Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-03-22
HEROES MUST SHOW PROOF.
Men Employed to Investigate Claim.
ants for Carnegie Medals.

When is a hero not hero? What is
the difference between an 50 per cent.
hero and a hero 100 per cent pure? To
decide these and many similar questions
is the sole occupation of a selected well
paid group of men, who go up and down
the land seeking whom they may reward
for bravery. and determine when they
have found them, just what percentage
of heroism they have shown.
These hero hunters are the agents of
the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission.
Yearly they investigate a thousand
claims of heroism. 1t is their business
to sift the evidence. for in the eyes of
d hero hunter no man is hero until he
is proved so.
How thoroughly he does his winnow-
ing may be judged from the fact that
out of 1851 claims investigated only $50
claimants--about one in 13-have been
adiudged sufficiently heroic to merit a
reward. OF this number only 10 We're
| awarded the gold medal for simon pure
heroism. Nearly half of the $50 received
silver medals and the rest bronze. With
these medals in many cases, went awards
of money.
BY no means. however, is this dis
| tinction to be taken as casting any
doubt upon the heroic qualities of the
deeds rewarded. 1t simply means that
those deeds that were rewarded by sill
yer or bronze medals did not conform
| fully to the Hero Fund commission s
| understanding of, a full fedged hero.
| For in attempting to reward heroism.
| the commission had first to define hero
| ISM
According to the standards of the
Carnegie commission. a hero is one who
actually ieopardizes his life to save an
other, and who does it regardless of the
| consequences to himself
| Many rescues are made that involve
| little danger to the rescuer. Such a
| rescuer in the eyes of the commission is
not a hero. Some men attempt rescues in
| the face of what appears to be GER
| tain death. Such men are heroes.
| But to be hero man must risk his
| life voluntarily Professional heroes
| are barred from recognition. If a man
| does something heroic IN the course of
| his duty, he is not. according to the
| Carnegie standard, a hero at all. Thus
| policemen, fremen, life guards and
others who are employed to safeguard
| life are never heroes if they save life
when pursuing their regular vocation
| but if one of them saves life ION the
| side" as it were, when it is not in the
| line of his duty, he may or may not be
| a hero
For instance, fireman who rescues a
| person from a burning building is never
| hero. no matter how brave he may
| have been. He has merely done his
duty But a fireman who plunges over
board and saves a drowning person may
| or may not be a hero 1t depends upon
| the degree of danger encountered and
the amount of risk incurred And it is
to determine these fine points that the
Hero Fund Commission maintains its
staff Of hero hunters
Notices of heroic deeds pour into the
commission by the thousand. Some
times disinterested spectators Awho wit
ness d brave deed write about it; more
frequently friends of the hero send In
the news; and sometimes, alas, the hero
himself forwards Information OF his
prowess. Newspaper editors. school
teachers and clergymen are among the
most frequent Of the commissions in