The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-07-07

Again ocean transportation records
are blackened with a disaster that ap-
pals the most hardened heart. Nearly
600 souls sent into eternity almost in
simultaneously Not in the din of bat
tie. Not in the wrack of tempest. Not
because of unavoidable cause; some
"act of God" But because of the
reckless carelessness, the inexcusable
neglect of men to whose trustworthi-
ness those hundreds of persons had
confidingly committed their lives. There
is the pathos of 1t all. OF tempests
they knew and took the chances. Each
embarking passenger knew that hur-
ricane might sweep across the ships
course and the angry waves engulf
them. But each had the right to ex-
pect ordinary prudence on the part of
the ships navigators. To drive a
steamship through q bank fog at the
rate of speed held by the Burgogne was
in defiance of the rules of navigation
and was a heedlessness that was GRIM
inal. 1t is little comfort to those who
mourn the loss of relatives that those
guilty of this crime went down also
to their death.
Another revolving feature. too appar-
ent in the nomenclature of the list of
those saved, was the brutal action of
the crew in securing the appliances
of safety for themselves, leaving their
passengers. to whom they owed the
duty of self-sacrifice If need be, the
first access to means of safety. to their
fate. There must have been the ut
GA y
lost their heads, or it would not have
been possible either for the loss Of life
to have been so great or for the crew
to have forestaAed the passengers in
getting to the boats and RATS. Evil
IDENTIFY there was time enough between
the crash and the sinking to have pro-
vided means of escape for most of the
passengers and crew had effort been di-
rected by cool. collected minds. But
the crime of 1t only adds to it's horror.
"Stealing Will Continue Stealing.
The senate passes the house resolu-
ton annexing the Hawaiian islands to
this country, and thus the new policy
of Imperialism gets it's appetizer. The
appetite will only be whetted by this
morsel, and the war will provide am
pie material for present safety We
do more in this act than throw behind
us the Farewell Address and discard
the Monroe Doctrine from our interna-
tional policy. We violate the very life
principle of government. We force
upon an unwilling people a form Of
government to which they do not give
their assent displacing a form of gov
eminent forced on them by adven-
turers without their consent, and we
do it not only without their assent
but against their formal, written pro-
test
another without his assent, with in
tent to convert it to his own use, the
common law calls it stealing. 1t
loses none of that characteristic when
75,0OO,OO0 people do it. But there never
was crime committed that it did not
have both it's apologists and defenders.
and this one has them now and in
plenty. But neither apologies or de-
lenses alter for an instant the inherent
nature of the act AS Lowell said, when
efforts were being made to stop the
stealing of the products of the brains
of authors, a crime that also had it's
constituencies defenders:
In vain we call old notions fudge,
And bend our conscience to cur dealing
The ten commandments will not bulge
And stealing will continue stealing