Some one has said that the builders' art consisted in making the structure proclaim the purpose for which designed, and to my mind there is nothing which quite so dramatically fulfils this as the modern steam locomotive. How many of you have seen a huge Pacific locomotive, drawing a train of 600 tons at a speed of 70 miles an hour, yet under control of one man, just the same as Stephenson's "Rocket," which could have been lifted off its track and set on the ground by four strong men, and which was a world-wonder when for a short distance it attained a speed of twenty miles an hour? We know that our engineman with a Pacific locomotive and the high-speed train can stop his train with the air brake in a definite distance. These comparisons, briefly as might be, between, we will say, the beginnings of the nineteenth and of the twentieth centuries, show how the commercial growth and increase of trade have produced a demand for transportation to be performed, and with the performance an economic revolution. We have, in a general way, though with far less than the thoroughness of which the subject is worthy, outlined what might be called the "state of the art," of railroad plant and operation, in a relative sense. Progress of a pronounced character has occurred. That this progress has been accomplished by increased safety is demonstrated by common knowledge and confirmed by the records, both of the railroads and the public authorities. As an illustration, take the statistics of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The increased safety of railroad operation is indicated in part by the following figures: For the decade following the beginning of the records, namely, 1888 to 1897, the fatalities were 1 in 45,300,000; for the next decade, bringing it down to the present time, the fatalities were 1 in 54,900,000; the gain in ratio being, for the nation at large, fully 20 per cent. Looking at the conditions in the State of New York, where the density of travel is considerably in excess of that of the country as a whole, we find a report of the State Engineer in the year 1862 showing ratio of fatalities of 1 in 28,200,000; the average for six years, 1902 to 1907, inclusive, shows 1 in 200,000,000; an increase in relative safety of 800 per cent.