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Show Ktll.ltOAK DIKI IOKS lMlfTi:i Sonic people accustomed to taking a superficial or perverted view of all things, ridicule the arrest and indictment indict-ment of a board of railroad directors in New York for a recent accident in a tunnel by which a number of people were killed or maimed. We can see absolutely nothing wrong or ridiculous, ridicu-lous, but considerable good in tho proceeding pro-ceeding which is but the response of outraged justice to a strong and indignant indig-nant popular clamor. K.iilroad accidents in this country are of common occurence, more common perhaps than in nil the other countries of thu world combined. There may be some reason for this in tiie large area covered and to a limited etent also to the greater speed attained, but defective defec-tive equipment and gross carelessness are the main causes therefor. It happens nowhere else but in this country that bridges cm e in or trains collide, hurling annually an army of innocent people into eternity, without anybody doing punished for it. "No one to blame" is Iho stereotype verdict of the average coroner's jury in the wholesale 'luas-aeru. Well, the people are tiring of this tragic comedy. They Udlieve, ami justly so, that somebody imilst be i ('sponsible for rotten bridges, soil ties, cheap tracks, or a drunken crew, and they naturally seie upon the managingdivectors. It was Ilf. Bit-I.ek Bit-I.ek who once said tho only way to avoid railroad accidents was to strap a greedy director to each cowcatcher. The New Yorkers iu the caso in view may be totally innocent of any connection, connec-tion, direct or indirect, with the deadly tunnel accident last month, but it may prove a wholesome lesson to them and others in tho future thr.t they will he held to a stricter accountability, and that the proverbial verdict, "no one to blame," will no longer hold good. |