Rocky Ford enterprise., 1912-01-12


tated for some years past. Congress at its last
session was on the point of passing the neces-
sary law thus to give recognition to the fe-sav-
and II 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 is
freely accorded men in our military and naval
service.
Nor is 1t merely that such plan OF retirement
and pensions will do Justice to the surfmen who.
II 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 a satisfactory
retirement and pension plan in operation supe-
rior class of men will be attracted to this voca-
ton where much must needs depend upon
the Individual And. by the way probably very
few of our readers know that the United States
Life-Saving Service is the largest as well as the
most efficient in the world. Like the iremen
In cities. they on duty all the time and
they risk their lives every time they go to
wreck. But, for that matetr. II the surfmen did
no more than discharge the duties Of their might
patrol" the lonely stormswept beaches they
would have to their credit more 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 life-savers rendered aid
in the Of nearly 1900 wrecks and thanks
largely to the aid of these brave and experienced
men only seventy-four out OF this large number
proved to be total loss Measured in dollars
and cents, the service rendered by these fear
less men greater. In the wrecks of
the past year there involved property. In
cluding vessels and cargoes. to the total value
of $11 $4,000, and of this amount the surprising
proportion of $10,057 900 was saved This in IT.
self makes the two million dollars year which
Uncle Sam spends his LifeSaving Service
seem like pretty good investment and that is
without taking into consideration the lives i'm
perled on the shipwrecked vessels There
666l persons on board the craft that met dis
aster last year and the total loss OF life. which
was ffty-five 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 Life-Saving Service and he took the intia
tive as the result of marine disaster which he
happened to witness during the summer of 1899
when the Australian bark Count Perasto'' was
wrecked on Long Beach, New Jersey. The thir
teen members of the crew. all of whom
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-saving crews.
The need thus pointed out made forceful
Impression upon the mind OF Mr. Newell that he
soon after entered upon experiments with bows
and arrows rockets and shortened blunderbuss
ms a 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