758 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



rest here. Prior to its advent, wise men were predicting the dis- 

 appearance of the waterways, since, however economical, they 

 might not be made economical of that costliest of all commodities 

 of " time " ! Just as the inland canal was about to die of superan- 

 nuation, the trolley has come to its relief. To apply to the canal a 

 circuited instead of a simple overhead wire is a trifling matter, and 

 along it the canal-boat pole ends will yet trundle, until the lazy 

 barges will perhaps rival in bustle the trolley car on land. It may,^ 

 I think, be confidently expected that, as one resultant of the super- 

 sedure of the invisible agency of electricity applied to transporta- 

 tion, considerable and important changes in the law of employed 

 and employer and of negligence will almost immediately become 

 necessary and will attract the attention of the higher courts. Just 

 as the introduction of steam caused important modifications of the 

 rigid and often cruel rules that the employee accepted the risk of 

 his employment, while the employer was quit of responsibility for 

 the negligence (as to each other) of employees ; by the corollary 

 that employers must act in touch with scientific improvement, and 

 provide the best and safest implement of service to date : so the 

 utilization of electricity will doubtless add the further qualifica- 

 tion that employers must exercise due care in the selection of em- 

 ployees, familiar as nearly as possible with the laws of this new, 

 constant, and invisible force. And it is equally probable that 

 there will be considerable modulation in the assessment of what 

 is or what is not contributory negligence, inasmuch as the peril 

 of casualty by electric operation is and must be for a long time 

 to come peril from an unseen source. Perhaps we shall see a 

 revival of the old legal doctrine of overruling necessity or un- 

 avoidable accident (" act of God,^' as the old lawyers called it), 

 the benefit of which of late years has been refused absolutely to 

 the railway companies. In actions against railway companies for 

 the last quarter of a century it has been permitted to the imme- 

 diate beneficiaries of an enterprise of a quasi public nature to 

 amerce a corporation merely because, through an inevitable acci- 

 dent, a few persons were killed, when many millions were carried 

 with safety, speed, and comfort, thus imposing ujDon innocent 

 corporations burdensome restrictions and conditions which ham- 

 per the exercise of their independent judgment and sound discre- 

 tion in matters which virtually affect the public welfare as well 

 as industrial and commercial progress. And it certainly is to the 

 credit of these corporations that such procedure has not induced 

 them to lower rather than to advance either their charges or their 

 efforts in behalf of absolute safety. Whether casual operation of 

 some electric principle or corollary as yet undiscovered the change 

 in charging power of a plant by reason of some atmospheric con- 

 dition, some rise or fall of the barometer or of the thermometer 



