Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Transportation Building Dedication Addresses [PAGE 127]

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progress toward Improving it by studying its causes and remedies than by either defending or denouncing it. The cause of a majority of fatalities is universal trespassing on railway property; and everybody must know by this time that the only way to remove their cause is by the passage and enforcement of proper laws. As to the rest of the ad-

oidents, they are due to plant failures, man failures and combinations of these. The class of jplant failures that

recently has been increasing most, and that demands the most study, is derailments. A large majority of derail-

ments is due to a faulty relationship of one kind or another between track and equipment. In numerous cases this faulty

relationship grows out of the fact that the weight of equipment and speed of trains have increased faster in proportion than the strength of track; and on many roads one remedy is to construct and maintain the track to the best modern standards. But a considerable number of the derail-

ments occur on roads having both as good equipment and as good track as money can provide. There is need of profound

and thorough research to find out just what are the proper and safe relations between wheel loads, train speeds and track. The derailment problem is but one of several affect-

ing safety whose solution demands combined laboratory and service research. For example, there is the big question Can any mechanical means be de-

of automatic train control.

vised which under the varied and hard conditions of trunk line railroad Qporation can be implicitly relied on always