The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1922-04-14
COAST CUARDSTO
COME NEXT WEEK
Col. Edward Clifford, Asst Sec
retary U. S. Treasury To
Be Here With Them

and Commodore VIM. L. Key
nolds, Commandant of the U. S.
Coast Guard will be the diStin-
guished guests of the city on
Tuesday and Wednesday, April
Is and 19, the occasion of the
annual meeting of the Surfmen's
Mutual Benefit AsSoci i O ny
Scores of U. S. Coast Guards are
expected to attend the conven-
ton and they will be entertained
with banquet to be given joint
ly by the Chamber of Commerce
and Retail Merchants Associa-
tion.
No" elaborate program has been ar
ranged for the convention. tho Eliza
beth City will beStir itself to give the
Surfmen a cordial welcome and enter
tain them while they are here. The an
nual convention of the SurfmenS AIu-
tual used to be big event and brought
saving service. But that was before
the Surfmen were given military sta
tuS and full time employment. Prior
70 1915 the men in the life saving ser
vice received no pensions when dis
ablcd in the service. Then too the men
were off duty during the months of
June and July. In 1900 Capt. VIII
Daily and a little group of life savers
fit Association in Elizabeth City, band
ing the men in the service together into
a mutual fraternal and benevolent so
ciety. assessing each member to pro
vide Il benefit for the families of those
who died. in the service. At one time
the association had between 1.5OO and
1000 members enrolled. representing
every district on the Atlantic. the Pa
cifc. the Great Lakes and the Gulf o:
Mexico.
In 1915 the life savers were given
military status and placed under the
Wa Department in time of war: at
other times it is under the Treasury
Department. Men in the Coast GuarG
now have the same status as men in
the army and navy service. having the
same retirement privileges and pen
~ions. This fact. together with the fact
that the men now stay on duty every
month in the year. has caused intcrcs'
in the Surfmen'S Mutual Benefit ASSO-
citation to wane rapidly in recent years
and only about 600 members now re-
main in good standing. The officers Of
the association are \. l.. Barco. preSi |
dent Cape Henry. Va; d. VI. Tugh |
1>t vice president, Elizabeth City; Stlrl, |
Harris. 2nd vice president, Elizabeth !
City; VI. p. Hitc, scc'y-treaSurcr. Eliz-
abcth City.
Good SamaritanS of the Sea
There are $4,000 miles of coast line |
around these United States. most of |
them dangerous good part Of the time. !
Tpon these margins Of his seas. both !
salr and fresh. Uncle Sam owns the !
service of some 1000 men. commonly |
known as coast guards. They must be
prepared also, however. to serve rs doe. !
tors. magistrates, policemen, firomcn |
and heroes. In fact. they must be- |
heroes go days in the year" says Ed |
win c. Hill. writing in the New Yorl, |
Herald. for day and night the strain
of their sorvir. is never relaxed. In
cc>~antIy. along Thousands of miles of
coast. trapt with peril. they await the
radios kissing cali to impending death .
or disaster" Mr.. Hill presents this
brief appreciation of them and their
work:
They are the Good Samaritans of the
sea, the four thousand officers and en-
listed men of the United States cOaS'
guard. picked men all, never shirkcr
nor a coward in the whole far-fung
corps from Key West to Point Barrow
in the Arctic Circle. They "dare to do
all that doth become 4 man," and if
they had a motto it would be, There
Is always Satcty IN YalOr.
Putting aside entirely any conSidera-
ton of the value of the human lives
they save every year at risk of their
own (the number was more than six
teen hundred in 1920, the coast guards
save in property alone many times the
cost of the service The guard res
cues the shipwrecked by the best meth
DDS human ingenuity has devised. II
feeds and clothes and warns them when
it has snatched them from death. BY
land and sea it patrols the dangerous
coasts for early discovery of wrecks
and the fastening of relief.
Its Work Never Done.
1t searches the sea for distressed
vessels and for drifting distractions
likely at any time to rip the bottom out
Of a great ship and drown her people.
and sends these peNS to the ocean
floor or drags them to harbOr at the
cables end. 1t goes into the far North
to give to the lonely settlements of
Alaskan waters and the Arctic Circle
the sure protection that the Northwest
Mounted Police give to the Canadian
wilderneSs-the protection and the sim
pie, necessary aids without which ES-
iimOs and whites would find life intOl-
able. Unaided, it saves every year
of 1t.obloJ -,