The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1904-07-01
THE DEATH RATE.
A Thousand Persons Die Livery
Eleven Minutes.
New York Tribune.

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 disaster occurs its
first effect is dazing, and it is not
strange that following the destruc-
ton of the General Slocum express
sions of doubt as to the wisdom Of
God and his direction of human at
fairs should be heard alike from the
irreligious and the unthinking. 1t IS
only in the calmer time of alter
thought that. thapks to the figures OF
the statistician. such an accident, ter
riblc in it's detail and shocking in its
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
Tor the world OF 45,oooooo, a daily
total of 10000, sends into obscurltN
the thousands and or fewer who were
slain on the General Slocun. In the
omniscience of God, whether one as
sumo 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 in
significant. in view OF the fact that
all life is doomed to perish. In the
case of the recent horror nearly
Thousand lives, larger number than
in any similar accident in recent
wears, were lost. For few hours the
wharves and shores along the river
were transformed into morgue. In
"a single day there were more than
two hundred funerals of victims,
while the city was plunged into
mourning and the civilized world
gave expression to its sympathy and
sorrow
Yet. great as was the tragedy at
the moment. its part even in the
death list of the year is only slight.
In the normal existence Of this me-
tropolis as many persons die every
IoS hours from reasons incident to
city life as perished in the holocaust
near North Brother island. That
this number should be equally sig
niicant to the Divine Power must be
granted, and. as death is the COM
monest factor in human life, it can
not be regarded from different
standpoint, whether it occurs in ac-
cident or in ordinary course OF at
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-tive thousand persons,
a Qu1IlOSl Id SCl lHol lii@| va NAN PNF
ulation of Trenton. n. J. Within the
United States graves are annually
dug for more than million collins.
In the fact of this vast harvest OF
mortality. the number slain. on the
General Slocum seems slight. even
to the human intellect, In the death
rate for the year for the state or city
the Slocum horror will hardly make
an appreciable difference. while in
the forty-6ve million dead of the
world each twelve month it is only
"a tiny iten Therefore. to sober
second thought. the unreasoning in
stinct to place upon the power which
the millions regard as omnipoten.-
whether rightly or wrongly does not
enter into the question-any addl-
tional responsibility for SO slight an
increase to humanity's death roll ap-
pears patiently absurd.