The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-05-28

course. recognized that the ship was
under a foreign flag; but the lives of
many of our own countrymen had
been sacrificed and the safety of many
had been put in grave peril, and it
was vital that the entire matter
should be reviewed before an Ameri-
can tribunal if legislative action was
to be taken for future guidance.
Without any pretenSion to expert
ence or special knowledge of nautical
affairs, nevertheless / am of the opin-
ion that very few important facts
which were susceptible of being
known escap ped our scrutiny. Energy
is often more desira BILE than learn
ing, and the inquisition serves a use
full purpose to the state
In the construction of the Titanic"
continued the senator, mo limit of
cost circumscribed their endeavor and
when this vessel took it's place at the
head of the line every modern i'm
provement in shipbuilding was sup
posed to have been realized; so con-
fdent were they that both owner and
builder were eager to go upon the
trial trip.
State of Unpreparedness.
when the crisis came a state of alb
solute unpreparedneSS Stupefied both
passengers and crew and, in their des-
pair, the ship went down, carrying as
needless a sacrifice of noble women
the judgment seat in any single mo-
ment of passing time:
THE Titanic rushed onward on her
true course-one- recognized as APP
propriate and agreed upon by marin
Srs as the international highway for
westbound vessels, yet dangerous at
this season of the year, when the
current may be bearing vast
ma sses of ice across the track of ships
scores of these towering glaciers
planted themselves in the very path
way of this ship and were so large
and so numerous that, in the absence
of fog, they should have been easily
by the lookout, if, as he
says in his testimony, he had been
supplied with glasses.
Capt Smith knew the sea and his
clear eye and steady hand had often
guided his ship through dangerous
paths; for 40 years storms sought in
vain to veX him or menace his craft.
His Indifference to danger was one OF
the directly contributing causes of this
tragedy, while his own
to die was the expiating
evidence of his fitness to live; those
Of us who knew him well-not in anger,
but in sorrow-file one specific charge
against him, overconfidence and neglect
to heed the oft-repeated warnings of
his friends; but, in his horrible dis
may, when his brain was afire with
honest retribution, we can still see, in
his manly bearing and his tender So
licitude for the safety of women and
little children, some traces of his lofty
spirit.
Mystery CT Indifference.
1.-The mystery of his Indifference to
danger, when other and less pretentious
vessels doubled their lookout or stop
ped their engines, finds no reasonable
hypothesis in conjecture or speculation;
science in shipbuilding was supposed to
have attained perfection and to have
spoken her last word; mastery of the
pecan had at last been achieved; but
overconfidence seems to have dulled
the faculties usually SO alert. With the
atmosphere literally charged with
signals and wireless mes |
sages registering their last appeal, the |
5tol>ers in the engine room fed their |
fires with fresh fuel, registering in |
that dangerous place her fastest speed. |
Mature gave a warning of approach |
ing peril so significant that passengers
in stateroom and steerage shut out the |
chill and spoke to one another of the |
sudden cold. Sailors off the Grand |
Banks know the Importance of the |
which is almost as nee |
essary to their safety as is the COM