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PUBLIC OPINION AND BUSINESS

hands of their critics, but the press and the public do not set forth clearly the true facts. From the total number of employees killed and injured must be deducted the number of casualties due to their own recklessness, carelessness, or willingness to take chances, of which Mr. William J. Cunningham in speaking in February, 1911, before the New England Railroad Club said: “American railway employees are proverbially chance-takers, and are not as amenable to discipline as British railway trainmen, who have a greater respect for authority and instructions. Americans are noted for always being impatient and in a hurry. These national differences in both passenger and employee bear a relation to accidents, indefinite to be sure, but nevertheless important, particularly in the ‘chance-taking’ by employees.”

An analysis of the railroad accidents in the United States for the year ending with June, 1911, shows that out of 356 passengers who were killed, there were only 96 persons killed while riding on trains in accidents for which

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