Morning journal and courier., 1881-07-16
Saturday Morning. July Is. 1881.
CREMATION.

The doctrine of cremation is not gaining
 many converts in this country just now, but
 In Europe it is making rapid progress In
 Denmark, for instance, it meets with great favor. At recent meeting of the Danish Cremation Society held in Copenhagen, it was shown that it counted over 1,40o mem- bers among whom were eighty-three physi- cians. It was reported that the original op- position of the clergy had to a great extent ceased and a number of clergymen are now members of the society. One of the fore most Danish thinkers, Bishop Monrad, who during the war with Prussia led tie affairs of the nation as Prime Minister, recently de-
 clared himself publicly in favor of law com
 polling the substitution of cremation for bur-
 1al. The society is financially fourishing
 and ample money is on hand for the erection
 of crematory as soon as the necessary gov
 ernment concession be obtained Appli-
 cation has been made, and conference be-
 tween the promoters of the scheme and the
 Minister of Justice is to follow, to fix the
 conditions and restrictions under which the
 system may be introduced The society feels
 strong enough to consider the project of
 ~-~OAAAoA-oAAAAAS CDO upOu Gu6 SuD-
 ject by popular address The press and
 the medical fraternity have taken kindly to
 the new doctrine; and the Danish Medical
 Society, at it's August meeting, is to discuss
 formally the sanitary aspects of the matter
 It is stated that the cheapness of crema-
 tion causes the poorer classes in Copenhagen
 to look on it with much favor. They, like
 the poor everywhere, find it more expensive
 to die than to live, with the present system
 of costly funerals The cremationists have plain and strong argument in the prevail ing costly mode of burying the dead The cost of funerals was recently calculated by pr. Charles w. Purdy of Chicago and his figures are really startling. It appears that one and one-fourth times more money is ex- pended annually in funerals in the Unit ed States than the government expends for pub
 lie school purposes. Funerals cost two and one-haH times more money annually than would buy the grounds and buildings of all the universities and colleges in America. The of money expended on funerals in the United States, if saved for a fraction over four years would equal the total sum dis bursed by our government for pensions dur ing the last twenty years. Funerals cost this country in 1880 enough money to pay the liabilities of all the commercial failures in the 1 United States during the same year, and give each bankrupt capital of $S, 63O with which l to resume business. Funerals cost annually more money than the value of the combined gold and silver yield of the Unit ed States in the year 1880. The population of 1 he Christian world, in round num- oers, is about 400, GOO, 900 people, little l ess than one-third the population of the en- ire earth. At the average cost of burying he dead in the United States, the Christian l world would expend annually for funerals 1 $500, 900, GOO, at a safe estimate Let this | annual expenditure of money be saved, with | ts accrued interest at 6 per cent, for trife ! over twenty years, and 1t would pay of the | combined national debts of the world These | igures do not include the enormous sums in- l vested in burial grounds and expended in f ombs and monuments nor the loss from de- | of property in the vicinity of eem- ,teries
 Of course the fact that cremation is cheap | s not sufficient reason for it's general adop-
 ion, but this taken in connection with it's anitary benefits, strengthens the position of ! ts advocates The practice has so many and 10 great advantages that we look for increase n it's popularity as those advantages become | nore thoroughly and generally understood