The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1912-05-10
RANDOM CLIPPINGS

Lesson Of The Titanic Disaster
A tragedy So terrible and which
night have been ayerted, naturally
ais cut bitter denunciatione against
the business mea whose management;
responsible. That all such de-
lunciations, even the bittcrest, are
excuSable in so far as they afford
relief TO overweight sorrow or an
ger or horror, no one with a spark
of the human in him would deny.
That they are useful in so far as
they tend to make ocean travel
safer in the future, few would wish
to dispute. But to all who have eyes
to see or ears to hear. this Titanic"
disaster viii carry deeper lesson
than the necessity for safety APP
planes at sea; il will arouse higher
emotions than anger at any person
or class.
The inexcueable destruction o.
those fifteen hundred lives was moi
all from greed Though greed mag
have played a part along with many
another Impulse, it could not have
been only on the surface. Greed
does not run deep. This was proved
by the truest OF tests at the climax
of the tragedy The democratic inn
pulse--most distinctly human of all
human characteristics, drawer than
greed and more absorbing than sell
fshness-came uppermost then. At
that supreme moment. when human
souls were on trial, the appeal to
brotherhood was intuitive and over
whelming. Kiser's inspiring verse
gives us the picture:
Christian and Jew, and humble and
high,
Master and servant, they stood at
last,
Bound by a glorious brotherly tie.
At last But why only at last
Was the spirit of brotherhood alb.
sent before? Had greed crowded Il
out? Had consciousness of race OF
class made IL insensible to every emo
ton but fear of death? This cannot
be. Fear of death could not awaken
sense of brotherhood, fear of death
could not make way for democratic
spirit to rise supreme-not If that
sense, not If this spirit, were less
powerful among human passions
than selhshness, We're the demo.
cratic spirit indeed non-existent OF
paralyzed, were selfshness normally
In. supreme command, selfshnesss
would be strengthened, not weak
ened, by fears Of death and hopes OF
escape. No; not selfshness bu.
democracy is the power that move,
mankind at every crisis. Sel0shnes'
has no hold which the basic sense Of
democracy cannot loosen; non'
which il does not loosen in fac
whenever the test comes. Yet Their
Ia an unhappy significance. unin-
tended II may be, but true, il
Kiser's words-"at last" 1t is onl,
"at last" then, only when Dealt
duels with Life, that tho brotherl,
tie becomes the tie that binds, Thu
democratic instinct the instinct tina
triumphs?
1t may seem so. Daily tragedie
to which the Titanic" disaster is b.
comparison a tribing incident max
| II seem so. These tragedies are du
to the laws under which we live
they are the frightful price that oil
have to pay for the luxury of some
but az to them, where is the brother
| ly inspiration to drive away greed
where the democratic instinct to de
throne the instinct of self love? Wei
may the question be asked, and har
enough may the finding OF the ans
wer be, But IL the answer he har
to find, isn't it because 1t Is so simpl
and so near--the pot of gold at tn
foot OF the garden tree. Isn't
there in every human heart, but ur
awakened? If selflshness stubbornl
prevails in the face of everyday In
dustrial tragedies, may the reaso
mot be that the philosophy Of selfish