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Jun e S, 1S12 T H E L I T E R A R Y D I G E S T 1191THE "TITANIC" REPORT

* * m . y E W L A W S w i l l b e s t t e s ti f y o u r a f f e e ti o n f o r t h e d e a d , "declared Senator Smith in his speech present ing therepor t of the Senate sub-commit tee which conductedtb inquiry into the loss of the Titanic. And it is in the newJaws recommended by this commit tee that the press are incl ined0 find the mo st v aluab le results of its work. For, a s theF h l a d e l p h i a Public Ledger remarks, "pract ical ly every important fact in the repor t has long been known to. the pubhc, andi ihe main conclusions reached by the commit tee have been independent ly dr awn by the people . " The New York Journal ofCmimmerce, indeed , finds nothin g novel, in such suggestions a s'that lanes of travel should be more carefully defined, thestructural strength, life-saving appliances, and discipline of crewsiffipon such vessels should be improved, and greater vigilance.observed in navigat ing the m." Yet the promised enac tmen t ofthese "sound" r eforms by the Uni t ed S t a t es Government , sup-ptemei t t ted by such recommendat ions as the Engl ish Board ofTra de m ay m ake at th e close of i t s inquiry, convinces the B ostonTreuueript that even out of so great an evil as the sinking of theTUamic ".good will com e." " In th e end these two inquiries willgreatly omduce to the safety of all life at sea."

Both the Senator 's speech, and the commit tee's repor t , whichhave evoked some sneers from London, find hearty favor iii theeyes of the American press. Tho they admit tha t i t contains"unnecessary rhetor ic," the Spr ingf ield Republican and New

"YOU'BE M I N E . "Minor in tJie St. Louis Post-Dispatch,I N T H E P A R T Y

York Evening Post consider it a fair, temperate, and usefulsumm ing up of the results of the investigatio n. As for the commit tee's work, the New York World speaks for many of its contemporar ies in judging i t to have been "wel l and thoroughlydone at a t ime of high public exci tement ." Senator Smith's owncomment on his oonfest unfamiliarity with nautical afl 'airs, that."energy is often more desirable than learning," is deemed bymost of the New York editors as a sufficient reply to his criticson both sides of the At lant ic. ."The tenor of this repo r t ," observes the New York Times, "is justification for the manner ofi t s procurement . "Those looking to Sen ator Sm ith to f ix upon some one personalrespons ibility for tlie disaster, hea r almost nothin g of M r.

Ismay . They learn, however , in the words of the New YorkTribune's. Washington correspondent , that "blame for theTitanic disaster is chargeable directly to the failure of the deadCaptain Smith to heed repeated warnings of icebergs ahead, butresponsibility for unnecessary loss of life must be shared byCaptain Lord of the steamship Californian, through his disregard of distress signals." No r does the British Boa rd ofTrade escape all responsibiUty, in the judgment of SenatorSmith, who declares that to i t s "laxi ty of regulat ion and hastyinspection the world is largely indebted for this awful fatality."The- .White S tar Line is also scored for the lack of disciplineon board the Titanic, and for sending her on her maiden voyage with so inferior a crew . Officers of the line in Ne wYork Ci ty are cr i ticized for "bat t l ing with the t ru th " af terreceiving th e first information of the accident the m orning after.

Praise as wel l as blame was meted out . The Sena tor f romMichigan paid a t r ibute to the personal heroism of CaptainSmith , his officers, and the wireless ope rators. Congress , upon,recommen dat ion of the commit tee, gave Capta in Rostron ofth e Carpathia a vote Of thanks and a gold medal .The pr incipal conclusions which the invest igat ing commit teearrived at, after review of all the evidence, are summarized asfollows in the Associated Press dispa tche s: '' ' The jgupposedly water- t ight comp ar tmen ts of the Titanic

were not w ater- t ight , because of the non-water- t ight condi t ionof the decks, where the t ransverse bulkheads ended."The s t eamship Californian, eontrolled by the same concernas the Titanic, was nearer the sinking steamer than the nineteenmiles repo rted by her cap tain, a nd her officers a nd crew ' saw thedistress signals of the Titanic, and failed to respond to them inaccordance with the dictates of humani ty, internat ional usage,and the requiremen ts of law. ' The comm it tee concludes thatth e Californian might have saved al l the lost passengers andcrew of the ship that went down."Eight ships, all equipped with wireless, were in the vicinityof the Titanic, th e Olympic far thest away512 miles."The myster ious l ights on an unknown ship, seen by the passengers on th Titanic, undoubtedly were on the Californian, lessthan n ine t e&mi les away."T he ful l capaci ty of the Titanic's l ife-boats was not utilized,because, while only 706 persons were saved, the ship's boatscould have carr ied 1,176."No general alarm was sounded, no whist le blown, and nosystemat ic w arning was given to the endangered passengers, an dit was fifteen or twenty minutes after the collision before Cap-

!/, /^ti'sii)4 ? ^t^ss^' f-^A; rCoLOKED DELEGATE"Dat sure am de most exasperatiu'music." Reynolds in the Portland Oregonian.

O F L I N C O L N .

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1192 T H E L I T E R A R Y D I G E S T June 8 , 1912t a i n S m i t h o r d e r e d t h e Titanic's wi re l e s s o p e ra t o r t o s en d o u t ad i s t r e s s m e s s a g e ." T h e Titanic's c r e w w a s o n l y m e a g e r l y a c q u a i n t e d w i t h i t sp o s i t i o n s a n d d u t i e s i n a n a c c i d e n t , a n d o n l y o n e d r i ll w a s h e l db e f o r e t h e m a i d e n t r i p . M a n y of t h e c r e w j o i n e d t h e s h i p o n l ya f ew h o u r s b e fo re s h e s a i l ed , an d were i n i g n o ran ce o f t h e i r p o s i t io n s u n t i l t h e f o ll o w i n g F r i d a y .' " N o d i s c u s s i o n t o o k p l a c e a m o n g t h e o f fi ce r s, n o c o n f e r e n c ewas ca l l ed t o co n s i d e r ' warn i n g s o f i ce , ' an d n o h eed was g i ^ ^ ent o t h e m . T h e s p e e d w a s n o t r e l a x e d ; t h e l o o k o u t w a s n o ti n c r e a s e d . '

" T h e c o m m i t t e e b e l i e v e s m a n y m o r e l i v e s c o u l d h a v e b e e ns a v e d h a d t h e s u r v i v o r s b e e n c o n c e n t r a t e d i n a f e w li f e - b o a t s ,a n d h a d t h e b o a t s t h u s r e l e a s e d r e t u r n e d t o t h e . w r e c k f o ro t h e r s . "T h e c o m m i t t e e ' s r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s fo r l e g i s l a t i o n a r e e m

bo die d in a b i l l wh ose chief pro vis io ns -e= a r e t h u s s t a t e d i n t h e d a i l y p r e s s :

" V i g i l a n t s u p e r v i s i o n o v e r s t e a m s h i p s b y t h e s t e a m b o a t - i n s p e c t i o ns e rv i ce , wh i ch i s au t h o r i z ed t o i s s u ei n s p e c t i o n c e r t i f i c a t e s ." L i f e - b o a t c a p a c i t y f o r e v e r y p a s s e n g e r a n d m e m b e r of c r e w , t h e p a s s en g e r s t o b e a s s i g n ed t o a p l ace i nt h e b o a t s b e fo re s a i l i n g , an d t h e c r ewt o b e d r i l le d i n m a n n i n g t h e b o a t s b yc o n s t a n t p r a c t i s e .! ' T w o e l ec t r i c s ea rch - l i g h t s fo r e v e rys h i p c a r r y i n g m o r e t h a n o n e h u n d r e dp a s s e n g e r s ." T h e r e g u l a t i o n of r a d i o - t e l e g r a p h y ,- w it h p r o v i s i o n s t h a t s h i p s s h a l l h a v ean operator on duty at all t imes." A wate r-tight inner skin, or hull ,either in the form of longitudinal bulkheads or of an inner bottom."Transv erse bu lkheads ex tend ingfrom side to side of t he sh ip, and con tinued vertically to the u pperm ostcon t inuous s t ruc tu ra l deck . "M any sincerely regret, with the

Cleveland Plain Dealer, " t h a t t h ememory of gallant Captain Smith ofth e Titanic must be da rkened byknowledge of the absolu te foolhar-diness of his conduct d uring t he closinghours of his l ife ." Yet such, i t believes, is " the irresistible logic of thes i tua t ion . Smi th gambled wi th thelives of 2,300 people, and lost all b uta rem nan t of his ghastly stak e."Wi th th is judgment , the New YorkPress and the Philadelp hia Press concur , and approve o f the commit tee ' s 'refusal to divide the captain 's responsibili ty with Mr. Ismay.

The condemnation of Captaiin Lord - of the Californian issevere , bu t the New York Times and Springfield Republicanagree that i t is "n o more so tha n the 'i-evidenfie war ran ts." Acareful editorial review of the capta in 's evidence, given in theeditorial-columns of the New York Sun, would seem to confirmthe opinion of the two other papers that he appeared in an evenworse hght in London than in "Washington.

The report of the Senate Committee, avers the New YorkWorld, is "a grave indictment of the methods employed inocean traffic where the l ives of thousands of human beings aredaily involv ed." Ye t i t adds that the lesson is being learnedth e Titanic's successor as the biggest s teamship in the world,the recently launched Gernian liner Imperator, is to be provided with hfe-boats enough to carry all on board . An d theN e w Y o r k Evening Post no tes tha t th is new s teamer " i s to ca r rya special first officer, whose sole duty will be to attend to thesafety of the ship, and those upon it . ' '

W I L B U R W R I G H T .

WILBUR WRIGHTI T MAY BE too early to make an accurate estimate of Wilbur Wright, but even the French press, which, until hisdeath on May 30, refused to give him full credit for hisachievements, now acknowledges that he was "the father ofav ia t ion . " Wi th h im d isappears an amaz ing inven to r , " th efirst and most celebrated of all aviators," says Le Temps, whichgoes on to say that he was "a genius who enabled the worldto witness f l ight by mechanical apparatus, the secret of whosesupport in the air he found before any one else." An d GeorgesBans, Secretary of the Aero Club of France, is no less eulogistic .He says tha t Wrigh t " seemed someth ing more than a man ,

'" "" aBfc_., ra th er a sup erm an wh o dw elt in re gions where others could not go .""Before Wrigh t came to F ran ce , " saysCount De La Vaux , ano ther eminen tFrench au thor i ty , "a l l o the r a t temptsat flying were like hopp ing on fleas."Nearly all the Paris dail ies agree, saycable dispatches, tha t France 's supremacy in aviation is due to the facttha t Wilbur Wrigh t and h is b ro therOrville payed the way. No r is theBritish press any less appreciative tha nthe F rench . The London Daily Mailsays tha t "he , wi th h is b ro ther , s tandsforth as the true-conqueror of the air , "while The Daily Telegraph classes Mmas one of the world 's geniuses. TheLondon Times remarks that altho i tis too early to make a complete estimate of his services to science, "itcan not be doubted tha t his ach ievements a re immor ta l . "

Here a t home, Wilbur Wrigh t i sl ikened in rank to many of the greatest inventors, in the world 's history.P res iden t Taf t wr i tes tha t he " de serves to stand with Pulton, Stephe nson, and Bell ," and we find this int h e N e w Y o r k Evening Mail:

"The name o f Wilbur Wrigh t . . .will be the peer of those of Mo rseand Pulton, and the superior of thoseof Howe and Whitne y. I t will testify forever to the greatness of coolmet hod to the mastersh ip of solidresearch, to the su blimity of mod est' and unwear ied per t inac i ty . Wrig h t ' sachievem ent celebrates worthily the Am erican genius, whichis the genius of the machine."Altho he is reckoned as one of the two pioneer birdmen, says

the Wash ing ton Star, Wilbur Wright "has never failed to givefull credit for the fundamentals of his knowledge of aeronauticsand his grasp of the laws of flotation to those who preceded himin the theoretical f ield of research, and particularly to Langley."The New York Times reminds us that in the matter of theoryhe was indebted to Langley and several men long dead, but he"will rank in future generations wit h W att , Stephenson, Mo rse,Ed ison , and Be l l. " The New York Su n remarks tha t i t wi l lalways be a pecuhar pride to Americans to honor the Wrightbrothers, and of Wilbur 's individual career the New York Trib-un e observes :

"On the very eve of his epochal demonstrations he was ridiculed in his own count ry, largely, no doubt, because of th emanner in which he kept his own counsel instead of catering tothe feverish taste of sensation seekers. So when he wen t to

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June 8, 1912 T H E L I T E R A R Y D I G E S T 1193

W H Y D O N ' T Y O U T A C K L E T H E B I G G A M E ? " Harding in tlae Broolilyn Eagle.France in quest of recogni t ion which his own country hes i tatedto give, this impass ive, taci turn, ascet ic Pur i tan fai led at thef i rs t moment to command conf idence, and was indeed denounced as a 'bluffeur 'the habi t of 'bluff ing' being perhapsof al l things most foreign to him! But th e next day he hadFran ce at his feet . He was ' the master aviator , ' he was ' th eLord of the Air , ' and the most exper t of French aviators were'as l i t t le chi ldren bes ide this Amei ' ican.' Social at tent ion s ,medals innumerable, and membership in the Legion of Honorwere bes towed upon him. Pres idents , Emperors , and Kingswere eager to shake his hand, and the Old World and the Newalike acclaimed his genius ; amid al l which he remained ever thesame ser ious , modest , t remendously ea rnest ma n who had pat ient ly worked his way f rom playing with a chi ld's toy to apractical realization of one of the most ambitious dreams of theages ."

We turn to the Phi ladelphia Public Ledger for a brief story ofthe career of the Wrights :"I t was in 1896 that the Wright brothers , under the inspirat ion of Li l ienthal 's and Langley's exper iments , began to invest igate the science of aeronaut ics . Fou r years later they tooktheir 'gl ider ' to Ki t ty Hawk, N. C. In December , 1903, theymade their first motor-driven flights, and in May six years agooccu rred their first pub lic exhibition . In 1908 cam e their internat ional t r iumphs, and the cl imax of the notor iety they al ways deprecated . Their s is ter Kath er ine, who from her smallsalary as a school- teacher had advanced the money for theirear l ies t exper iments , received with them the t r ibute of cour tci rcles and of popular enthusiasm in every country vis i ted, andtheir own ci ty and country del ighted to do them honor"W h at W ilbur Wrigh t cared for was not the exploi tat ionof the ai rman, but the rat ional dev elopmen t of the scienceof aeronau t ics . Ex trava gan t prophecies were not those of thefraternal pioneers . Orvi lle Wrig ht said not long ago: 'M ybrother and I have never f igured on bui lding large passenger-carrying machines . Our idea has b een to get one that wouldcarry two, three, or five passengers, but this will be the limitof our endeavors ."The two men preferred not to be dissociated in their acoom-phshm ent . I t was Orvi lle Wright who was pi lot at For t My erin 1908 when the propel ler broke and Lieutenant Self r idge los this l i fe, and with publ ic exper imentat ion his name has perhapsbeen more conspicuously associated. Bu t i t has been a quiet ,efficacious wo rking alliance of brain s and skill, in ^hich the lion 'sshare of the credi t has been claimed by nei ther of the brothers ."

JUDGE LINDSEY'S VICTORYTE SW EE PIN G VICT ORY of the Ci t i zens' munic i pal t icket in Denver is looked upon by Judge Ben B.Lindsey as in par t a vindicat ion of himself, and it is thisphase which most interes ts the press throu ghou t the c oun try.Tho the women voters of Denver have always supported JudgeLindsey, " this t ime they ral l ied more s t rongly than beforeon the s ide of good government and community progress ,"notes the .Cleveland Plain Dealer. While these good pointsaided him, we are told that he was also mater ial ly helped bythe bi t ter and long-cont inued host i l i ty of the machine pol i t i cians . This , in the opinion of the Pi t tsbu rg Gazette-Times, w asevident ly wel l used, " for the dou ghty Ben is again in the sadd le,and his enemies wil l have to s tand for al l the humanitar ianmovements that he sees proper to set agoing in Denver ."Another Pi t tsburg dai ly, The Dispatch, would have us bear inmind that the issues in the elect ion "were larger than any merepersonal factor ." They " includ ed condem nat ion of the relat ions between the Democrat ic and Republ ican organizat ionsand the publ ic-ut i l i ty corporat ions ," and "general dissat is fact ion with the conduct of municipal government as an adjunctto the pol i t ical machines ."

The chief reason for this uprising of the people of Denveris found by the sympathet ic Newark News to be " the refusalof the author i t ies to perm it the submiss ion to the vo ters ofthe proposi t ion to adopt the commiss ion form of government . '!The News cont inues :

"The demand for commiss ion government had back of i t theconvict ion of the people that their oi ty government was represen tative of special inter ests. In spite of the opposition of bo ththe Republ ican and Democrat ic machines , the people hadvoted for municipal ownership of the water-plant , and for thees tabl ishment of a publ ic-ut i l i ty commiss ion. Mun icipal ownership was held up by a cour t injunct ion, and the adminis t rat ionrefused to pay the salaries and expenses of the Public UtilityCommission."The people saw in both of these act ions the hands of theutility corporatio ns controlling mun icipal affairs. Th eir viewwas conf i rmed when Mayor Rober t W. Speer turned out of