DISCUSSION ON ELECTRIC TRACTION. 85 



Sugar Kefinery, Pittsburgh Plate G-lass Company's, Trenton 

 Iron Works, and many other mills and factories. 



As to the safety of the overhead wire system in regard to 

 freedom from accident or danger to human life, it is very 

 satisfactory to have reliable and independent testimony apart 

 from experts or officials connected with manufacturing com- 

 panies. The Boston Daily Advertiser, the well-known Con- 

 servative journal of a Conservative city, addressed letters to 

 the Mayors of the various cities in which the overhead system 

 of electric tramways was in use. The questions submitted 

 were : — 1st. What system of electric cars is in use in your 

 city? 2nd. Whether any persons have been seriously 

 inj ured or killed ? 3rd. Whether any apprehension is felt 

 among your people as to safety on account of this electric 

 system ? 4th. Whether, as a result of its introduction, the 

 street car service is improved ? 5th. Whether popular feel- 

 ing is in favour of the overhead wires, or hostile to it ? In 

 reply 69 answers were received from as many cities, which 

 were published in the Advertiser, appearing on the 26th 

 August, 1890. In regard to the third, fourth, and fifth 

 questions the consensus of public opinion is exceedingly 

 favourable ; and on the point of danger raised by the second 

 question the Advertiser, in summing up, says : — " We find 

 that of the 69 cities reports of accidents are confined to 15. 

 Of these only 8 resulted in serious or fatal injuries to human 

 beings, the others being the killing of horses by falling wires. 

 Of the human beings killed, in all but two cases the accident 

 was due to other causes than the electric wires, and in both 

 cases where the wires apparently brought death they were by 

 electric light wires. We have not heard of a single death 

 from the trolly wire." It must be admitted this independent 

 testimony is very satisfactory. 



Nashville, Tennessee, claims to have the largest electric 

 railway system in the States, excepting the city of Boston. 

 And I will conclude this short sketch with an extract from 

 the Mayor of Nashville's letter in reply to the questions sub- 

 mitted by the Boston Daily Advertiser : — " No person has been 

 injured by the system. Three horses have, however, been 

 killed, caused by rusted telephone wires falling across the 

 trolly wire and conveying the current from the trolly wire to 

 the ground. In one instance when one of these accidents 

 occurred a Negro woman, in attempting to pass, grabbed" — 

 [Excuse the expression ; it is not mine, but the worthy 

 Mayor's.] — "the telephone wire, and was thrown to the 

 ground. She naturally did right smart ' high kicking/ but 

 she immediately arose, much frightened, but in nowise 

 injured. From this it seems that while the trolly wire 



