails is less at a
rate than at the crazy speeds
the railroads reach trying to keep up with
one another and compete with planes that
go 400 miles an hour. So excessive speed
certainly is a factor, when the cars and
many of the men are old and worn.
Editorial Comment