Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-xq9c7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-15T13:43:30.324Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Another Wreck on the New Haven: Accidents, Risk Perception, and the Stigmatization of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, 1911–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2015

Mark Aldrich
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Modern research demonstrates that there may be wide differences between scientific and popular risk assessments. Popular risk perception is multidimensional; some risks that seem uncontrollable or dreadful are especially abhorrent. Risks are also socially constructed and they may be augmented or attenuated by opinion leaders, advocacy groups, and media treatments. In extreme cases “information cascades” can lead to a self -reinforcing process that amplifies perceived risks resulting in the stigmatization of a technology or a company. We apply these insights to an historical case study of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad during the years 1911 through 1914. During these years the New Haven experienced a burst of train wrecks. Sensational reporting of these accidents, along with increasingly shrill government investigations, coincided with ongoing exposés of the company's questionable financial practices and turned the New Haven into a pariah company, stigmatizing and forcing out its management. Yet statistics available at the time show that the New Haven was no more dangerous than average. The example of the New Haven also encouraged all railroads to introduce safer methods and technologies than they otherwise would have.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , Winter 2015 , pp. 613 - 646
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association, 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

63rd Cong., 2d Sess., SD 543 (1914) New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company, evidence taken Before the Interstate Commerce Commission. Vol. 1. Washington, DC, 922.Google Scholar
63rd Cong., 2d Sess., Subcommittee of House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Bills Relative to Safety on Railroads (1914) Vols. 2 and 5. Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Abrams, Richard M. (1964) Conservatism in a Progressive Era: Massachusetts Politics 1900–1912. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Aldrich, Mark (1997) Safety First. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Aldrich, Mark (2006) Death Rode the Rails. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aldrich, Mark (2007) “Public relations and technology: ‘The standard railroad of the world’ and the crisis in railroad safety 1897–1916.” Pennsylvania History 74 (1): 74–104.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, J. Hampton (1913) “Railway publicity departments.” Railway Age Gazette, July 18.Google Scholar
Bibel, George (2012) Train Wrecks: The Forensics of Train Disasters. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Boston Globe (1910a) “Ten injured. Many have narrow escapes in wreck.” September 3.Google Scholar
Boston Globe (1910b) “Two killed five injured.” October 7.Google Scholar
Boston Globe (1911a) “Dead engineer blamed for wreck.” July 12.Google Scholar
Boston Globe (1911b) “Police believe that rails spread.” August 29.Google Scholar
Boston Globe (1912a) “New England rate inquiry.” May 15.Google Scholar
Boston Globe (1912b) “Board probing Mellen roads.” May 16.Google Scholar
Boston Globe (1912c) “Five dead and 52 injured as result of train wreck in south Boston.” August 9.Google Scholar
Boston Globe (1912d) “Says accident was avoidable.” December 8.Google Scholar
Boston Globe (1913a) “Thirteen wrecks in two years.” June 13.Google Scholar
Boston Globe (1913b) “Elliot to head New Haven road.” July 25.Google Scholar
Boston Globe (1913c) “Identified by her betrothed.” September 3.Google Scholar
Boston Globe (1913d) “New Haven to be made safe.” September 7.Google Scholar
Boston Globe (1913e) “Elliott's call informal.” September 24.Google Scholar
Boston Globe (1914) “Safety first is end sought.” January 26.Google Scholar
Boston Herald (1911) “Two killed by runaway cars.” October 15.Google Scholar
Boston Herald (1912) “Eight killed when Boston Express leaps rails at Saugatuk switch.” October 4.Google Scholar
Boston Herald (1913a) “Five dead and 22 hurt in New Haven wrecks.” June 13.Google Scholar
Boston Herald (1913b) “Mellen aids state in crash.” June 14.Google Scholar
Boston Herald (1913c) “Bill requires all steel cars.” June 16.Google Scholar
Boston Herald (1913d) “Elliott promises fullest publicity.” September 3.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1911a) “Frightful scenes as Federal Express topples over viaduct.” July 12.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1911b) “Railroad held criminally responsible.” July 26.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1912a) “Federal Express again meets hoodoo number.” March 12.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1912b) “Eight injured in train wreck at Nantasket.” July 10.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1912c) “Police probe wreck deaths.” August 9.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1912d) “Wooden cars that come high.” August 9.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1912e) “Put on the steel car.” August 12.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1912f) “Brandeis grills New Haven road.” September 28.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1912g) “50 injured 8 perish in wreck at Westport of Boston Express.” October 4.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1912h) “Mellen defends New Haven policy.” October 24.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1912i) “Steel cars not unmixed blessing, says Mellen.” October 28.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1912j) “Denies condition of tracks was poor.” November 19.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1912k) “A Morgan Rockefeller road.” November 20.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1912l) “The New Haven's accident record has a new total.” December 2.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1912m) “The New England allies.” December 9.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1912n) “Arraign New Haven officials in fixing Westport wreck blame.” December 9.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1912o) “Mellen denies connection with stopping work on Grand Trunk.” December 21.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1912p) “Mellen indicted. To plead in railroad plot, today.” December 24.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1913a) “Manslaughter and monopoly.” January 1.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1913b) “Wrecked car is burned by order.” June 14.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1913c) “Official record of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad.” June 23.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1913d) “Mellen forced to silence by road's counsel.” July 8.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1913e) “”Mellen quits as head of New Haven system.” July 18.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1913f) “Rigid probe of New Haven system is threatened.” July 28.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1913g) “All steel cars save hundreds in train crash.” July 31.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1913h) “New Haven wreck kills 26.” September 3.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1913i) “Crash in the fog.” September 3.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1913j) “Cut off living woman's finger to steal gems.” September 3.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1913k) “Orders wreck evidence to be preserved.” September 3.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1913l) “Men higher up will not escape.” September 4.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1913m) “Death train engineer put under arrest.” September 5.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1913n) “Banjo signal is inferior says Elliott.” September 5.Google Scholar
Boston Journal (1913o) “Morgan is driven out of the New Haven road.” September 6.Google Scholar
Brandeis, Louis (1912) “The sure remedy for the New Haven's unregulated monopoly is to break it up and establish separate rail, water and trolley lines.” Boston Journal, December 13.Google Scholar
Brandeis, Louis (1973) Louis Brandeis to Charles McChord, June 2, 1913, July 18, 1913; October 1, 1913; Brandeis to Hiram Belnap, June 6, 1913; Brandeis to Belnap June 27, 1913; Brandeis to Belnap June 28, 1913, in Urofsky, M. (ed.) Letters of Louis D. Brandeis. Vol. 3. Albany: SUNY Press: 106–86.Google Scholar
Chambers, John (2000) The Tyranny of Change: America in the Progressive Era, 1890–1920, 2nd ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Chernow, Ron (1990) The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press.Google Scholar
Churella, Albert (2013) The Pennsylvania Railroad. Vol. 1. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Diner, Steven (1998) A Very Different Age: Americans of the Progressive Era. New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Dorsey, Leroy (1995) Theodore Roosevelt and corporate America 1901–1909: A reexamination.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 25 (4): 725–39.Google Scholar
Engineering News (1913) “Steel passenger cars and safe railway practice.” September 18.Google Scholar
Ferreira, Celio, et al. (2001) “From vision to catastrophe: A risk event in search of images,” in Flynn, J., Paul Slovic, and Howard Kunreuther (eds.) Risk Media and Stigma. London: Earthscan: 9–30.Google Scholar
Gregory, Robin, et al. (2001) “Technological stigma,” in Flynn, J., Paul Slovic, and Howard Kunreuther (eds.) Risk, Media and Stigma. London: Earthscan: 3–8.Google Scholar
Hearst's Magazine (1913) “Untitled.” August, 314.Google Scholar
Hiebert, Ray (1966) “Ivy Lee: ‘Father of modern public relations.’” Princeton University Library Chronicle 27 (2): 113–20.Google Scholar
Independent (1912) “Mr. Mellen should resign.” December 12.Google Scholar
Independent (1913a) The New Haven Railroad Company.” June 19.Google Scholar
Independent (1913b) “Who is responsible?” September 11.Google Scholar
Interstate Commerce Commission (1903–1913) Accident Bulletin. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Interstate Commerce Commission (1911a) “Rear end collision at Fairfield, Connecticut,” Accident Report, dotlibrary.specialcollection.net/ (accessed October 20, 2015).Google Scholar
Interstate Commerce Commission (1911b) “Derailment at Bridgeport, Connecticut,” Accident Report, dotlibrary.specialcollection.net/ (accessed October 20, 2015).Google Scholar
Interstate Commerce Commission (1911c) “Derailment at Martins Creek, New Jersey,” Accident Report, dotlibrary.specialcollection.net/ (accessed October 20, 2015).Google Scholar
Interstate Commerce Commission (1912a) “Rear end collision at East Corning, New York,” Accident Report, dotlibrary.specialcollection.net (accessed October 20, 2015).Google Scholar
Interstate Commerce Commission (1912b) “Rear end collision at Western Springs, Illinois,” Accident Report, dotlibrary.specialcollection.net/ (accessed October 20, 2015).Google Scholar
Interstate Commerce Commission (1912c) “Derailment at Westport, Connecticut,” Accident Report, dotlibrary.specialcollection.net/ (accessed October 20, 2015).Google Scholar
Interstate Commerce Commission (1912d) “Derailment at Green's Farm, Connecticut,” Accident Report, dotlibrary.specialcollection.net/ (accessed October 20, 2015).Google Scholar
Interstate Commerce Commission (1913a) “Rear collision at Stamford, Connecticut,” Accident Report, dotlibrary.specialcollection.net/ (accessed October 20, 2015).Google Scholar
Interstate Commerce Commission (1913b) “Rear collision at Tyrone, Pennsylvania,” Accident Report, dotlibrary.specialcollection.net/ (accessed October 20, 2015).Google Scholar
Interstate Commerce Commission (1913c) “Rear end collision, North Haven Connecticut,” Accident Report, dotlibrary.specialcollection.net/ (accessed October 20, 2015).Google Scholar
John, Richard (2012) “Robber barons redux: Antimonopoly reconsidered.” Enterprise and Society 13 (1): 1–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kasperson, Roger, et al. (2001) “Stigma and the social amplification of risk: Toward a framework of analysis,” in Flynn, J., Paul Slovic, and Howard Kunreuther (eds.) Risk, Media and Stigma. London: Earthscan: 9–30.Google Scholar
Kuran, Timur, and Sunstein, Cass (1999) “Availability cascades and risk regulation.” Stanford Law Review 51 (4): 683–768.Google Scholar
Life (1911a) “A reckless coroner.” August 17.Google Scholar
Life (1911b) “Blaming it on the engineer.” August 24.Google Scholar
Life (1913a) “Still there.” January 9.Google Scholar
Life (1913b) “Coming.” August 7.Google Scholar
Marchand, Roland (1998) Creating the Corporate Soul. Berkeley: University of California.Google Scholar
Martin, Albro (1971) Enterprise Denied: Origins of the Decline of American Railroads 1897–1917. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Massachusetts Board of Railroad Commissioners (1913) Forty-Fourth Annual Report. Boston: State Printer.Google Scholar
McCraw, Thomas K. (1984) Prophets of Regulation: Charles Francis Adams, Louis D. Brandeis, James M. Landis, Alfred E. Kahn. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Mohun, Arwen (2013) Risk: Negotiating Safety in American Society. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
New Orleans Times Picayune (1912) “Protest meeting against wrecks.” November 21.Google Scholar
New York Sun (1913) “Other New Haven wrecks.” June 13.Google Scholar
New York Times (1911) “The Bridgeport massacre.” July 12.Google Scholar
New York Times (1912a) “Clergy call for protest.” November 18.Google Scholar
New York Times (1912b) “New Haven road scored by public.” November 27.Google Scholar
New York Times (1913a) “Five killed in Boston Express rear-end crash.” June 13.Google Scholar
New York Times (1913b) “Railway pleads wreck epidemic.” June 15.Google Scholar
New York Times (1913c) “Stamford disaster laid to idle rich.” June 16.Google Scholar
New York Times (1913d) “146 Hurt in wreck; saved by steel cars.” July 31.Google Scholar
New York Times (1913e) “Grief stricken besiege terminal.” September 3.Google Scholar
New York Times (1913f) “66 Killed in two years.” September 3.Google Scholar
New York Tribune (1912a) “Three die on shoreline.” July 26.Google Scholar
New York Tribune (1912b) “Three inquiries into wreck on.” October 5.Google Scholar
New York Tribune (1912c) “Businessmen unite in protest against road.” November 20.Google Scholar
New York Tribune (1912d) “Commuters call road a ‘cancer.’” November 27.Google Scholar
New York Tribune (1913a) “Five killed and 17 injured in wreck.” June 16.Google Scholar
New York Tribune (1913b) “No looting says Elliott.” September 7.Google Scholar
New York World (1913a) “The Stamford crime.” June 13.Google Scholar
New York World (1913b) “Appalling New Haven record of wrecks within two years.” June 13.Google Scholar
New York World (1913c) “Untitled.” June 14.Google Scholar
New York World (1913d) “Everybody else's fault.” June 21.Google Scholar
Outlook (1911) “The menace of the cross switch.” July 22.Google Scholar
Outlook (1912) “Railway accidents: Passengers.” November 30.Google Scholar
Outlook (1913a) “Another New York and New Haven horror.” June 28.Google Scholar
Outlook (1913b) “Who is responsible.” September 13.Google Scholar
Pawtucket Times (1911) “Express derailed by train wreckers; one killed 60 injured.” August 28.Google Scholar
Pawtucket Times (1912a) “R. R. officials put all blame on engineer.” October 9.Google Scholar
Pawtucket Times (1912b) “To arrest road officials.” December 10.Google Scholar
Pawtucket Times (1912c) “O'Shaunessy raps N. Haven monopoly.” December 10.Google Scholar
Pawtucket Times (1913a) “Elliott will spend $7,000,000 for safety.” September 9.Google Scholar
Pawtucket Times (1913b) “New Haven officials to appeal to employees.” September 9.Google Scholar
Philadelphia Inquirer (1913) “Untitled.” September 4.Google Scholar
Pidgeon, Nick, et al., eds. (2003) The Social Amplification of Risk. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Puck (1913) “O death where is thy sting?” October 29.Google Scholar
Railway Age Gazette (1911) “Discipline of enginemen.” August 18.Google Scholar
Railway Age Gazette (1912a) “Connecticut commission report on Westport derailment.” November 29.Google Scholar
Railway Age Gazette (1912b) “Crossovers in high speed passenger tracks.” December 6.Google Scholar
Railway Age Gazette (1912c) “The New Haven and New England.” December 20.Google Scholar
Railway Age Gazette (1913a) “Untitled.” June 20.Google Scholar
Railway Age Gazette (1913b) “The Stamford collision.” June 20Google Scholar
Railway Age Gazette (1913c) “The North Haven collision.” September 12.Google Scholar
Railway Age Gazette (1913d) “Some of the stuff the dailies are printing about the wreck.” September 12.Google Scholar
Railway Age Gazette (1913e) “Newspapers' comments on the New Haven.” September 12.Google Scholar
Railway Age Gazette (1913f) “Mr. Elliott's outline of the New Haven plans.” September 12.Google Scholar
Railway Age Gazette (1913g) “Connecticut report on North Haven collision.” October 3.Google Scholar
Railway Age Gazette (1913h) “A revolution to cure a single evil.” October 3.Google Scholar
Railway Age Gazette (1913i) “Steel passenger train car situation.” November 21.Google Scholar
Railway Age Gazette (1914) “Safety first on the New Haven.” January 30.Google Scholar
Railway and Engineering Review (1913) “The steel passenger car and existing passenger equipment.” November 8.Google Scholar
Raucher, Alan (1968) Public Relations and Business, 1900–1929. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Review of Reviews (1911) “Wreck of the Federal Express at Bridgeport.” August.Google Scholar
Rogers, Daniel (1982) “In search of progressivism.” Reviews in American History 10 (4): 113–32.Google Scholar
Russell, Edward Charles (1912) Stories of the Great Railroads. Chicago: Charles Edward Kerr.Google Scholar
Shaw, Robert (1961) Down Brakes: A History of Railroad Accidents, Safety Precautions and Operating Practices. Geneva: P. R. Macmillan.Google Scholar
Shiller, Robert (2005) Irrational Exuberance, 2nd ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Slovic, Paul (1993) “Perceived risk, trust and democracy.” Risk Analysis 13 (6): 675–82.Google Scholar
Slovic, Paul, et al. (1982) “Facts vs. fears: Understanding perceived risks,” in Kahnamen, D. et al. (eds.) Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. New York: Cambridge University Press: 463–89.Google Scholar
Smythe, Ted (2002) “The diffusion of the urban daily, 1850–1900.” Journalism History 28 (2): 73–84.Google Scholar
Smythe, Ted (2003) The Gilded Age Press 1865–1900. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Springfield Republican (1911) “Valley wreck victim.” August 29.Google Scholar
Springfield Republican (1912a) “Railroad hearings at Boston.” July 2.Google Scholar
Springfield Republican (1912b) “Fatal wreck at Stonington.” July 26.Google Scholar
Springfield Republican (1912c) “Something for the Democrats to investigate.” August 25.Google Scholar
Springfield Republican (1912d) “The wreck on the New Haven.” October 5.Google Scholar
Springfield Republican (1912e) “The New Haven's accident record.” November 30.Google Scholar
Springfield Republican (1912f) “The truth.” December 13.Google Scholar
Springfield Republican (1913a) “New Haven officials tried.” April 9.Google Scholar
Springfield Republican (1913b) “146 hurt in train wreck.” July 31.Google Scholar
Springfield Republican (1913c) “A remedy for ‘man failure.’” September 26.Google Scholar
Springfield Union (1911) “Four freights in $250,000 wreck on New Haven road.” June 7.Google Scholar
Springfield Union (1912a) “Commuters call road a ‘cancer.’” November 28.Google Scholar
Springfield Union (1912b) “McChord roasts New Haven.” December 8.Google Scholar
Springfield Union (1913a) “Public inquiry into cause of train disaster.” September 4.Google Scholar
Springfield Union (1913b) “New Haven Railroad's plan of safety.” September 7.Google Scholar
Staples, Henry, and Mason, Alpheus (1947) The Fall of a Railroad Empire. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar
Sunstein, Cass (2002) “Probability neglect: Emotions, worst cases and law.” Yale Law Journal 112 (1): 61–107.Google Scholar
Sunstein, Cass, and Zeckhauser, Richard (2011) “Overreaction to fearsome risks.” Environmental and Resource Economics 48 (3): 435–49.Google Scholar
Swanberg, Jack (1988) New Haven Power, 1838–1968. Medina, OH: A. F. Staufer.Google Scholar
Tedlow, Richard (1969) Keeping the Corporate Image: Public Relations and Business, 1900–1950. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.Google Scholar
Thelen, David (1969) “Social tensions and the origins of Progressivism.” Journal of American History 56 (2): 323–41.Google Scholar
Tversky, Amos, and Kahneman, Daniel (1974) “Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases.” Science 185 (4157): 1124–31.Google Scholar
Tversky, Amos, and Kahneman, Daniel (1986) “Rational choice and the framing of decisions.” Journal of Business 59 (4): S259–78.Google Scholar
Urofsky, Melvin (2009) Brandeis, a Life. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Usselman, Steven W. (1984) “Airbrakes for freight trains: Technological innovation in the American railroad industry, 1869–1900”. Business History Review 58 (1): 30–50.Google Scholar
Usselman, Steven W. (1992): “The lure of technology and the appeal of order: Railroad safety regulation in nineteenth century America.” Business and Economic History 21: 290–99.Google Scholar
Vasterman, Peter, et al. (2005) “The role of the media and media hype in the aftermath of disasters.” Epidemiologic Review 27 (1): 107–14.Google Scholar
Wall Street Journal (1911) “The man and the machine.” July 13.Google Scholar
Wall Street Journal (1912a) “New Haven's wood-car expresses.” October 5.Google Scholar
Wall Street Journal (1912b) “The safety of the passenger.” October 15.Google Scholar
Wall Street Journal (1913a) “A question of responsibility.” June 17.Google Scholar
Wall Street Journal (1913b) “New Haven road's official record of accidents.” June 24.Google Scholar
Wall Street Journal (1913c) “New Haven's exhibit contradicts the critics.” June 28.Google Scholar
Wall Street Journal (1913d) “Wrecks and responsibility.” September 3.Google Scholar
Wall Street Journal (1913e) “Veteran railroader's view of New Haven's troubles.” September 5.Google Scholar
Wall Street Journal (1913f) “A divided responsibility.” September 10.Google Scholar
Washington Post (1911) “12 dead and 48 hurt in rail disaster.” July 12.Google Scholar
Washington Post (1913a) “The New Haven wreck.” September 3.Google Scholar
Washington Post (1913b) “Calls for N.H. inquiry.” September 3.Google Scholar
Weller, John (1969) The New Haven Railroad: Its Rise and Fall. New York: Hastings House.Google Scholar
White, William Allen (1938) A Puritan in Babylon: The Story of Calvin Coolidge. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Wolff, Jonathon (2005) The Ethics of Tolerability and Risk. Great Britain: Rail Safety and Standards Board, www.rssb.co.uk/sitecollectiondocuments/pdf/reports/research/T230b%20Railway%20Safety%20and%20the%20Ethics%20of%20the%20Tolerability%20of%20Risk.pdf (accessed January 24, 2014).Google Scholar