New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-11-10
4 SOCIETY FOR THE PRESCRIPTION or


Il OUCIEl1 TOh LHb i''''"N>A'' No.
HUMAN LIFE
The latest wholesale murder on the Mis-
sissippi-horrible as it was-has attracted
little attention. Why, indeed, should 1T
Hardly day passes in which we are not
called to the painful duty of recording some
" accident" by which human life has been de-
| stroyed, either slngly or in battalions. The va
| riety is as great as it is mournful-men and
women cut off by fire, by freshet, by railway
collisions. by steamboat explosions by acct
dental poisoning, by bad mining, and some
| times by the ravages of epidemic disease.
! Thus, the great good gained by the compare
| tive infrequeucy of general and protracted
wars has been, to considerable extent, d.
| minished In this matter we do not by any
means, stand at that high point of safety which
| the science and intelligence of the age de-
mands. The means of preservation which are
known to us, aud which have been attained by
long experience and close observation, are left
strangely neglected. There is, it is true,
general feeling that much might be done to
avert these calamities; and that tho heart of
the public is not hardened by their repetition,
is sufficiently proved by the generous alacrlty
with which those who survive AN accident are
relieved by the contributions OF the benevolent.
We sigh aud we subscribe; and then we calmly
await the next call upon our pity and our
purses.
As this is an ago of utilization, in which
everything material, however small It's appa-
rent worth, is pressed mo the service OF man,
the question arises whether we may not effect
much by utilizing also our emotions of pity and
of horror 1t is not by fitful and occasional
charities or by the tears of agitated sensbil-
lies that repetition Of that which we deplore
can bo prevented. 1t is only by specific and
aggregate action looking to the future, that we
can avert additional catastrophes At the best,
the woes of the world will always be numer-
GUS enough for the good SamaIitans who may
! be- vouchsafed to it but when we diminish one
| variety of human misfortune, we release the
| charitable energies Of mankind to take cogni-
zaucc of another While our inirmities OF mind
and of body contnue-and no eye can foresee
| their complete disappeannce-he who wishes
TO relieve his fellow-man will have no diff
Guilty in finding a field of labor. But a Society
| for the Preservation of Human Life, varl-
ous AZ would be the activities, physi-
cal and intellectual, which it demanded.
would be moved by an inherent unity
of purpose. It's Investigations would be
multifarious, but they would all tend to
single point 1t would reduce theories and
! discoveries to practice, and force them by its
resolute determination upon the attention of
society. If theoretically conducted. it would
| be a terror TO carelessness and to criminality,
and 10 man in o position OF responsibility
whose laches had hurled scores of his fellow
creatures to sudden destruction, but would dread
the arrival Of its Investigators, and feel already s
arresting hand upon his shoulder. Courts
would come to respect it; corporations would
| tremble with fear OF q righteous invasion of
| their treasures witnesses would shrink from
smooth and convenient perjuries; coroners
| would know that they were watched, and
become suddenly intelligent; jurors would
remember the Society in their little conclave
| and the officers Of railway trains-brakemen
and signal men. engineers and conductors
would find the senses and the qualities
requisite to their calling suddenly sharpened
or enlarged. The war against accidental
murder would 20 on with vigor. 1t would be
waged upon the broad waters Of the West;
it would strike at THE proprietors of coal-pits,
which are pits of destruction ; it would be felt
by the builders of factories and of other
| pIcucsIlHcu w uV0h anu ~
would bring to sense Of his iniquity every
greedy man who by his obnoxious calling was
filling tho air with stencil or the cemetery with
| freshly made graves.
We have indicated some of the more import
ant operations Of Society such as we propose;
but the reader will perceive that it would find
thousand lesser opportunities of usefulness.
| Many minor cases certainly would, and unim-
aginable cases might arise, calling for its notice
| and its action. IL new laws were needed it
might ask for their enactment-if old ones had
| fallen into disuse it might see to their revival
and vigorous enforcement, And this leads us
| to say that there is no lack in the land of
law. There is upon the Statute Book provision
for almost every crime which we habtually
christcn accident" The only difficulty is that
actually these laws are of somewhat
less value than the dirtiest brown paper
| in the bag of the dirtiest of
chifIoniers. There they stand, for ornament,
not for use, and at once the monuments of our
wisdom and our witlessness They are the
worst Of all human contrivances-sca
which scare nobody! They satisfy the public,
| but they save no bones
Into the details of the organization and opera
tons of Society such as we have indicated,
we do not propose to enter. That is a matter
for after consideration, when the establishment
OF the Society has been determined upon. Per-
baDs parent Society IA each State. with