Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1904-06-17

a6ssSEaH
MORE TERRIBLE THAN WAR.
The recent disaster in New York
harbor wherein upwards of 1000 lives,
mostly women and children, were lost,
is a greater calamity than the loss in
any battle that history records. In
war 1t is expected that life will be
sacrificed but in the ordinary pursuits
OF peace and pleasure such calamities
as the 1roquois theatre fire and the
New York excursion steamship horror
are beyond comprehension. In speak
ing of this matter the st. Paul Dis
patch says: " 49,
Until We have learned to take our
pleasures suspiciously we will be the
prey to such awful disasters as that
which occurred in He'll Gate yesterday.
No, doubt somebody was responsible
for that horror, no doubt somebody
had Numbered when those Thousand
excursionists rode on that firesteamer
Into the Jaws of death, into the gate
OF hell. In any modern government
where licenses are granted to carriers.
where inspection Of public carriers
has been systematized, where the
ability to fulfil contract is a matter
Tor the executives before and the
courts after disaster, 1t is possible to
fix the responsibility to some degree.
And yet it Is not possible to perfectly
safeguard the people under any press
OF circumstances; it is not possible to
foreten or to forestall accidents, even
those which, after they have occurred,
seem to have been invited.
The death of more than a thousand
excursionists on the steamer Gen. Slo-
cum Is the most awful havoc which
fire has ever made against pleasure In
all the continents, through all the GEN.
turtles OF the world. There has never
been a horror to equal it in extent, in
terrible quality. An Iroquois fire, a
Windsor fire, were bagatelles to this,
and they were fearful beyond the en-
durance Of man. Since the Moloch
days OF the Civil War there has not
been a battle fought that, can rival
this f1ame-wrapped horror. We have
4 learned to regard a battle as terrible,
as inhumanly extravaganza of human
. Hfe, il five hundred are killed, But
in yesterdays battle, in this civil
strife OF pleasure against a criminal
hazard, five hundred are dead and
five hundred among the missing.
Worse than the utmost possible horror
of war, the majority of these must
have been children, probably four out
of five were babies and young boys
and girls, seven hundred young lives
fared out-because some one had
Numbered.
To fix the blame will be nothing. be-
cause it never can be absolutely fixed,
because the blame after all rests with
this horribly avaricious thing called
civilization, which encourages dense
living, encourages dense crowding In
the taking of pleasures. To lose q
thousand lives in a fire is one OF the
risks OF civilization. When 1t comes
to a city area, burning over miles of
city spacing, the thing is horrib1e-al-
though it has never occurred as such
"a holacaust-but it appears as a
natural risk. But it does not seem
that thousand lives should be risked,
where only a thin deck of timber separ-
ates Them from those primitive enc
J. mics OF fire and water, unless the pre-
cautions taken are SO perfect that
error leans to the side of safety. So
long as the people take their pleasures
In crowds OF thousands, SO long must
police surveillance interfere with those
pleasures, limiting them to palpable
safety. The Gen. Slocum, with its
broad decks, was an invitation to fire,
even though the management Of the
boat be found not responsible for the
overturned pot OF grease, while the
insufficient and rotten Mfe-preservers
IS q crime which mnst be shared equal
Az By the management, which must
have known, and the inspection, which
should have been known. The IRE
viii have IT'D uses a Developing pre-
caution, but We cannot afford 10 have
~ nerves d the nation undergo any
further similar straans. SomethlnS