The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-11-29

child was drowned and only eight wom-
such occ9rre S he S 6eciaT 1Sp 70 in sns
complete and basic revision OF our
whole archaic sea trade and ship con-
| struction laws.
BY CHARLES JOHNSON POST
Copyright, 1928, New York Telegram Co
"TTNHE roots of this sea business"
Il said a shipping man to me
go right into the marine insurance
field. If you penalize ship owners
by levying just as high insurance
ana marine insurance is high. any
way-after they put in safety de-
vices az without taem, you can't
get them 10 put them in. Marine
insurance UNDERWRITERS today are, in
effect, giving a premium to unsafe
ships-or ships that lack proper and
modern equipment"
OF course this would be entirely
sympathetic appeal if the ship
owners had ever shown any energy
nj demanding the revision Of sea
standards up to modern safety
standards.
But, as it stands, the real logic
of its appeal lies in the revelation
of the drastic necessity of demand
ing one of the most thorough over
haulings of our sea situation.
Everything about the sea--prac-
tically speaking and as revealed by
this scandalous Vetris sinking-is
a most amazing revelation OF an
archaic ship-owning and ship-in-
surfing indifference to human life,
either Of passengers or crew, and
a history of opposition to legisla-
ton that would mean modern,
scientific appliances and structure
for safety Of ships and human life.
4 n
CHIP owners in the past have
10 failed in voluntarily assuming
their proper responsibilities to the
public. Having failed voluntarily,
there remains only the compulsion
of law. Do not forget those drowned
children and only eight women sur
viving of the Vestris passenger list.
Marine insurance interests have
failed, of their own moral response
bity, to take reasonable steps to
safeguard life and the hazards Of
ships; other insurance interests with
keener conscience have, in other
lines of hazard on shore, effective
and far higher insurance principles
and practices.
Reducing insurance premiums on
ships in which the risk was less,
through installation Of additional or
superior safety equipment, is not
only good business, but it is sound
morals and sound ethics. But marine
insurance interests have failed vol
UNFAIRLY; there remains for them,
too, only the compulsion Of the law.
This drastic oVerhauling Of our
complete sea legislation is the debt
that the congress of the United
States owes to the drowned women
and children of the Vestris. 1t is
the only apology that we, as a ma
ton, can make to those pitiful and
unnecessary dead.
And should these ship owners and
unfair marine insurance interests
sit in as honored advisers in this
drastic oVerhauling-after their
thrifty failures of the past? No.
Their trust is, and has been, to their
profits solely-and, give them credit,
trust. And because they have not
deviated there has been a Vestris.
Nor should the marine insurance
interests be intrusted with shaping
the sea legislation that will safe
guard lives and compel recognition
by them Of adequate property or life
saving equipment. They have
thrown the weight of their years to
profits for themselves and against
greater security of either life or
property at sea.
CHIP captains, men of the actual
~ sea, naval architects, insurance
minds of the land that are genera
lions in advance of the encrusted
archaistS of marine insurance, en-
gineers in the fields of safety devices
and experts in their reliability and
soundness, and public-spirited minds
in the fields of craftsmanship and
social legislation are the types that
must be chosen.
1t is men of these types of ex-
perience and public spirit who can
bring out Of this outworn and crazy
quilt patchwork of sea traditions
and sea evasions legislative sea
code that will no longer be an
affront to our sense Of public
morality and proper decency. 1t is
minds like these upon which the
public must depend in this en-
Urgency.
The whole sea structure, its out
worn and actually dangerous insur-
ance standards, its ship owners and
their carefully preserved "tradi-
tons Of the sea-" the shifting and
preserved legal eVasions that i'm
pose no burden of security for hui
man life on ship owners, together
with the rooted customs whereby
no unsafe ship-unsafe in the light
of science and engineering-ever
can be as unfit for use as long as
her owners can insure her or get
her past some trivial inspection.
It must be overhauled, drastically
overhauled, and made to fit with
decency into the civilization and
morality Of this day Of ours. Con-
gress can do it. Let it strike hard
and deep and effectively. Let us
demand that they do-and demand
that they do it now, at this next Sit
ting.