The Tucumcari news and Tucumcari times. [volume] (Tucumcari, N.M.) 1907-1921, 1910-11-26

CIV hians etlh noid II up us u hOrrlblc
bug.a.boo and AN argument against the
service.
OF course accidents will happen ne.
cassionally. hut consider this; There are
nearly SIXTY thousand officers and men
IN the Navy, and several hundred ships
in commission NJ one time. Now suppos
ing on an average twenty-five men are
killed in one year in the service (and
| I'm sure II will not average that Gov.
ering a period of say ten years.. tell me
Of one little ordinary American city Of
sixty thousand, and especially n mining
or manufacturing town that Won I av.
erage, covering the same period. many
more deaths than that in one year. Or
even take "a large tract of farming coun
try that embraces sixty thousand people,
and where the possibility Of death by
accident is reduced To "a minimum. and
figure what the death or injury rate is
even there, where Isl Perkins breaks
his neck falling from the hay loft. ED
Jones lets a bull tamper with his An.
atomy, or the "Smith's - kid tumbles
into the well.
The trouble is. that when an accident
happens on one of our men.of.war. IL
Immediately assumes an international
aspect. The papers get ont extras about
il; foreign rulers cable their condolen.
ces; people going home at night on the
subway talk of II; the postmaster and
~Sqredurk. oklahoma. discuss ~: rail.
road men on passing trains yell il 20 one
another; and collectively and in l,id.
ually they all abuse the Navy. the Gov.
eminent and every other old thing. Vi
'h;s jossiLly vhcn not more than four
or five " cie killed. and a like number IN.
iurcd. for seldom indeed woul .hc,.
he me- u all that lumber in ia, ~
entity of even the Iip.c't gun VIII N he.
ing hrcd.
But supposing there is some sort Of an
accident al the soap factory, steel works
or mines out AT the edge of yours or
some near town in which a dozen men
lose their lives; or a tenement house
burns down and several are crushed be.
meath its walls; or II railroad train runs
into the ditch just before reaching your
city. Does that become an information.
al AFFAIR." DO the papers In New York,
two thousand miles away get out ex.
tras about it, DO foreign rulers cable
you and tell you how shocked they are,
Is IT even heard of more than "a hun.
dred or 80 miles away except in possibly
a few lines on the inside page next to
the beauty hints!" Honestly now,
do you Yourself throw up your hands
in horror and cxclaim chow horrible "l
Be honest, you know YOU don I. Hubby
may remark over his coffee that a wo.
man was killed by Il JOY wagon on the
corner Of Main and Fourth last night
or a man on the west side was killed
bS thugs, or "A half dozen were caught
IN q cave-ln ~ the mine yesterday. And
you will say "Oh isn Z that too bad,
Wont YOU have some Of the toast.
deari' and that il all there j. 20 IL.
You see YOU expect those accident. 10
happen every 20 often, and you don =
stop 10 consider what they amour, 40
70 IN 4 year time. A. an illustration. .
In the Kansas City journal Of IA, sur
day, November GOTH. on the Dr., page
OF the first section, il a whole column
telling Of the explosion Of a great gun
Saturday AT the Naval Proving ground
AZ Indian Head, at which four men were
killed. one Of them being o naval %
eer. II you saw IL, YOU no d0ub, made
some remark abOu il 10 0ikers. Vow
IN the same section of that papef are
accounts from different parts ~ the
country, Of sixteen other death. satur
day by accident. These latter accounts
varied 10 space from part Of q column
down to a few lines, hut did you read
and remark on them 10 the same extent
that YOU did on the Indian Head aeei
denti II isn't likely. This is simply
10 Illustrate that, because a Navy acei
deht usually gets more space in the pa
pers you nneonsciously in your own mind
eorrespondingly enlarge il, and you
have a sort of feeling that these Navy
accidents are happening very frequent.
~ while they are not. II certainly is
a fact that, while in the Navy men are
liv'ng continually around powder and
explosives of a dozen kinds, handling
them day after day like you would
throw around sacks Of grain; while
there Is a whiting list continually OF