154 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



A correspondent of the Providence Tribune registered strong 

 protest, as late as April 26, against the nuisance which the New York 

 and New Haven Eailroad Company is maintaining in the Elmwood 

 district of the city. All day long the section is shrouded in a pall of 

 dense, evil-smelling smoke and cinders, vomited forth by locomotives. 

 The chief offenders are the short suburban trains, the expresses and 

 heavy freights not causing half the bother made by the little fellows. 



In and around New York City the aid of the Public Utility Com- 

 mission had to be invoked to abate the nuisances maintained by these 

 two roads in the matter of smoke. The New York Central in January 

 last was ordered, " directed and required to cease and desist from the 

 use of soft coal on any of the engines used by it on its New York and 

 Putnam Division while within the corporate limits of the city and to 

 institute and continue the use of hard coal on its engines." 



The New York, New Haven and Hartford road was " directed and 

 required to cease and desist from suffering or permitting in any 

 manner the emission of black smoke from the stacks of the engines 

 in use on the company's lines" while in the Harlem Eiver Terminal 

 Yard, and moreover it was ordered to cover all soft coal fires in engines 

 with coke and to continually feed and replenish them with coke while 

 the engines are in the yard. 



Here we have the striking spectacle of two railroads being com- 

 pelled by law to do certain things (and doing them, too) at one ter- 

 minus, which they declare at the other end they can not do on the 

 score of economy. At the one end (New York) there is a strong and 

 effective law designed to protect the interests of the public; at the 

 other, there is no such law, for, alas ! the Massachusetts Eailroad Com- 

 mission, admirable though it is in many respects, finds that it is power- 

 less to suppress the smoke nuisance. 



The most striking defense of the railroad smoke nuisance, however, 

 comes from the president of the Erie Eailroad, one Frank D. Under- 

 wood, who is on record in a letter to Monsignor Sheppard, of Jersey 

 City, rector of the Eoman Catholic Church of St. Michael, that 



There is a good deal of nonseiise about coal smoke being injurious. There 

 is no healthier class of people in the world than those employed about soft coal 

 mines, and they are begrimed from head to foot the majority of their lives. 



Permit me to state that men occupying leading positions, such as yours, 

 are expected to allay senseless clamor against corporations instead of adding 

 fuel to it, and it is hoped we may have the influence of your valuable efforts 

 in our direction rather than adversely. Many of the people who gain a liveli- 

 hood through the Erie Railroad I have no doubt are parishioners of yours and 

 you should be able to ascertain from them whether there is more black smoke 

 than is absolutely necessary in the operation of a railroad. 



In conclusion, the Erie Railroad was chartered fifty years ago, and it is 

 identical with other interests in that it pays taxes. Is not something due to it, 

 therefore? And was it not on the ground in advance of most of its complain- 



