Bismarck daily tribune., 1912-04-20
SATURDAY; APRIL 20, 1912
= = + + + 80 e = + : = = =
+ SECOND ANNUAL NORTH DA. =
+ kOTA INDUSTRIAL EXP0SI. :
= TION, BISMARCK. OCTOBER :
+ TO 13, 1912.
q = I: ): = 4: = = :. = = : : = =
A NEEDLESS LOSS OF LIFE

New York Evening Post: The dis
aster to the Titanic became the more
stunning this morning because OF
Yesterdays false reports of the safe
ty of ship and passengers. Even the
late evening news that the vessel
was sinking seemed trifling beside lAe
fact that all hands were safe. To-
days revelations are literally stag
gering. Rarely has an ocean tragedy
so appalled, the imagination, perhaps
not since the loss of the Birkenhead
have men been compelled to bid fare
we'll to wives and children and then
they await for hours, owing to the
absence of sufficient life boats, an
onrushing fate from which there was
no escape. The act that the ship was
of the latest type, advertised as "ab-
solutely unsinkable," the largest craft
ever built, proceeding on her very
first voyage, only adds to the tragedy
to the whole, to which the fitful, mis-
leading flashes out of the sea of the
wireless give the final touch. Again
a terrible lesson has been taught
mankind that its victory over the
forces and mysteries of nature is in.
complete.
For the moment, however, it is up.
on a less farreaching though fatal
lesson of the hour that public atten-
ton ought to be fastened. Those
1,4O0 lives were unnecessarily flung
away because the White Star lines,
yike the other steamship companies,
has persistently refused, with the con-
nivance of the steamboat authorities
in this country, to carry sufficient life
boats and RATS to accommodate those
whose passage money they took, to
say nothing of the crews they en-
p1oyed. The sea was smooth enough
of Cape Race to get every boat away
from the Titanic and to transfer the
women and children, after perhaps
eight hours spent in the boats, to
the Carpathia. The sole reason taat
every life was not saved was simply
because the owners of the Titanic
were permitted to send her to sea
with only few more life-boats than
were carried by the ocean liners of
twenty-five and thirty years ago. This,
the largest of these modern leviath-
ans of the sea, is said to have carried
but tWenty-six boats. Yet the law on
this subject is perfectly clear. 1t
reads as follows:
Revised Statutes of the United
States, Sec. 44SS-Every steamer navi
eating the ocean or any lake, bay or
sound of the United States, shall be
provided with such numbers of life.
boats, floats, RATS, life preservers,
line carrying projecties and the
means of propelling them, as will
best secure the safety Of all persons
on board such vessel in case of dis
aSter.
Lest anyone be mislead into believ-
ing that this applies only to ships un-
der the American flag, we hasten to
add that under section 4400, it is
specifically stated that "all foreign
private steam vessels, carrying pas.
sengers from any port of the United
States to any other place or country,
shall be subject to the provisions OF
Section. 80. .forty-four hundred and
Lightweight"
For years past, ever since the Slo.
cum disaster, the Evening Post has
been urging the enforcement of this
law to its letter. We are familiar
with the opposing arguments on be.
half of the steamships. If a ship
were to go down, she would probably
sink like the Elbe, before more than
one or two boats could be properly
launched; in a very high sea no small
boat could live; not sufficient boats
could be carried on the davits in
any event; moreover, the strength
Of the modern ship, the use of the
wireless ,all made for the safety of
the new vessels, ETC., etc. Not one
~ fhoSo orvu,nontc pnos IN tho noint