The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-05-28

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 eloQuence, combining praise for hero
 ism and scathing rebul1e for negli-
 gence and cowardice of the most ap-
 palling marine tragedy of history, was
 the final and official requiem today
 in the Senate for the victims of the Titanic. Senator Smith,<of Michigan, chairman. Of the Senate fnyestfgatfng committee, summed up his views of the evidence developed.
 That every soul aboard the giant liner might have been saved but for the indifference, inattention and all most criminal neglect of Captain Stan ley Lord and the other officers of the Californian, was the most startling charge Smith bitterly made
 Rebuke for those in half filled life boats who "stood by'' and refused aid to struggling drowning swimmers un- til "all the noise had ceased" was
 voiced.
 We shall leave to the honest judg- ment of England it's painstaking
 chastisement of the British Board of Trade, to whose laxity of regulation and hasty inspection the world is largely indebted for this awful fa- tality. Of contributing causes there were very many. In. the face of warning signals, speed was increased and messages of danger seemed to
 
 to persuade her to fear.
 At noon on that fatal Sunday the steamship Baltic warned her of ice within miles of her track and near the place where the accident occur red; at o'clock in the afternoon and when but a few miles away, the steamship Californian signaled the Titanic to beware of danger, which her operator curtly acknowledged; the same evening the Titanic transmitted to the Photographic Office in Wash ington a message from the steamship Amerika, saying that she had passed two large icebergs" near the track of the ill-fated ship. In the face of these warnings each revolution of her engines marked at the moment of the collision her highest speed of 24 1-2 miles per hour.
 The Titanic rushed onward on her true course-one recognized as appro- priate and agreed upon by mariners as the international highway for westbound vessels, yet dangerous at this season of the year, when the Lab rador current may be bearing vast masses of ice across the track of the ships-scores of these towering gla- ciers planted themselves in the very pathway of this ship and were sol large and so numerous that, in the absence of. fog. they should have been easily discernible by the lookout, Who says in his testimony that if he had been supplied with glasses, such as he had been accustomed to on the Ocean ic and on this vessel. between Belfast and Southampton, but which were de- nied him by Second Officer LightolI- CT between Southampton and the place of this accident, he could have seen the iceberg with which this ship coliided "soon enough to get out of the way.'' |
 Captain Smith knew the sea and his clear eye and steady hand had of ten guided his ship through dangerous paths. For 40 years storms sought in vain to vex him or menace his craft. But once before in all his non orable career was his pride humbled or his vessel maimed. Each new ad- vancing type of ship built by his company was handed over to him as a reward for faithful services and as an evidence of confidence in his skill. l
 The mystery of his indifference to danger. when other and less preten- tious vessels doubled their lookout or stopped their engines. finds no req sonable hypothesis in conjecture or science in shipbuildlng was. supposed to have attained per. per lection and to have spoken her last word: mastery of the ocean had at last been achieved; but over confi- lence seems to have dulled the facul- ties usually so alert With the atmos- ohere literally charged with warming signals and wireless messages regis .erine their last appeal, the stokers m the engine room fed their fires with fresh fuel, registering in that place her fastest speed.
 Sailors off the Grand Banks know he importance of the thermometer, which is almost as necessary to their ,afety as is the compass. Even the Kitchens, who regular V took the temperature of the water rom the sea, says, "It suddenly be- anne bitter cold,'' and added that the lrst order received by him from Sec md Omcer Lightoller at o'clock Sun lay evening was "to take his compli- nents down to the ships carpenter nd inform him to look to his fresh