The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-05-28

tradicted evidence, nearly 500 people were needlesly sacrificed to want of orderly discipline in loading the few that were provided.
 There were 1924 passengers on the ship. The lifeboats would have cas- fly cared for 1,176 and only contained 7o4, 12 of whom were taken into the boats from the water, while the weather conditions were favorable and
 the sea perfectly calm. And yet it is said by some well-meaning persons
 that the best of discipline prevailed.
 If this is discipline, what would have
 been disorder?
 Among the passengers were many
 strong men who, had been accustomed
 to command, whose lives had marked
 every avenue of endeavOr, and whose
 business experience and military train
 ing especially fitted them for such an
 emergency. These were rudely si-
 fenced and forbidden to speak. as was
 the president of this company, by
 junior officers, a few, of whom, re-
 gret to say, availed themselves Of the
 first. opportunity to leave the ship.
 Some of the men, to whom had been
 intrusted the care of passengers, never
 reported to their official stations, and
 lessness and. indifference to the re-
 responsibilities of their positions as cul-
 pablo and amazing as 1t is impossible
 to believe.
 And some of these men say that they "1aid by'' in their partially filled
 lifeboats and listened to the cries of distress until the noise quilted down" and surveyed from safe distance the
 unselfish men and women and faith full fellow officers and seamen. whose heroism Hghtens up this tragedy and recalls the noblest traditions of the sea.
 Some things are dearer than life it. self, and the refusal of Phillips and Bride, wireless operators, to desert their posts of duty, even after the water had mounted to the upper deck, because the captain had not given them permission to leave, is an exam pie of faithfulness worthy of the high est praise, while the final exit of the Phillips boy from the ship and from the world was not so swift as to pre- vent him from pausing long enough to pass cup of water to a fainting woman, who fell from her husbands arm into the operators chair, as he was, tardily fleeing from his wireless apparatus, where he had ticked off the last message from his ship and from his brain
 When the world weeps together over a common loss, when nature moves in the same direction in all spheres, why should not the nations clear the sea of its conflicting idioms and wise ly regulate this new servant of hu- To that end wages must be increased in proportion to the respon- sibility assumed, and service, to be useful, must be made continuous night and day, while this new profession must rid itself of the spirit of ven- ality, to which, in my opinion, the world is indebted for a systematic vo;< 1;l1 1,o dnfo 1c Of this disaster. so apparent as to excite international concern, and should be discouraged.
 It is no excuse that the apparatus on the Carpathia was antiquated; it easily caught the signal of distress and spoke with other ships nearly 200 miles away, both before and after the | while the operator says it 1 was good for 250 miles. The steam 1 ship Californian was within easy reach l of this ship for nearly four hours af- | ter all the facts were known to Oper- ator Cottam. The captain of the Car l 9athia says he gave explicit directions | hat all official messages should be l sent through other ships, | md messages of passengers should be | given preference. According to Binns, | he inspector, the apparatus on the | was practically new and | easily tuned to carry every detail of | 'udI cdldHlity tO lHe COdSC StdliOHS dC | Cape Sable and Cape Race, and should | nave done so. The course taken was ,ingularly in accord with the reticence ,f the officials of the White Star Co.,, who knew at 2:30 Monday morning, through the steamship Virginian and heir office in Montreal, what was supposed to have occurred, and, ac- ,ording to their own admission, the then given and which hey battled against during all of that lay, contained absolutely the entire 'tory and yet, at 7:51 Monday even ng, a message from their own office, 'ficiaHy signed, containing the posi- i've assurance of the safety Of the was sent to a half-crazed ather at Huntington, w. V., nearly wo hours after their admitted famil- arity with the details of the disaster. t is little wonder that we have not
 een able tos fix with defjniteness the author of this falsehood.
 It is not pleasant duty to criticize he conduct or comment upon the of others, but the plain ruth should be told. Captain Lord, If the steamship California, sailing rom London to Boston, who stopped lis ship in the same vicinity where he Titanic is supposed to have met with the accident, passed two large cebergs at 6:30 p. m. Sunday even- ng, April IA; at 7:15 he passed one arge iceberg and two more in sight o the southwark Because of ice
 e stopped his ship for the night Tn attitude of APP 5 N., longitude 5Oo r V., and at 10:5O (ship's time and 9:1O Jew York time) he sent a wireless message to the Titanic, telling them 1 e was stopped and surrounded by { ,e' The Titanic operator brusquely eplied to shut up,'' that he was busy Captain Lord replied that from the position we stopped in to he position in which the Titanic is I opposed to have hit the iceberg was g s miles," and the course south, 16 ,est and he says this was the last ! he had with the Ti- T anic He also says, We doubled the ,okout from the crew, put man on {