The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1912-04-28
THE TIT ANIC TRAGEDY
By FRANCES coURTENAY BAYLOR

| degrees. III sea where tho waves
| Were chasing each other ovor tho ship
Ike herd OF mountains. what chance
! would they have? Eight days off the
Straits OF Magellan. with every sail
gone except miZZen storm sail and
me wind blowing from nifty to eighty
creaked and shivercd and sroaned In
every timber" says <ne naval officer.
think OF launching boats loaded With
Gomen and children In suoh q sea-"
! boats for safety.
The Question of Crew.
The locomotive engineer who pointed
out That ships ought TO be run more as
Trains are was certainly right. 1t Is
iniotlc TO engage about 400 musicians,
walters, cooks. stewards. bootblacks and
stewardesses for a boat, and only a
handful OF sailors to handle a huge,
uhwieldy, enormously costly ship,
irelShted with precious lives. 1t would
be piece OF good luck TO take such
one from port to port over summer
seas quite safely. But in u great panic
TO see how IL works. No picked and
drilled crews for each boat. but just
lot OF passengers picked up and
thrown into the boats. and desperate
women rowing theIn to safety, or per-
haDs one or two other male passen-
gers. 1T IL really incredible. or would
! use is n boat which has no food. no
water. and is not manned by expert
enced seamen? 1t makes ono. ache TO
around that chip. with some OF the
| boats only half-tlled. Why, one OF
our hre companies could have saved
more people than the crew of the T'-
tanic. Their discipline would have
been invaluable. Here, then, we have
incompetent managers, owners ana
seamen running by night. full speed,
among iceberGs. as II by day In GOOD
weather and midatlantic. 1t was Grim
NAL carelessness. infatuation, stupid
lty. You cant stop big steamer un-
der a mile and half. ! haye heard.
me Cunard Line has well-disci pinned
seamen. looks carefully TO the safety
OF It's passengers, has never lost II
snip; running prudently at night.
sounding constantly and taking TIN.
temperature when likely to encounter
Ice; taking all the ordinary precau-
lions under ordinary circumstances
and extraordinary ones, when pcrils
are TO be encountered
The Wireless issue.
Two operators al least for the wire
Tess VIII certainly be insisted upon
Tor the future by all concerned. They
are certainly more important than 200
waters WHO OF us does not heartily
thank God for wireless telesraphy-a
Thing unheard of even five years ago?
n one operator on our coast had not
gone TO FED, worn out, very likely by
his work ard its trying tension. all of
the THAMES passengers would most
likely have been saved. II the other
doing go they would all have persisted!
Next TO the captain he is the most
Important person on board. And IN
our highly inventive and clever nation
cannot some one be found 10 invent a
wireless alarm clock that small ships
and schooners could easily AFFORD TO
buy, that would arouse sleeping peo-
pic efrcctunlly? 1t sounds quite prac-
NJ
wonderful scientific achievement.
The shnrpcst PnnE.
Mrs. Straus is set as q sweet memory
In the libro d'oro OF Israel. Many
others there must have been among
bright examples OF wifely devotion
true women, like the poor soul who
thrust her baby into a boat and did
the years to come surely the women OF
henrt. who We're simply obedisntly and
submissiveiy thrust into the lifdooats
by their men, hoping and expecting
that they. too. would be saved. viii
know the sharpest pang of all. feeling
the price paid for their safety For
century i,l, 10 come the effects of that
dreds OF homes and lives In a dozen
countries.
The Men.
From the unsung, though not I'M
wept. stokers in the hold and the mu
".S'hiiS NHO pidS GU be fTotun us
that has touched millions of hearts. to
the men better known-none could be
better worth knowing-how David un-
derstcod things when he wrote Thou
hast made us little lower than the
angels" I'm the image of God made
He them" says Holy Writ Great trials
bring forth great deeds-every mans,
every womans share of God-the an
swer OF the secret depths of our ma
ture to It's holy Creator. II is some
thing to belong to our race, our re-
what those poor souls felt who were
left on the ship when the last boat
had gone Every tie with home and
life and love and earth was then sev-
cred. There remained only Help OF
the Helpless" 1T is one of Gods ten
derest, most beautiful titles. They
did not die alone.
In Gods Hands.
And what Christian burial. sy7npa-
thy, compassion they have had! \ Hood
OF loving sympathy, greater spiritual
ly than the Atlantic Is physically, has
poured out over them. Thousands of
services have commended them to God
by the mouth of His priests with the
heartfelt responses OF His people Cap
tain Rostron's first reqGiem and
showed the Christian commander, as
did his courage, wisdom and foresight.
As for the survivors. God help them;
God comfort them. No one else can.
May the God of the widow and the
fatherless" have those sorrowful wo.
men and those dear little children,
who do not even know their names. in
His holy Keeping.