Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1904-07-05
THE DEATH RATE.
A Thousand Persons Die Every Eleven
Minutes.


In a catastrophe which suddenly
blots out a thousand lives the civil
lied world finds cause for horror and
sympathy alike. On the community
in which such a disaster occurs its
first effect is dazing; and 1t Is not
strange that following the destruction
of the General Slocum expressions OF
doubts as to the wisdom Of God and
his direction Of human affairs should
be heard alike from the irreligious
and the unthinking. 1t Is only In the
calmer time Of after-thought that,
thanks to the figures Of the statistician.
such an accident, terrible In its de-
tails and shocking in it's nature, sinks
into insignifcance In the death list OF
the day, not merely in the world or
the nation, but even in the state and
city.
The estimated annual death rate for
the world 45,000.000, daily total OF
$4,000, sends into obscurity the thou
sands or fewer who were slain on
the General Slocum. In the omnis-
cience Of God, whether one assumes the
position of the doubter or the cynic,
the death roll Of single accident, even
though it be as great as that OF the
General Slocum, can be only minor
detail, even more insignificant, in view
of the fact that all life Is doomed to
perish. In the case Of the recent hor-
ror nearly a thousand lives, larger
number than in any similar accident
in recent years, were lost. For few
hours the wharves and shore along the
river were transformed into a morgue.
In a single day there were more than
two hundred funerals Of victims,
while the city was plunged into mourn
ing and the civilized world gave ex-
preston to its sympathy and sorrow.
Yet, great as was the tragedy at the
moment, it's part even in the death
list Of the year Is only slight. In the
normal existence Of this metropolis as
many persons die every 1OS hours from
reasons incident to city life as perish
ed in the, holocaust near North Broth
er Island. That this number should
be equally significant to the Divine
Power must be granted, and, as death
is the commonest factor in human life,
it cannot be regarded from a diner-
ent standpoint, whether 1t occurs IN
accident or in ordinary course OF af-
fairs. Within this state $50 die every
day. The tale of deaths in the United
States reaches 1850 daily, figure
three times that Of the victims Of the
General Slocum.
There die annually in Greater New
York seventy five thousand persons,
number larger than that Of the popu-
lation Of Trenton, N. ]. Within the
United States graves are annually dug
for more than a million cofflns. In
the face Of this vast harvest Of NOR
tality, the number slain on the Gen.
eral Slocum seems slight, even to the
human intellect. In the death rate Tor
the year for the state or city the
Slocum horror viii, hardly make an
appreciable difference, while In the
forty-five million dead of the world
each twelve months 1t Is only tiny
item. Therefore. to sober second
thought, the unreasoning instinct to
place upon the power which the mill
ions regard as omnipotent-whether
rightly or wrongly does not enter in
to the question-any additional re-
sponsibility for so slight an increase
to humanity's death roll appears
patently absurd.-New York Tribune.