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Show HOW THE CITIZENS MAY HELP THE RAILWAYS IN WAR TIME An address before the school students stu-dents of Milford, October 4, 1917, by Howard Elliott, Inspector of Transportation, Salt Lake Route; member of the California Bar. Patriotism is something more than a state of mind. A man who loves his country but does nothing to help it in time of need is only a shade better than the traitor who gives aid and comfort to the enemy. Outside of the processes employed in loading and firing guns, no single agency is as necessary in - winning wars as transportation. Marshal Joffre said the battle of the Marne was won by the railways of France. Helping our railways, therefore, in their task of manufacturing sufficient transportation transpor-tation to care for war necessities which have been superimposed upon a greatly increased normal traffic can properly be termed fighting in the second line trenches, though those trenches be far removed from the noise of battle. It is of paramount importance that man power in this country, and this includes woman and child power, be conserved to the greatest possible extent. Each of us must do his bit, and we need every bit. There are two serious drains noon man.nower in the United States today with which the railways are intimately concerned, the loss, of life by trespassing tres-passing on railway tracks and by failing to stop, look and listen at railway crossings. No Passengers Killed The Salt Lake Route is a safe road to ride upon. In the last ten years no passengers have been killed in train accidents. . It is a very unsafe road to walk upon. In the same period per-iod one hundred and fifty trespassers have been killed. Unsafe For Trespassers When the railway is used for the purpose intended, it is a good place to be. Get killed in a railway accident acci-dent and your accident insurance is automatically .doubled, which proves that you are twice as safe on a train as you are anywhere else. But when the public uses the railway for any other purpose, they do so at their peril. Young people, please make it your business to at once acquaint your fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, school teachers, editors and ministers with the following facts: A Timely Warning Five thousand trespassers are killed in the United States each year. A- minority (about 40 per cent) are hoboes; many are respected citizens; a goodly number are school students. stu-dents. Using the track as a short cut home or to work often proves a short cut to the grave. Were these five thousand killed in one accident, the public would rise as one man to stop it. Occurring, as they do, one by one, the public is lamentably indifferent. in-different. Anti-Trespass Law What is needed is an anti-tres-passing law in every state, and public pub-lic opinion to give it backing. More lives could be saved by the enforcement of such laws than by installing block signals, providing steel cars, or abolishing grade crossings, cross-ings, which, if required at one time, would bankrupt every railway In America. The anti-trespassing law will cost nothing and will afford immediate im-mediate relief, leaving the other remedies to be provided as the needs I of the communities and the financial ability of rthe interested parties may determine. One life is as precious as another. Why throw all the safeguards safe-guards around the passenger and none around the trespasser? The way to protect the passenger is' to transport him 'safely; the trespasser, to keep him from becoming one. Warn, therefore, all who walk on' railway tracks that they are in great danger. To arouse the public to a realization of the truth in regard to railway trespassing", I ask you to publish these facts and urge upon all that they read and heed. Fool Auto Speeders If auto drivers were as careful as street car drivers, collisions between automobiles and trains would -be as rare as those between trains and street cars. Before a street car crosses a steam line at a grade, one member of the crew goes forward, looks both ways and listens; if the way be clear, he gives the "come-ahead" "come-ahead" signal;., if not, the car must not proceed until danger is past. Suggest this to the auto driver, and he smiles. Unnecessary, a waste of time, and tqo much bother, are some of his excuses. Yet this simple precaution pre-caution would eliminate the perils of grade crossings. If the "stop, look and listen" rule is a good one for the street car, it is a better one for the automobile. To the street car motorman, his passengers passen-gers are so many "persons." Per- haps he can call none of them by name. If one should die, he would not shed a tear. Yet he protects his charges with extraordinary care. The law compels it ,the rules of his company require it, and common sense dictates it. To the automobile driver, his passengers are usuaUy his kith and kin. If one of them should die, his heart would bleed. Yet he races across railway tracks, looking neither to right nor to left, as careful care-ful observation shows a vast majority major-ity of them do and then brands as unreasonable and unnecessary for his adoption those precautions which street car companies take to protect the lives of thoseln whom they have only a passing interest. Do I hear some one say, it is a question of damages? Let me ask you, how much will you take for your brother, your sister, your father, or your mother? It is a fairly common practice for automobiles to race with trains to see which one can get over the crossing first. I hereby raise my hand and voice in solemn protest against this Benselees practice. Not only does it give the engine men nervous prostration, but in a contest between a steam train and a gasoline car, the advantage is all with the locomotive. lo-comotive. Don't do it. "There was a man who fancied that by driving good and fast. He'd get his car across the track before be-fore the train came past; He'd miss the engine by an inch and make the train hands sore. There was a man who fancied that there isn't any more." Doing Double Duty "Make two blades of. grass grow where one grew before." is the motto of every railroad in the country. One engine must do the work of two; every car must do double duty both as to the load it carries and the trips it makes; every officer and employe must be on his toes determined to do (Continued on last page) HOW CITIZENS CAN HELP THE RAILWAYS IN WAR TIME (Continued from first page) more and better work than he has ever done before. What Citizens May Do Here are some things citizens of Milford can do to help the railways in these war times: Load cars to capacity and ten per cent above. Buy in carload quantities quanti-ties and encourage your customers and neighbors to do likewise. Load and unload cars the day they, are spotted, if possible. Do not allow demurrage to accrue. The railways do not want the demurrage, even though it were twenty-five dollars a day. Purchase upper berths. In addition addi-tion to helping the railways to "make one sleeper do the work of two, the cost of the upper is twenty per cent less than the lower, the ventilation is. better, the springs are better, there is more privacy, and the occupant occu-pant of the upper does not have his toes tramped on by others passing in the aisle, nor is he disturbed in other ways'. In making freight or express shipments, ship-ments, pack them as though they were destined for a foreign port; mark them as though the name and address were to be read by a one-eyed one-eyed man in candle light. Show the street and -number, as well as the town address of the consignee, and if there are two towns of the same name in that state, show the county. Erase all old marks. A shipment can not talk, and if it bears two marks, some one will have to guess which is right. Often the guess is wrong. " , Keep Away From Ice House Tell your brothers and sisters to keep away from the ice house.. It is dangerous to be picking up ice on the ground while cars are being iced on' top. Large cakes are continually falling to the ground. Some one will get killed unless the practice is stopped, and the special agent of the railway has exhausted his efforts to break up the practice. Being killed in battle is a noble thing. I should be proud to have on my tombstone: "He died for liberty." But how ; would you like to have written over your grave: "He gave his life for a cake of ice"? Stay away from the railroad unless you have business there. In that case, we shall be glad to see you and give you a dollar's worth of service for every dollar we take in over the counter. Bear With Inconvenience , Please, accept in a spirit of patriotic patri-otic resignation the things the railway rail-way must do which are inconvenient to its patrons, such as reducing the portions and increasing slightly the prices on dining cars. We have done but little of that so far, but it may be that some reductions in portions will follow, and we want you to understand under-stand the reason for it; the cost of all foodstuffs is advancing, and Mr. Hoover asks us to be as economical as we can. If any dining car in the United States makes money, I have yet to hear of it. U. S. Railroads Best in W orld The railway is in the business of moving persons and property from place to place; that is all it is chartered chart-ered to do; that is all it wants to do. Its business is conducted just like any other business, so far as it can be. Railroading differs from the ordinary or-dinary business in that its receipts are determined by the regulating bodies which tell it what rates it can charge; its expenses are governed by Congress and by the brotherhoods, who decide what wages it shall pay. The railways of the United States are the marvel of the age, in that their capitalization and rates per mile are the lowest in the world, and their wages the very highest. Citizens and R. R. Should Co-operate If you have regarded the railway 'as a soulless corporation, without the human touch or viewpoint, as a distinct dis-tinct something which is hard to get at, and which exists for the purpose of exacting tribute from the people along its lines, I ask you to disabuse your minds of that fallacy. The people peo-ple who conduct the railroad are the railroad. Mr. Searle, Mr. Lichty, Mr. Van Housen, and I, and the other officers and employes whom you know, are the Salt Lake Route in a very real sense. We want you to feel that the citizens along our line are partners in the undertaking, that our interests and your interests are one and inseparable, now and forever. As a partner you are invited to take an active interest in our affairs, to submit suggestions for the improvement improve-ment of the service, to ask questions about things you do not understand; and we, as the other partner, will pledge our heartiest cooperation to the end that our mutual interests will be satisfactorily served and our present friendly relations more closely close-ly cultivated,, so that together we may do an effective work in building up the country through which we run, and in bringing this righteous war to a successful and glorious end. |