ot
been sufficient. It certainly has not been enough to prevent two
hundred disasters in ten years. It is the custom in several of the
United States to maintain what is termed a railroad commission. The
original intention seems to have been for these commissions to keep
the railroads under some kind of inspection, and in some way to
assist in settling any questions that might arise between different
companies, and between railroad companies and the public. As far as
we can judge by the results produced, in the States where these
commissions have been established, we can hardly pronounce them of
any very great importance. In many States, it is very certain, that,
in regard to matters of inspection, the work of these boards has been
simply a farce; and it could hardly be otherwise in a State which
pays its commissioners only $1,000 salary, or, worse yet, as in some
cases, only $500. Add to this, that in many cases the appointments
have been purely political ones, and we can see the absurdity of
expecting any results of value. We should hardly suppose that three
men, in many cases entirely unacquainted with mechanical matters,
could by riding over a railroad once or twice a year, occasionally
getting out to examine the paint on the outside of the boards, which
conceal a truss from view, judge very correctly of the elastic limit
of the iron rods which they have never seen, and of which they do
not even know the existence.

For ample proof of the utter inefficiency of the present system, we
have only to compare the reports of the railroad commissioners in
almost any State, with the actual condition of the structures
described. In one State a late annual report covers a whole railroad
with the remark, "All of the bridges on this line are in excellent
order;" and yet there were at that very time, and are now, on that
road, several large wooden bridges with a factor of safety referred
to the breaking-weight of not over _two_ under a fair load, assuming
the iron rods to be of the very best material,--a point upon which
there is no evidence whatever.

There is, in fact, no difference which any ordinary inspection would
detect between these bridges as they stand to-day, and the
Tariffville bridge as it stood the day before it fell. In another
State, an iron bridge is in use under heavy trains, which has a
factor of only 2-1/2 instead of 6, and yet the State report
pronounces it an excellent structure and a credit to the railroa