The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1912-04-26
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

| ilddC hGSOldAC Lives SdCIIilCeO III NhC
icy waters. Other lives ruined-I, 600
| human souls sent to the bottoml oh, the
| pity OF it! And the crime of it, For ii is
a crime to send ship to sea unprepared
| for emergencies.
We are all beginning to discover that
now. We have been hunting for luxury
on the ocean. We have been interested
III the latest steamship fad. And to lux
ury and TO fads the steamship companies
have been catering
We have demanded speed and have
goated over records" But our eyes
have been closed to the woeful lack of
llleboats. We have been content with
antiquated laws intended for ships of an
earlier period. 1t has been nobody's
business, apparently, to take up the ques-
ton OF safety appliances.
No one need fear to go to sea today.
Just now the ocean is about as safe
place as could possible be found the
world over. OH the caution that will be
taken-ior a while There will be no
more iceberg encounters Steamships
viii take a route for enough to the south
to escape the slightest danger from ice.
But we soon forget! Unless there shall
be international agreement the ocean
greyhounds will gradually creep back
into dangerous lanes. Just as long as
speed is made an object short routes
will be sought.
We cannot undo the crime that has
been committed against civilization, but
we can provide for the future. Interna-
uonal agreements can accomplish much.
Marine architects and designers can do
much more And above all, the law
must step in
Let it never be said in the future that
we have not at least taken every precau-
ton which the inventive genius of man is
capable of producing philadelphia In
quirer
1t is painful thought that some must
die that Others may be saved and many
suffer that succeeding generation may
benefit. But that is the law of this inn
perfect world, slowly struggling towards
distant goals of a moral and material bet
terment. Progress can seldom be accom-
pllshed without the martvs whose suffer
lngs stir the public indignation and set at
work the influences which compel anoth-
er forward movement 1t is for the liv-
ing always, as Lincoln said at Gettys-
burg, to take increased devotion to the
cause Tor which the dead have given the
iuli measure of devotion. The heroes OF
the Titanic will not have died in vain il
by their service the perils of the sea are
henceiorth materially lessened and the
recklessness with which those perils have
been faced becomes a discreditable mem
ory.-New York Tribune.
Such disasters as that of the TitaniC
can be prevented Immediately by the en-
aCtmcnt of the bill now pending in Con
greSS, which provides for bettering thu
condition of seamen, increasing thei
efficiency and applying this law to foreig
seamen while in American harbors. Th'
only addition required as an amendmer
requiring every passenger vessel to hav1
sufficient lifeboats to take care of ever
passenger and all the members of it
crew. and providing that there shall be a
least two skilled seamen to every life
boat.
The sooner such a bill is passed tn
sooner the possibility of another Titan
disaster will be removed Delay is daI
gerous. Steamers are now leaving POI
as poorly equipped as the Titanic was.
Washington Post.
Guilt for the dead captains huge sa
riflce to Atlantic speed madness must
shared with him by the men who gay
HIM orders to be read between the line
And when it comes to the last analys
the lawmakers of the nations and Il
maritime governments themselves cam
b exonerated of all blame There is
cognition Of this responsibility both in
interrogations which are hurled fro
eVerv side IN the House OF Commons
the President of the English Board
Trade; in the demand OF leaders in
I United States House of Representatiy
for immediate action on ife,preservi
measures which ought to have been |;
long ago, and in the uneXampled spe
shown by the commoly dilatory Unit
States Senate in search for the fad
upon which to base summary legslatlc
New York Press.
The ships musicians. who stood
their duty and their instruments playi
Nearer, NV God, to Thee" did tn
share and filled their place in the roll
record of heroism o. that night big W
fate and death. For them and for tho
who heard alike in that supreme n
ment, faith and trust in the Divine awol
as il always does when many men tog e
er face the unknown Doubts come
llte's common and ordinary path; I
when general peril faces men, they
stinctively turn TO the support OF the
seen.
Men and women live unconscious Il
beneath them and about them are 1
everlasting arms, that life itself day
day brings nearer the unseen and II
each man and woman has more of IA
and trust. calm and courage than III
know. When the hour OF extreme dang
strikes, some note akin to Nearer
God, to Thee, sounds in all lives that
the end meet duty like men. n.-Phiad
phia Record.
In times Of great disaster those pecu
arly involved are apt to imagine tha
publication OF the truth can be delayed
softeued some good will result but no d
has ever been able TO tell what il mis-
be. In small. as in large affairs, news
pers encounter this idea, and il do
more than anything else to subject the
to the charge OF iuaccuracy.
In the various inquiries that will pr
emily he made there should be Diet
mined effort to expose all those who,
any reason, had part in the suppressi
and falsillcation of the news from the
taniC. 1t is a minor thing, in comparis
with some Others that must be look
into, but il IS a scandal nevertheless
St, Louis Republic.
New Church Bell Blessed.
In the presence of large gatheriI