The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1912-01-13


sated for some years past. Congress at its last
session was on the point OF passing the neces
saTy law thus to give recognition to the life-sav
and it is believed that these faithful servants
of the people VIII not have to wait much longer
now to be accorded their rghts-for be it known
the ltfesavers 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 s it merely that such plan of retirement
and pensions will do justice to the surfmen who
II Is claimed. greater risks and endure more
hardships for the 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
Tor the service. Indeed. the officials of the Life
Saving Service assert that with a satisfactory
retirement and pension plan In operation a supe-
ror class of will be attracted to this yoca-
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
ife-Saving Service is the largest as well as the
most efficient in the world Like the 1remen
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 surtmen did
no more than discharge the duties Of their might
patrol" the lonely storm-swept beaches they
would have to their credit hazardous and
more arduous work than almost any other class
fn the community.
The scope of the relief work of the American
Llfe-Saying Service is expanding all the while
During the past year the lfe-savers rendered aid
In the of nearly 500 wrecks and thanks
largely to the aid of these brave and experienced
men only seventy-four out OF this large number
proved to be total loss Measured in dollars
and cents. the service rendered by these fear
less men was even greater In the wrecks OF
the past year there involved property in.
cluding vessels and cargoes to the total value
of sllSs0.000. and of this amount the surprising
proportion Of s10,057 900 saved This in It.
self makes the two million dollars year which
Uncle Sam spends his Life Saving Service
seem like pretty good investment and that Is
without taking into consideration the lives i'm
periied 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
WAS ffty five. would have been many times that
number but for the 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-Saving Service and he took the initia
tive as 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
drowned might readily have been saved had
there been at hand apparatus such as now con-
stttutes the regulation equipment of the United
States life-saving
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
Rnd arrows. rockets and a shortened blund erbuss
a means OF throwing lines to ships stranded in
positions inaccessible by small boats Eventually
his experiments cUminated in complete success
BY the use Of mortar or carronade with ball and