Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-06-03
THE TITANIC DISASTER.
Recent Catastrophe Presents Many
PerpleXing Questions.

~ NtNAhpAAo ANAAs oAANAio aAl yam
solid shot hum, minnie balls zip,
have seen 900 lives snuffed out in
an hour; but the horror, tragedy, of
scene like this! What word can
encompass the fate of so many lives
and dollars gone in ten minutes?
Will the investigators show who is
to blame. whose inefficiency caused
the slaughter. unparalleled in mer-
chant marinee The dead are dead.
Does that end all? NOl There is a
time coming for a dead reckoning. "
Those recovered have been buried.
Is that all? Should there be more?
That disaster shook the financial
earth, the social earth, and the ma
tions of earth. Were the owners
responsible? who are they, and
how did they incur responsibility?
Was it the man on the bridge? His
pistol closed his mouth. Did he pur-
posely hold his course, and at full
speed, to beat time, like a speed
maniac? Does England control the
corporation. or did all right to con-
troll pass to the company when the
charter was signed; or does 4 corpo-
ration own the powers that gave it
being? Where is he who is to blame
for such murderOus work.
The calamity was unique and
stands like Mt Shasta, alone, for us
10 gaze at. The sympathetic heart of
earth is wrung with sorrow for the
dead and compassion for the living.
For weeks, reporters and papers have
done their best to give us the de
tails Of that awful scene; but have
We got at the truth Of it? The wires
on earth and wireless have been kept
hot to tell it, and yet the question
is, Did IsmaY tell the truth? Did
the agent hold back the news for
hours? AS we look back to this
scene of horror we fail to see the
why of it all
What has the committee brought
to light, as to cause and response
bility? All the true-hearted of earth
are waiting for an answer. Are the
powers of earth afraid to let the peo-
pie know all the truth? Where only
one has died by accident or murder,
We get all the details from red head
lines to BLACK sticks" What will
national law have to say about this
stupendous blunder? The owners,
maybe, own railroads, news agencies
and papers. If the hundreds had
died where war is hell" it would
have been glory; but if by club, dag
ger or poison, we would set the state
to work to hunt down the criminal
But who in a corporation is crimi-
nal? That old word murderer, how it
sticks to one on whom it has been
thrown! 1t is as bad as a cookie
burr in sleeps tail. Can you
charge a corporation with that awful
crime and make good? Then who is
to be judge and eXeCutiOner? How
about those good Christians who own
stock in such a murder mill? Can
Jesus save them? To say, only man
slaughter, is coarse and CRATES on
our tympanum, when we think of
those hundreds of water-soaked.
shark-eaten bodies and blurred.
sightless eyes. giving ghostly, horri-
BILE suggestions to corporate owners.
Can you say homicide? Why, It's
but little better than its father.
murder. Why not say God was to
blame for letting the iceberg get in
the way, aud say no more about it.
We can't bHng him into court. CON
Wet and hang him. OF the wayfarer
killed by lightning a jury SAYS,
'Perished by the act of God" ItI
would be nearer the truth to say
SATAN for he is the prince of the
power of the air" the prince of
this world" An hundred years ago
the race WIS not responsible ii il lett
people live. How we try to compel
them to live. and pen up or slay
those who interfere with our law of
life. Get a lesson from this 'un-
sinkable," terrible calamity. God
made the law that creates icebergs, !
ana the currents that carry them to
md-Atlanttr. Mans toy runs foul
OF one, and two regiments are gone. |
Here we are, at the fountain head |
Let $ see. How about the human
side? Mans greed for biggest ship. |
quick time and dollars ram "A berg.
and then-milIiOns of tons of power
and resistance collide, then grave
two miles deep. Nay, it was not
GODS aCt, but mans. VINO? The
snip owners, crew and quick time
passengers. Yea, more! All people
OF all lands who are in a panic. cry
ing Speed, speed, speed All these I
are to blame for the lives gone from
earth, till Judgment day Here. in
the craze t1r speed, We get the con
tributory negligence" that shows
who is TO blame. Then, where does
criminal Carelessness" of officers
and passengers come in? have
heard cid sailors say that an ice
berg would echo the sound OF fog
horn or whistle three to ten miles.
Did the "unsinkable" have horn
or whistle? Were they used? Who
knows?
Again ask for a word, new if you
please, to designate corporate collec-
tive murder. for which a corporation
Is guilty as a whole, for the crime
can t. be made to stick on one poor
degenerate, for the company had
tried men Of years of experience"
10 man the monster murderer. In
Moses time they found scapegoat,
and either cut his throat or drove
him into the wilderness. Did our
senate committee find the proper
goat or did they dare to say the
boss of the corporation who lett
the ship in a lifeboat while better,
nODler men died that a child might
live, is he who is guilty OF murder
mauslaughter. homicide? These are
ugly words to fasten onto $780,
l..