The World Not So Heartless as Supposed--People Give Generously to Aid the
Suffering--A Social Phenomenon--Value of United States Weather Bureau.
Perhaps the world is not so bad as it has been painted, or so heartless
and indifferent as some pessimists would have us believe. Ordinarily men
and women have enough to do in attending to their own affairs, expecting
others, of course, to do the same, and consequently they pay small
attention to what is going on around them; but when their hearts are
really touched they drop everything and rush to the rescue of the
afflicted.
So it was in the case of Galveston.
The catastrophe at Galveston served to bring conspicuously into notice the
best and worst sides of human nature, which is always the common result of
all appalling disasters.
The people of that afflicted city were suddenly overwhelmed by the almost
unprecedented fury of the elements. Thousands were killed and injured.
Thousands more lost their homes and places of business. They were
suffering with hunger and menaced with pestilence. All were brought to a
common level by dangers of every description, death in its most awful
forms, and an outlook of terrible uncertainty.
And yet in the midst of all this ruin and suffering they were harassed by
thugs and thieves and ghouls in human shape, who looted property,
assaulted citizens who resisted them, and despoiled and disfigured the
dead in a shockingly savage manner to secure rings and other jewels.
Devoid of any feeling of sympathy or pity, they seized upon this awful
disaster as an opportunity to enrich themselves. As soon, however, as the
authorities could recover from the first shock of the disaster the city
was placed under martial law, and the troops patrolling the island did not
hesitate to kill every one of the vandals caught in the commission of his
infamous work. Public opinion sustained this prompt style of punishment.
It was a species of Southern lynching to which no objection was ever
raised.
The disaster also brought into prominence the greed and mercenary passion
of human nature. A clique of ravenous wretches, taking advantage of the
fact that the city of Galveston was cut off from bridge communication with
the mainland, conspired to secure control of the transportation facilities
by water, and charged extortionate prices even to those who were seeking
to carry relief to the suffering people.
Never was a more inhuman trust organized.
Again, all the fresh provisions in the city were ruined, leaving only a
few canned and dried articles which were available for food. The owners of
these, bent upon making personal profit out of the necessities of their
fellow-citizens, pushed up the prices, raising bread to 60 cents a loaf
and bacon to 50 cents a pound.
The mayor of Galveston, however, proved himself equal to the emergency,
confiscated the food supply, reduced the prices to a reasonable rate, and
compelled the owners of schooners and small craft to put down their prices
also.
This was the dark side of human nature, but the picture had its bright
side also. The news of the awful disaster had hardly appeared in the
public prints before tens of thousands of helping hands were busy
collecting relief. The Chief Executive of the nation, the Governors of
States, and the mayors of cities issued their appeals to the people,
whose sympathies were already aroused and whose hearts and hands were
enlisted generously and enthusiastically in the work of relief.
Far-off countries sent their offerings; every city and town in the world
where Americans live contributed; and crowned heads hastened to cable
sympathy, together with more substantial evidences of their kindly
feeling.
Without delay of any kind, instantly and spontaneously, the machinery of
charity began its work. The people of the North might differ radically
from the people of the South in many ways, but in the presence of such a
dreadful visitation of nature, involving suffering and death, the
brotherhood of man asserted itself and all things else were forgotten.
Only the higher and nobler attributes of human nature assert themselves.
Private individuals, business houses, great corporations, municipal, state
and national government vied with each other, as they did when fire swept
over Chicago and the flood overwhelmed Johnstown, in expediting relief to
the storm-ruined people of Texas.
Day by day trains sped to Galveston from every part of the country, loaded
with supplies, and the telegraph wires carried orders for money,
testifying to the unanimity of the great work of relief, and to the higher
and nobler instincts of human nature when it is appealed to by the claims
of humanity.
The ghouls of Galveston were comparatively few in number. Its generous
sympathizers were to be counted by scores of millions.
The convicts in the Texas state penitentiary at Rusk were moved by the
sufferings of the Galveston victims to contribute $40 to the relief fund.
Are men who go to prison totally bad?
The scope and rapidity of the Galveston relief work all over the country
afforded a spectacle at once gratifying and noteworthy. Trains laden with
food and comforts for the sufferers were rushed towards the stricken city
from every quarter of the United States.
From Boston to San Francisco nearly every city, regardless of size,
contributed its quota to the generous cause. Even from across the Atlantic
the Liverpool and Paris funds came, being on the list for $10,000 each.
Within a week after the disaster Galveston was in possession of a
magnificent relief fund that went far toward alleviating the physical
sufferings of its homeless thousands.
Here is a social phenomenon that may well give pause to all critics who
are wont to inveigh against our commercial and industrial age. These
exhibitions of liberality are not rare in the United States. A long series
of them might be compiled within the period between the Chicago fire and
the Porto Rican hurricane.
Singly and in the aggregate they are a striking negative to the charge of
sordid commercialism in our individual and national life. The modern
American is making more money than ever before, but he has a heart as well
as a business head, and he is giving larger sums to noble causes than were
ever given before.
Probably the increased willingness of the people to help stricken
communities like Galveston is due more to the railroads and telegraph
lines than to anything else. Modern charity is the child of modern
conditions. These indispensable adjuncts to commercial enterprise alone
make widespread relief work possible.
If the telegraph and the newspaper had not placed the sad picture of
Galveston's misfortunes at once before the eyes of Americans from ocean to
ocean there could have been no such national impulse of generosity.
About ninety years ago an earthquake in Southern Missouri brought calamity
to many settlers, but it was a month before the news reached the East, and
another month would have had to elapse before relief could have been
carried to the sufferers. The impulse to give cannot thrive under such
circumstances.
There have been tender hearts in all ages, but only in our time have the
means of quick communication made human sympathy effective across
continents. The railroad, the telegraph and the newspaper have lengthened
the arm of charity quite as much as that of business.
The Galveston incident is also a fine example of the way in which these
agencies bind all sections of the nation together in increasing
solidarity.
GREAT VALUE OF THE UNITED STATES WEATHER BUREAU.
The great value of the United States Weather Bureau and the remarkable
correctness of its observations, all things considered, was demonstrated
by the events preceding and succeeding the West Indian hurricane. It gave
warning of the hurricane days before it manifested itself on the Texas
coast. It anticipated its course from the vicinity of San Domingo until it
reached Cuban waters, where it made a deflection no human skill could have
foreseen.
The bureau was not caught napping, however. It sent out its hurricane
signals both for the Atlantic coast and the gulf coast, and when the storm
turned from the north of Cuba westward the bureau turned its attention to
Texas, and on the morning of September 7, nearly thirty-six hours before
the disaster, warned the people of Galveston of its coming, and during
that day extended its signals all along the Texas coast, thus preventing
vessels from leaving.
Of course the observers could not know what terrible energy it would gain
crossing the Gulf of Mexico.
Perhaps still greater accuracy in forecasting was displayed by the bureau
in the warnings given out to mariners on the Great Lakes on Tuesday
morning, September 11. Though nearly all lines of communication in Texas
were cut off, the bureau kept track of the storm as it swept through
Oklahoma into Kansas, and gave timely warning that it would turn
northeast, moving across northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, and
thence across Lake Michigan and the northern end of the southern peninsula
of Michigan to Canada.
It further predicted the furious winds which prevailed the next day, their
maximum velocity, the change caused by the northwest current from Lake
Superior, and the fall of temperature yesterday to the nicety of a degree.
Every vessel captain on the lakes had ample warning given him.
In times gone by it was the habit to jeer at Old Probabilities, and
whenever a prediction failed of verification to condemn the Weather Bureau
as unreliable and not worth the expense of its maintenance.
During the last few years, however, its operators have gained in skill and
its record now is of a character of which its officials have every reason
to be proud and which amply justifies whatever expense it may entail by
its great saving of life and property.
WHY SHOULD NOT GALVESTON BE REBUILT?
The appalling nature of the wreck to which Galveston was reduced naturally
led to some talk of abandoning the old site altogether and rebuilding the
city somewhere on the mainland. An army officer concluded his report to
Washington headquarters by expressing the opinion that Galveston was
destroyed beyond the ability to recover, and the Southern Pacific railway
was said to be in favor of leaving the flat island to the sport of the
treacherous waves and heading a movement to rebuild the city at the mouth
of the Brazos river.
It is natural that non-residents of Galveston should consider the
advisability of abandoning such a perilous site, especially as there can
never be any complete security against a disaster like that of Saturday,
September 8. But it is safe to say that Galveston will be rebuilt on its
sand island. Mankind is not wont to desert any spot of the earth's surface
because of a sudden and rare convulsion of nature.
Lisbon was not abandoned because of the disastrous earthquake that killed
50,000 people in 1755.
Similar earthquake disasters in Central and South America have not induced
the survivors to abandon a single city.
When 100,000 Chinamen were swallowed up at Peking in the last century it
did not change the site of the city, nor have the still more disastrous
floods along the Yellow river ever caused the survivors to change their
habitat.
History shows Europeans and Americans to be quite as tenacious in this
regard as any other races.
Italian peasants continue to cultivate the slopes of Vesuvius in spite of
all past disasters, and the inhabitants of the Sea Islands along the
Carolina coast were not disheartened when the elements committed fearful
ravages.
The leading business men of Galveston emphasized a point when they began
to talk of rebuilding which had escaped general attention until that time.
They were exceedingly anxious that commercial bodies, steamship owners,
brokers and those interested in the commerce of Galveston should be as
considerate as possible in their treatment of the city, that is to say,
there should be liberality in the commercial relations. These men urged
that the extent of the calamity should be taken into account when
adjustment of contracts took place and in all business arrangements until
the city could regain its footing. Charters provide by special mention for
"Visitations of Providence," for the "Acts of God."
The Galveston business men hoped that their business connections would
apply a like spirit to all commerce affected by the storm.
They were not disappointed, as the result showed.
Galveston was just entering upon the busy season. There were from 200 to
300 ships under sailing contracts with that port for the months of
September, November and December. Some of these ships were, when the storm
came, on the high seas. Even a temporary paralysis of thirty days meant
much loss and the derangement of many contracts.
It was a time which called for the generous policy, not for strict
enforcements of the letter of agreements. Galveston only asked what her
business men thought was just, that thereby the shock to commerce might be
mitigated. When the time came Galveston found that she had not asked too
much, as she received all the consideration she could wish.
Representatives of the railroad systems which connected Galveston with the
outside world before the occurrence of the disaster agreed in saying, in a
meeting held at New York, that her residents would rebuild on the same
sand island in spite of the terrible experiences. They believed that
Galveston, injured financially though her citizens had been, would be
rebuilt by her citizens without the aid of outside capital.
A. F. Walker, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe, said he felt certain that Galveston would be rebuilt.
The new energy and courage displayed by the people of Galveston is what
was to be expected in a city so full of American pluck. Though stunned and
prostrate under the most fatal disaster that had ever overtaken an
American community, Galveston took only a few days to regain its breath.
It has simply reasserted the same indomitable courage and will power by
which Americans in times past built up a great nation where there was a
wilderness a century ago.
The terse motto stuck up on every street corner of the wrecked city is
"Clean Up." Behind its grim humor there lies a stern determination that is
one of the proudest attributes of our race.
There is no reason why a greater Galveston, should not speedily rise on
the site of the present ruins.
The report of an army officer that the city was ruined beyond recovery and
the suggestions of other persons that Galveston should be rebuilt on
another site find no sympathy among the citizens. Galveston will be
rebuilt upon its former site.
Carpenters, masons and artisans are being called for by thousands, and,
with the generous aid contributed by people all over the country, there
will be a rapid transformation. The city has thrust its sorrow behind it
and has its face set toward the future.
Since the danger of flood cannot be removed so long as the city stands at
its present level, it is to be hoped its builders will begin a new era of
security by raising the grade of the streets.
A few feet will materially decrease the danger from tidal waves. It will
also be wise to construct the foundations of all permanent large buildings
of stone to a height above the level reached by the recent inundation. In
resolving to defy an untoward fate Galveston should begin by adopting all
practical means for defying wind and waves.
Even though the expense and delay will be greater, it will pay to give the
new buildings all possible safeguards of solidity.
Galveston will be rebuilt, as it was after the disaster of fourteen years
previously. Its inhabitants will reason that the city had existed for
two-thirds of a century in comparative safety, and that such a tidal wave
is not likely to be repeated in a hundred years. The same commercial
advantages that first tempted settlers to the island, and that made
Galveston one of the most thriving cities on the gulf coast, are still
present.
Men who own real estate on the island will not abandon it, even though the
improvements thereon have been reduced to a wreck. They know that even if
they did abandon it there would be plenty of others to take it--risks and
all--and rebuild the city.
The federal government may hesitate about rebuilding its structures on so
precarious a site, but private interests are not likely to abandon a city
even for so terrible a disaster as that at Galveston.