xxxviii INTRODUCTORY PROCEEDINGS. 



It is easy to cry "We cannot build ships as cheaply as abroad; alter our registry 

 laws and let us buy our ships where we will," but the fact still remains that we 

 cannot run such ships in competition with the world until many other demands of 

 our laws, times and usages have been considerably modified. 



Perhaps the party soon to come in power with its distinguished leader may 

 with new tariflfs produce results under which we may build, buy and run ships in 

 competition with the world, and thus construct a merchant marine worthy of this 

 great country. Such adjustment of tariffs will be pretty near complete free trade, 

 and our country may be happy under the new conditions. Having always been a 

 protectionist with no special interest, with only the interest of the whole country 

 at heart, I have grave doubts which are only increased by observation of free- 

 trade countries abroad. We must still be patient. It is evident that the President- 

 elect recognizes the existing situation of our merchant marine, but I feel on this 

 subject like quoting again — this time a modern poet: — 



"Behold! We know not anything 

 We can but trust that good shall fall 

 At last — far off — at last to all 

 And every Winter change to Spring." 



The one overwhelming event of the year which more than any other directly 

 interests naval architects and marine engineers, was the loss in April last, with its 

 awful consequences, of the splendid Titanic, the latest work of one of the great 

 shipbuilding yards of the world. 



No previous disaster at sea, great as some have been, ever produced the 

 consternation and appalling feeling of man's impotence than was caused by the 

 foundering of what was considered the last word in ocean steamship construction. 



The terrible event has been the occasion of investigation at home and abroad 

 with sundry conclusions as to the responsibility for the disaster and the need of 

 changes in the various requirements for the future. You are aware of all that has 

 been said and done, for a matter of such vital interest to everybody must have 

 received from every member of this Society the closest attention and most careful 

 consideration. You have perhaps attributed the disaster to a combination of 

 circumstances never happening before, in which combination occurs human judg- 

 ment upon which, in all walks of life, in all spheres of action, so much must depend. 



It is not our purpose now to sit in judgment. That particular combination 

 may never occur again, and as Associate-Member Herbert L. Satterlee, in his "An 

 April Crossing" pubUshed last June, safely says, "The human brain cannot com- 

 pute the combinations of circumstances or unusual or extraordinarj^ conditions that 

 may occur on the great ocean. Man may avoid many dangers, he can multiply 

 the means of safety and methods of rescue, but he cannot annihilate the 'peril of 

 the sea.'" 



True we cannot annihilate the peril of the sea,, and we must depend in crises 

 on human judgment. There remains for the men of our professions all the greater 

 responsibility to make our work safe. 



