When a diversion from the lookout for a few seconds on the part of an engineer, caused by perhaps some imperative duty to be performed on the machinery on the inside of his cab, may cause disaster to his train and death to his passengers, there should be no hesitancy in actively taking up the project and installation of such supplementary appliances as will bring the train to a stop where danger threatens. Wreck prevention is the highest duty of railroads. This obligation is not satisfied by merely making rules which will prove insufficient in operation. If the "human element" repeatedly fails, then safety requires that the highest degree of mechanical skill be applied to properly supplement the human element at the particular point of danger.

Section 6 of the bill relates to the use of steel cars by common carriers engaged in interstate commerce, and makes it unlawful for any common carrier, after the expiration of 10 years from the time the act shall take effect, to use in interstate traffic any express, baggage, or passenger car not constructed of steel or with steel underframe, and also prohibits bringing into use any new mail car not constructed of steel. Further, any new or addittional express cars, baggage cars, or passenger cars brought into use on the lines of any common carriers in interstate commerce must be constructed of steel in accordance with plans approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission. The Interstate Commerce Commission is empowered to extend from time to time the period within which a common carrier may comply with the provisions of the section; and it is also empowered from time to time to permit any common carrier to use mail, express, or baggage cars not constructed of steel wherever the use shall be deemed by

the commission safe and reasonable.

The use of steel cars has been made necessary by the increased speed of trains, and many accidents to trains of wooden cars, going at high speed, meeting with derailment or collision, have been accompanied by very great loss of life. The superiority of the steel car is no longer open to question. It is proven by the reports, in relation to accidents, of the experts of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the reports of the experts connected with State commissions. This superiority is further established by the action of some of the principal roads in voluntarily adopting steel cars in their equipment. It is a fact, too, that the construction of wooden cars for the transportation of passengers has decreased greatly. Since 1911, when the Interstate Commerce Commission approved a bill introduced during the first session of the Sixty-second Congress, it has recommended in each annual report, in strong and unqualified terms, legislation requiring the use of steel cars in interstate commerce. The commission not only has recommended steel passenger cars but it has recommended also the use of express cars, baggage cars and mail cars of steel or with steel underframes. And the legislation proposed by this section, together with the general powers conferred on the Interstate Commerce Commission by other sections of the bill, will assure general use of steel cars in interstate commerce in a proper and reasonable

manner.

It is the purpose of section 7 of the bill to prevent the use on locomotive engines of headlights not affording a minimum illumination, to be determined by the Interstate Commerce Commission after practical tests. And for this purpose the railroad may place at the disposal of the commission locomotives and tracks to be used in making the tests, and the Bureau of Standards of the Department of Commerce is directed to cooperate with the Interstate Commerce H R-63-3-vol 1--12

Commission in connection with the work. This provision is rendered necessary by the fact that in interstate commerce many locomotives draw trains through two or more States, each of which may have different regulations in regard to the illuminating power of headlights on locomotives. In many cases this has been a source of inconvenience and embarrassment and it is easy to see in other cases how it may become a source of danger. The matter is with Congress.

In the case of the Atlantic Coast Line R. R. Co. v. State of Georgia (234 U. S., 280), decided last June by the Supreme Court, the court, after referring to Smith v. Alabama, says:

If there is a conflict in such local regulations, by which interstate commerce may be inconvenienced, if there appears to be need of standardization of safety appliances, and of providing rules of operation which will govern the entire road, irrespective of State boundaries, there is a simple remedy, and it can not be assumed that it will not be readily applied if there be real occasion for it. That remedy does not rest in a denial to the State, in the absence of conflicting Federal action, of its power to protect life and property within its borders, but it does lie in the exercise of the paramount authority of Congress. in its control of interstate commerce, to establish such regulations as in its judgment may be deemed appropriate and sufficient. Congress, when it pleases, may give the rule and make the standard to be observed on the interstate highway.

In the judgment of the committee there is now occasion for the exercise of this power by Congress for the standardization of headlights on locomotives used in interstate commerce.

Sections 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 confer upon the Interstate Commerce Commission jurisdiction of the physical properties of railroads and the operating rules governing the movement of trains. The commission is given authority to investigate on its own motion or complaint the equipment and roadbed and operating rules, and if after hearing it appears that the safety of employees of public carriers require any changes it is given power to issue orders compelling the road or roads to make the necessary changes or improvements. This order is enforceable through the Federal courts.

A study of the accident statistics discloses the fact that in recent years there has been a steady increase in the number of accidents due to derailments caused by defective equipment and defective

roadbed.

The Interstate Commerce Commission at present is intrusted with the duty of investigating railroad accidents, but it has no power to remedy any of the unsafe conditions which its investigations show were responsible for the wrecks. In the opinion of the committee the best possible method of dealing with this phase of the subject is to give the Interstate Commerce Comission, which now has a great deal of information on the subject, which has a corps of men investigating accidents and also a corps of men enforcing the special specific safety acts already enacted by Congress, such as the safety-appliance law, the boiler-inspection law, full jurisdiction over the roadbed and equipment of railroads. Moreover, it is desirable that the same department of the Government which controls the revenue of roads should control its expenditure for safety.

There is urgent need of a standardization of operating rules. The railroads themselves have been trying to bring about a uniformity of the rules governing the movement of trains. The Railway Association, which has been carrying on the work, has no power to compel

the roads to adopt its recommendations. That uniformity can only be secured by the compulsion of Federal legislation.

Section 15 reserves to the States the right to deal with any phase of railroad safety until such time as there shall become operative an order or regulation made by the Interstate Commerce Commission acting under the authority of this act. We believe that the regulation of railroads ought to be largely by the National Government, but this law is not intended to destroy the power of the State until the Federal authority acts, and then only to the extent of the particular order or act of Congress. Under this act as drawn we believe there will grow up a proper and practical line between State regulation and Federal regulation.

This bill embodies practically the recommendations made by the Interstate Commerce Commission in its annual report in 1913 and has the indorsement of the commission.

Both the public and the railroads will benefit by this legislation. Undoubtedly greater safety can be secured only by greater expenditures, but at present the railroads suffer great financial losses from accidents and are subject to a lack of uniformity in State regulation.

ARMY APPROPRIATION BILL.

DECEMBER 29, 1914.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. HAY, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the

following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 20347.]

The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the estimates for the military establishment for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1916, having considered the same, report the accompanying bill with the recommendation that it do pass.

The total estimates submitted are $104,124,511.99. The amount appropriated for the last fiscal year was $101,019,212.50. The accompanying bill carries $101,144,588.23, a reduction of $2,979,923.76 from the estimates.

There is one new item of appropriation in the bill. The sum of $50,000 is appropriated for the manufacture and purchase of armored motor cars.

There is but little legislation in this bill. The legislation proposed pertains entirely to the administration of the appropriation law. On page 3 of the bill is a proviso which reads

Provided further, That the actual and necessary expenses of officers of the Army who, after July first, nineteen hundred and fourteen, have been on duty abroad for the purpose of observing operations of armies of foreign States at war, and of officers who may hereafter be on duty abroad for that purpose, shall be paid out of the appropriation for contingencies of the military information section, General Staff Corps. upon certificates of the Secretary of War that the expenditures were necessary for obtaining military information; and the amount appropriated for such contingencies by an act entitled "An act making appropriations for the support of the Army for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and fifteen," approved April twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred and fourteen, is increased to $26,000.

This is fully e plained by a letter of the Secretary of War dated December 18, 1914:

Hon. JAMES HAY,

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, December 18, 1914.

Chairman Military Committee, House of Representatives. MY DEAR MR. HAY: I desire to call your attention to the attached draft of a bill requesting that, if it meets your approval, its provisions be incorporated in the act making appropriations for the support of the Army for the fiscal year ending June 30,

1916.