Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/233

Rh earn these, or either of these, they must first of all be left in peace, and not at their peril to lawfully do all lawful business which comes to them.

A second ramification of this question of conflicting Federal and State laws may seem at first far-fetched, but on examination it will, I think, be found to be very intricately connected with the public interest. In the President's last message to Congress his Excellency says:

"I have twice before urgently called the attention of Congress to the necessity of legislation for the protection of the lives of railroad employés, but nothing has yet been done. During the year ending June 30, 1890, 369 brakemen were killed and 7,841 maimed while engaged in coupling cars. The total number of railroad employés killed during the year was 2,451, and the number injured, 22,390. This is a cruel and largely a needless sacrifice. The Government is spending nearly one million dollars annually to save the lives of shipwrecked seamen; every steam-vessel is rigidly inspected and required to adopt the most approved safety appliances. All this is good; but how shall we excuse the lack of interest and effort in behalf of this army of brave young men, who, in our land commerce, are being sacrificed every year by the continued use of antiquated and dangerous appliances? A law requiring of every railroad engaged in interstate commerce the equipment each year of a given per cent of its freight-cars with automatic couplers and air-brakes would compel an agreement between the roads as to the kind of brakes and couplers to be used, and would very soon and very greatly reduce the present fearful death-rate among railroad employés."

It seems to me that this passage brings us exactly to the question before us, for, while the President's recommendation is on the side of humanity, it is possible to see how considerable inequality and injustice might result from a carrying out of the suggestion. Even humanitarian laws are not always laws for the greatest good of the greatest number. For example, it might be asked, Why interstate railways only? (of course, in a message to Congress only interstate railways could be mentioned, as under its jurisdiction, though this is only true in a measure and not, as I take it, necessarily so)—and, if interstate railways only, how if State laws should also provide for the use of an automatic coupler, and supposing a State law should decree the use of one kind and the Federal law decree the use of another? Before the railway company could ask for a reconciliation of the two decrees, or even in good faith endeavor to provide an equivalent, how many litigants might arise to sue for a penalty under one law or the other, or how many railway accidents be added to the fatality list? And let it not be forgotten that, strange as it may appear, the