NATIONS PROSTRATE WITH GRIEF--MESSAGES FROM KINGS AND
CARDINALS--DISASTER STIRS WORLD TO NECESSITY OF STRICTER REGULATIONS
YOUNG and old, rich and poor were prostrated by the news of the
disaster. Even Wall Street was neglected. Nor was the grief confined
to America. European nations felt the horror of the calamity and sent
expressions of sympathy. President Taft made public cablegrams received
from the King and Queen of England, and the King of Belgium, conveying
their sympathy to the American people in the sorrows which have followed
the Titanic disaster. The President's responses to both messages were
also made public.
The following was the cablegram from King George, dated at Sandringham:
"The Queen and I are anxious to assure you and the American nation of
the great sorrow which we experienced at the terrible loss of life
that has occurred among the American citizens, as well as among my own
subjects, by the foundering of the Titanic. Our two countries are
so intimately allied by ties of friendship and brotherhood that any
misfortunes which affect the one must necessarily affect the other, and
on the present terrible occasion they are both equally sufferers.
"GEORGE R. AND I."
President Taft's reply was as follows:
"In the presence of the appalling disaster to the Titanic the people
of the two countries are brought into community of grief through their
common bereavement. The American people share in the sorrow of their
kinsmen beyond the sea. On behalf of my countrymen I thank you for your
sympathetic message.
"WILLIAM H. TAFT."
The message from King Albert of Belgium was as follows:
"I beg Your Excellency to accept my deepest condolences on the occasion
of the frightful catastrophe to the Titanic, which has caused such
mourning in the American nation."
The President's acknowledgment follows:
"I deeply appreciate your sympathy with my fellow-countrymen who have
been stricken with affliction through the disaster to the Titanic."
MESSAGE PROM SPAIN
King Alfonso and Queen Victoria sent the following cablegram to
President Taft:
"We have learned with profound grief of the catastrophe to the Titanic,
which has plunged the American nation in mourning. We send you our
sincerest condolence, and wish to assure you and your nation of the
sentiments of friendship and sympathy we feel toward you."
A similar telegram was sent to the King of England.
The many expressions of grief to reach President Taft included one
signed jointly by the three American Cardinals, who were in New York
attending the meeting of the trustees of the Catholic University. It
said:
"TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:
"The archbishops of the country, in joint session with the trustees of
the Catholic University of America, beg to offer to the President of the
United States their expression of their profound grief at the awful loss
of human lives attendant upon the sinking of the steamship Titanic, and
at the same time to assure the relatives of the victims of this horrible
disaster of our deepest sympathy and condolence.
"They wish also to attest hereby to the hope that the law-makers of the
country will see in this sad accident the obvious necessity of legal
provisions for greater security of ocean travel.
"JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS," Archbishop of Baltimore.
"JOHN CARDINAL FARLEY," Archbishop of New York.
"WILLIAM CARDINAL O'CONNELL," Archbishop of Boston.
HOUSE ADJOURNED
Formal tribute to the Titanic's dead was paid by the House of
Representatives when it adjourned for twenty-four hours.
The prayer of the Rev. Henry N. Couden in opening the House session was,
in part:
"We thank Thee that though in the ordinary circumstances of life
selfishness and greed seem to be in the ascendancy, yet in times of
distress and peril, then it is that the nobility of soul, the Godlike in
man, asserts itself and makes heroes."
The flags on the White House and other Government buildings throughout
the country were at half-staff.
ROME MOURNED MAJOR BUTT
A special telegram from Rome stated that one of the victims most
regretted was Major Butt, whose jovial, bright character made many
friends there. Besides autograph letters from the Pope and Cardinal
Merry del VaI{sic?} to President Taft, the major had with him a signed
photograph of the Pontiff, given by him personally.
Cardinal Merry del Val had several conversations with Major Butt, who
declared that the cardinal was "the first gentleman of Europe." Shortly
before he was leaving Rome, regretting that he had not a signed picture
of Cardinal Merry del Val, Major Butt entrusted a friend to ask for
one. The cardinal willingly put an autograph dedication on a picture,
recalling their pleasant intercourse.
LONDON NEWSPAPERS CONDEMN LAXITY OF LAW
British indignation, which is not easily excited, was aroused over the
knowledge that an antiquated law enables steamship companies to fail to
provide sufficient life-boats to accommodate the passengers and crew
of the largest liners in the event of such a disaster as that
which occurred to the Titanic. It will be insisted that there be an
investigation of the loss of life in the Titanic and that the shortage
of boats be gone into thoroughly.
The newspapers commented adversely on the lack of boats and their views
were emphasized by the knowledge that no attempt has been made to change
the regulations in the face of the fact that the inadequacy of boats in
such an emergency was called to the attention of Parliament at the time
of the collision between the White Star liner Olympic and the cruiser
Hawke. It was pointed out at this time that German vessels, much smaller
in size than the Olympic, carried more boats and also that these boats
were of greater capacity.
T. W. Moore, Secretary of the Merchant Service Guild, when seen at the
guild's rooms in Liverpool, said:
"The Titanic disaster is an example, on a colossal scale, of the
pernicious and supine system of officials, as represented by the Board
of Trade. Modern liners are so designed that they have no accommodations
for more life-boats. Among practical seamen it has long been recognized
that the modern passenger ship has nothing like adequate boat capacity.
"The Board of Trade has its own views, and the shipowners also have
their views, which are largely based upon the economical factor. The
naval architects have their opinions, but the practical merchant seaman
is not consulted.
"The Titanic disaster is a complete substantiation of the agitation that
our guild has carried on for nearly twenty years against the scheme that
has precluded practical seamen from being consulted with regard to boat
capacity and life-saving appliances.
HOUSE OF COMMONS INVESTIGATION
Immediate and searching inquiry into the Titanic disaster was promised
on the floor of the House of Commons April 18th, by President Sidney
Buxton, of the Board of Trade, which controls all sea-going vessels.
Buxton, in discussing the utterly inadequate life-saving equipment of
the big liner, declared that the committee of the board in charge of
life-saving precautions had recently recommended increased life-boats,
rafts and life-preservers on all big ships, but that the requirements
had been found unsatisfactory and had not been put in force. He frankly
admitted the necessity for increased equipment without delay.
The board, he said, was utterly unable to compel the transatlantic
vessels to reduce their speed in the contest for "express train" ships.
He also said the board could not force ships to take the southerly
passage in the spring to avoid ice.
The regulations under which the Titanic carried life-boat accommodations
for only about one-third of her passengers and crew had not been revised
by the committee since 1894. At that time the regulations were made for
ships of "10,000 tons or more." The Titanic's tonnage was 45,000, for
which the present requirements are altogether insufficient.
WORK OF RAISING RELIEF FUNDS PROMPT
Several foreign governments telegraphed to the British Government
messages of condolence for the sufferers. The King sent a donation of
$2625 to the Mansion House fund. Queen Mary donated $1310 and Queen
Alexandra $1000 to the same fund.
Oscar Hammerstein proffered, and the lord mayor accepted, the use of his
opera house for an entertainment in aid of the fund.
The Shipping Federation donated $10,500 to the Mayor of Southampton's
fund, taking care to explain that the White Star Line was not affiliated
with the Federation.
Some public institutions also offered to take care of the orphaned
children of the crew.
Large firms contributed liberally to the various relief funds, while
Covent Garden and other leading theaters prepared special performances
to aid in the relief work.
INDIGNANT GERMANY DEMANDS REFORMS
All Germany as well as England was stunned and grieved by the magnitude
of the horror of the Titanic catastrophe. Anglo-German recriminations
for the moment ceased, as far as the Fatherland was concerned, and
profound and sincere compassion for the nation on whom the blow had
fallen more heavily was the supreme note of the hour.
The Kaiser, with his characteristic promptitude, was one of the first
to communicate his sympathy by telegraph to King George and to the White
Star Line. Admiral Prince Henry of Prussia did likewise, and the first
act of the Reichstag, after reassembling on Tuesday, was to pass a
standing vote of condolence with the British people in their distress.
GERMAN LAWS ALSO INADEQUATE
The German laws, governing the safety appliances on board trans-oceanic
vessels, seem to be as archaic and inadequate as those of the British
Board of Trade. The maximum provision contained in the German statutes
refers to vessels with the capacity of 50,000 cubic metres, which must
carry sixteen life-boats. The law also says that if this number of
life-boats be insufficient to accommodate all the persons on board,
including the crew, there shall be carried elsewhere in the vessel a
correspondingly additional number of collapsible life-boats, suitable
rafts, floating deck-chairs and life-buoys, as well as a generous supply
of life-belts.
A vessel of 10,000 tons was a "leviathan" in the days when the German
law was passed, and it appears to have undergone no change to meet the
conditions, imposed by the construction of vessels twice or three times
10,000 tons, like the Hamburg-American Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, or the
North German Lloyd George Washington, to say nothing of the 50,000-ton
Imperator, which is to be added to the Hamburg fleet next year.
The German lines seem, like the White Star Company, to have reckoned
simply with the practical impossibility of a ship like the Titanic
succumbing to the elements
PERSONAL ANXIETY
Although Germany's and Berlin's direct interest in the passengers aboard
the Titanic was less than that of London, New York or Paris, there was
the utmost concern for their fate.
Ambassador Leishman and other members of the American Embassy were
particularly interested in hearing about Major "Archie" Butt, who passed
through Berlin, less than a month before the disaster, en route from
Russia and the Far East. Vice-president John B. Thayer and family, of
Philadelphia, were also in Berlin a fortnight ago and were guests of the
American Consul General and Mrs. Thackara. A score of other lesser
known passengers had recently stayed in Berlin hotels, and it was local
friends or kinsmen of theirs who were in a state of distressing unrest
over their fate.
Their anxiety was aggravated by the old-fogey methods of the German
newspapers, which are invariably twelve or fifteen hours later than
journals elsewhere in Europe on world news events. Although New York,
London and Paris had the cruel truth with their morning papers on
Tuesday, it was not until the middle of the forenoon that "extras" made
the facts public in Berlin.
William T. Stead was well and favorably known in Germany, and his fate
was keenly and particularly mourned. Germans have also noted that many
Americans of direct Teutonic ancestry or origin were among the shining
marks in the death list. Colonel John Jacob Astor is claimed as of
German, extraction, as well as Isidor Straus, Benjamin Guggenheim,
Washington Roebling and Henry B. Harris. All of them had been in Germany
frequently and had a wide circle of friends and acquaintances.
Only one well-known resident of Berlin was aboard the Titanic, Frau
Antoinette Flegenheim, whose name appears among the rescued.