Today I feel optimistic about America’s
future. I feel this way when I see that
historically the country has done what it was important to do. This applies to regulations regarding
economic matters—such as the regulation of railroads. It always relates to social matters such as
civil rights.
In the late 1800’s the railroads found it
cost-effective to sacrifice employees rather than invest in safe
equipment: The following is from The Scientific American; June 6,
1896; page 359. Those who yearn for a
free market unfettered by regulation have a short memory and a rosy, romantic
view of corporate responsibility in the face of lower cost.
Compulsory
Introduction of Coupling Devices.
Sixteen thousand railroad employees were killed in the discharge of
their duties in the seven years from 1888 to 1894. The awful record of the killed and injured
seems incredible. During those seven
years the exact figures are 16,257 killed and 172,180 crippled, maimed and
injured. Few battles in history show so
ghastly a fatality.
This
slaughter of American workmen is about ended, says the Evening Telegram. A national law, the expression of the Congress
of the United States, has called a halt to the heartlessness or heedlessness of
railroad companies, and it has been decreed that an army of men shall no longer
be offered up as an annual sacrifice to corporate greed.
I am optimistic for even though the railroad
industry had a powerful lobby and raised all sorts of fuss regarding free
enterprise and dire threats to capitalism, in the end compassion won the day.
Also today the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial
was dedicated in Washington DC. It is
very significant who a society chooses to honor. Dr. King who fought lovingly for social and
economic justice has a memorial on the National Mall not far from the Lincoln
Memorial. This means to me that America is
guided by conscience. Lags in the social
conscience are really understandable and quite natural stages in the process of
human perception. Issues seen as properly
framed in American values by transformative leaders and the pace of events will
eventually win out in the end. America
has never finally cast its fate with the forces of darkness and I believe
never will.
