The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-04-24
WEDNESDAY. April. -. 1919.
TO PAY TRIBUTE: TO the IL
T'.iNlC DEAD.

I.A.NIN Di-ND.
The Times rommelds the action
OF the mayor of the city in paving Il
tribute TO those who persisted in the.
awful calamity when the Titanic
went To the bottom of tn" At1nti"
with sixteen hundred souls. 'The
enormity of the disaster has appalled,
the whole world and We are Just be-
ginning to get the facts and condi-
tions OF those two hours of agony and
death uncovered.
There have been other calamitics
in which tho loss of life exceeded
that OF the titanic. The death loss
in the San Francisco earthquake and
fire was more than three times that
on the Titanic. Twenty times as
many men were killed at the 'h!oody
angle" in one of the battles before
Richmond in twenty minutes as
persisted when the grea, ship went
down.
1t is not the loss of life so much
that has made the Titanic wreck
what 1t is in tho public mind as the
helplessness OF the victims. their her
oism and courage. as we'll as the
needlessness Of the sacrifice. Much
has beer written and said in condem-
nation OF the policy which placed life
against speed. Those who are eve
remotely responsible for the conse-
o,ences have been boiled in the oil
of public censure and condemnation.
And il Is we'll. 1t will force others
to pause before taking a similar risk.
But these are not the things which
the mayor suggests should be COM
mcmorated.
When those who are brought face
to face with death and have an equal
chance to fight for life, the contest
is not so unequal. But when certain
death faces IA large number and
there are means OF reasonably GER
.ain life for II part but no, for all, it
takes stcrner stuff to give way to
another than is required to fight in
an equal chance FIR life eve against
certain death. There is no installing
il, now tllat those whu We're left on
,lln Titanic when the ltfeboats left
knew they were doomed. They re-
allied that with the vessel sinking as
she was it was only a question of time
till all would perish. Under such
conditions II brave heart and a noble
soul are necessary to keep the in
stincts of manhood in mastery over
the desire to live. That is what every
man who persisted in order that wom-
en- and children might be saved did.
And the world has never seen q BRAY.
er band of noblemen perish.
Unless the soul can look from the
misty shore on the further side of
a. lz-l-. &c .,~,,;. ,r,l j.,,a,- ,,,l
understand the actions and motives
and purposes of mortality, those
whose bodies lie in the embrace Of
the ocean can not know. nor at best
can they profit. by the tribute We pay
them when the flags in the city fly
ut half mast for them. But by this
act can we proclaim to the living that
men who rise above the sordid sell
iishness of the material world and
have measured eve above the stand
ard set by the Galilean. His rule of
human love was expressed in these
words: Greater love hath no man
than this. hat a man lay down his
life for his friends" There We're
scores Of me- OF the Titanic who
lay down their lives. not for their
friends, but for those who were total
strangers. How easy it would have
been for the stronger to have crowd
cd the weaker and helpless from tho
lifeboats and saved themselves. Yet
only the cringing crowds tried it. and
some of them met the fate they de-
served at the hands of heroes. It
is the deeds of those who have prov
ell thai in this sordld, selfish age men
can measure up to the highest stand
ard of humanity. that We commem-
crate. 1t is their deeds we honor.
They went to untimely but not I'M
honored deaths. The parting from
loved ones must have wrung agony
from the souls of those victims tina.
we who look on from the position
we do can not realize. They met death
in all its horrors and they met IL
bravely. For many of them. there
will be no last tokens of respect from
those who loved them.
"But the white foam Of waves shall
their winding sheet be,
And winds in the midnight of winter
their dirge."
1t would indeed be a silent tribute
to those honored dead. for every mar
to stand uncovered if for but n mo.
mcnt at the stroke Of twelve tomor-
row while the first solemn toll Of the
church bells sound the knell of those
who lie in the embrace of the ocean