The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-06-17
Lessons of Disaster.

Lessons of Disaster.
The awful tragedy on Long Island
sound follows closely the Iroquois
theater burning in Chicago, the dark,
tragical horror of which broods fear
fully over many desolated homes to-.
day.
The burning of the General Slocum
was, in some measure, as piteously
tragical as the Chicago theater horror,
for there was only the choice between
death by burning or by drowning and
entombment in the treacherous swirl
of He'll Gate waters. The little chill
dren, and babies with their nursing
mothers suffered most. A joyful
throng Of excursionists with song and
shout, they left the New York dock,
only a little later to be wrapped in
dire flame and flood, in wild and
heart breaking discord Of despairing
shrieks and walls.
The scene suggests with terri
bic force that life is, indeed,
from almost any intelligent stand
point, a terrible tragedy, presenting
new phases of activity every day. The
pathway to the marriage altar pres
emily becomes the way of the priest,
intoning the office for the burial Of
the dead, with broken accompani-
ment of mourners' sobs. And yet these
tragedies of human life work in large
measure for the better security Of that
life.
Since pathologists began the in
telligent study of the diseases which
desolate the race, there has been
marked change in the powers of dis
eases that once swept the world and
many Of them have been practically
extinguished under the progress of
medicine and of it's specially, bac-
teriology. The old sweating sickness
that once ravaged England, disappear
ed in the middle of the sixteenth CEN
fury. It's first cousin, the Asiatic
cholera, has been fought successfully
by pathological intelligence and sani-
tary science, while smallpox has been
overwhelmed by science, SO that if it
| exists epidemically anywhere, it does
so thru the criminal carelessness of
sanitary authorities.
It may be said of the utilization by
men of the powers of nature, which
have been. harnessed and put in the
traces for the service of men, that
every disaster coming thru them by
the careless or ignorant manipulation
of man, has led to deeper scrutiny Of
conditions and practical improvements
which have minimized the danger and
decreased the so-called accidents"
A great steamboat disaster is COM
paratively rare at the present time.
In the earlier days of steamboating in
the west, for half a century after An
drew Roosevelt steamed the New Or
leans" the first boat on the Ohio and
Mississippi, from Pittsburg to New Or
leans and back, imperfect boiler, con-
struction and other faults made
vicious explosions a common incident
The great Chicago fire, started in a
district Of combustible wooden build
ings by the upsetting of Mrs. O'Leary's
Kerosene lamp by a restless COW, led
to the transformation of the wooden
| town into a well-built modern city of
brick and stone and iron, with a SUI
pSAAoA IA Z oCpcI I1ilCllI. lie great lire
| in London, in the sixteenth century,
burned out the plague bacteria and
gave the people a chance at life
| We still have railway 'accidents,"
| but we would have more if it were
not for the safety inventions in train
| signaling, equipment, etc., required by
law. The General Slocum,'' like
| other steamboats, that carry excur-
sions in and out of New York is under
! the strict laws of the state governing
the loading of such steamers. She
was apparently not overcrowded, but
it is possible she was run too far after
| taking fire, to beach her on North
Brother island, the draft thus gener-
ated simply increasing the rapid de-
struction of the vessel with its human
freight. The captain and pilots are
under arrest, and the facts will come,
out under rigid inquiry. Somebody
is responsible, of course, as was the
case in Chicago when the Iroquois
theater was burned. In that case
nobody has been found guilty enough
to punish him severely. Shall the vic
Tins of the General Slocum tragedy,
entombed in fire and water, remain
without the attachment Of heavy re-
sponsibility upon somebody?