The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1912-01-12

tated for some years past Congress at its last
session the point of passing the
sary law thus to give recognition to the life-sav-
and it is believed that these faithful servants
of the people will not have to wait much longer
now to be accorded their rights-for be it known.
the lifesavers only seek such relief from the
conditions of physical disability and old age as is
freely accorded men in military and naval
service. fe-.
Nor is it merely that such a plan of retirement
and pensions will do justice to the surfmen who.
1T is claimed, run greater risks and endure more
hardships for the wages paid them than do the
men 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 satisfactory
retirement and pension plan in operation a slpe-
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 we'll the
most efficient in the world. Like the fremen
in our cities, they duty all the time and
they risk their lives every time they go to a
wreck. But, for that matetr if the surfmen did
more than discharge the duties of their might
patrol on the lonely storm-swept 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
Lne-Savlng Service IS expanding all the while.
During the past year the life-savers rendered aid
in the case 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 a total loss. Measured in dollars
and cents, the service rendered by these fear
less even greater. In the wrecks of
the past year there was involved property, in
Guiding vessels and cargoes, to the total value
of 81 5000, and of this amount the surprising
proportion of 600 saved. This in it
self makes the two million dollars a year which
Uncle Sam spends on his Life-Saving Service
seem like pretty good investment and that is
without taking into consideration the lives i'm
pered on the shipwrecked vessels There were
6,661 persons on board the craft that met dis
aster last year and the total loss of life which
fifty-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 as the founder of
the Life-Savlng Service and he took the initia-
tive 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 were
crowned 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 so forceful an.
impression upon the mind of Mr.. Newell that he
soon after entered upon experiments with bows
and arrows, rockets and shortened blunderbuss
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