The Red Cloud chief., 1912-01-11

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 lifesav
and it is believed that these faithful servants
of the people will not have to wait much longer
to be accorded their rights-for, be it known.
the life.sayers only seek such relief from the
conditions of physical disability and old age as Is
freely accorded men in our military and naval
service
Nor is II merely that such plan of retirement
and pensions will do Justice to tho surImcu who.
It is claimed. run greater risks and endure more
hardshiDs for the wages paid them than do the
men in any ether branch of tho government
service Quite aside from this is the influence
that will be eXcrted upon prospective recruits
for the service. Indeed. the officials of the Life
Saving Service assert that with satisfactory
retirement and pension plan in operation supe
rior class Of men will be attracted 10 this voca
tion where so much must needs DEPEND upon
the individual. And, by the way probably very
few of our readers know that the United States
LifeSaving Service Is the largest as well as the
most efficient in the world Like the flremen
in our cities, they on duty all the time and
they risk their lives every time they go to
wreck But, for that matetr, If the surfmen did
no 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
Life-Saving Service is expanding all the while.
During the past year the life-savers rendered aid
in the case of nearly 1,500 wrecks and thanks
largely to the aid Of these brave and experienced
men only seventyfour 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
Guiding vessels and cargoes, to the total value
of sll $50 O00 and of this amount the surprising
proportion Of slO,057 600 was saved This In It.
self makes the two million dollars 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
periIed On the shpwrecked vessels There were
G G61 persons on beard the craft that met dis
aster last year and the total loss OF life, which
was Gfty.five would have been many times that
number but for the succor afforded by Uncle
Sans heroes of the beaches.
Former Governor William 4. Newell Of New
Jersey is generally recognized as the founder or
,be ifeSayine Service and he took the initia-
tive as the result of q marine disaster which he
happenod to witness during the summer OF 1899
when the Australian bark Count Perasto' was
wrecked on Long Beach New Jersey. The thr'
teen members of the crew, all OF whom were
drowned might readily have been saved had
there been at hard apparatus such as now con-
stitutes the regulation equipment OF the United
States fe.saving crews.
The need thus pointed out made so forccful an
immersion upon the mind OF Mr. Newell that he
soon aftor entered upon experiments with bows
and arrows rockets and a shortened blunderbuss
nc a means of throwing lines TO ships stranded In
positions inaccessible by small boats, Eventually
his eyueriments eliminated in complete success
by the use OF mortar or carronade with ball and