oint all _employees_
for whose acts he is responsible, and to dismiss any one, when, in
his judgment, the interests of the company demand it.

Fast travelling is one of the most dangerous as well as one of the
most expensive luxuries connected with the railroad system. Few
companies in America have any idea what their express-trains cost
them. Indeed, the proper means of obtaining quick transport are not
at all understood. It is not by forcing the train at an excessively
high speed, but by reducing the number of stops. A train running
four hundred miles, and stopping once in fifty minutes,--each stop,
including coming to rest and starting, being five minutes,--to pass
over the whole distance in eight hours, must run fifty-five miles
per hour; stopping once in twenty minutes, sixty-three miles per hour;
and stopping once in ten minutes, eighty-six miles per hour.

The proportions in which the working expenses are distributed under
the several heads are nearly as follows:--

Management 7
Road-repairs 16
Locomotives 35
Cars 38
Sundries 4
____
In all 100

And the percentage of increase due to fast travelling, to be applied
to the several items of expense, with the resulting increase in
total expense, this:--

Management 7 increased by 0 per cent. is 0.0
Road-repairs 16 do. 27 do. 4.3
Locomotives 35 do. 30 do. 10.5
Cars 38 do. 10 do. 3.8
Sundries 4 do. 0 do. 0.0
____ ____
100 And the whole increase 18.6

The causes of accident beyond the control of passengers are,--

Collision by opposition,
Collision by overtaking,
Derailment by switches misplaced,
Derailment by obstacles on the track,
Breakage of machinery,
Failure of bridges,
Fire,
Explosion.

Those causes which are aggravated by fast travelling are the first,
second, fifth, and sixth. The effects of all are worse at high than
at low velocities.

The proportion of accidents due to each of these causes, taken at
random from one hundred cases on English roads, (American reports do
not detail such information with accuracy,) were,--

Collision 56 56
Breakage of machinery 18 18
Failure of road