The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1912-08-15
Washington Whisperings.

eu LOT Dy every agency oI Ihe reuerdl
government. Notwithstanding the perils
of sea travel, despite the unforeseen hor-
rors of the Titanic disaster, the stream
of travel from America across the At
lantic and from the farther shores of the
| United States has not noticeably dimin-
ished. People these days will come and
go, tragedies by land or sea to the con-
trary. American shores make magnet
no calamity can negative. They will
keep coming hither from alien lands, just
as they have done from the halcyon days
of Columbian discovery. And they will
keep going hence, the descendants of
these earlier and earliest settlers, curl
GUS to look upon the land of their ances-
tors. The multiplication of ships, the
Improvement in every way of facilities
for ocean travel, added comforts, even
luxuries, speed of the craft more closely
linking socially and in business wise the
old world and the new-all these things
have very greatly augmented the impor-
lance of ocean movement both of pas
senger and commercial trade.
An absorbing question is whether the
government to which they are bound by
allegiance of oath, birth or citizenship,
is inclined to care for them or not in the
risks they take at sea.
1t is worthy OF note there has been
| 4 ho ,orf0 of tho limit
ed States government in the obvious
duties that have devolved upon us since
| the catastrophe which sunk more of the
world in grief and horror than anything
of the kind that has visited humanity in
modern times.
What machinery of this government is
available to promote the safety of lives
and property in transit across the seas
has been used theoretically, intelligently
and without stint.
Supervising Inspector General George
Uhler of the Steamboat Inspecting Ser
vice has devoted himself increasingly and
most earnestly to all the problems in
volved in the share of this government in
responsibility for the safety of ocean
travellers. He said today, talking on
this subject:
GAS soon as the Titanic disaster oc-
Cured everything was done to provide
life-saving equipment for everybody on
board ship, including passengers and
crew. Although the American rules
previous to this provided for the care of
more Than twice as mary people as were
provided for by the rules of the British
Board of Trade, still we did not relax eff
forts to improve the situation. The
| basis of both American and British rules,
however, is the tonnage of the ships
rather than the number of passengers,
the same basis being acknowledged by
ali the maritime nations of the world,
with the possible exception of Norway,
which country, since 1909, had provided
for full boatage on trans Atlantic ships.
With the event of the appalling Titanic
calamity, all nations have interested
themselves actively and profitably for
the safety of lives and property crossing
the seas, and none more etfectually than
our own government
Indeed nothing has been left undone,
conceived by ingenuity and painstaking
thought, to insure safety for ocean
travel. Any sincerely urged project to
that end that appeared upon its face to
be feasible and practical has been in
stantly tested. The steamship COM
panies, realizing to the full their respon-
sibilities, have not been remiss in atten-
ton and activity in the emergency. l
know of one company that, even before
our rules went into effect, had already
placed orders for $50 life boats, all of
which are being built as fast as they can
be turned out by working day and night
and Sundays.
1.-The very earnestness with which our
country has engaged in forwarding a So
luton of the greatest possible promo
ton of safety for life and property in
transit over the sea has tended unques-
tionably to keep confidence alive, and all
reports indicate there has been no mate
rial diminution in such travel and bust
ness. The American people will travel,
If they have reasonable assurance of or
binary care for their safety"
In this connection it is interesting to
know that nearly fifty bills have been
introduced in the two Houses of Congress
since the Titanic disaster looking to the
safeguarding of life at sea. Some of
these bills are meritorious, others wholly
impractical and inadequate, but all we'll
intended, relating in these instances to
lifeboat equipment. sufficient crew SER
vice, fire-fghting apparatus, etc., but
most are crude. 1t is nevertheless be-
lieved that an intelligent concensus of
view will be reached before Congress
adjourns that will evolve the best posi-
BILE law. Certain it is that nobody in
this administration has been permitted to
be derelict in this particular emergency.
THE MEAT INSPECTION LAW.
Farmers in this vicinity are somewhat