The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1912-04-25

| by wireless and tried to reach her, but
was stopped by the icebergs until, it
was too late.
| The Last Sad Hour.
| Washington, ID. c., April 23.-Spe,
cial; Herbert J. Pittman today gave
a vivid description of the sinking of
the great ship to the senate investi.
| eating committee Pitiful crying
and deep moaning rose from the
| trapped victims such as can never be
told in mere words. 1t was a con,
tinual moaning for about an hour he
4 ,aid, and died away gradually lis
that all you care to say about this, -
he was asked. II had rather you had
left that out altogether" he pleaded
his voice choked with emotion, as he
recollected the fearful night. Tears
welled to the eyes of many of the
women in the room and even the SEN
ators shaded their eyes as Pittman
described the scene of the midnight
terror and agony that was suffered.
! Pittman was the first witness today
Fourth Officer Boxwell was too i'll to
resume cross examination. Pittman
told of the entire voyage and said
the ship was running about % knots
an hour. He declared he knew the
officers were warned Saturday or Sun.
day of the icebergs. ....
.. Admits Holding News. .....
Washington, April 2S.--vics Presf'
dent P. A. S. Franklin Of the Inter
national Mercantile Marine and head
of White Star line affairs In Ameri-
| ca. appeared before the senate COM
| mittee investigating the wreck of the
/ Titanic. .--.r d. 3d.. u.
He admitted that he had withheld
| news of the disaster from the public;
that he had received the secret code
messages from ]. Bruce Ismay, manag-
ing director OF the corporation, asking
that the Cedric be held TO take back
the survivors of the Titanic crew;
| that he had refused to allow this
| course to be taken and that he had
issued reassurins reports after the
rumors of the Titanics sinking had
reached New York. He said he had
no facts on which to base these re-
assuring messages and that he had
issued them solely to prevent a world
wide scare until the fate OF the Ii
tanic was settled one way or the
other.
Denies Hughes Message.
He emphatically denied that he or
any other officer of the. White Star
line had sent the message received
by Representative Hughes OF West
Virginia to the effect that the Titan
ic was being towed into Halifax and
that all the passengers and crew had
been saved.
Franklin and Ismay were accom-
panied by the American general Coun
sci of the White Star line, &. &. Bur
lingame. Third Officer Pitman and
Fourth Officer Loew of the Titanic
were also present. Ismay and Frank
lin. particularly the former were ex-
/ tremely nervous, and they held wh1s'
pered conversation while making
drawings of the White Star pennant
on scratch paper on the tables in
front of them.
Sure Of Disaster Monday Evening.
One of the first questions asked
Franklin was:
When did you first learn that the
Titanic had gone DOWN."
Il first knew that the Titanic had
sunk at $3.50 p. m. on Monday" was
the reply. The message was timed
at 6:16 and was from Captain Had
dock of the Olympic. He announced
that the Titanic had sunk; that the
Carpathia had taken 675 people from
the Iifeboats and RATS, and that the
rest had gone down. He ended the
message by saying that the Carpathia
was on her way to New York with the
survivors" ~
What did you do after the receipts
of this message?" he was asked.
I'VE had received rumors before
that OF the sinking of the Titanic and
in absence of real messages from the
ship our fears were to that effect
But We sent rsassuring messages say
ing that the ship was safe. When the
dStuut DioW SomC II tooh us Sbluc tlLuS
to pull ourselves together. Two 9TH
er directors were with me at the time
j. p. Morgan, Jr., and Charles Steel.
| took the messages then and went
downstairs to the general Offices of
the White Star line, where the news
paper men were waiting. We gave
them the text of Captain Haddock's
message and they rushed away to
their papers"
Fights Back at Committee.
Then Franklin attempted to defend
himself and his line, fighting back at
the committee. ' a..
II do not see how anybody can be
blamed for this terrible disaster" he
said. I'VE had the best commander
we knew of; the best boat ever con-
structed, so far as 1t was humanity
possible to determine; no one could
forsee or prepare for such a calamity"
Franklin admitted that he had re-
ceived Ismays message to get the
crew out OF the country, and in the
next breath declared that: --.
Both Mr.. Ismay and myself desire
to have every man needed appear
here and to spare no efforts to have
this committee given every opportun-
ity to get all the facts about this Sac