Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1912-01-12

to their fellow-men has been agi-
tated for years past Congress at its last
session the point of passing the
sary law thus to give recognition to the lfesav.
and 1t is believed that these faithful servants
of the people will not have to wait much longer
to be accorded their rights-for, be 1t known,
the life-savers only seek such relief from the
conditions of physical disability and old age as is
freely accorded men in military and naval
service.
Nor is it merely that such plan of retirement
and pensions will do justice to the surfmen who
1t is claimed, run greater risks and endure more
hardships for the wages paid them than do the
men in any other branch of the government
service Quite aside from this is the influence
that will be eXerted upon prospective recruits
for the service. Indeed the officials of the Life.
Saving Service assert that with a satisfactory
retirement and pension plan in operation a supe-
ror class of men will be attracted to this voca
ton where so much must needs depend upon
the Individual And, by the way, probably very
few of readers know that the United States
Life-Savng Service is the largest we'll as the
most efficient in the world. Like the fremen
in our cities they duty all the time and
they risk their lives every time they so to a
wreck. But for that matetr, II the surfmen did
no more than discharge the duties of their might
patrol" on the lonely storm-swept beaches they
would have to their credit hazardous and
more arduous work than almost any other class
= In the community.
! The scope OF the relief work OF the American
Lfe-Saving Service is expanding all the while.
During the past year the ife-savers rendered aid
In the case of nearly $500 wrecks and thanks
largely to the aid of these brave and experienced
men only seventy-four out of this large number
proved to be n total loss. Measured in dollars
and cents, the service rendered by these fear
less greater In the wrecks OF
the past year there involved property, In
Guiding vessels aud cargoes. to the total value
of S11 $50 900, and OF this amount the surprising
proportion of $10,057,000 saved. This in It.
self makes the two million dollars a year which
Uncle Sam spends his -Lfe-Saving Service
seem like a pretty good investment and that is
without taking into consideration the lives i'm
periled the shipwrecked vessels. There were
6661 persons board the craft that met dis
aster last year and the total loss of life which
fftyfve. would have been many times that
number but for the afforded by Uncle
Sans heroes OF the beaches.
Former Governor William A. Newell OF New
Jersey is generally recognized as the founder of
the Life-Saving Service and he took the initia
tive the result OF marine disaster which he
happened to witness during the summer Of 1899
when the Australian bark Count Perasto'
wrecked on Long Beach. New Jersey The thir-
teen members OF the crew. all of whom were
drowned. might readily have been saved had
there been at hand apparatus such con.
stitutes the regulation equipment OF the United
States life-saving crews
The need thus pointed out made so forcefu an
impression upon the mind of Mr.. Newell that he
soon after entered upon experiments with bows
and arrows rockets and shortened bunderbuss
as means OF throwing lines to ships stranded in
positions inaccessible by small boats. Eventually
his experiments eliminated In complete success
by the use OF a mortar or carronade with ball and