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onservation of Men 
 
 By 
 
 RALPH C. RICHARDS 
 
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Conservation of Men 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 To The Operating Men Of The Chicago & North 
 
 Western Railway On The Prevention 
 
 Of Accidents 
 
 BY 
 
 RALPH C. RICHARDS 
 
 . . . • . » 
 
 J • «\ » » • 
 
 ,•.••••.•» t 
 
 1910 
 

 Copyright iqio 
 By Ralph C. Richards 
 
Remember, It Is Better to Cause a 
 Delay Than to Cause an Accident 
 
 224529 
 
JnabiDoA as 38ubD oJ nsHT xbI^Q 
 
 esctss 
 
CONSERVATION OF MEN 
 
 We who are here today are a small part of the 
 great army of men working for the North Western 
 Railroad. We forty-thousand men working for the 
 North Western are a small part of the great army 
 of men who are working on all the railroads of 
 the United States. The North Western Railroad 
 like almost all great enterprises, started in a small 
 way, with a handful of men and about one hun- 
 dred and ninety miles of track. That was fifty- 
 one years ago. Today we have forty or fifty-thou- 
 sand men, eight thousand miles of track, fifteen 
 hundred engines and I will not attempt to say how 
 many thousand cars. The business of the company 
 has increased every year with a few exceptions dur- 
 ing this fifty years, the force of men employed has 
 increased nearly every year, but the thing that has 
 increased out of all proportion to the business and 
 to the number of men employed, are the accidents 
 and the personal injuries. This is not only true of 
 our road which we claim to be the best road, where 
 we claim to have the best men, but it is true of all 
 the other railroads in the country. 
 
 Now, it is because of this enormous increase in 
 the loss of life occasioned by these railroad acci- 
 dents, because of the enormous increase in personal 
 injuries which do not result in death, because every 
 fifty minutes there is some man killed on the rail- 
 roads in the United States, and thirty per cent of 
 
 7 
 
them are you men, 'and while I am talking here to- 
 day there may be a man killed on our road ; because 
 every five minutes there is some one injured on the 
 railroads in the United States, and eighty per cent 
 of them are you people ; because every fifty minutes 
 some one is injured on the North Western Rail- 
 road and eighty per cent of them are you people; 
 because every twenty-four hours in every day of 
 the three hundred and sixty-five days of the past 
 year, except twelve, some one was killed on the 
 North Western Railroad; because during the last 
 twelve months the number of fatalities to employes, 
 not passengers, not outsiders, but employes, in- 
 creased thirty-five per cent ; because the number of 
 personal injuries which did not Result fatally in- 
 creased tweny-eight per cent last year over the year 
 before; because we people on the North Western 
 Railroad, during the last ten or fifteen years have 
 been going around patting ourselves on the back 
 and saying we were the whole show and that we 
 could transact our business better and safer than 
 anybody else, whereas we were going down to the 
 foot of the column. Because of all these things the 
 management of the company have asked me to come 
 here and tell you about it, to tell you this story 
 which is being acted every day. 
 
 Think of it ! Every third day some employe is 
 killed on the North Western Railroad, and every 
 fifty minutes one of you men are injured, not pass- 
 engers, not outsiders, but you employes. Now isn't 
 it high time that you men who are paying this awful 
 toll, remember it isn't the company, it isn't the 
 officers, it isn't the passengers or the people who 
 
are crossing our tracks that are paying this toll, it 
 is you people, you employes of the road. It is not a 
 question of dollars and cents, it is just a question 
 of saving human life, the most valuable thing in the 
 world, and when once it is gone can never be 
 brought back. It is trying to save men from losing 
 their legs or their arms that can never be put back, 
 trying to save making widows and orphans, trying 
 to save destitution and misery. The officers can't 
 do this, the laws can not do it, there is no one to 
 do it but just you, and if you will, you can do it by 
 turning over your hand. 
 
 To me these awful figures of death and calamity 
 put together are appalling. Even I, who have been 
 in this business all my life, didn't realize how bad 
 it was, and all of these bad things come to me you 
 know, and have been coming to me for the last 
 quarter of a century. 
 
 The figures are made up by the Interstate Com- 
 merce Commission down in Washington from re- 
 ports given them by every railroad in the country. 
 We are required by law to report all personal inju- 
 ries, and all accidents, and you can depend upon 
 it that no personal injuries or accidents are reported 
 to the Interstate Commerce Commission that do not 
 occur. None of us care to make our record worse 
 than it is, and God knows it is bad enough. 
 
 Now in regard to these figures. I wish I could 
 carry them in my head because I hate to read any- 
 thing, but these figures are so appalling that I want 
 to be accurate, and so I am going to read them 
 to you. During the ten years that the railroads 
 have been making these reports to the Interstate 
 
Commerce Commission, there were eight hundred 
 and sixty-eight thousand and three people, not eight 
 thousand, not eighty-six thousand, but eight hun- 
 dred and sixty-eight thousand and three people 
 killed and injured in the United States during this 
 time when we have the sign of "safety" over our 
 door. Of this number, during the ten year period, 
 there were ninety-four thousand, three hundred and 
 ninety killed; more men than were killed on our 
 side in all of the battles of that terrible war thirty- 
 five or forty years ago between the north and 
 the south, more than were killed in the war when 
 we went out to kill each other. During ten years, 
 in the pursuit of a peaceful industry we have killed 
 more people than were killed in a five-years' war, 
 and thirty-two thousand nine hundred and thirty- 
 six of them, not hundreds, but thousands, were you 
 people, were railroad employes like you and I. 
 
 There were seven hundred and seventy-seven 
 thousand, six hundred and thirteen people injured 
 in the ten years and six hundred and eight thou- 
 sand three hundred and twenty-five were railroad 
 men ; they were not passengers, they were not peo- 
 ple trespassing on the tracks, they were not people 
 crossing the tracks, but just you people. During 
 this period the North Western Railroad which we 
 claim is the best road and has the best men, has 
 done its share of the havoc. In ten years we 
 killed twenty-six hundred and fifty-five people, 
 equal to three regiments of soldiers, and seven hun- 
 dred and thirty-five of them were you people, were 
 your brothers, your sons and your fathers, your 
 next-door neighbors. In ten years we North West- 
 
 10 
 
ern people have managed to have seven hundred 
 and thirty-five funerals of employes ; seven hundred 
 and thirty-five times we have had to call on the 
 priest or the minister, and seven hundred and thirty- 
 five times in ten years some of us have had to go to 
 these awful funerals. Every one here has had to 
 go to these houses darkened by mourning, we send 
 flowers or messages of sympathy, we try to say 
 something, but we don't know what to say to these 
 widows and mothers and fathers who have lost 
 husbands and sons. Seven hundred and thirty-five 
 times in ten years we men on the North Western 
 Railroad have had this to do. 
 
 During the same ten years we managed to injure 
 fifty-two thousand, not fifty-two hundred but fifty- 
 two thousand, three hundred and five employes, — 
 your friends, your families, your relatives, and some 
 of them have died. We do not report a case as a 
 fatality unless a man dies within twenty-four hours 
 after the accident occurs, and we do not count an 
 injury unless a man is disabled for at least a day. 
 The injuries reported to the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission are confined to those in which the 
 disability is over three days. The average length 
 of disability to men on the North Western is 
 about two weeks. Suppose it is only ten days 
 then we have five hundred and twenty-three 
 thousand men disabled one day in ten years. 
 What do you think would happen to the State 
 of Michigan if on any one day every man, 
 and that would cover every man in the State, 
 should be disabled? How long do you suppose it 
 would take to get over such a calamity, to get 
 
 11 
 
things in shape again? Why! It would take 
 months and perhaps years to recover from it. Do 
 you know that every time we have one of these 
 accidents it resuhs in an increased risk to the rest 
 of you because some new man who may be incom- 
 petent, or careless, he will certainly be inexperi- 
 enced, has to take the place of the man who has 
 been injured, or the place of the man who has been 
 killed? We know what the result will be, and we 
 also know that not only does the risk increase to 
 the other men left in the service but that the effic- 
 iency of the organization decreases. For example : 
 Take from the service for ten days the Foreman 
 at the round house, the Train Master, the Superin- 
 tendent, the Section Foreman, the Road Master, the 
 Brakeman or Conductor or the Engineer and Fire- 
 man on some special job or some special train, and 
 put a green man in their place, we all know that 
 unless we happen to get some extraordinarily ex- 
 perienced, competent man, that it will increase the 
 risk to the men left on the trains, to everybody in 
 the shops or the round houses or on the tracks, and 
 at the same time we are decreasing the efficiency 
 of the organization, which goes down accordingly. 
 
 The last report made by the Interstate Com- 
 merce Commission was for the year ending June 
 30, 1908. The record of calamities on the railroads 
 of the United States for that year was very much 
 worse than for an average time during the ten 
 years the records of which I have given. 
 
 Now, I haven't come here for the purpose of 
 finding fault, I haven't come here for the purpose 
 of criticising anyone, because in all probability I 
 
 12 
 
might not have done as well in your places as you 
 men have done. I have just come here to tell you 
 the story, and then it is up to you to say whether 
 it cannot be changed. If you want to change con- 
 ditions, you can do so tomorrow; if you don't 
 want to change, it never will be done, because you 
 people and no one else can do it. 
 
 I read in the paper the other day that they are 
 to have a great meeting up in St. Paul to discuss 
 the conservation of forests, the conservation of 
 water power, the conservation of untilled land, and 
 that the greatest citizen in the world, we all know 
 who he is, is going to be there to address them. 
 Now, we ought to have meetings and conventions 
 on conservation of men as well as things. Men, 
 who are of so much more importance than things. 
 There is no comparison between a man and an 
 engine. If an engine is smashed or demolished we 
 can buy a new one. If a man is smashed or killed 
 we cannot bring him back to life. Should we not 
 then, have some thought, some plan for the con- 
 servation of men? Take for example a railroad. 
 It may be a bum railroad with poor tracks, poor 
 cars and poor engines, but if it has good men we 
 all know it can get good results. We can get good 
 results and we can handle the traffic, and gradually 
 the good men will build up the bum railroad and 
 make it a good one, but take the best railroad in 
 the world with the best cars, the best engines and 
 the best tracks, if it has a poor lot of men to run 
 it, in twelve months it will have gone to pieces. I 
 say, therefore, that it is men, not things that are 
 important on a railroad, just as they are of the 
 most importance everywhere. 
 
 13 
 
During- the last year in which the Interstate 
 Commerce Commission made their report, there 
 were killed, not injured, but killed on the railroads 
 of this country, ten thousand, three hundred and 
 thirteen men, women and children; that is one for 
 every fifty minutes of every twenty-four hours of 
 every day in the three hundred and sixty-five days 
 of those twelve months, and of that number thirty- 
 four hundred and seventy, not three hundred and 
 seventy, but thirty-four hundred and seventy or ten 
 a day, were you men: They were your brothers, 
 your fathers, your sons and your next-door neigh- 
 bors who were killed. 
 
 In the same year there were a hundred and five 
 thousand two hundred and thirty-four people in- 
 jured, or one for every five minutes of every hour 
 of every twenty-four hours of every day of the 
 three hundred and sixty-five days of the year. Of 
 that number eighty-three thousand three hundred 
 and sixty-seven were you people, you railroad men. 
 Think of it, eighty per cent of all the people in- 
 jured, were employes, not passengers, not outsiders, 
 but just we railroad employes. What do you think 
 of that for a record in a business which advertises 
 itself to be safe? 
 
 During the last twelve months, not the twelve 
 months of the report but for the year ending June 
 30, 1910, we killed and injured on the North West- 
 ern Railroad alone, ten thousand five hundred and 
 sixteen people. Now, just think of it, — on this 
 railroad which advertises itself to be safe, which ad- 
 vertises itself to be the best, where the officers and 
 all of you people have been patting yourselves on 
 
 u 
 
the back, — think of our killing and injuring ten 
 thousand five hundred and sixteen men, women 
 and children in twelve months. Of that num- 
 ber one hundred and seven of the killed were 
 employes. They were your brothers, your neigh- 
 bors, perhaps dear friends or maybe a brother of 
 the girl you are going to marry, and maybe 
 some boy who is the sole support of a wid- 
 owed mother, or some man who is the sole 
 support of a woman and six or seven children, 
 and the larger part of {hese accidents were brought 
 about by the thoughtlessness or carelessness of some 
 man who was not killed. We all know that in most 
 of our bad accidents the man who gets killed or 
 badly injured is the man who is not to blame. Of 
 course, too often the accident is brought about by 
 the injured man's own carelessness or thoughtless- 
 ness, too often it is brought about by the careless- 
 ness of the management, the officers of Divisions, 
 and they are just as much to blame for these con- 
 ditions as you are. We are all to blame and we 
 have all got to turn in and change it. 
 
 During the past year there were thirty-five per 
 cent more of you killed than there were the year 
 before. The year before there were seventy-eight 
 funerals on the North Western Railroad of em- 
 ployes, and last year we had a hundred and seven 
 of those dreadful funerals; some of them were up 
 here. Of the ten thousand one hundred and sixty- 
 three people injured, eighty-six hundred and 
 twenty-nine, not eight hundred and twenty-nine but 
 eight thousand six hundred and twenty-nine, were 
 you people, were you men working on the trains, 
 
 15 
 
you men working in the round houses, in the shops, 
 on the tracks, at the stations and on the bridges, — 
 eighty-six hundred and twenty-nine of them were 
 you people. Fortunately many of these men were 
 not injured so that they were disabled for a long 
 period of time, but very unfortunately, some of 
 them were disabled for life. Many of them were 
 disabled for a day only, and the average disa- 
 bility was about fifteen days. Even with a disabil- 
 ity of ten days it means that eighty-six thousand 
 and twenty-nine people are off the North Western 
 Railroad for one day. 
 
 Now, is it not time we should do something to 
 change all this? Is it not time that you men who 
 are running this railroad, — it isn*t the officers but 
 you people who are absolutely operating the rail- 
 road, you and no one else can change things for the 
 better, — isn't it time to begin? It is not a question 
 of passengers, it is not a question of outsiders, it is 
 just a question between we people who have 
 grown up together on the North Western Railroad. 
 Many of us have been here all our lives, I have, 
 ever since I was old enough to work. I have 
 been working for this company ever since I was 
 fifteen years old, just as many of the rest of you 
 have done. We laboring people are partly to blame 
 for these accidents. We see these young fellows 
 come into the work and do things every day that 
 we know will sooner or later result in some acci- 
 dent, but because they don't happen to be in our 
 department or on our train, and because we don't 
 want to interfere with some one else's business, 
 when it really is our business to do so, we don't 
 
 16 
 
say anything, and we let them go on doing those 
 careless, reckless things until some one is injured or 
 killed, perhaps one of us who has seen these things 
 and did not interfere. We men who are working 
 for this railroad and who have been working for it 
 nearly all our lives are partially to blame for this ; 
 we, with the assistance of the younger men can 
 change this if we want it changed. We can tell 
 these younger men what it means when they don't 
 do things right, and we should always remember 
 that we owe a duty to others as well as ourselves in 
 this matter, to do all in our power to protect them 
 from death and injury. In the language of the 
 greatest man who ever came to earth, "Do unto 
 others as we would that they should do unto us." 
 This is a golden rule which has never been im- 
 proved upon and probably never will be improved 
 upon, and if we would only keep it in mind when 
 we are running a train, if we all worked together 
 in running the train how much quicker and better 
 we would get over the road, than we do when the 
 man on the head end gets a grouch, or the hind 
 end man gets mad, and the engineer starts without 
 a signal, or goes ahead when he should back up 
 and the rear end throws the switch wrong or throws 
 them back hard on the cars. How much more often 
 we would get to town or to our destination on time 
 if we worked together, kindly and carefully instead 
 of bucking each other. It is just the same way with 
 knocking the company ; we are all working for one 
 enterprise, and sometimes that enterprise gets into 
 trouble. We were in trouble last winter, serious 
 trouble. How many times did you go down town 
 
 17 
 
here, on the street corners, in the hotels and in the 
 boarding houses and cigar stores, and hear the men 
 talking about that "nutty superintendent" and the 
 "fake train dispatcher," and "the old teapot of an 
 engine I have to handle." Frequently the engine 
 was poor, but it didn't do you any good, it didn't 
 make you feel any better to knock the company you 
 are working for, and it doesn't make you feel any 
 better to have someone else knock you or the com- 
 pany. Now, why not boost the company, and why 
 not boost the men who are working with you for the 
 company, and not advertise to your friends and 
 neighbors that you are working for a bum concern. 
 That is the way we ought to do business, not only 
 for the company, but for ourselves, and that is the 
 way we have got to do it. 
 
 If we are to change this list of calamities, we 
 must co-operate. Every man must make himself a 
 committee of safety to prevent some one accident. 
 If all the men who are here today listening to me, 
 (and I appreciate very much the compliment of so 
 many of you being here,) if every one of you men 
 would prevent one accident on the Peninsula Divis- 
 ion, we wouldn't have an accident for four months. 
 Think how gratifying it would be to be able to say 
 that you had worked on a division, and a busy one as 
 this one is, for four months without an accident. 
 Wouldn'tyourwivesfeelhappierand safer, wouldn't 
 we all feel safer and wouldn't we get better men 
 in the service? You have no idea how many times 
 widows have told me that they tried to per- 
 suade their husbands, who had been killed on 
 the road, to leave the service because it was 
 
 18 
 
so dangerous. You have no idea how many 
 times old, gray haired women have come to me 
 with tears in their eyes, to tell me how they 
 tried to have their boys, who are now in their 
 graves, quit the service. Those are some of the 
 things I have to contend with. All you men have 
 to do is to make a report of the accident, but if 
 you could hear these widows and orphans, fathers 
 and mothers! Sometimes the mother comes with 
 four or five children, perhaps one of them born 
 since the father's death. If you could see and hear 
 the things I do, you would do something and do it 
 at once, to prevent these accidents from occuring. 
 Moreover, I think you would feel just as I do about 
 it : that it isn't a question of money, or of property, 
 but one of so much more importance that we can't 
 talk about it in the same year — it is a question of 
 saving human life. You people who are here listen- 
 ing to me today can put a stop to these accidents 
 on the Peninsula Division if you want to, if you 
 make up your minds to do it, you can wipe it out, 
 put an end to it all. These accidents may be com- 
 pared to cancers. You all know how they start 
 with a little growth and how they grow until we go 
 to a surgeon and he takes off a fat slice and gets a 
 fat fee for doing it. Pretty soon the cancer grows 
 again or shows up in another place. Now, the thing 
 we should have done, we should have gone to the 
 right kind of a surgeon who would have taken this 
 cancer out by the roots, who would have gone to the 
 very bottom and put an end to it without delay. 
 That is what we must do with this accident ques- 
 tion ; we can't take off a little slice here and a little 
 
 19 
 
slice there and have it amount to anything. We 
 must take it out by the roots, pull it out bag and 
 baggage, put a stop to it, and you men who are 
 here today can do it if you try. 
 
 Of course all of these disasters, these accidents, 
 injure the company, would injure any company that 
 is carrying passengers and freight, and that is the 
 purpose for which we are organized, but the loss, 
 the pecuniary loss, all comes out of the public, we 
 will have to charge the people just so much more. 
 But money doesn't bring back a man's life ; doesn't 
 bring back his leg or his arm, which I have been 
 told, sometimes continues to pain weeks after it has 
 been taken away and buried. Is that imagination? 
 I don't know, I never lost a leg or an arm, thank 
 God. 
 
 We see in the papers and in the magazines a 
 great deal of talk about railroad accidents, and from 
 it one might think that every man killed on a rail- 
 road was killed in some train accident, some col- 
 lision or some derailment. Now, we men working 
 on the railroads all know that isn't so, but that it is 
 the little accidents which happen every day, which 
 may be happening over at the round house this 
 very minute, or may be happening at Ishpeming, 
 Green Bay, Chicago or somewhere else, that makes 
 up this awful list, and I want to illustrate this by 
 showing how it was on all the railroads in the 
 country. 
 
 In the last report of the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission, out of the thirty- four hundred and 
 seventy employes killed during that year, there were 
 five hundred and fifty-four, or less than one-sixth 
 
of the number killed in collisions or derailments, 
 and twenty-eight hundred and fifty-one of that 
 thirty-four hundred and seventy were killed in the 
 little accidents which happen every day : little acci- 
 dents which could have been avoided, could have 
 been prevented in less time than it would take you 
 to make a report of the accident. You will remem- 
 ber that there was a total of eighty-three thousand 
 three hundred and sixty-seven injured that year. 
 Fifty-five hundred and fifty-one were injured in 
 train accidents, that is collisions or derailments, bad 
 enough, but there were injured in these little acci- 
 dents which happen every day because a shaker 
 bar slips (and in ten months we have had eighty- 
 two accidents from that cause). It seems to me 
 that among all the designers, builders and repairers 
 of locomotive engines, there ought to be somebody 
 with ingenuity enough to get up some apparatus 
 for shaking grates which would not result in injur- 
 ing eight or ten men per month on one road, and if 
 proper investigation and consideration was given 
 this matter, I believe such apparatus could easily 
 be devised. Surely it ought to be a simple thing 
 to get up some arrangement by which a shaker 
 bar would not constantly be coming ofiF the rod 
 and causing these injuries. Because there was 
 an obstruction on the track or alongside of the 
 track, because some guard-rail or frog is not 
 blocked, because someone has left a nail sticking up 
 to be fallen over, and do you know that we average 
 ten of these nail accidents every month? Every 
 month we have ten men hurt by stepping on nails. 
 The section foreman comes along, takes up a plank, 
 and nine hundred and ninety-nine times out of a 
 
 21 
 
thousand he leaves the plank lying alongside the 
 track with the nails sticking up; we have all seen 
 it, one might almost think the rules required that 
 they should be left that way. And every time you 
 car men, or train men, or freight-house men knock 
 a cleat off a car you throw it on the ground with 
 the nails sticking up, and you know that you may 
 forget all about it and come along there tomorrow 
 night and step on it yourself. Now, just think of it ! 
 For twelve months we have averaged ten injuries 
 of that kind every month. I remember one month 
 when we had seventeen of them. I have given this 
 as an illustration to show that it is the little things, 
 the things that could be prevented in less time than 
 it takes to report them. 
 
 Before I lost the thread of my story, I started 
 to say that out of the eighty-three thousand three 
 hundred and sixty-seven railroad men, not passen- 
 gers, not outsiders, but just common everyday 
 railroad employes like you and I, seventy-seven 
 thousand eight hundred and sixteen, not seventy- 
 seven hundred or seven hundred, but seventy-seven 
 thousand, were injured in these little accidents in 
 one year, in these little things which could have been 
 prevented in seventy-five per cent of the cases, in 
 less time than it takes you men to make out Form 
 148. Just think of it ! Generally it is because some 
 one is thoughtless rather than careless. Rarely, if 
 ever, is the cause intentional, but just because we 
 don't think what will happen if we don't do things 
 according to the rules, if we don't do things in the 
 right way, if we don't do things according to the 
 rule in our book, which is almost as important as 
 
 22 
 
the Golden Rule, and, strange to say, it is the last 
 rule in tl:e book, — "Remember that it is better to 
 cause a delay than to cause an accident."* It is bet- 
 ter to cause a delay than an accident. That is what 
 the company says and that is what they want, and 
 it is paying us for our time and yet they say that 
 it is better every time to cause a delay than an 
 accident. We ought to have this rule pasted in our 
 hats ; we ought to comply with it, and if we did we 
 would cut out, not fifty per cent, but seventy-five 
 per cent of these accidents the first month. 
 
 Now, I suppose as long as people are human, as 
 long as this country is a nation of chance-takers, as 
 everyone knows we are, we will take a chance on 
 everything from a dog fight up to some one else'r 
 wife. I see there are some fellows here who have 
 done this, of course, I never have, but we really are 
 a nation of chance-takers in this country. You 
 all know how it is; you are running a freight 
 train, and you want to get home to meet your 
 girl or your wife, you are going to some park 
 or show or dance, and you are anxious to get there 
 a little bit ahead of time and in order to do it you 
 are going to sneak in on some passenger train's 
 time when Rule No. 86 says you must clear it ten 
 minutes. You may do this twelve times and noth- 
 ing happens, then, the thirteenth time, that unlucky 
 number — you know what happened to John Allen 
 out at Flagg a little while ago — and that same thing 
 might happen to any of you. And then you know 
 
 *Copies of all rules referred to will be found in the 
 Appendix. 
 
who gets canned, and it isn't the train dispatcher 
 who has known of your doing it the other times and 
 said nothing. I will illustrate this chance theory 
 by telling you about something I read in a paper the 
 other day, taken from an article read by an Attor- 
 ney-General from Missouri, where they have to 
 show people, showing the number of murders com- 
 mitted in this country in proportion to those com- 
 mitted in the old country. In Germany, where 
 they enforce the law (we don't do it here any 
 more than we enforce rules on the railroad), they 
 have four murders annually for every million peo- 
 ple. In the United States where they don't en- 
 force the laws, they have one hundred and twenty- 
 nine murders for every million people. In Germany 
 where they enforce the rules for operating railroads, 
 they have less than one-half the fatalities to em- 
 ployes that we have in the United States in propor- 
 tion to the number of men employed. They have 
 one-half the fatalities we do because they obey the 
 rules, and because they remember that it is better to 
 cause a delay than it is to cause an accident. 
 
 How much better it would sound, if we could 
 have reported during the last year to the Interstate 
 Commerce Commission that there were seventeen 
 hundred employes killed on the railroads of the 
 United States, instead of thirty-four hundred. 
 Woudn't it be safer today for all the rest of us on 
 the North Western Railroad, if we could have said 
 that there were fifty employes killed instead of one 
 hundred and seven? Wouldn't it look better? Is 
 there any reason in the world why we can't run our 
 railroad as safely as they run their roads in Ger- 
 
 24 
 
many? We claim to employ better educated men, 
 men of higher intelligence, and we pay better wages. 
 Why can't we do our work just as well and just as 
 safely as they do theirs, and if we did it as well and 
 safely, we would reduce our fatalities at least two- 
 thirds. 
 
 Wouldn't it sound better if we could say, that 
 instead of eighty-six hundred and twenty-nine men 
 injured we had four thousand? Wouldn't it de- 
 crease the risk to everyone left in the service to 
 have four thousand injuries instead of eight-six 
 hundred? Why can't we do that? Are they 
 smarter, any better over there in Germany than we 
 are? And I want to tell you that during the last 
 ten or fifteen years when the railroads have been 
 devoting all their energies to getting good things 
 instead of good men, of course I don't say that we 
 haven't good men, but that more time has been de- 
 voted to getting good things for the roads. I want 
 to say that our system of hiring men is obsolete. 
 We haven't any system, and we must have one. 
 We have been devoting all this time to getting fine 
 engines, fine tracks, better cars, better apparatus, 
 and better safety things, but very little time or at- 
 tention has been paid to getting safety men, and 
 if we had devoted as much time and thought to 
 getting safety men as we have to getting safety 
 things and educating the men after we got them, our 
 accident record would be dififerent. And why don't 
 we have an Instructor of Rules and Regulations 
 the same as we have an instructor of air brakes. 
 Such a man could do an immense amount of good 
 in the way of educating the men and preventing 
 accidents. 
 
Even with all of these improved safety cars, 
 safety appliances, safety air-brakes and safety en- 
 gines, the average percentage of men killed and in- 
 jured among employes, has increased instead of 
 decreased on all of the railroads of this country. 
 The North Western is not alone in this, the other 
 roads are just as bad, and some of them a whole 
 lot worse. 
 
 I am giving you these figures from the reports 
 of the Interstate Commerce Commission, I don't 
 get them up: In the United States in 1899, there 
 was one railroad employe out of every four hun- 
 dred and twenty men, women and children em- 
 ployed, killed. 
 
 In 1907 there was one railroad employe out of 
 every three hundred and sixty-nine killed. 
 
 In 1899, one out of every twenty-seven em- 
 ployed was injured. 
 
 In 1907, one out of every nineteen employed 
 was injured. Of course that takes in all of you 
 men in the train service, engineers, firemen, con- 
 ductors, brakemen and switchmen, track men, sta- 
 tion men, etc., but you train men and switchmen 
 bear the brunt of this. 
 
 In 1899, there was one of you for every one 
 hundred and fifty-five killed. 
 
 In 1907 there was one of you for every one 
 hundred and twenty-five killed, not passengers, not 
 outsiders, but for every one hundred and twenty- 
 five train men in the year of 1907, there was one 
 killed. 
 
 In 1899, there was one of every eleven of you 
 injured, and in 1907 conditions had become so bad 
 
 M 
 
that one of every eight of you was injured. That 
 means an increase of fifty per cent. And it must 
 necessarily mean, either that you men are more 
 careless ; that we do not have as good men, or else 
 we do not have as good supervision as in former 
 years. I don't pretend to say which it is. You are 
 paying three and four dollars a seat to listen to me 
 and you can take your choice, but it is either you 
 men or the superintendents that are responsible for 
 this increasing risk every year and every day of 
 every year. It looks to me as though it was six 
 of one and half a dozen of the other. But I don't 
 care who you decide is to blame so long as you do 
 something right now to stop this slaughter. Now, 
 don't you think it would be safer to the rest of you 
 if instead of one in eight, there should be one in 
 twenty-eight, and why can't you make it so? You 
 can if you want to! It is up to you. It is just a 
 question of remembering that it is better to cause a 
 delay than to cause an accident. It is just a ques- 
 tion of being thoughtful of the rights of your 
 neighbors, of being regardful of the fact that you 
 owe a duty to others as well as yourself, to pre- 
 vent death or injury, and you can do it if you want 
 to. If you don't care, nobody else is going to care 
 much, and if you can't do it, nobody in God's world 
 can. 
 
 Now, I want to tell you how these men injured 
 on our railroad during the past year, are divided 
 into classes of service. Of the train men, that is, 
 brakemen, conductors, engineers and firemen, there 
 were forty killed in twelve months, and thirty-four 
 
 27 
 
hundred and sixty-eight injured in twelve months; 
 that is ten men injured every day in that service. 
 
 There were seventeen switchmen killed and five 
 hundred and forty-seven injured during the year. 
 Can't you see that switchmen kicking the draw-bar 
 over when the engine is about two feet from the 
 car, because he doesn't remember that it is better 
 to cause a delay than to cause an accident, and can't 
 you see that foot as it comes out from between the 
 draw-bars? There is nothing left of it but mush. 
 That is just one of the thoughtless things that 
 causes five hundred and forty-seven injuries and 
 seventeen deaths in twelve months to switchmen. 
 And can't you see that switchman standing in the 
 middle of the track with an engine coming toward 
 him at the rate of six or eight or ten miles per hour, 
 sometimes in the storm, rain and sleet, and just as 
 the engine gets to him, he tries to get on the foot- 
 board, and if he slips, as he is apt to do, it means 
 certain death or loss of limbs? 
 
 In this same twelve months there were seven 
 station men killed and seven hundred and seventy- 
 nine of them injured. There were twenty-eight 
 track men killed and eighteen hundred and one of 
 them injured. I want you to think of those twenty- 
 eight track men who were killed. Nearly all of 
 them were more fortunate than some of the rest 
 of us in having a flock of children. They were all 
 men of small earning capacity, and what is to be- 
 come of the mother and the children, what does 
 that mother have to do, because some one in mere 
 carelessness has taken away the support of the 
 family ? 
 
 18 
 
And as I stand here talking to you one of these 
 fatal cases comes to me. I can see it now just as 
 it happened. A couple of trackmen coming home 
 on the hand car, a fast freight comes up behind 
 them, then the men try to stop the car and get 
 it off the track before the engine reaches it. The 
 engineer sees them pulling and tugging at the hand 
 car, thinks they will get it off, does not slacken 
 his speed until he is almost onto the car, and then 
 it is too late. The car is struck, it hits one of the 
 men, and there is another railroad funeral and 
 another railroad widow and three or four orphans, 
 all because the engineer didn't think and exercise 
 a little judgment and think how much less time it 
 would have taken to have slacked up that train than 
 it did to make a report of the accident, and how 
 much suffering, destitution and misery it would 
 have saved. 
 
 There were three bridge men killed and two 
 hundred and fifty-six of them injured. There were 
 two car inspectors killed, and two hundred and 
 thirty-three of them injured. We have all seen that 
 car inspector or car repairer get killed ; we all know 
 exactly how it happens. Ninety-nine per cent of the 
 fatal cases are caused by the men going under a 
 car to do a little work which they think will take 
 only three or four minutes, so they don't put up a 
 flag as required by Rule 26. Some of you fellows 
 come along, there is no flag out, you don't know 
 anybody is there, and you kick some cars in. The 
 last time this happened was at Green Bay. The 
 man went under a string, the last car in the string, 
 and forty or fifty cars from the switch. He didn't 
 
put up a flag, somebody kicked some cars in there 
 and he was caught and crushed to death between 
 the end of that last car and a pile of sand which is 
 put up there for a bumping post. And he didn't re- 
 member that it would be better to cause a delay of 
 a minute in that work while he went down to the 
 end of the string to put up a flag, than it would be 
 to cause an accident, anc' now there is a widow and 
 eight children down there. Think of it! Do you 
 know that it would have taken him less time to put 
 up that flag than it took the foreman to report the 
 accident, that it would have taken less time to pre- 
 vent that funeral than it took to telegraph that a 
 man had been killed ? And yet, every day we go on 
 doing these things which cause these accidents and 
 make up the terrible list of ten thousand five hun- 
 dred and sixteen people killed and injured in twelve 
 months. These are the cases due to thoughtless- 
 ness, these are the cases due to carelessness, these 
 are the cases which any of you can prevent if you 
 want to. 
 
 Of the shop men and the round house men, four 
 were killed and twelve hundred and ninety-two 
 were injured. Now, think of it! When I started 
 out over the North Western six or eight weeks ago, 
 I went into some of these round houses, they were 
 disgraceful, their condition was appalling and inex- 
 cusable. The round houses, especially in the night 
 time and in the winter when they are full of gas and 
 smoke, are perhaps as dangerous places as there are 
 on the railroad, and yet I could hardly go into a 
 round house on the system and find lights burning. 
 If there were lights, the globes were so dirty and 
 
 80 
 
black no light could show through, and there were 
 electric lights that had burned out and hadn't been 
 burning for months. There were jacks, wheel-bar- 
 rows and everything else put just where you men 
 had to walk. These are the things that caused so 
 many injuries in the round houses. I notice now 
 when I go around that they look a little cleaner. 
 The place down here at Escanaba is so different 
 from what it was six weeks ago, you would hardly 
 know it to be the same, and it is getting to be so 
 everywhere. We are going to have fewer accidents 
 because we are commencing to remember that it is 
 better to cause a delay than to cause an accident. 
 You have boxes down there now to put tools in, 
 you never had them before. They are getting them 
 all over the railroad, and everywhere on the system 
 they are commencing to cover these dangerous ma- 
 chines and dangerous cog wheels and belts. Things 
 look better, too, and it is the example on the part of 
 the men in charge that is going to bring about re- 
 sults. We are all apt to imitate the man we work 
 for; we are all inclined to think that if we do the 
 work as well as he does, if we show as much inter- 
 est as he does, we are doing pretty well. Just as 
 soon as he shows an interest in our welfare, in pre- 
 venting us from getting hurt, we are going to show 
 an interest in preventing others from getting hurt, 
 and that is what is going to happen on this railroad. 
 There ought to be a committee of safety in every 
 shop, in every round house, and on every operating 
 division of the railroad. We are getting them on 
 some of the divisions ; committees of employes, not 
 officers, but employes who are getting hurt. They 
 
 31 
 
should tell us of things that are wrong, tell us of 
 the things they see every day that are wrong but 
 generally say nothing about. They have such a 
 committee on the Minnesota Division. They have 
 one in the shops at Winona. They have one down 
 at Fond du Lac, they have them on all the divisions 
 out in Iowa, and we are going to have them every- 
 where. We want to try to interest you men in this 
 matter, to get you to tell us about the men who 
 haven't been on to their jobs, as many of them have 
 not, any more than you have. Such committees, 
 composed of the right kind of men, can do a world 
 of good to themselves as well as to the other men. 
 Just as soon as we feel that it is a duty we owe to 
 ourselves and to our fellow employes to keep the 
 bad men out of the service and to get good men in, 
 just so much sooner we will have one-half or one- 
 third of the accidents that we have today. We must 
 enforce the rules. Every city, every municipality, 
 every state, every Government has its set of laws 
 in order that business may be conducted in art 
 orderly way, and so it must be with a railroad. 
 
 Now, we are taking a chance in this country on 
 murder at the rate of thirty to one compared to 
 Germany, not because we are more bloodthirsty, 
 but because we take more chances. We get mad 
 and kill somebody, then get a shrewd lawyer to get 
 us off. What do we railroad men do when we have 
 an accident through our own carelessness, when we 
 forget to flag and cause an accident, and some one 
 who is not to blame gets killed ? The man who took 
 the chance, who didn't put out the flag says, "the 
 committee will get me back," just in the same way 
 
you take your chance when you break the law and 
 get some shrewd, clever lawyer to try to get you off. 
 At the very time the committee are getting this man 
 back, and he ought not to be put back, another man 
 may be killed, and it may be some man on the com- 
 mittee, by the carelessness of the very man that 
 has been put back in the service. And yet we let 
 our sympathy run away with us, and increase the 
 risk to every one, by putting a man back into the 
 service when we know that he is absolutely unfit 
 and unsafe for it. 
 
 Now, when we have an accident, and I suppose 
 we will have some, although we should have fifty 
 per cent less than we do now, the first thing to do, 
 if an employe or passenger is injured is to take 
 care of him. The North Western Company is, 
 and always has been, in all the years I have been 
 in the service, ready and willing to pay any reason- 
 able expense in taking care of any man injured 
 while on duty. If an employe is killed we must 
 take care of his body, and the Company is willing 
 to pay any reasonable expense for his funeral. 
 The body should be taken care of gently and care- 
 fully, just as you would want your father's body 
 cared for, and taken to the nearest open station, in 
 the same county and state if possible, where it can 
 be cared for properly. Don't wait for the coroner 
 or the sheriff. Some of us are superstitious about 
 moving a person who has been killed in an accident 
 until authorized by the coroner, but that is a super- 
 stition. The body should be taken care of, and if 
 there is any trouble about it we will back you up 
 in it. 
 
 33 
 
If the injured man is able to go to a doctor, send 
 him, if he is not able to go, send for the doctor, and 
 when you send for the doctor tell him what is 
 wanted ; tell him if an ambulance is needed to take 
 the man to the hospital. We had a case the other 
 day out at Clinton, Iowa, a town twice as large as 
 this, where a fireman was killed and fifteen or six- 
 teen people were injured. They telephoned the 
 doctor to come to the crossing, they thought a man 
 was dead there, and that is all they told him. He 
 went down there without any appliances, or any 
 way of taking care of the people who were injured. 
 Now, just think of that. 
 
 We had another case in Chicago, less than a 
 month ago. A switchman was injured about ten 
 o'clock in the evening, and his wife, a stranger in 
 the city, was notified by telephone at half-past 
 four the next morning. They didn*t have the 
 decency, the kindness, to go and tell that woman, 
 or to get some neighbor to tell her, and she 
 was left to wander about in a strange city, 
 in the dark, to find the hospital. When she 
 finally got there, her husband was too far gone 
 to speak to her. Those are the things which 
 are happening, those are the things you are 
 bringing on yourselves, just because you don't 
 think. A thing like that is inexcusable, and 
 it brings just criticism upon us. People say that 
 an organization like this, which is bound to have 
 some accidents, should have proper facilities and 
 arrangements for taking care of injured people, 
 and you all know or ought to know that we have got 
 them. Therefore look after the women and children 
 
 84 
 
of the men who are killed or badly injured. All you 
 men have to do is to press the button and tell what is 
 wanted and the thing will be done. Think of how 
 you would feel, how I would feel, if we had been 
 injured and taken to the hospital away from our 
 family, and the hospital is the only place to take 
 these injured, think how we would feel if our wives, 
 the women we love most in the world, had been 
 notified five hours after the injury and left to come 
 to us alone. When this woman reached her hus- 
 band he was too far gone to speak ; too far gone to 
 tell her the things he wanted her to know, or to 
 leave a message for the children. He had waited 
 for her five hours and a half, and she should have 
 been there in an hour. 
 
 And when an employe is seriously injured, it 
 will do a lot of good if some of the ofiBcers of the 
 division will have the thoughtfulness to go and see 
 him and sympathize with him in his trouble. I 
 remember a case which I saw the other day in 
 which a switchman who had been employed by the 
 company for fifteen years met with an accident in 
 which he lost both his legs and no ofificer of the 
 division, not even the agent, although his office is 
 only a ten-minute walk from the hospital, had been 
 to see the man. How much better feeling it would 
 make among the men if some attention was paid to 
 them by the men they are employed under when 
 they receive these terrible injuries, and how much 
 better the officers or agents would feel themselves, 
 if they had taken the trouble to show some interest 
 in the man who was hurt. 
 
Now, after the injured man has been taken car« 
 of, we want a report of the accident, and we want 
 that report to tell the truth about it. We want it to 
 tell the whole truth, not a part, but the whole truth. 
 If the Company is to blame we want to know it; if 
 the injured man is to blame, we want to know it. 
 If the accident is brought about by reason of some 
 defective car or engine we want to know it. If it 
 is brought about by some obstruction or draw-bar 
 lying down in the yard — sometimes they do lie 
 there for weeks at a time — we want to know it ; and 
 as soon as the injured man is able to do so, we want 
 him to make his statement on the same form. Why 
 do we want his statement? Because we know that 
 if any other man than he was to blame, he will 
 tell us about it. If it is the fault of the conductor, 
 or the brakeman, "the fireman or the engineer, he 
 will tell us. If the car was bad, or the engine was 
 bad, he will tell us, because it is human nature to 
 lay these things to some one other than oneself. 
 When we get his statement it is easy enough to 
 investigate and arrive at the truth. We don't 
 want any lying for the Company or against the 
 Company, and we don't want any lying for the 
 injured man or against the injured man; we want 
 the truth, and the Company is always willing to do 
 what is fair. Out of the eighty-seven hundred men 
 killed and injured during the past year, we had 
 forty-eight law suits, less than half of one-half per 
 cent. I give this as an illustration of the fact that 
 the Company is willing to do what is fair in these 
 cases. 
 
 as 
 
And speaking of making reports, let me call 
 your attention to Rule 914, requiring every employe 
 of the company who witnesses an accident to make 
 a report of it on Form 148. The importance of 
 complying with this rule was illustrated in a cross- 
 ing accident at Mayfair a few weeks ago of which 
 one of the division officers was the most import- 
 ant witness, in fact did all he could to prevent 
 the accident by calling to the person driving the 
 team to stop and by waving his coat to call atten- 
 tion to the approaching train — and then neglected 
 to make any report of what he knew about the mat- 
 ter. 
 
 If the accident occurs because something is 
 wrong with the car or the engine, then the con- 
 ductor and engineer in charge of the train, and the 
 man in charge of the shop, station or track, should 
 make an inspection right away to find out if any- 
 thing is wrong, and if there is, repair it. If you 
 don't find anything wrong you must report it, and 
 when the car or engine gets to a terminal we want 
 an inspector to look it over. The double inspection 
 will determine whether or not it is in good order, 
 and we want the truth about it. 
 
 I remember an accident which occurred on the 
 Madison Division a short time ago, where a brake- 
 man was caught between the man killers. We sent 
 a car inspector out to examine the car and he said 
 there was no man killer on it. I don't know whether 
 this man saw the car or not, but when I sent a man 
 to examine the car he found the man killers on the 
 car, and of course he didn't put them on, and we 
 didn't put them on. The car was a foreign car. 
 
 37 
 
We had another case the other night, a young 
 fellow fell off some cars, and he said he didn't know 
 how it happened. We sent out to have the cars in- 
 spected and the report came back that they were all 
 right, and the running boards were all right. I 
 couldn't understand how he could fall off if every- 
 thing was all right, so I sent out and had the cars 
 photographed. There were holes in those running- 
 boards big enough to put your foot in. We don't 
 want any such lying reports. I am something of a 
 word-painter myself, and if we didn't want the truth 
 I could make the reports. Perhaps I could do bet- 
 ter than a car inspector. 
 
 It is just the same way when engines set fires 
 along the track. We have never had as much 
 trouble as we have had this dry year. Until we 
 began to stir the matter up a while ago, you couldn't 
 find an engine on the North Western Road that was 
 not in perfect condition. Month after month the in- 
 spection books in the round houses would show 
 them in good condition, and there was never any 
 record of repairs. Now everyone knows that these 
 were fake reports, that they are no good and worse 
 than useless because they are a means of trying to 
 deceive some one who has a right to know the truth. 
 Did you ever hear the latest definition of a lie? A 
 lie is a misstatement of a fact to the man who has 
 a right to know the truth. Now, I have a right to 
 know the truth, the Company has a right to know 
 it. Therefore, in making an inspection of an 
 engine, either in good or bad condition, make a 
 truthful report of it. It is absolutely useless to 
 keep a record unless it is accurate and truthful. We 
 want facts, we want the truth. 
 
Carelessness of this kind in making inspections 
 of cars or engines after an accident has resulted 
 from the same, will explain why we have so many 
 injuries resulting from engines and cars being 
 in a defective condition and why the inspections 
 which are now being made do not discover these 
 defects in time to remedy the same before an 
 injury results. Probably we never will have the 
 right kind of inspection of engines, cars or machin- 
 ery until the man who makes the inspection is not 
 charged with the duty of making the necessary re- 
 pairs and does not report to somebody who has the 
 responsibility of making such repairs, but until that 
 time comes, it seems to me that we ought to do bet- 
 ter than we do now, in making such inspections, and 
 if we did we would not have had during the last 
 twelve months one hundred and twenty-seven men 
 injured on account of defective engines, one hun- 
 dred and twenty-six men injured on account of de- 
 fective cars and two killed, and if the inspectors were 
 required to test the grab-irons, rungs of ladders and 
 coupling apparatus and get up on the top of cars 
 and inspect the roofs and running boards, and the 
 engine inspectors were required to thoroughly in- 
 spect and test the throttles and brakes of engines 
 and nettings we would not have so many accidents 
 caused by men falling from cars, because of ladder 
 rungs being loose or gone or grab-irons being 
 jammed in close to the ends of cars so that men 
 could not get hold of them, and men would not be 
 falling off of cars because of running boards being 
 defective or nails sticking up, and there would not 
 be so many men injured when going between cars 
 
to uncouple them, on account of the coupling ap- 
 paratus being defective. 
 
 Whenever an accident occurs, it is a notice to 
 the division officials or man in charge of the v^ork, 
 that there may be something wrong in the method 
 of doing the work or in his organization and the 
 matter should be immediately investigated to de- 
 termine what, if anything, is wrong, in order that 
 a remedy may be applied and a repetition of the 
 occurrence avoided, and that investigation ought 
 to be made by some one other than the person who 
 may be to blame for the conditions that brought 
 about the accident. And when an accident does 
 occur which blocks traffic, notice of conditions 
 should be given to patrons who come to our sta- 
 tions to take passage on trains so that they will 
 have an opportunity of deciding what they wish 
 to do and to avail themselves of other means of 
 transportation if there are any. 
 
 In this great business which we are carrying on, 
 the most essential thing is safety. Not alone safety 
 to passengers, or to the property which is being 
 transported, or to people who are crossing our 
 tracks, but above and beyond all other essentials, 
 safety to the men, to the employes who are running 
 the railroad. If we can get safety to you men who 
 are running the road, safety to others will follow, 
 because if you are looking out for your own safety 
 you will be looking out for everyone and everything 
 entrusted to your care. We will have regularity in 
 running trains, everything will be done so much 
 easier and better that you will not know the road. 
 You boys here can do it. 
 
 40 
 
One of the reasons why the Management asked 
 me to talk to you about this matter today, was be- 
 cause they thought if you knew of some of the acci- 
 dents other people were having, and could know 
 how they were caused, that you might not be 
 obliged to get wisdom from accidents of your own. 
 A great surgeon once said to me that there were two 
 very important things in the world, one knowledge, 
 and the other wisdom; that knowledge could be 
 gained from books and other people's experience, 
 but that wisdom came from one's own experiences. 
 The Management believe that if you should know 
 of the accidents that are happening on other divis- 
 ions, in other yards, and the cause of them, that 
 you would not be obliged to get your wisdom from 
 having a death or an injury up here among your- 
 selves. I have, therefore, been asked to come to 
 you and to tell you a part of the story — I couldn't 
 tell it all — if I did it would take me a month to tell 
 the story which has been accumulating for twenty- 
 five or thirty years. But I will give you a few 
 cases as illustrations : 
 
 A couple of years ago we had a collision between 
 Madison and Afton, I think it was between a passen- 
 ger and a freight. The passenger train had the 
 right of way, the freight train had orders to wait 
 until the passenger train came in. A passenger 
 train did come in but it was not the train the 
 freight had orders against. The conductor and 
 engineer did not ask the men on the passenger train 
 by word of mouth, as Rule 90A says they must, 
 whether it was the train they had orders against. 
 The train the freight was waiting for was a Madi- 
 
 41 
 
son Division train and the train which came in was 
 a Wisconsin Division train. They were about the 
 same size. The conductor went out and looked, the 
 engineer didn't do anything, and thought it was the 
 right train, but he didn't ask, and pulled out from 
 the station, and a mile and a half from the station 
 he met the other train. Engineer Lafferty, one fire- 
 man and one other person were killed and fifteen 
 or sixteen people were injured. No one was killed 
 on the train which had no right to the road; the 
 men who were not to blame were killed, and as we 
 all know that is usually the way. 
 
 A year after that accident we had another ex- 
 actly the same kind from exactly the same cause. 
 This one happened at Peoria. Now, it shouldn't be 
 necessary for you men up here to have that kind of 
 an accident on the Peninsula Division in order to get 
 wisdom. You ought to be able to get knowledge 
 from what happened on the Madison and Galena 
 Divisions. These accidents should demonstrate 
 to you absolutely the necessity of complying with 
 that rule, not only that rule, but all the rules. 
 These rules have been made by men like you who 
 have come up from the ranks, men who have learned 
 through many sad experiences that these rules and 
 their observance are necessary. Every time we 
 break one of these rules we take the risk upon our- 
 selves of killing or injuring someone — perhaps it 
 may be a brother, or son, or father. Have we any 
 right to do that, are any of us so thoughtless, so 
 careless, so hardened that we would want to do a 
 thing like that ? 
 
The other night a man named Hugh Morris, — 
 perhaps many of you know him, he used to run an 
 engine on the Wisconsin Division and is now Mas- 
 ter Mechanic of the Galena Division, — went out to 
 Crystal Lake, a little station out from Chicago. 
 Now, it is a rule that we must not kick cars over a 
 highway crossing. I think it is Rule 102a and 102b 
 which says, "If you are going to move cars over a 
 highway crossing and there isn't a flagman sta- 
 tioned there, you train men must put a flagman 
 there." Well, Morris started to cross the track in 
 the dark and a freight car without any lights is 
 kicked over the crossing knocking him down. For- 
 tunately he got hold of the grab iron of the car as it 
 struck him, and although he was dragged thirty 
 feet he got away with no injury beyond a shaking 
 up. I simply give you this as an illustration of 
 what may happen tomorrow to you, to Mr. Linsley, 
 to me, or any of us. Suppose Morris had been 
 killed, and if the accident had happened to a woman 
 or a child or a less active man, they would have 
 been killed. Do you suppose his wife would have 
 been satisfied with any explanations regarding the 
 cause of his death ? Wouldn't she say, and wouldn't 
 she have a right to say that the man guilty of caus- 
 ing his death was guilty of murder or manslaugh- 
 ter? Do you know what is being said of us every 
 day? That we are careless, reckless devils, and we 
 don't care whether we kill or injure people or not, 
 and yet eighty per cent of the people killed and in- 
 jured are we employes of the Road. Tomorrow 
 night it may happen to some one of you sitting here, 
 just because someone is careless and reckless. 
 43 
 
These conditions exist not only at Escanaba, but 
 everywhere on the system. The rules of the Com- 
 pany require that guard-rails and frogs in the yards 
 shall be blocked, and yet the yards here and in many 
 other places are a disgrace. You can scarcely find 
 any blocking. It would astound you to go through 
 these yards and see the number of guard rails and 
 frogs which are unblocked. I will bet that fifty per 
 cent of them haven't any blocking, and it isn't only 
 here, it is so everywhere. You know what happens 
 to a man when he gets his foot caught in that frog 
 or guard rail and it isn't blocked. You can see him 
 there with his foot fast, wriggling and pulling, 
 swearing and praying, trying to get his foot out. 
 You can see him there, and you can see the car 
 coming towards him, it may be one of those hun- 
 dred thousand capacity cars, every instant it comes a 
 foot closer and in two or three seconds the man is 
 down ; you can see the car going over him, you can 
 hear the bones crush, and when he is taken out he 
 is either legless or a corpse. The last time an acci- 
 dent like that happened it was on the Galena Divis- 
 ion, and as nice a boy as any sitting here lost his 
 legs. Now, what section foreman, or road master 
 can excuse himself for that? Do you suppose that 
 boy ever thinks of them without cursing them? If 
 he had been killed, do you suppose his widow and 
 his children would ever think of them without curs- 
 ing them? Is a crime like this anything less than 
 manslaughter? And yet, it would have taken less 
 time to block that guard-rail in which the boy was 
 caught and lost both of his legs, than it would to 
 make a report of the accident. Those are the things 
 
 44 
 
 I 
 
that bring us not only into disrepute but disgrace, 
 and they can be avoided, they can be prevented, 
 must be prevented, and you are the men to do it. 
 
 Let us take as an illustration a switch engine, 
 perhaps down here in the yards, which has a loose 
 grab-iron. The engineer knows it, but he doesn't 
 say anything about it, or perhaps he patches it up 
 himself and it is pushed in so that when you want 
 it, and when you do want it you want it bad, you 
 can't get your hand on it. It would take less time 
 to report the condition and get a new iron than it 
 would to report the accident which surely follows 
 a neglect of that kind. It is your duty to prevent 
 someone from getting killed or injured if you can. 
 It is a duty you owe to your self, to your family, 
 and to other people. 
 
 Take for example the unloading of material 
 from cars, when it is piled up alongside the track 
 and the rule. No. 1016, says there should be six 
 feet clearance so men will not be knocked oflf cars. 
 Go down into the yards and see how the men com- 
 ply with the rule. Some careless devil will unload a 
 telegraph pole or a telephone pole, or ties or rails or 
 boards, or will unload something three feet instead 
 of six from the tracks. Some one will see it but 
 say nothing about it, and tomorrow night you, or 
 your brother, or some one may be riding on the side 
 of a car and you will get it in the neck. 
 
 Another class of avoidable accidents is that oc- 
 casioned by having side doors of freight cars fly out 
 as they are passing a train and injure a passenger 
 or employe on the other train. We have had a num- 
 ber of cases of this kind recently. The last was that 
 
 45 
 
of a brakeman killed on the Wisconsin Division. 
 Rule No. 862 requires that all doors in freight cars 
 shall be closed and fastened. If some effort was 
 made to compel compliance with this rule, accidents 
 of that kind, the risk of which is increasing every 
 day with the increasing number of trains, could 
 easily be avoided. Why not have a rule requiring 
 the sealing of empty box cars ? It would absolutely 
 prevent such accidents. 
 
 Now, you know we have a rule, No. 812, which 
 requires us when we put cars on a side-track to leave 
 them in far enough to clear a man on the next train 
 coming in. It is your duty to observe this rule, 
 your duty to the man coming in after you, and he 
 may be a brother or a cousin or a brother-in-law 
 or a brother of some girl you want to marry who 
 will be following you on the next train. But what 
 happens? You go along thoughtlessly leaving one 
 of the cars sticking out just far enough to strike 
 him if he is riding on the side of a car, and if he 
 goes down you know what will happen — he will 
 lose a leg, or an arm, or be killed. Now, why not 
 push that car far enough to clear a man? Why 
 not think of the result to the next man that comes 
 along? That is what you would want him to do 
 for you. 
 
 Another class of accidents which are occurring 
 altogether too frequently is occasioned by the 
 thoughtlessness of the engineer. A case occurred 
 recently at Waukegan, Illinois. A man, a passenger, 
 was walking alongside the track toward the station 
 and was struck and killed by an engine hauling a 
 passenger train going north. A freight train going 
 
 46 
 
south evidently attracted the attention of the pros- 
 pective passenger. The engineer saw him with two 
 companions walking along the side of the track on 
 which his train was moving, and he also saw the 
 train moving in the other direction, but took it for 
 granted the man would keep far enough from the 
 rail to avoid injury and he made no effort to warn 
 him, with the result that the man was killed. 
 
 We have recently had a number of accidents oc- 
 casioned by coal falling from the tanks of engines, 
 the result of carelessness in dumping coal on the 
 engine or by overloading the tanks. Generally the 
 people injured are employes working in the yards 
 or on the tracks. Sometimes they are pedestrians 
 on the highway. One can readily imagine what will 
 happen to a man if a chunk of coal falls on him 
 from a tank of an engine going forty or fifty miles 
 an hour. And we had just such an injury the other 
 day to a trackman at Council Bluffs. The slightest 
 care in taking coal, a little thought on the part of 
 the man doing this work, would prevent such acci- 
 dents. And can't you see that fireman taking that 
 coal, standing between the cab and coal chute so 
 that if the engine has a leaky throttle, the air is not 
 properly set or the engineer moves her when he 
 shouldn't, that the fireman will be sure and get 
 caught between the cab and the chute and be in- 
 jured, whereas, if he complied with the rule and 
 stood on the side of the chute away from the cab 
 and anything happened to cause the engine to move 
 unexpectedly, he would be safe from injury. Why 
 don't you firemen do this and stop this class of 
 injuries ? 
 
 47 
 
A short time ago we had a passenger train de- 
 railed at an interlocking plant, caused by a defect 
 in the same which had been discovered by the main- 
 tainer, but he seemed to be unable to repair it and 
 he also neglected to report it. If he had reported it, 
 of course the train would have been required to 
 slow up or wait until the defect was found and 
 repaired. I cite this just as an instance of how a 
 little lack of thought or care may bring about a 
 serious accident. 
 
 Rule No. 855 prohibits any person from riding 
 on the pilot of an engine, and yet, during the past 
 year we have had three employes killed and three 
 seriously injured doing that very thing. One of 
 these men was riding on the draw-bar on the pilot 
 of an engine in the night time and the engine col- 
 lided with a train. The man was killed. Every- 
 body knows that it is against the rules to ride on 
 the pilot or get on the pilot while the engine is in 
 motion, and yet it is done every day and no one 
 is disciplined, and seemingly no one is cautioned 
 not to do it. Why don't you superintendents and 
 train masters who can't help seeing this rule disre- 
 garded every day, if you use your eyes, stop it. It 
 seems to me that if some instruction was given or 
 some discipline was administered in cases of this 
 kind, when no one is injured, and the necessity of 
 complying with the rule explained to the employe, 
 very many of our accidents would be avoided. 
 
 Another positive rule. Rule No. 834, prohibits 
 outsiders riding on an engine, and yet, only a short 
 time ago, in one of our busy terminals, a stock man 
 was told to get on an engine to go to the stock 
 
 48 
 
yards. The reason given was that his car, which 
 had come in on one train and been set out, was 
 picked up by another train of fifty or sixty cars and 
 put next to the engine. In order to avoid stopping 
 the train when the caboose came along, the man was 
 told to get on to the engine. On the way to the 
 yards one of the flues burst, the cab was filled with 
 steam and the stock man in order to avoid injury 
 on account of the bursting flue, jumped from the 
 engine on to an adjacent track on which a train was 
 moving, and he was struck and seriously injured by 
 this other train. This class of accidents is clearly 
 of a kind which could be avoided if the rule was 
 complied with, as it should be, because certainly the 
 cab of an engine is no place for outsiders to ride. 
 
 You brakemen and switchmen, who go between 
 moving cars — the couplings won't work and you go 
 in between to pull the pin, you know that sometimes 
 they don't work one minute and the next minute 
 they work all right. Rule 854a, I think it is, says 
 you shall not do this, but you take the chance. The 
 last poor boy that took that chance was up in Wis- 
 consin; just as nice a boy as there is here, and he 
 has a good wife and three little children, just as nice 
 children as yours or mine. He didn't remember that 
 it was better to cause a delay to that train than it was 
 to cause an accident to himself, and so he went in 
 between the moving cars ; when over a split switch 
 about half way he stumbled on a piece of coal 
 that had been carelessly left there and his foot 
 went down between the rails. When that train got 
 through with him he had his left arm and left leg 
 left, the others were gone, just because he didn't 
 
 49 
 
remember that it is better to cause a delay than an 
 accident. Is there any excuse for that kind of 
 work? Think of the suffering that man must go 
 through and in the end be maimed for life. Money 
 will not pay for a thing like that. Just think of 
 the humiliation, aside from the suffering! Did it 
 ever occur to you how different every crippled man 
 is from the rest of us, how it must feel not to have 
 your arms and legs, not to be normal like other 
 people? I never thought of it until a little while 
 ago, I slipped crossing a street in Chicago, and 
 sprained my leg. I was as lame as the devil, and 
 every time I met anyone that knew me, I instinct- 
 ively straightened up and pretended that I was not 
 lame, because I was ashamed of it. Think of this 
 man having to go all his life with one leg and one 
 arm gone from the same side. And it would have 
 taken less time to have stopped those cars and 
 opened that coupler in the safe way, in the way the 
 Company said to do it, and in the way the Company 
 was paying him to do it, than it did to telegraph me 
 about the accident. 
 
 Another case, an employe killed at one of the 
 terminals, by an engineer starting his engine on the 
 elevated tracks without ringing his bell. The man 
 killed was foreman of a switch engine which was 
 coming over from Wood street to 40th street. On 
 the way over he met another engine which was 
 stalled with a train. At the request of the crew of 
 the stalled train he coupled on his engine and pulled 
 them over to 40th street. When he got there he 
 uncoupled his engine and sent it ahead then started 
 to walk over to it. The engine which he had as- 
 
 50 
 
sisted over from Wood street started up without 
 ringing the bell, ran over and killed him. Rules 
 No. 30 and 30a require that bells shall be rung when 
 an engine is about to move and while switching on 
 the elevated tracks, and certainly when an engine 
 has been standing still and has started up, whether 
 it is on elevated tracks or on tracks at grade, the bell 
 should be rung to give notice that it is about to be 
 moved. If that had been done in this case, a man's 
 life would probably have been saved, and a widow 
 and three or four children would not be left in 
 mourning, destitution and misery. And think how 
 much less time it would have taken to start that bell 
 than it did to make a report of the accident, and how 
 much it increases the risk to the rest of you men to 
 have such a man taken out of the service and the 
 man who caused his death left in the service. 
 
 We recently had a case up in Minnesota, a pas- 
 senger coach was standing at the platform for pas- 
 sengers to embark. One passenger got on the train 
 and went in the car, and just as he was about to sit 
 down some other cars were kicked against the coach ; 
 he was thrown against the seat and seriously injured. 
 If switching of this kind must be done before the 
 train starts from the station, it seems to me that it 
 would be an easy matter to prevent passengers from 
 going into the coach until the train is ready to re- 
 ceive them, or if they are allowed to get on the car, 
 and there is to be any switching done, the cars to 
 be coupled to the coach should be attached to the 
 engine, then accidents of this kind would be pre- 
 vented. 
 
 51 
 
Another case, an employe killed up in Michigan, 
 the accident caused by one of the hooks of a coal 
 chute breaking. From the investigations which have 
 been made in these cases, it appears that little or no 
 inspection is made of these coal sheds and chutes 
 to see that they are kept in proper repair, and there 
 is no place except a round house where wood and 
 iron will rot and rust as quickly as it will around a 
 coal shed, on account of the steam, gas and smoke 
 which is constantly escaping from the engines. A 
 proper and frequent inspection of places of this 
 kind would prevent such accidents. Only a short 
 time ago we had a foreman of carpenters killed 
 coming down a ladder at one of these coal sheds. 
 The nails had rusted out and when he put his 
 weight on the ladder rung, down he went thirty 
 feet. 
 
 During the past year we had one employe killed 
 and thirteen injured by overhead obstructions. 
 Two were killed and one hundred and thirty- 
 two injured by obstructions on the ground along- 
 side the track. Rule No. 1016 requires all obstruc- 
 tions to be six feet from the rail. The rule also 
 prohibits coal, draw-bars and other obstructions 
 from lying in the yards adjacent to the tracks. In 
 going through some of the yards one would get the 
 impression that the rule meant that the obstruction 
 should be left on the ground instead of requiring 
 them to be picked up. As a result of this careless- 
 ness a large number of employes are killed and in- 
 jured. Possibly if some of the men in charge of 
 these yards were injured themselves by falling over 
 the obstructions, or if they were disciplined for fail- 
 
 &2 
 
ure to see that they are kept clean (and some of 
 them look as if they hadn't been cleaned for 
 months), we would have fewer accidents. If a 
 regular inspection was made of these yards these 
 avoidable accidents would be prevented in less time 
 than it takes to make a report of them, and fewer 
 widows and orphans would be left to complain of 
 the carelessness of railroad employes. 
 
 And while talking of obstructions I want to call 
 your attention to the fact that many accidents occur 
 because the gates of stock yards are left open and 
 are not properly fastened back, and some man 
 riding on the side ladder of a car in the night 
 time is struck by the gate, knocked off and injured. 
 This is a matter which agents, trainmasters and 
 section men should look after ; they should see that 
 this practice of leaving gates open and unfastened 
 is stopped. 
 
 Now, about these obstructions that are along the 
 road, that are all over the road. We had a case 
 up in Michigan the other day of a brakeman who 
 lost both of his legs. How did it happen? He 
 tried to get on an engine in the night time and was 
 knocked off by the platform of an old coal shed 
 that had practically not been used for three years. 
 It cost a pair of legs to get that platform moved. 
 The man who was to blame for leaving the plat- 
 form there is the man who should have lost his 
 legs, but as I said before, it never happens that way, 
 and that boy, who got on the engine on the wrong 
 side, must go through life with both legs gone 
 because some road master or section foreman or 
 bridgeman did not move or tear down that plat- 
 
 53 
 
form in an old shed. There is absolutely no excuse 
 for that kind of an accident, absolutely no reason 
 why they should occur. I found the same condi- 
 tions existing at Waseca. It is changed now. 
 
 A class of accidents occurring at many points 
 on the system, especially on the branch lines, is in- 
 juries to children playing on unlocked turn-tables. 
 Rule No. 857 requires that turn-tables should be 
 locked. Quite frequently these turn-tables are lo- 
 cated at points adjacent to the highways, and we all 
 know how a child likes to get on and oif anything 
 that moves, and these unlocked tables are simply an 
 invitation for them to do so. The last bad accident 
 occurred up in Minnesota, a boy seven or eight 
 years old came along with some school companions 
 and got on the table. He fell, was caught between 
 the table and the wall of the pit and lost one leg at 
 the hip, the other was broken in three places. The 
 child was the son of a prominent man in the place. 
 His mother was killed by the shock, and the child is 
 a permanent cripple. Think how you would feel, 
 or how I would feel, if our child, or our grandchild 
 had been injured in that way through the careless- 
 ness or thoughtlessness of some one in failing to 
 lock the turn-table. All you have to do is to put 
 the lock on, it fastens itself. Why not do it and 
 prevent such accidents, and remember the accident 
 is quite likely to happen to your child or the child 
 of some relative or of some neighbor, and remember 
 that it will take less time to prevent the accident 
 than to report it. 
 
 The careless and improper use of hand cars and 
 the use of defective hand cars results in altogether 
 
 54 
 
too many accidents. Rule No. 1014 requires red 
 lights on a hand car which is moving after dark, 
 and yet we all know that hand cars are used after 
 dark with no lights on them. We also know that 
 Rule No. 1013 requires that hand cars shall be kept 
 three hundred feet apart when they are moving, and 
 yet every little while we have an accident and a man 
 is injured in a collision between hand cars. These 
 accidents never happen when the men are going 
 out to work in the morning but always when they 
 are in a hurry coming home and race to get back. 
 Why not enforce the rule and stop them. 
 
 The same rule, No. 1013, prohibits outsiders or 
 employes from using hand cars except in the serv- 
 ice of the Company. On some parts of the system 
 it seems as though very little attention was paid to 
 this rule, and very frequently section foremen allow 
 outsiders to use the hand cars as an accommodation 
 and because they are the most accessible and con- 
 venient mode of transportation. The last accident 
 to occur from breaking this rule was in Wisconsin, 
 and resulted in the death of four people and injury 
 to two or three more. Why not enforce this rule 
 and prevent such accidents in the future. 
 
 One of the most important rules in the book is 
 the flag rule. No. 99. This a rule with which 
 every train and engine man ought to be fa- 
 miliar and which should be complied with liter- 
 ally. If this had been done, the collision which 
 occurred near Rawson some time ago would not 
 have happened. Many of you will remember the 
 case where train No. 282 was stalled in the snow 
 on the main track about three miles south of the 
 
 55 
 
station. The conductor and engine crew uncoupled 
 the engine and ran to Bain for assistance and the 
 hind brakeman was told to go out and flag. He 
 went back a short distance, less than one thousand 
 feet, claims to have put down a couple of torpedoes 
 and lit some fusees, and then instead of going back 
 three-quarters of a mile or twenty-four telegraph 
 poles with his red lights, to protect his train and 
 stop any on-coming train, went back to the caboose 
 and the engine of a south-bound train came on in 
 the storm, found no torpedoes or fusees, and the 
 collision occurred, in which the brakeman who 
 should have been out flagging, was injured. Think 
 how much better it would have been for this brake- 
 man to have stayed out in the snow and cold for 
 half or three-quarters of an hour or all night if 
 necessary, as required by the rule he agreed to 
 observe when he entered the service, instead of 
 going back to a warm caboose, thereby allowing 
 another train to run into his train, in which collision 
 he was crippled for life, to say nothing of other 
 employes who were injured in the same wreck 
 brought about by his carelessness. I call attention 
 to this particular case to illustrate the necessity of 
 a strict compliance with the provisions of that 
 rule whether on the head end or hind end of a 
 train; and every man who fails to comply with it, 
 should be dismissed from the service because he 
 not only endangers his own life but the lives of 
 others and if he is unwilling to comply Vv'ith so 
 important a rule, he is not safe to have in the 
 service in any capacity. Only the other night I was 
 on a fast passenger train which was delayed by a 
 
 60 
 
hot box; the flagman went back but a short dis- 
 tance, less than half that required by the rule, and 
 was very much surprised because the conductor, 
 who was not the regular one for that train, gave 
 him to understand that he wouldn't tolerate such 
 work in the future, which the regular man was 
 evidently allowing to pass unnoticed. 
 
 Rule 809 prohibits the switching of cars on 
 loading or unloading tracks without the man in 
 charge of the switching investigating to see whether 
 there is any one in the cars unloading freight, and 
 giving notice of the fact that the cars are to be 
 moved. The accidents occurring from a disregard 
 of this rule are increasing every year. Sometimes 
 it is an employe, sometimes an outsider who is in- 
 jured as freight is being unloaded or loaded. If 
 you would only remember that you should go down 
 past all of the cars and notify every one in them 
 that you are about to make a switch, and if you 
 would also remember that it is better to cause a 
 delay than an accident, and that it will take less time 
 to prevent such an accident than to make a report of 
 it, many of these injuries would be prevented. The 
 same kind of carelessness results in injuries to oc- 
 cupants of cars loaded with emigrant movables, 
 when the cars are kicked around in switching. Such 
 a car should never be switched unless the engine is 
 coupled to it, and without notice being given to the 
 occupant of the car as per Rule 102b. 
 
 We have recently had two highway crossing 
 accidents, which happened almost the same way. 
 One occurred in Iowa, the other in Illinois. It 
 seemed to me that both of them could have been 
 
avoided by care on the part of the trainmen. On 
 both occasions two or three trains stood on either 
 side of the highway crossing waiting for a fast 
 train to go by. The smoke and steam from the 
 standing engines was blowing over the track and 
 the view of the people in the wagon, who were 
 killed and injured, was thereby obstructed. A fast 
 train came along and struck them. In both instances 
 there were eight or ten employes standing around 
 the crossings doing nothing. The slightest care 
 on their part in the way of giving notice of the 
 approaching train to the people who were about to 
 cross the track, would have prevented the accidents. 
 Probably these men would have given the warning 
 if they had thought; in so many of these cases it 
 is thoughtlessness which brings about serious in- 
 juries. Every time anyone is struck and injured or 
 killed on a highway crossing it is claimed that the 
 whistle was not sounded for the crossing or the 
 bell was not rung as is required by Rule 31. You 
 men always claim that the whistle was blown and 
 the bell rung. Several times I have personally in- 
 vestigated this matter, insisting beforehand that the 
 bell was rung and the whistle sounded, and some 
 one would say, "now watch this train coming." 
 The train would come along without blowing the 
 whistle or ringing the bell for the crossing. This 
 happened with two trains I was watching while at 
 a house in the country, and you can imagine 
 whether or not I felt like thirty cents. It is im- 
 portant that the whistle should be sounded and the 
 bell rung at the whistling post and every engineer 
 should comply with the rule, not by giving one 
 
 58 
 
short toot, but by giving the four whistles required 
 by the rule. Only a few days ago my wife was 
 nearly caught in driving over a crossing, but no 
 whistle was sounded or bell rung until just as the 
 engine got on the crossing, and then only one toot 
 instead of four was given. 
 
 Another class of highway accidents it seems to 
 me could be avoided by a little care, is that of peo- 
 ple who come up on the highway from the fireman's 
 side of the engine. The fireman sees the person 
 coming, sees that they do not notice the trains ap- 
 proaching, and yet fails to tell the engineer. The 
 result is an accident. We had an old lady injured in 
 this way at Watertown the other day. A little fore- 
 thought on the part of the fireman would have pre- 
 vented the accident, and it would have taken him 
 less time to tell the engineer than to make a report. 
 It also would have saved making a cripple of this 
 old lady. 
 
 There is another class of crossing accidents 
 which is comparatively new and which, I think, 
 could also be avoided. These are caused by the 
 obstruction of crossings, especially by flat cars in 
 trains without a light on them at night and no one 
 stationed at the crossing to prevent teams or auto- 
 mobiles from running into them. Ordinarily a 
 man's vision is above a flat car, and if he sees cars 
 standing on either side of the track it would not 
 occur to him that there probably was a flat car 
 standing between them right over the highway. It 
 would be easy enough to station a man at the high- 
 way to give warning that the crossing is obstructed, 
 or to put a red light on the car, and if this had been 
 
 59 
 
done, three accidents (two to automobiles and one 
 to a man driving a team) would have been avoided. 
 
 Another case which seems to be absolutely in- 
 excusable was of a m.an who was struck and 
 killed by an engine hauling a passenger train in 
 the night time. No one on the engine knew that 
 the accident had occurred. The same engineer went 
 out in the morning after daylight and ran over the 
 body of the man killed and even then did not dis- 
 cover it. Possibly some of you can tell me or imag- 
 ine some excuse I can make to families of men who 
 have been killed in this way. 
 
 These are the kind of things I have to explain 
 to people; and yet, we have many of these acci- 
 dents. Many of them are excusable; they happen 
 in the night time; the people are on the tracks 
 where they had no right to be, where the engineer 
 and fireman don't see them, and the train is going 
 forty or fifty miles an hour and he is not expected 
 to see everything, but sometimes, on a perfectly 
 straight track, in broad daylight, an accident occurs 
 to a man walking on the track and the engineer says 
 that he was keeping watch every minute and didn't 
 see the man, strange that he should strike and kill a 
 man under such circumstances and not know it. 
 And when he tells you he was looking out all the 
 time you know he lies ; you know absolutely that he 
 lies, because it could not happen in that way and he 
 not know it. If a man comes up to a highway cross- 
 ing in broad daylight where there is no obstruction 
 to prevent his seeing a train, and gets hit by the en- 
 gine, and says he looked and did not see the engine, 
 you know he lied, because if he had looked he must 
 
have seen it ; it would have been a physical impossi- 
 bility for him not to see it. It is just the same with 
 the man on the engine. It is a rule the courts have 
 applied all over the country, that if a man comes up 
 on a highway crossing in broad daylight and there is 
 a train coming and no obstruction, he must see it, 
 and if he does not see it he is careless. They apply 
 that same rule to us, to a man running the engine. 
 If he strikes someone in broad daylight and says 
 he was looking out, they say he must have seen it, 
 he could not help but see it if he had looked. 
 Many times the engineer is doing something in the 
 cab that he ought to do, something that is perfectly 
 proper for him to do, and his attention is momen- 
 tarily distracted from the track, but he won't say 
 so; for some reason he thinks he must make it 
 appear he is watching the rails every minute, and 
 the result is he makes out that he is a damned 
 liar, too careless or incompetent to be on the engine. 
 He puts the Company in the hole just because he 
 doesn't tell the truth. Now, why not tell th*- truth ; 
 we want the truth and the whole truth; we don't 
 want you to lie against the company, and we don't 
 want you to lie for the company. 
 
 We had an accident the other day where a man 
 was killed like that in the night time. No one was 
 to blame, and no one was accused of being to 
 blame. The man was lying on the tracks, on a 
 curve, drunk, and the enginemen did not see him, 
 could not see him, but what does Mr. Fireman do 
 but get on the witness stand at the Coroner's in- 
 quest and testify that the headlight was bad and 
 that was the reason they did not see him; he 
 
 61 
 
thought he had to lay it to something or he would 
 be blamed. That happened to be one of the times 
 when we had a good headlight. 
 
 Now, these are the kinds of accidents that are 
 aggravating, that make enemies who say that you 
 people running trains are inhuman, that you have 
 no regard for human life. They don't blame me 
 for it, they blame you. You don't hear so much 
 about it, they don't tell you, they come and tell 
 me, and the things that are said about railroad men 
 causing these accidents are pretty nearly as bad as 
 the things they say about claim agents, and they 
 are the limit. 
 
 Greater care should be taken to close vestibules 
 on the through trains. There seems to be but little 
 complaint as regards keeping vestibules closed on 
 the standard sleepers, but there is cause for a great 
 deal of complaint in the way these vestibules are 
 left open on tourist cars and on coaches, especially 
 at the end of trains. Conductors and brakemen 
 should exercise greater care in regard to this, and 
 see that the vestibules are kept closed as required 
 by Rule 769. It is very easy for a man to come out 
 of a lighted car in the night time and fall off the 
 car if the vestibule is open, and he expects to find 
 it closed and acts accordingly. 
 
 The same sort of heedlessness resulted in an in- 
 excusable and annoying accident the other day. A 
 fireman undertook to wet down the coal with hot 
 water from the injector. The car next to the engine 
 was loaded with passengers, the door was open and 
 the hot water and coal soot went over the passen- 
 gers in the car. Fortunately no one was scalded or 
 injured. 
 
Injuries to section men who are working on the 
 track in the busy terminals or at curves are fre- 
 quently brought about because no one is stationed 
 to watch for approaching trains and warn the work- 
 men of their approach. We had an accident of that 
 kind in the Chicago terminals recently, at a curve 
 where a man had been assigned the duty of picking 
 up stone which had been dropped on the track. The 
 rest of the men were working on the other side of 
 the work-train. A passenger train coming along 
 struck and killed the section man. He did not see 
 the train coming and the men on the engine could 
 not see him in time to stop. The man's life would 
 have been saved if the foreman of the gang had 
 taken the care to station some one to watch for the 
 approaching train. This precaution is especially 
 necessary when it is snowing or storming. 
 
 We have a rule, Rule No. 761, which tells the 
 manner in which brakemen should announce stations. 
 Now, I ride on trains perhaps as much as any one, 
 and when I am at home I ride on the same train 
 every day. I have never known that rule to be 
 complied with. The rule says that the brakeman 
 shall go into the car, facing the passengers and an- 
 nounce the station twice. Why don't you conduct- 
 ors make them do it? That is one of the things you 
 are paid to do. When I ride on another railroad 
 every time a brakeman comes in he talks in French 
 or Latin, or if he talks English he talks to himself. 
 I ask the man in front of me what station is being 
 called, and I am told that he doesn't know, and then 
 I have to go and ask the conductor. It is just the 
 same way with people riding on our trains. It is 
 
very annoying, and every time we annoy a passen- 
 ger he says to himself: "If there is another rail- 
 road in town I won't ride on the North Western 
 again." 
 
 Many people are injured getting off the train. 
 Generally they are old people who are unaccustomed 
 to traveling. They don't know where the station is, 
 and they are slow in getting off, and the brakeman 
 isn't careful. Sometimes the train starts as they 
 come out of the door, and the old man and woman, 
 and it might be your father and mother or my 
 father and mother, come down the steps and get 
 off with the train moving because they don't want 
 to be carried by, and so they get hurt. I am sure 
 you take plenty of time to get the young and good 
 looking girls off the train. If you brakemen would 
 always remember that it is better to cause a delay 
 than to cause an accident, accidents of this kind 
 would never occur. When a train is being pulled 
 up to a station at which the engine is to take water, 
 don't let the passengers get off until the stop is 
 made, and after the train has stopped and the 
 passengers have begun to get on or off, don't let 
 the engineer move the train for the purpose of tak- 
 ing water until the passengers are all on or off. 
 And when it is raining stop the coaches opposite the 
 shed or awning so that your passengers won't get 
 wet in getting from the train to the station. When 
 you are receiving passengers on freight trains, the 
 caboose should be pulled up to the platform so they 
 can get on and off in safety, as required by Rule io6, 
 and don't start your train until they get a seat, be- 
 cause if you do, in taking up the slack, some one is 
 sure to be thrown down. 
 
 64 
 
When you conductors have occasion to eject a 
 passenger from a train because of non-payment of 
 fare or for some other reason, don't do it at any 
 place other than an open station. Rule No. 767 pro- 
 vides how it shall be done, and when you do, make 
 a report on Form No. 992. 
 
 We have a rule, No. 105, about passing trains 
 at stations on the double track. A train shall not 
 come into a station where another train is standing 
 loading or unloading passengers until such train has 
 started and the last car has passed beyond the plat- 
 form. We had one of those terrible accidents the 
 other night on the Iowa Division. Two nice old 
 farmer people, husband and wife, about seventy or 
 seventy-one years old, were coming from Nebraska 
 to Mount Vernon on a visit. They got off at Mount 
 Vernon in the middle of the night at the platform 
 away from the station. The fast mail, No. 9, was 
 due from the east when the trainmen on No. 16 
 helped those two old strangers off onto the platform 
 away from the station and left them. No. 9 could 
 be heard coming, you know the noise that fast mail 
 makes, and the trainmen did nothing to protect 
 those old people, and as soon as No. 16 left they 
 started to wander over the tracks to the station. 
 The fast mail came along and you know what hap- 
 pened. There was a double funeral in that town 
 the next day. Think of a man being allowed to run 
 a passenger train, who has no more regard for 
 human life than to leave two helpless old people to 
 be killed in that way. It would actually have taken 
 less time for that crew on No. 16 to stay and look 
 after those old people than it did to make a report 
 
 G5 
 
of the accident, and how much better it would have 
 been in this instance to cause a little delay to No. i6 
 than to have caused this terrible accident. And that 
 rule, No. 105, is disregarded every day. You men 
 and you superintendents know it and it is high time 
 that you all commenced to comply with its letter and 
 its spirit and put an end to such accidents. These are 
 the kinds of accidents which make newspapers say 
 of us that we are heartless and don't care whether 
 we kill people or not, that it is cheaper to kill peo- 
 ple than to injure them. There never were state- 
 ments more untrue. Every one knows, who has 
 had any experience at all, that it costs ten times as 
 much to settle death losses than it does to settle in- 
 jury losses, and yet, that is the kind of talk you will 
 see in the papers. 
 
 We had an accident the other day on the eleva- 
 tion on the Galena Division, as the shop train was 
 coming in. You know the kind of men who ride 
 on shop trains, — a lot of them ignorant, a lot of 
 them who don't understand English, or danger. 
 There is a place where the train had to stop before 
 it crossed to another track, because Pat O'Brien 
 wanted to save human life and prevent an acci- 
 dent such as the one we had at Rogers Park last 
 winter, when the Milwaukee passenger, running 
 fifty or sixty miles an hour tried to cross from one 
 track to another and went into the ditch. So this 
 train was stopped before crossing over. Some of 
 the men on the shop train lived in that vicinity and 
 they piled off the train like a flock of sheep. The 
 Aurora train came along and you know what hap- 
 pened. We should remember that the men on shop 
 
trains have neither the intelligence or the under- 
 standing of the risks of a railroad that the rest of 
 us have, and when such a train comes to a stop the 
 thing for the man on the head end of the approach- 
 ing train to do is to stop and let them all get over 
 the tracks. Of course, those men should not get 
 off there, but then we know they just will do it and 
 we must act accordingly, and remember that it is 
 better to cause a delay than an accident. 
 
 Still another class of accidents which occur, not 
 only with us but with other railroads, is brought 
 about by the assignment of inexperienced men to im- 
 portant or hazardous service. We have had several 
 collisions of passenger trains on this road during 
 the last ten years, resulting in serious loss of life 
 and many injuries. Upon investigation it was found 
 that the engineers in charge of the trains had prac- 
 tically no experience in the running of a passenger 
 train. Every superintendent and train dispatcher 
 and every other division officer who has the assign- 
 ment of conductors or engineers to passenger, ex- 
 cursion or special trains, ought to have a list of 
 such engineers and conductors as are eligible to 
 such service and immediate notice should be given 
 them of such changes as occur from promotion, 
 suspension or natural causes so that the list would 
 always be accurate and up to date. If this had 
 been done, an engineer who was not eligible to such 
 service would not twice within three months have 
 been assigned to such trains by the train dispatcher, 
 the last time resulting in the collision of two pas- 
 senger trains. 
 
 In another case, a boy sixteen years old, the 
 only son of a widowed mother, was employed as a 
 
 67 
 
messenger in a freight house. He was sent out in 
 the yards to tack cards on a car with no instructions 
 given him as to the care to be exercised. The car 
 he was putting the card on stood on a track ad- 
 jacent to the main track of another railroad. A fast 
 train came along, struck and killed him, and now 
 there is another little grave in the cemetery and 
 another mother mourning the loss of a son. It 
 seems to me that the slightest forethought or care 
 on the part of the agent directing this work, would 
 have prevented this accident, and if he had to come 
 in contact with the mother of the boy who was 
 killed, as I had to, he certainly never would let it 
 happen again. 
 
 This matter of safety is the most important 
 thing on a railroad; safety before anything else is 
 what is wanted, and if we could get it, how much 
 better it would be for us all. Suppose we could 
 get the reputation of killing and injuring fewer 
 people than the Milwaukee or the Burlington or the 
 Illinois Central — than any of these roads. The re- 
 sult would be that we would get all the best men 
 from the other roads, everybody would want to 
 send stuff over a safe road, everybody would want 
 to travel over the safe road, in fact, everybody 
 Tvould use our road and that would make more 
 work for everybody except me, and I would like 
 to draw my salary without working for it before I 
 am pensioned. 
 
 We must have safety and regularity, and in 
 order to have these we must have co-operation. 
 Let the example of the older men in the service be 
 an influence, a guide to bring the younger men up 
 
to the right standard, thereby decreasing the risk of 
 death and injury for all, and at the same time in- 
 creasing the efficiency of the organization for which 
 we are working. 
 
 The safety committees to be appointed on all the 
 Divisions will be the means of accomplishing great 
 good. There are many things happening every day 
 which could and should be prevented, which can be 
 prevented at the expense of a very little care, a very 
 little time on your part, and we want you to prevent 
 them ; we want you to prevent the thousands of little 
 things which account for the eighty-six hundred and 
 twenty-six men killed and injured on the North 
 Western Railroad last year. Why not begin 
 these reforms today? Explain to the younger men 
 the risks of the service, and what will happen if 
 they don't comply with the rules. When I was a 
 little fellow running about the yards in Chicago 
 (the road was small then), I knew nearly all the 
 train men that came to the city. Do you know 
 what I heard them talking about in the cabooses, 
 dog-houses, round houses and switch shanties? 
 They were talking about the rules, getting up hypo- 
 thetical cases and arguing them. They were telling 
 about the good engineer they had, and what a good 
 run they had made. What do I hear now, what do 
 we all hear? It isn't talk about rules, or good men 
 or good runs, it is talk about that blankety blank 
 time-keeper that didn't give that extra twenty-five 
 miles, of the thirty cents short in pay. You should 
 have your pay, and all your schedule calls for, but 
 don't spend valuable time in small complaining. 
 Talk about the rules and get them fixed in your 
 
minds. Talk about the accidents which happen 
 every day and the cause of them. We should all 
 do our part to disseminate this knowledge so that 
 when accidents occur from causes which can be 
 prevented, we will all know about it. The Com- 
 pany is just as much to blame as you are, but 
 we are all going to do our share toward remedy- 
 ing these evils, toward stopping this awful waste 
 of human life. If these accidents keep on grow- 
 ing at the rate they have been growing for the 
 past twelve months, if they increase at the rate of 
 thirty-five per cent in deaths to employes and 
 twenty-eight per cent in injuries, we will not be 
 able to induce a decent man to go into the service. 
 It will be too dangerous. You must try to help in 
 bringing about a reduction of these accidents; re- 
 member that it will not only decrease the risk to you 
 men, but it will increase the efficiency of the road, 
 it will get trains over the road quicker, and when 
 you have a date down at Green Bay or up at Ish- 
 peming with some girl you want to marry, every- 
 thing will go all right because you will all be work- 
 ing together and you will get in on time. That is 
 what we all want to do, we all have those dates. 
 
 Remember that it is the little things you must 
 take care of, the little neglects which happen every 
 day and which bring about these accidents. You 
 know the old ditty. 
 
 "Little drops of water. 
 Little grains of sand. 
 Make the mighty ocean, 
 And a beauteous land." 
 
 70 
 
So it is with these little accidents. Little acci- 
 dents which are caused by defective cars ; little acci- 
 dents caused by defective engines; little accidents 
 caused by unblocked frogs and guard-rails; little 
 accidents caused by defective hand cars and by rac- 
 ing hand cars ; little accidents caused by carelessness 
 or thoughtlessness. It is the accidents caused by 
 leaving material too close to the tracks, accidents 
 caused by agents leaving stuff on platforms, con- 
 trary to Rule 736, and freight men unloading and 
 leaving freight on the edge of platforms, that some 
 fellow on the next train may fall over, or some pas- 
 senger may fall over it because the agent has also 
 forgotten to light his lamps. These are the little, 
 every-day things which cause accidents enough to 
 make eighty-six hundred injuries and one hundred 
 and seven deaths to employes. 
 
 Now I want to say a word to you agents and 
 operators about giving information. As an ex- 
 ample I will give you a little experience of my 
 own. A friend of mine, a man who might be 
 called one of the most distinguished men in the 
 state, was coming to take breakfast with me at 
 Geneva Sunday morning. He is the bishop of a 
 church, is one of the best speakers and best talkers 
 I ever heard, and if I had even a part of his elo- 
 quence I could convince you men right now of the 
 necessity of these reforms. Well, I wanted to go 
 to the station with the carriage to meet the Bishop, 
 and I telephoned to find out how the train was; 
 it was due at seven o'clock. They said it was on 
 time. When I got down there it was not in sight 
 
 71 
 
and I asked "Where is No. i6?" Then they said it 
 was an hour late. I was sore and said, "Why the 
 hell didn't you tell me so when I asked you ?" They 
 said they thought it was on time when I telephoned. 
 I asked, "What is the next train which comes over 
 from Sycamore and what time will it be here?" 
 They said, "At seven-fifty-eight." I live only five 
 minutes from the station and thought I would rather 
 wait an hour at home so I went back there and while 
 I was waiting, in walks the Bishop, and perhaps 
 thirty cents wouldn't have been a fortune to me just 
 then! That train got there at seven-twenty-eight, 
 then went up to St. Charles, got a couple of cars of 
 milk, came back and left at seven-fifty-eight. Now, 
 if that sort of thing is being handed out to the 
 officers of the road, what do you suppose is being 
 done to the people who are paying their fare? 
 What kind of information do you suppose they get? 
 That is the kind of talk, that is the kind of mis- 
 information that makes enemies for the road. An- 
 other instance : A lady was going to California the 
 other day, and she went out on No. i. She wanted 
 to stay over at Council Bluffs, so she left her trunk 
 there. The next day she went to the Council Bluffs 
 station and asked, "What time does the Overland 
 Limited come in?" They said, "The train has just 
 gone to Omaha." "Is there any way I can catch 
 the train?" "Yes, you can get a hack and drive 
 over, the train stays on the other side of the river 
 half an hour." So she got a hack paying ten 
 dollars for it, and when she got to Omaha, the 
 train had not left Council Bluffs. The baggage- 
 man thought it had gone; he didn't know, but he 
 
 72 
 
thought so. These are the kind of things you 
 are handing out to people, these are the kind of 
 things that happen every day on every railroad in 
 the country, to make enemies for us. If you would 
 pay just a little attention to your business, and were 
 onto your jobs, such things would not happen. There 
 isn't any excuse for that sort of a thing ; there is no 
 reason why that kind of people should be in the 
 service and we ought to get them out in order to 
 stop such mistakes. It is this same kind of thought- 
 lessness, that "don't care" kind, which makes the 
 accidents; just that same kind of thoughtlessness 
 and carelessness that causes eight thousand six 
 hundred and twenty-six of you to be injured in 
 twelve months, and one hundred and seven of you 
 to be killed in twelve months. Now, why can't we 
 get to work and stop this. Why can't we gain 
 knowledge from other people's mistakes and put 
 an end to this business, and not go on and on 
 having these accidents, more than one every hour in 
 the twenty- four hours of every day in the year, 
 including Sundays, with an increase of thirty-five 
 per cent of employes killed and twenty-eight per 
 cent of employes injured. Suppose your expenses 
 increased thirty-five per cent and your salary ten. 
 Why, if we have an increase of earnings of ten or 
 fifteen per cent on the North Western, we think that 
 is a wonderful year. And of course the accidents 
 ought not to increase faster than the earnings. In- 
 stead of being an increase of over thirty per cent in 
 the number of accidents there ought to be a decrease 
 of fifty per cent, and you people can bring this 
 about. No one else on the North Western Railroad 
 can do it, but you can if you want to. 
 
 73 
 
And you agents, especially on the double track, 
 ought to take better care of your passengers to pre- 
 vent their being injured. You know we are re- 
 quired to and ought to exercise the highest degree 
 of care in protecting them from injury, and when 
 you have passengers waiting at your station and 
 a fast train is coming through that don't stop, don't 
 sit in your chairs like bumps on a log, but get out 
 and tell the passengers that the coming train don't 
 stop, and when their train will arrive, so that they 
 won't race across the track in front of the on- 
 coming train, as a passenger did the other day 
 at Geneva and another at Park Ridge, with fatal re- 
 sult, under similar circumstances. It will take you 
 less time to do this than it will to telegraph your 
 superintendent of the accident and may save some- 
 one's life. 
 
 And speaking about agents and stations makes 
 me think of what I saw at Racine. A short time 
 ago I was up there to see one of my men who had 
 a shoulder broken in a runaway accident and when 
 I came down to the station at the Junction, the 
 first thing I saw was the Milwaukee's "Be Care- 
 ful" sign and right opposite the door on which the 
 sign was posted were the unboxed pipes for the 
 interlocking plant about six inches from the ground, 
 over which every passenger had to step in coming 
 to the station from the street car— just where they 
 would stumble over them in the dark and break their 
 leg or neck — and when I went to our side of the sta- 
 tion I found the pipes boxed but the boxing in such 
 condition as to make a regular trap for any brake- 
 man or switchman who had to work there, and I 
 
 74 
 
thought of the inspectors who have "Eyes and see 
 not and ears and hear not." 
 
 Why can't we club together? Why can't we 
 men on the North Western Railroad co-operate in 
 our efforts to decrease this loss of life? Women 
 could do better than we have been doing in the man- 
 agement of these things. Think of having our 
 houses kept the way some of our stations, shops, 
 round houses and yards are kept ! We wouldn't go 
 back to them, and there would be a bill of divorce 
 right away. But the women wouldn't do things 
 that way. They would have nice thrifty looking 
 stations, clean round houses and shops, and we 
 wouldn't be ashamed to bring men from other roads 
 to see them, any more than you would be ashamed 
 to take men to your little homes. And how did you 
 get these homes, how did we all get them? By the 
 habit of saving. Perhaps we commenced by saving 
 ten cents a day, then twenty cents a day, and then 
 we got some nice girl to promise to marry us as soon 
 as we could buy the furniture for the house, and we 
 get busy and save enough to buy that furniture. 
 Then we pay a little on the home and give a mort- 
 gage for the rest, then save to pay that, and pretty 
 soon we have money enough saved to pay the doctor 
 for the baby that is coming, and so we cultivate the 
 habit of being thrifty. This is the kind of thrift we 
 want on the road. We want to get out of this awful 
 habit of being careless and into the habit of being 
 careful. We want to get into the habit of protecting 
 people from death or injury, we want to put an end 
 to the awful havoc which is going on. 
 
 We want to encourage the men who are work- 
 ing toward these reforms. The Company will give 
 
 75 
 
some sort of an emblem to the Division on the 
 North Western Railroad which runs the safest dur- 
 ing the next six months. When I say safe, I don't 
 mean safety to outsiders or safety to passengers, 
 but to employes of the Road. The Division having 
 the fewest employes killed or injured in proportion 
 to its train mileage and in proportion to the number 
 of employes engaged on the Division, is the Divis- 
 ion which will be given the emblem or banner, to 
 indicate that it is the safest Division on the North 
 Western Railroad. 
 
 Now, if I worked on the Peninsula Division I 
 would like to be able to say that I worked not only 
 for the best railroad in the country, but on the 
 SAFEST Division, where there was the least likeli- 
 hood of being killed or injured. Now if you people 
 want that banner at Escanaba, as an emblem that you 
 work on the safest Division of the Road, it is up to 
 you to get it. The banner will be as beautiful as 
 it can be made, and it will have inscribed on it in 
 letters of green, the color which, to us, means 
 safety, the words "SAFETY, SIMPLICITY, and 
 SUPERVISION." 
 
 Before closing I want to tell you of a dream I 
 had the other night : 
 
 I dreamed of a beautiful building, the most beau- 
 tiful building I had ever seen. Its walls were 
 lined with books, pictures and statuary, and its con- 
 tents were dedicated to the dissemination of knowl- 
 edge, and to inculcate a taste for the beautiful 
 among the people of the country. I dreamed that 
 in every city, town and hamlet of this vast nation, 
 there was a similar building dedicated to this same 
 
purpose. Then the scenes changed and I was back 
 with the old North Western, and behold we had 
 built a TEMPLE OF SAFETY of the most beau- 
 tiful green marble, the color to indicate safety. As 
 I approached the building I saw over the entrance 
 in large gold letters the words of our trade-mark, 
 THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, and above them 
 in whitest marble, the one word, SAFETY. In the 
 center of the building I found a commodious room, 
 and was told by the guide, who was a one-armed 
 ex-conductor, that it was used as a meeting room of 
 the GENERAL COMMITTEE OF SAFETY of 
 the various Divisions, the yards, shops, tracks, 
 round houses and freight houses. Around this 
 large central room were seventeen smaller rooms, 
 one for each Division of the system. The walls and 
 floors of these rooms were made of the whitest 
 marble and tile and on the walls were pictures of 
 some of the railroad heroes who had given their 
 lives in protecting the lives and property entrusted 
 to them. There were pictures of some of the great 
 men who had made this enterprise successful, and 
 there were pictures of engines, cars, tracks and 
 bridges, and a picture of our grand new passenger 
 station, and there were emblems of our trade and 
 the insignia of our orders and brotherhoods. One 
 of the rooms into which I wandered was a little 
 larger, a little finer, a little handsomer than the 
 others and in it was a banner of the finest gold, on 
 it in large letters made of emeralds was the word 
 SAFETY, and I was told that the room was as- 
 signed to the Division of the North Western Rail- 
 road which had the fewest accidents in proportion 
 
 77 
 
to the number of employes and train mileage. Over 
 the door of this room was the name of the Division 
 occupying it. The guide told me that every Division 
 headquarters had a similar building of smaller 
 proportions, and that the men of the Division gath- 
 ered there to hold meetings of their local safety 
 committees, and to discuss methods of safe opera- 
 tion, and the saving of human lives. All of these 
 buildings were dedicated to the conservation of men. 
 That in the year 19 lo the North Western men had 
 awakened to a realization of the fact that too many 
 human beings were being sacrificed through the 
 thoughtlessness and carelessness in their methods, 
 and as a result following this awakening only one 
 employe is killed and injured where there had pre- 
 viously been four or five. And that in commemora- 
 tion of their success in making their road the safest 
 in the world, these buildings had been erected. I 
 pray God that all, or a part, of the dream may come 
 true. 
 
Appendix 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 The following are the rules referred to in the 
 foregoing address 
 
 IN CASE OF DOUBT ADOPT THE SAFE No. i 
 COURSE, SPEED MUST ALWAYS BE SACRIFICED 
 FOR SAFETY. 
 
 A blue flag by day and a blue light by night, displayed No. 26 
 at one or both ends of an engine, car or train, indicate 
 that workmen are under or about it. When thus pro- 
 tected, it must not be coupled to or moved. Workmen 
 will display the blue signals, and the same workmen are 
 alone authorized to remove them. Other cars must not 
 be placed on the same track, so as to intercept the view 
 of the blue signals, without first notifying the workmen. 
 
 The engine bell must be rung when an engine is No. 30 
 about to move. 
 
 The engine bell must not be rung on elevated tracks. No. 30a 
 excepting when approaching and leaving stations, and in 
 switching movements. 
 
 The engine bell must be rung on approaching the No. 31 
 whistling post at every public road crossing at grade, 
 and kept ringing until the crossing is passed; and the 
 whistle must be sounded at all whistling posts. 
 
 An inferior train must clear the time of a superior No. 86 
 train in the same direction at least ten minutes. 
 
 When trains meet by special order or time-table reg- No. 90a 
 ulations, conductors and enginemen must inform each 
 other what train they are. This must be done by word 
 of mouth. 
 
 In case of stoppage between stations, the flagman must No. 99 
 immediately go back with not less than two torpedoes, 
 and a red flag by day or red and white lantern and two 
 red fusees by night, and at night place a lighted red 
 fusee in the center of the track 500 feet behind the rear 
 of train, proceeding by day or night to a point not less 
 
 81 
 
than three-quarters of a mile (twenty-four telegraph 
 poles) distant from rear of train until he reaches a 
 point where the danger signal can be seen not less than 
 one-quarter of a mile (eight telegraph poles) by the 
 engineman of any approaching train. The flagman will 
 at once place one torpedo on the rail on engineman's 
 side, and will remain at such point until the train has 
 arrived, or until he is recalled. The engineman on 
 approaching train, on seeing the flagman's signal, will 
 immediately call for brakes, as evidence that the signal 
 has been seen. When the flagman has been recalled and 
 no approaching train has arrived, he will place a second 
 torpedo on the rail, 200 feet nearer his train than the 
 first, and return with all possible dispatch to his train. 
 On exploding one torpedo the approaching train will be 
 brought to a full stop, and thereafter proceed with ex- 
 treme caution, expecting to find some obstruction on the 
 track. When the second torpedo is exploded, the engine- 
 man will know that the flagman has been recalled, and 
 will proceed cautiously, keeping a sharp lookout for train 
 ahead. Immediately on the sound of the whistle recalling 
 flagman, if there is not a clear view to the rear for 
 one-quarter of a mile (eight telegraph poles), the train 
 should be moved ahead at a speed of not less than six 
 miles per hour, until a point is reached where the track 
 is straight for one-quarter of a mile in the rear of train, 
 always bearing in mind that the time of the flagman's 
 return is the period of greatest risk. When the character 
 of the road or weather makes it necessary, the flagman 
 shall go to a greater distance with signals, so as to insure 
 absolute safety. It must be distinctly understood that the 
 conductor of the train, or the engineman of an engine 
 running light is held responsible for the safety of his 
 train or engine. When any train has been stopped by a 
 preceding train in the manner above mentioned, the con- 
 ductor of the last train must use the same precautions 
 with regard to any following trains, as those heretofore 
 described. When it is necessary to protect the front of 
 a train the same precaution shall be observed by the 
 
 88 
 
front brakeman or fireman. Conductors are held respon- 
 sible for the proper protection of their trains under all 
 circumstances. 
 
 When cars are pushed by an engine (except when No. 102 
 shifting and making up train in yards) a flagman must 
 occupy a conspicuous position on the front of the leading 
 car and signal the engineman in case of need. 
 
 If such signal cannot be seen by the engineman or 
 fireman, the engineman will bring the train to a stop 
 immediately and not proceed until signal is visible. 
 
 When switching is being done over highway or street No. 102a 
 railway crossings by yard or trainmen, a man must be 
 stationed at that crossing to act as a flagman. 
 
 Cars must not be moved over highway crossings or No. 102b 
 in front of passenger stations, detached from engines, 
 other than at terminals, where express authority has not 
 been given so to do by the division superintendent. Cars 
 containing passengers must not be switched unless coupled 
 to the engine and air brake in use. 
 
 In approaching a station where a passenger train is No. 105 
 due or past due, and where the view is not clear, trains 
 must be under perfect control so that they may be stopped, 
 if necssary, before reaching station. Trains on the double 
 track must not, under any circumstances, pull into a sta- 
 tion at which a passenger train in the opposite direction 
 is standing or into which it is pulling, to receive or dis- 
 charge passengers, until such train has started up and 
 the rear coach thereof has passed the end of the station 
 platform nearest the approaching train, excepting where 
 tracks are divided by fences. When two trains are 
 nearing a station from opposite directions at the same 
 time and only one of them is scheduled to stop, the train 
 making the stop must reduce speed to let the other 
 through the station before it arrives. When two trains 
 going in opposite directions arrive at a station and both 
 are scheduled to stop, the inferior train will not pull up 
 to platform until superior train has departed. At stations 
 on single track, all trains will reduce to a speed of four 
 
 83 
 
miles per hour in passing a point where a passenger train 
 is receiving or discharging passengers, and pass such 
 train with the engine bell ringing constantly. 
 
 No. 106 Passengers will not be allowed to ride on freight, 
 extra or work extra, except upon such regular freight 
 trains as may be designated in the division time tables. 
 Freight trains that carry passengers will be particular 
 to have the caboose stop at the depot platform to receive 
 and discharge them. Before the arrival of train at any 
 station where they stop, the conductor will distinctly 
 call out the name of station. This rule applies to em- 
 ployes of the company not actually on duty, as well as to 
 other persons. It is, however, understood that persons 
 accompanying live stock or perishable freight, shall be 
 allowed to ride on the same trains therewith, for the 
 purpose of taking care of the same, upon the presentation 
 of proper transportation. 
 
 No. 736 Freight, baggage and other articles must not be allowed 
 to stand on the depot platforms where they might cause 
 accident or inconvenience to passengers or employes, or 
 receive damage from the weather. U. S. mail pouches 
 must not be left unprotected upon the platforms or in 
 the waiting rooms and other exposed places at stations. 
 
 No. 761 On leaving a station passenger brakeman will pass 
 through the train, from the front to the rear, and when 
 about one-third the length of the car from forward end, 
 with closed doors, will announce in a clear and distinct 
 voice the name of the next station, then proceed to 
 within the same distance from the rear end of the car, 
 and make the same announcement. If the train is 
 to stop for meals, the brakeman will so state, giving the 
 length of time the train will stop. Conductors of all 
 trains stopping at stations at which lunch counters or 
 eating houses are located will announce in the lunch or 
 dining room notice of departure of the train in ample 
 time to allow passengers to get aboard before it starts. 
 Upon approaching a station located at or in the vicinity 
 of a railroad crossing, when it is necessary for a train 
 
 S4 
 
to stop at such crossing, before reaching the crossing 
 brakemen must give warning of the fact by calling out 
 distinctly in each car "the next stop is for railway cross- 
 ing, not a station," junction points, railroad crossings 
 where a stop is made and terminals will be announced, 
 passengers notified when to change cars and attention 
 directed to their parcels and other belongings. 
 
 They must collect the proper fare from every passen- No. 767 
 ger not provided with a ticket or pass in proper form. 
 In all cases, on refusal of any passenger to produce a 
 proper ticket or pass, or to pay the fare, the conductor 
 shall cause the train to be brought to a full stop at a 
 regular open station, and shall require such person to 
 leave the train and, on refusal, shall remove him or her 
 therefrom and must procure and report the names and 
 addresses of persons who were present and witnessed the 
 controversy. Each conductor will be held responsible for 
 the exercise of a reasonable discretion in the perform- 
 ance of this duty, being careful that no unnecessary force 
 is used, that the Company may not be subjected to un- 
 necessary litigation or annoyance. They must not eject 
 women or children of tender years; and any person 
 unattended in such a condition of body or mind as to be 
 incapable of caring for himself must be placed in the 
 custody of the nearest station agent who will wire the 
 Superintendent for instructions regarding such person's 
 final disposition. In removing a person from the train, 
 the conductor must use extreme care to avoid controversy 
 and not indulge in abusive language or in any manner 
 insult or maltreat the person to be removed; or use 
 unnecessary force in so doing, unless in a clear case of 
 self defense, when an assault is made upon the conductor 
 or his men; and then the infliction of unnecessary injury 
 must be carefully avoided. A sufficient force must be 
 brought into requisition to overcome resistance and to 
 place the person on the ground without inflicting injury, 
 the law being that conductors may command employes or 
 any of the passengers to assist in such removal. In all 
 cases except where passengers shall be ejected for refusal 
 
to produce proper ticket or pass, or to pay the proper 
 fare, the conductor, before so doing, must tender such 
 passenger such proportion of the fare he has paid as the 
 distance he then is from the place to which he has paid 
 his fare bears to the whole distance for which he has 
 paid his fare. In case of such ejectment a report (on 
 form No. 992) must be sent to the Superintendent by first 
 mail with full particulars. 
 
 No. 769 Passenger trainmen will be required to securely close 
 vestibule doors and platform traps of all passenger cars 
 when in motion; and after departure from a station will 
 observe whether or not there are any passengers clinging 
 to the hand-rails of the vestibules. 
 
 No. 809 While at stations conductors will do such switching 
 as may be required by the station agent. Trainmen or 
 switchmen must not move cars that are being loaded or 
 unloaded on side tracks without notifying all parties doing 
 such work. They must not obstruct street or public road 
 crossings with their trains, and be particular, when at 
 junction stations, that no part of their train is allowed 
 to stand on railway crossings or interlocking systems. 
 
 No 812 Conductors leaving cars on side tracks will see that 
 they are properly secured and sufficiently clear of the 
 main line. In leaving loaded cars at any station they will 
 place them most conveniently for unloading. The cars 
 must be so placed as not to project over line of highway 
 crossings. If a car be set out without a brake, conductors 
 must securely block the wheels. Cutting off engine and 
 cars before a train has stopped and allowing the balance 
 of train to follow, is prohibited. 
 
 No. 834 No one will be allowed to ride on the engine without 
 permission from the Superintendent or Master Mechanic, 
 excepting divisional officers, foremen of bridge and road 
 repairers, on their own sections, or the conductor and 
 brakemen of the train. 
 
 No. 854a All employes, including trainmen, enginemen and 
 switchmen are prohibited from going between cars or 
 
between any car and engine while in motion, for any 
 purpose whatsoever. 
 
 No person will be allowed to ride upon the pilot of a No. 855 
 locomotive, either in the discharge of duty or otherwise. 
 
 Turn-tables must be locked with a switch-lock, by No. 857 
 enginemen and others immediately after use, except when 
 in charge of employes When turn-tables are found un- 
 locked, and when tables or locks are out of order, report 
 at once to the Superintendent by wire. 
 
 The doors of freight cars must be kept closed when No. 862 
 not in use. Train and station employes will enforce this 
 rule. 
 
 Whenever passengers or employes are injured, see that No. 910 
 everything is done to care for them properly, calling the 
 Company's nearest surgeon to treat them, or, if prudent, 
 move to the nearest place at which the Company has a 
 surgeon, and leave them with such surgeon for care and 
 treatment. If the injury he serious, call the nearest com- 
 petent surgeon obtainable to attend until the Company's 
 surgeon arrives. 
 
 Whenever an accident happens to any train on which No. 911 
 passengers are carried, whether collision or derailment, of 
 whatever nature, on main line or siding, or within the yard 
 limits where trains are reconstructed, conductors must 
 take down on Form No. loio the name and address of 
 every passenger on the train, and ascertain from the pas- 
 senger, and note opposite his or her name, what injury, if 
 any, they received. In such cases, conductors, after first 
 making everything safe, must give their undivided atten- 
 tion to the care and comfort of their passengers, especially 
 to those who are injured. Bedding and linen may be taken 
 from the sleepers for this purpose, the conductor keeping 
 a careful account of all material so taken, and its return 
 or safe keeping attended to; and, when deemed necessary, 
 injured persons may be put in the sleepers. When a num- 
 ber of persons are injured the service of competent sur- 
 geons in the vicinity should be at once secured, and every 
 possible effort made to care for the injured, the Company's 
 
 87 
 
surgeon in each direction being notified by wire to come 
 immediately to the place of the accident. 
 
 No. 912 When persons (other than employes) by reason of 
 climbing on or jumping from moving trains, or walking 
 or lying on the track, are injured, they should be sent to 
 their homes or placed in charge of the local city, village or 
 township authorities and no expense incurred on the part 
 of the Company in the matter. 
 
 No. 913 A report of all accidents must be telegraphed immedi- 
 ately to the Superintendent or his assistant by the con- 
 ductor, engineman, agent, yardmaster, foreman or person 
 in charge, by wire, using Form 1004, giving the names of 
 the injured persons and witnesses, the extent of injuries 
 and the names of the owners of the property damgaed and 
 the extent of damage, and as soon as possible a full and 
 detailed report made on Form No. 148 and forwarded to 
 the Superintendent or his assistant, a separate report being 
 made for each person injured. If the person injured is an 
 employe he should also make and sign a statement of facts 
 in relation to the accident in his own handwriting on the 
 same form; should he be unable to write, the statement 
 should be written at his dictation, and after being read 
 over to him, he should sign it by making his mark, the 
 person writing and reading statement signing same as a 
 witness. 
 
 No. 914 Whenever an employe, whether on duty or not, wit- 
 nesses an accident in which a person is injured or property 
 damaged, in which the Company is in any way concerned, 
 he must report it immediately on Form 148. Every effort 
 must be made to procure the name and addresses of all 
 persons, particularly outsiders, who witnessed the accident, 
 especially when persons are injured within the corporate 
 limits of any city, town or village, or when crossing the 
 tracks at a public highway. 
 
 No. 915 When an accident occurs on an engine, or is caused by 
 an engine striking any person, or conveyance, or when cars 
 are being coupled or uncoupled, a full report must be 
 
made by the engineman on Form 148, as well as by the 
 conductor or the person in charge of the train. 
 
 When persons are injured while coupling or uncoupling No. 9l« 
 cars or in getting on or off cars, whether passenger or 
 freight, or in any other way, in* which the accident may 
 have been caused by defective appliances or machinery, 
 the cars or appliances must be immediately examined by 
 the person in charge or by the agent, to ascertain their 
 condition, and report made of the inspection on Form 751, 
 giving the numbers and initials of cars examined and the 
 names of the persons making the inspection. The Superin- 
 tendent or his assistant will then notify the inspector at the 
 first division terminal, who will also examine the ma- 
 chinery, cars or appliances, and make report on same form. 
 When an accident is caused by defective machinery or by 
 the breaking of machinery, tools, appliances or rails, the 
 broken or defective parts must be so marked as to be 
 readily identified and immediately turned over to the 
 Superintendent or his assistant and by him forwarded to 
 the General Claim Agent. 
 
 When an accident occurs which results in the death of No 917 
 any person, the remains of the deceased must be immedi- 
 ately picked up and carefully conveyed to the nearest sta- 
 tion building, care being taken not to remove the body out- 
 side the limits of county and state in which the accident 
 happened. The agent at such station will then notify the 
 Superintendent by wire, as well as the family or friends 
 of the deceased. 
 
 They must permit their hand cars to be used only in No. 1013 
 the service of the company, and no one will be allowed to 
 ride on these cars except employes in the performance of 
 duty, unless provided with a written order from the 
 proper authority. When two or more hand cars are fol- 
 lowing each other they will keep at least 300 feet apart 
 Hand or velocipede cars, belonging to private parties, 
 will not be allowed on the track except by order of the 
 Superintendent. 
 
No. lOU When obliged to run hand and velocipede cars after 
 dark, two red lanterns must be so displayed on the car 
 as to be visible to trains in both directions. 
 
 No 1016 No wood, ties, or property of any description must be 
 piled within six feet of the main or side track, or else- 
 where, in such manner as to obstruct the view of, or 
 from, approaching trains. Old ties, fencing and similar 
 property, also links, pins, drawbars, spikes and all other 
 material and iron work that is found on the section must 
 be picked up at once, piled neatly, or disposed of as 
 directed by the roadmaster. Rails and other material 
 must NOT be left scattered about station grounds. 
 
 No. 1025 ALL EMPLOYES OF MAINTENANCE OR 
 TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT WILL GIVE 
 SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE ABOVE ORDERS. 
 TAKE NO RISKS. REMEMBER THAT IT IS 
 BETTER TO BE DELAYED BY ADOPTING A SAFE 
 COURSE THAN TO HAVE A TRAIN MEET WITH 
 AN ACCIDENT BY NEGLECTING TO TAKE ALL 
 THE PRECAUTIONS POSSIBLE. 
 
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