The Glenwood post., 1912-01-13

tated for some years past. Congress at its last
session the point of passing the neces-
sary law thus to give recognition to the life-sav-
and it is believed that these faithful servants
of the people will not have to wait much longer
to be accorded their rights-for be it known
the life-savers only seek such relief from the
conditions of physical disability old age as is
freely accorded men in military and naval
service
Nor is 1t 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
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 satisfactory
retirement and pension plan In operation supe.
rior class of men will be attracted to this voca.
tion where much must needs depend upon
the individual And, by the way, probably very
few Of readers know that the United States
Life-Saving Service is the largest well 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 go to a
wreck But. for that matetr, II the surfmen did
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
Life-Saving Service is expanding all the while
During the past year the III eSaVers rendered aid
in the of nearly 150O wrecks and thanks
largely to the aid Of these brave and experienced
men only seventyfour out of this large number
proved to be total loss Measured in dollars
and cents, the service rendered by these fear
less greater. III the wrecks OF
the past year there involved property. in
cluding vessels and cargoes. the total value
Of S11,ssOOo0, and Of this amount the surprising
proportion of $10057 900 saved This in It.
self makes the two million dollars a wear which
Uncle Sam spends his Lfe-Saving Service
seem like pretty good investment and that is
without taking into consideration the lives i'm
pered the shipwrecked vessels. There were
1861 persons board the craft that met die
aster last year and the total loss of life which
ffty-ive would have been many times that
number but for the succor afforded by Uncle
Sans heroes of the beaches.
Former Governor William A. Newell of New
Jersey is generally recognized the founder of
the LifeSaving Service and he took the initia
tive the result of marine disaster which he
happened to witness during the summer Of 1889
when the Australian bark Count Perasto' was
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 as now con-
stitutes the regulation equipment of the United
States life-savng crews.
The need thus pointed out made 80 forcefu an
impression upon the mind of Mr.. Newell that he
soon after entered upon experiments with bows
and arrows rockets and shortened blunderbuss
- q means of throwing lines to ships stranded in
positions Inaccessible by small boats. Eventually
his experiments eliminated in complete success
~ the use Of . mortar or carronads with ball and