Show I CONVICTION OF VAN William H Van captain of the steamer General Gener l Slocum destroyed by fire in June Tune 1904 with an attendant loss of ot more than 1000 lives has just been sentenced to serve serre ten years In prison Van was found guilty of criminal negligence in failing to hav fire drills on the steamer The conviction conviction conviction tion of the will wUI be toe viewed with mixed feelings by those who lost friends or relatives rel in the disaster and by the public generally Van was undoubtedly guilty of criminal negligence If as us the jury found he failed tailed to have fire drills on the Slocum But he should not be com corn compelled compelled polled to bear the burden alone for he was not responsible for all the fatali fatall fatalities fatalities ties It was shown at the inquest held heldon on the bodies of the Slocum victims that the rotten and useless usel Ss Some of them were wert found to contain pieces of iron in order to increase their weight others were filled with pulverized cork and the casing osing was was so rotten that it tore and permitted the cork to escape like so much mu h meal maal Hundreds of people perished perished because the were of this charac character character character ter Who was responsible for them To a certain extent Van of course for he should have inspected the and seen to it that they were in good condition Yet If 1 he be had nad done that If he had found them to be rotten and so reported the chances are that he would have been discharged The owners of the boat were responsible ble hIe for the They bought the inferior in kind because they were cheaper Not one of the owners has ye yet been brought to trial And how about the Inspectors who whoa were supposed to look after ater the life lifesaving lifesavIng lifesaving saving apparatus who were supposed to know whether or not the Slocum was being loaded beyond her safe capacity Have they been convicted and sent to prison If so the fact face nai nas n escaped the publics attention One or two of them may have been dismissed from the government service but that tha thais thatis is a very light punishment when meas measured measured measured by the sentence meted out to Van It is probable hat Van should have been convicted but th the full duty of ot the New York prosecutors will not have been done until men higher up have been beel bee brought into court 4 I |