LEADING ARTICLES OF THE MONTH.

FURTHER DISCUSSION OF RAILROAD ACCIDENTS.

IN the April issue of the REVIEW OF RE- ing trains; use of the railway as a highway by VIEWS, under the caption, "Protection of pedestrians; grade-crossings; low standards Human Life on American Railroads," we of efficiency for employees; overwork, and devoted much space to the frightful in- employing men physically unfit had much to crease in the number of railroad accidents in do with railroad casualties. He favored this country, and to a discussion of a means block signals, and scored the railroads for to check their further spread. Three dis- the general lack of discipline among their emtinct presentations were given: "Can the ployees. Railroad Death-Rate Be Reduced?" by "Arthur M'Tavish "; " Railway Accidents and Railway Personnel," by Wyatt W. Randall; and "Psychology of the Railroad Accident," by Charles R. Keyes. Mr. "M'Tavish contended that the needed remedy is the enforcement of block signaling on all our railroads and the interlocking of all main-track switches under the control of one man, 66 so as to centralize the responsibility for their proper manipulation." The expense would not be prohibitive, probably, "about eight-tenths of 1 per cent. of the gross earnings of all railroads."

Mr. Randall believed that lack of safety appliances for signaling, switching, and halt

LET THERE BE LIGHT ON THESE DISASTERS.
From the Spokesman-Review (Spokane).

Mr. Keyes placed the responsibility primarily on the higher officials and favored criminal prosecution. The fallible human element among subordinates should receive more attention. One man's obliviousness, said he, should be made an impossibility to occasion disaster, and operative methods that are now antiquated should be abandoned for a logical and adequate system.

Discussed from separate viewpoints, there was, nevertheless, a consensus on three vital points: Necessity for block signals, better discipline, and a belief that economy in time and money would follow the institution of these reforms. Two exhaustive discussions of this subject: "The Growing Railway Death-Roll: Who Is Responsible?" by Mr. Carl Snyder, in Everybody's for April, and "Railroad Accidents," by Mr. Frank Haigh Dixon, in the current Atlantic Monthly, are valuable contributions to a subject that has aroused the public to a spirited inquiry into the causes of modern railroad perils,-to determine if the same are inevitable, or avoidable. A more thoughtful, impartial, and helpful symposium on this issue than that embodied in the five articles mentioned the reader cannot readily procure.

AMERICA'S BAD SHOWING.

After a diligent and searching investigation, Mr. Snyder declares, in respect to safety for passengers, that American railroads are twenty years behind England, France, Germany, and other civilized countries, and the risk to life and limb is ten times greater in an American than in an English train. In nineteen years 154,000 persons have been killed and nearly 1,000,000 injured in all kinds of railroad accidents in America. "In 1905 it was twice as dangerous to travel on a railway train or to work for a railway company in the United States," says he, as it was in 1895." In 1907, this is still worse.

The number of English railway employees killed in train accidents in the last five years, according to this writer, was seven; in this country between seven and eight hundred.

From 1895 to 1905 the increase in the number. of passengers killed on American railroads was 216 per cent., the figures being: 170 in 1895, and 537 in 1905. Among employees the killed and injured rose from 27,507 to 70,194 in same period, an increase of 15 per 1,000 in ten years! And all this time dividends have been climbing at a much higher rate. Some roads have earned 15 per cent., others 25, and a few between 30 and 40 per cent., which, the writer points out, should enable them to introduce safety appliances.

THE BLOCK SYSTEM.

Notwithstanding this, not one-quarter of our total mileage is covered by any block signal system at all. We have only 53,000 miles so protected out of 220,000, and 41,227 miles of this is only primitive manual telegraph block, extending from one station to another, in which one operator has no mechanical control over another, and is used in great part only in daytime. Our system is mainly the antiquated telegraph train-order" system in vogue since 1845. One-tenth of the net earnings of all our railroads last year would equip our entire system with block signals, and it would be a five-years' undertaking, because the apparatus could not be installed earlier.

That this would pay the railroads and increase the capacity of our systems he emphasizes, and quotes eminent railroad men in his support. While doubts have been entertained as to the availability of the block signal as a preventive against accident, his summary is: Probably it would be no overstatement to say that complete block signaling, such as obtains in England, would wipe out at least three-quarters of all collisions and fatalities resulting therefrom."

creased money they remain on duty twentyfour hours at a time.

Again, mechanical matters are slighted in the rush," and necessary repairs are negligently made, leading to delay and accident. Block systems are not operated with efficiency, and this is another source of disaster. Labor unions likewise. When an engineer or flagman is "disciplined," his reinstatement is demanded at risk of a "strike" in the event of a refusal. Discipline is therefore impossible. To secure effective operation" military discipline" is necessary. The automatic stop, in use on the New York subway and on the Boston Elevated, Mr. Snyder believes, should be given a trial, and, also, the English audible-cab system, which blows the engineer's whistle violently if he runs past a signal. Referring to the necessity for improvement and the difficulty in bringing it about, he concludes:

doomed.

66

The work is not easy. But this is clear: The American train-order system is a failure. It is clumsy, costly, out of date. It is damned and railroads; it will not cripple them. It will enChange will not bankrupt our able them to move considerably greater traffic over a given length of road. They will operate more cheaply; they will not be killing 500 passengers and 4000 employees a year, nor injuring 60,000 or 70,000 more. And their dividends will be higher, rather than lower.

The Value of Safety Appliances.

Mr. Dixon reaches similar conclusions in his paper, and sheds much historical light on this question. He outlines the inception of the movement for safety appliances on railroads in the States and by the Interstate Commerce Commission, and follows it through all its gradations to the present time. The part played by the American Railway Association, the Master Car Builders' Association, and others is interestingly shown. The first national safety-appliance act was passed on March 2, 1893, and dealt with train equipment. Today 75 per cent. of all freight cars have been brought under its provisions as amended from time to time. The neglect to keep in repair the appliances demanded thereunder has been a fruitful source of accident, but, nevertheless, the results have been beneficial. In 1893, in coupling accidents, 50 were killed and 1296 were injured; in 1906, 17 were killed and 257 injured. This is all the more remarkable when allowance is made for the wonderful growth and expansion in railroad traffic in the interim. The men Time is saved in making up trains by For the in- means of these devices; damage claims have

THE QUESTION OF DISCIPLINE. Discipline of the employees is a factor for consideration side by side with the block-signal question. The enormous amount of traffic has bred a demoralization in discipline among railroad employees that is probably responsible, in large part, for the increase in accidents in the last year or two. Overwork and excessive strain through long hours lead to a failure to observe signals. themselves are partly to blame.

66

become smaller; "but most significant of all," ation. This can only come from "a rigid says he, "the great economies of modern system of discipline." transportation that have resulted from larger equipment and longer trains would have been quite impossible of realization without the use of these devices which the safety-appliance acts have prescribed." Regarding collisions and derailments, the situation, however, shows no improvement, and these may be attributed to four causes: High speed, inexperience, overwork of employees, and negligence. Most of the accidents attributed to high speed," says he, are due to the failure of the engineman or other trainman properly to control speed at danger points, such as switches and stations, and should be charged to negligence." Inexperience usually means negligence, but the real blame rests with officials for employing incompetents. growth of traffic has made the officials careThe less and this moves him to say: "Moreover, the railroad manager is probably interpreting correctly the demand of the American public when he concludes that on the whole they prefer service to safety." This is a joint in

dictment.

Overwork is a difficult subject on which to reach definite conclusions. A uniform day is not easy to establish. The complications and fluctuations of train movement and quantity of transportation forbid it. Train-masters, struggling with congestion, practically permit the men to determine the length of their own day. For various reasons assigned, the writer thinks, the La Follette bill has gone as far as it logically should in the matter of regulation of hours of railroad employees, for no hard and fast statute can meet the innumerable and varying situations in train oper

The weakness of our telegraphic " time-interNegligence accounts for many casualties. val" system lies in the fact that the execu tion of an order requires the perfect co-operation of several individuals. A slip by one foreshadows disaster. This necessitates the block system, which substitutes "space" for "time," dividing a road into sections of vary ing length and allowing only one train in a section at one time. This, coupled with interlocking (vide Mr. "M'Tavish's" article in April REVIEW OF REVIEWS), would make for further safety and efficiency. The automatic stop is also recommended by Mr. Dixon. On the subject of discipline in the ranks of the employees he is emphatic. He that examinations be strictly conducted, that contends that the rules be rigidly enforced, apprenticeships be longer, and that schools of instruction be introduced, "surprise checking" be resorted to, and, probably, higher wages. means a thorough and continuous system of "Discipline," says he, "in a word, mania for high speed, which has led traininspection." The public must get cured of its men to take chances.

.tors for the proper investigation of accidents, The creation of a federal board of inspeclike that in England, would be productive of beneficial results, and to thoroughly supervise railroads in the interest of the passengers safety the work must be done by the federal Government. The plea of expense, says he, must not be permitted to interfere with the enactment of a signal law, for it is more than probable that the installation of a signal sys‐ tem has sound economic justification.

THE NEW PRESIDENTS OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN
SWITZERLANDS.

too

PRESIDENTIAL inaugural festivities day, although they are completely isolated have been the rule in South America from the seacoast by other nations whose during the past few months. installed a chief executive with due pomp friendly. In the Kölnische Zeitung (CoBrazil has territorial ambitions make them none and ceremony, and the two Switzerlands of logne), the changes in the administrative South America,-Bolivia and Paraguay, households are made the subject of interesthave likewise provided themselves with new ing correspondence from both Paraguay and administrative heads. Chile, Colombia, and, above all, Venezuela, may be selected. Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, and the main facts of the two articles have occupied the center of the South American stage for a long time, but Paraguay and Bolivia are slowly advancing into the broad

The Bolivian correspondent states that proving that it is possible to govern the the new President, Col. Ismael Montes, is

country in the name of the true interests of
the land, and not in that of any political
party or parties."

Another correspondent in the Kölnische Zeitung discusses present conditions in Paraguay. Dr. Benigno Ferreira and G. GonHe has filled the state offices with honest, zales Navero were recently elected respectivecapable men, and in making his appointments he ly President and Vice-President of the rehas entirely disregarded every consideration of public. President Ferreira has been well repolitical faith. This is a noteworthy fact. In ceived by the mass of the people, and “he his work, however, Colonel Montes has been able is believed to be the right man in the right to rely implicitly on his little army, he has carefully remodeled the military department and has place. In fact, the trade circles and foreign only kept tried officers in command. Moreover, business men, who generally steer clear of the interior peace of the country is now assured politics, gave public expression to their confor a considerable time at least, and even the fidence in the new régime by a banquet in most frenzied patriots are willing to admit that it was more prudent to accept the two million Asuncion in honor of the newly elected pounds sterling from Brazil for the Acre terri- officials." Speaking of the condition of Paratory than to engage in a protracted savage war guay in general, the correspondent says: which would have bankrupted Bolivia financially and hampered her development for a long time For the first time in the history of the country the great natural wealth of the land is being rationally developed. Bolivia unites the wealth of both Chile and Argentina, but up to the present it has been lacking in cheap direct means of marketing its products. In a short time, however, besides the Chilean railroad, Antofagasta-Oruro-La Paz, and the proposed road, Arica-La Paz, to the Pacific coast, Bolivian goods will be able to reach Argentina ports cheaply by means of the Jujuy-Tarija road, which is now nearing completion. The next question for Bolivia will be the acquisition of a good port on the Paraguay River, since the wretched harbor Puerto Suarez cannot care for the products of northern and eastern Bolivia.

to come.

Much needed rain has fallen, although it will not be possible to settle this year the long-standing fight between the government and the railroads. The solution of this problem would do wonders for the agricultural and commercial development of the country, but as the contract of the old government with the railroads was not passed on by the chambers, the question will have to await the action of the next House. The relations with the neighboring countries, Argentina and Bolivia, are excellent, and Bolivia has adopted a_friendly tone during the last few months. The government of President Ferreira, however, will do a great service to the country if it is able to settle the dispute with Bolivia over the Chaco territory to the satisfaction of the interests of Paraguay.

ens

אד

FRENCH AND AMERICAN CRIMINAL LAW.

AN elaborate analysis of American criminal
law procedure, based on a study of the
recent trial in New York of Harry K. Thaw
for the murder of Stanford White, is contrib-
uted to a recent number of the Revue Bleu
by M. T. Steeg, himself an eminent lawyer
and a member of the French Chamber of
Deputies.

While the English press generally has ex-
pressed disgust and criticism in its comments
on the particular trial in question, this French
legal writer finds, alongside of much to con-
demn, a good many features of our criminal
law procedure which he regards as highly
commendable and worthy of study by the
French bar. In the first place, he says,
Frenchmen should not judge a great criminal
trial in the United States from the hurried
press reports, since incompleteness and sensa-
tionalism are almost inevitable features of
such reports. American methods, to begin
with, do not resemble those of the classic,
dignified Court of Assizes. There is, how-

ever, sound reason, he declares, "back of almost all that shocks or astonishes us in American procedure."

It should not be forgotten, he continues, that the basic, radical difference between Latin and Anglo-Saxon law is that the former holds a man guilty until he is proved innocent, while the latter insists that he is innocent until some one else proves him guilty. This difference is discernible through all criminal procedure in all Anglo-Saxon countries and on the continent of Europe. Frenchmen, he says, call a man under arrest for crime always "the prisoner," "the inculpated," whereas in America the accused is known as "the defendant." American society, of its own free will, multiplies obstacles between the accused and the accusers. Even the complication of legal procedure has for its object to guarantee the right of the individual against what might possibly be too swift or too arbitrary governmental action. In France the public prosecutor and his offi

THE NEW PRESIDENTS OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN SWITZERLANDS.

PRESIDENTIAL inaugural festivities day, although they are completely isolated have been the rule in South America from the seacoast by other nations whose during the past few months. Brazil has territorial ambitions make them none too installed a chief executive with due pomp friendly. In the Kölnische Zeitung (Coand ceremony, and the two Switzerlands of South America,-Bolivia and Paraguay,have likewise provided themselves with new administrative heads. Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and, above all, Venezuela, have occupied the center of the South American stage for a long time, but Paraguay and Bolivia are slowly advancing into the broad