Life — July 27, 1911 — page 10: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Blame It on the Engineer" This page features a poem titled "Blame It on the Engineer" responding to a train accident. The illustration shows a derailed locomotive with casualties, depicting the immediate aftermath of a crash. The poem's narrative frames the engineer as responsible for the disaster—he's "killed" and "that makes the explanation clear." It presents a "trusted servant, tried and skilled" who will be blamed for the tragedy. The verses suggest this blame-assignment is convenient: authorities blame the dead engineer rather than investigating systemic failures or corporate responsibility. The poem's final lines imply the truth may eventually emerge through legal proceedings ("the Court of Last Appeal"), hinting that initial blame-shifting may not represent the actual cause. The satire critiques how disasters are handled by scapegoating individual workers rather than addressing deeper institutional problems.