The New York Herald

Railroad Accidents-Their Prevention.-We have repeatedly called the attention of the legislatures of the various States to the necessity of enacting some law making railroad companies responsible for the lives and limbs of those whom they undertake to convey. At no time during the last five years do we recollect such a number of frightful railroad accidents as have been lately recorded. Their number, their frequency-the cold-blooded indifference with which they are passed over by the companies owning the various roads upon which they occur, and the sad consequences which accrue to the families of those deprived of life or limb-call loudly and imperatively for the adoption of some measures to arrest these terrible and shameful occurrences.

Many days have not elapsed since we were obliged to notice a number of cases of this kind, and again we are called upon to appeal to those having a remedy in their hands, to apply it at once. The latest calamity of the nature to which we refer, is one which occurred on Thursday night last, on the Boston and Salem road, by which six human beings were killed, and many more dangerously, if not mortally, injured. Now, the public should not be any longer humbugged by the stereotyped phrase, " No blame attaches to the conductor." On roads properly constructed and properly regulated, no accidents can occur.

On the night in question, two extra trains ran into each other. This was clearly the consequence of a niggardly spirit of economy. A dollar paid to a man, as night watch, would have prevented the calamity. What can be said of a company that holds six human lives cheaper than a single dollar? If this is not murder, foul and unnatural, we know not what it is. Six human beings hurried to an untimely grave, because the company will not hire a man, for a single dollar, to warn the trains.

What remedy is there for this? We shall state it. Let a law be passed in the several States making carelessness or inattention on the part of conductors felony, punishable by imprisonment for a term of years. In addition to this, let the law exact from the company owning the road a deodand for every life and limb lost, so enormous that it will produce, in the minds of those who will be thus mulcted, a salutary terror. " Corporations have no bodies to be kicked and no souls to be damned," but they are, at least, vulnerable in their pockets. Thus, may railroad accidents be prevented.