Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-07-16
ONE THOUSAND DEAD
This Happens About Every Eleven
Minutes by the Clock.

In a catastrophe which suddenly
biots out nearly a thousand lives the
! civilized. world finds cause for horror
and sympathy alike. On the conn.,
| munity in which such a disaster occurs
| it's first effect is dazing. and it is not
| strange that following the destruction
| of the General Slocum expressions OF
| doubt 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 calm
er time of afterthought that, thanks to
| the figures of the statistician, such an
accident. terrible in it's detail and
| shocking in it's nature. sinks into in
significance in the death list of the day.
| not merely in the world or the nation.
but even in the State and the city.
The estimated annual death rate for
| the world Of 45,000000. a daily total OF
| $4,000, sends into obscurity the thou
sand or fewer who were slain on the
General Slocum. In the omniscience OF
God, whether one assume the position
of the doubter or the cynic, the death
roll of a single accident. even though
| it be as great as that Of the General
q
even more insignificant in view of the
| fact that all life Is doomed to perish.
| In the case of this recent horror nearly
a thousand lives. larger number than
| in any similar accident in recent years.
were lost. For few hours the
wharves and shores along the river
| were transformed into morgue. In a
| single day there We're more than two
| hundred funerals Of victims. while the
city was plunged into mourning and
| the civilized world gave expression to
it's 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 10S hours from
reasons incident to city life as persisted
| in the holocaust near North Brother
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 different
standpoint, whether 1t occurs in acct
dent or in ordinary course Of affairs.
Within this state 800 die every day.
Inc tale OF OPdtnS Ill lIlc OIhtSu STATES
reaches 1850 daily. a figure three times
that of the victims Of the General
SlOcum.
There die annually in greater New
York seventy-five thousand persons, a
number larger than that Of the popu-
lation of Trenton. N. J. Within the
United States graves are annually dug
for more than million collins. In the
face OF the vast harvest Of mortality.
the number slain on the General
S,ocum seems slight, even to the hu-
man intellect. In the death rate Of the
wear for the State or city the Slocum
| horror will hardly make an appreciate
difference, while In the forty-f1ve mil
lion dead Of the world each twelve
| months 1t is only tiny item. There
fore. to sober second thought. the I'M
reasoning instinct to place upon the
power which the millions regard as
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. rightly or wrong
" does not enter into the question
any additional responsibility for 30
slight an increase to humanity's death
roll appears patiently absurd.-New
York Tribune.