7/30/2019 Suffragettes/First Wave Feminists Say Male Deaths on Titanic Were Justified Because Women are Worth More 1912

1/1Published: April 19, 1912

Copyright The New York Times

TO P I C S O F T H E T I M E S .

English suffragettes ofprominence, when questioned as to w h a t they

Enthus i a sm. thought ot the men whodied on the Titanic In

order tha t women might be saved, seemto ha,e manifested a disposition, possiblysignificant, almost to resent the Inquirer's obvious belief tha t the display of ch!Yalrywas magnificent. While the strenuousladles did not deny tha t the beha vlor of

the men w as ra ther fine, they hinted tha t .af te r all It only fulfilled a plain duty and I therefore had not earned any part!cular)y jenthusiast ic praise.

Disp layed1'11ild

A s one of the suffraget tes put the case,by natural law women and childrenshOuld b e saved f i rs t , th e ch i ld ren b e c a u s eclllldhood Is sacred. and the women because they a ~ e so necessary to the racetha t they cannot be spared. Anothe r said:" J t must be admitted tha t the lives of" women are more useful to the race than" the l ives .:.f men.

'Ihe- stRtement tha t chlldhood Is sacredmeans or tC\!ght mean so many thingstha t an a t tempt to discuss I t would not b{!pr.ofltable, but the assumption tha t women are of greater racial value than menIs very fa r from having been or beingl. 'Piversally admit ted In either theory orpractice. The kllllng of girl babies a t or

' .' soon .after bir th has been the commonand u n r e p r e h e ~ t d e dcustom of al l count r ies where the general welfare requireda keeping down of the population, and It Isonly In those "'where It was desirable toIncrease th!> population t ha t the equal orsuperior Yalue of, women has been recognlzed and chivalry and gal lantry becamecharacter!st!ca more or less common.IE' en no w &-hlnese author i ty declares

. t l 'a t had a l l o n board the Titanic been ofhis raM the m ~ nwould have been saved

.first. the children next, and the women

last . Probably nobody on the Titanicgave thought to why the men should besacdflced to the women. but the reason,crystalUzed Into an Instinct, w as therejus t the same, and possibly a coldly scientific critic might say tha t only the women to whom I t applied, both as to inclination and to ability, were worth preservation a t so grea t a cost. To say so,however would only ~ b o wagain tha t

Icoldly s ~ l e n t ! f l ccritics do not always take

sufflclently Inclusive views. of large subJjects.

Let EveryFact

Be K n o w n .

Few temptations tou s e harsh. languagecould be harder to res l s t t h a n i s t h e o n e fe l ton reading t ha t the

Secretary of the Navy would have suppr.essed, had he been able to do so , thefact tha t Capt. S M I T H . of the Titanic r 6 -celved t imely warning of nearness to adangerous Ice field.

This Information In Indubitable shapethe Washington Hydrographic Office ha d

IMonday morning, and I t is s ta ted tha t, Secretary M E Y E R ordered Capt. K N A P P.I the. head of the bureau, not to le t thei n"'wspapers have it . T o explain. thiSIania.z\ng order, I t Is said tl"!,at a more; amazing reason w as given- i f the posses-1 alonof t h l ~news were known the -Hydrograi;l!llc attachl!s an d navy officers would

1 b"e ::called as . witnesses In the coining ln-1 . - . . , .veStlgat!on . . . .

1{ : > ~ ~ y a n ~ n eiS. ea,ger...-to dls)Jelleve;

t thls!,story, .for, . i f true, i t shows on .thor ....

~- . ~ > - , ~ . ..-part 'j'f ; Seeretn.ry M E Y E R a conception ;ofP.ls duty _ equally s t range ;md false. Thepubllc bas the best of r ights to under~ t a . n dwhy- t l ie Ti t a n l c w a ~1"0st, a n d no th .

' lng b ~ a r smore directly on t i iat quest!onthan these Hydrographic Office reportsshowing that , Capt. SMITH knew he wasnear and approaching Icebergs_ 'l'hls the

Captain of the Amerlka h id told him, the 'telling . had peen acknowledged, and thenews had been sent to other sblps byCapt . S M r T H himself. T h a t he went on ,nevertheless; to bls waiting doom would 1have been concealed had not the reports .already gone out in regular course to ~ b eminor Hydrographic . Offices in this ando the r cities..

"Thus the papers ; and through them thepublic, obtained news of vital Importanceto any Intelligent cllscusslon of the dlsas

ter, and vital, also, to any Intelligent ef forts to prevent l ts repetition. I t may bet h a t cer ta in off icials in and nea r thenavy may be Inconvenienced, In consequence, to the extent of h a , in g to gtv"eevidence In court. but to tha t Inconvenience few except Secretary M E Y E t t willbe inclined to ascribe very much impo:tance.

I t \VOU!d be well for everybody to learnas soon as possible that n' single detallconnected with the wreck of the Titanicis a private matter, and tha t at tempts tosup(>ress the faCts in regard to it , no matter- by whom made, will be fiercely andeffect ively rE>sent.ed. Th1s cannot be s t a t 4ed too firmly.

A thought-pro,okfn g contr ibution to thediscussion of the Titanic's equipment as

" Invidious "Is Just

the Word.t o l i f e b o a t s i s i n a d e

by the d e ~ l g n e ~of the ship. :!.f.-. C:\RLISLE, If quoted correctly, said tha t herdavits were so designed tha t from eachfour boats could have been handled. Thatnumber was not 'supplled, however, torthe reason that to have done so wouldh a v e c r e a t e d a n " in \ ' l d i ous s i t u a t i o n "

fo{t ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ d ~ h i ~ ~ ~ e d ,ha1e done so.' Peo;:lewould have asked, " I f the Titanic needs" a s many boats a s that , ho w about t11e" s a f e t y o f sma l l e r vesse l s tha t a re no t" proportionately guarded"!" To answert h a t Q u e s t i o n 'WOU19 h a Ye b e e n t roub le>some, and to have tal,en th e action demanded by the only possible a n s w ~ rwould ha1e been expenshe, bu t neither

the trouble not the expense would haveapproached t ha t whicl1 has been t.:reatt.:dby the sinlting of the blggebt and fln,stship tha t ever floated.

B u t n e \ -e r bcfort"', probab ly, has ther:ebeen HUch a Yast diSl>lay of belated ''"" ,dom a s 1s now malt iug by m ~ t r l n ee x p ~ r t sof a dozen k i n d ~an U . s p e c i a l t i ~ , . ; s .; . ;o.bOdy had a - wo1d to spealc or whisper iagaJI:st th e Ti tan ic be(o1c sh e w e n tdown; now fe w ean finrJ even one goodword to ::;ay : ibou t her, and th e grandeursa n d C O I H ' ~ n i e n c . : : e st h a t s o r c c c t 1 t l v wu:1such admiratioh and praise !rom an nowcount figainst n ~ " " ran d ilel' tnakers and ~

her owners fo r little better than delib- 'erate c r t m ~ s .It" s a s t range worlcl andnot very "1se .

RecoveriesAre No t

Impossible .

Prof. Woon of JollnsHopkins University says

1

tha t of the dead bodies itha t went down with theTitanic none will eer rise

tu thP. surfaC'e-. He refeJ'3. ot course. tothose, presumably n1any, t h a t we1e d rawndown in the YOrtex which the sinking ofthe great vessel created '

The Professor ' s s t a t emen t seems to havebeen wholly based on what would andwould not happen to n human body a t

j t h e irr.mer.se d e p t h w h e r e th e Ti t a n i c n o w

11!es. I t seems l m p r o b a b ! ~ .howc1er, thatthe vottex in question .1would have extended ver:, far, and the d stance to which the

~v k t i m s of the l a s t plunge would haveimmediately followed her can hardly haveb