Abstract

Issues and Men

That the U.S. ship Morro Castle disaster has humiliated as well as horrified Americans everywhere is obvious. Let no man be misled by the talk of red plots and the firing of the ship. Why should some human devil in Havana, if there was such, or on the ship, wait until the vessel was within twenty miles of New York harbor and safety before setting fire to it? The second officer, testified that when he entered the writing-room he saw flames issuing from the ceiling. As Captain Felix Riesenberg has pointed out in an article written for the North American Newspaper Alliance, "Cigarettes do not set ceilings on the." The watchman, too, testified that he first saw smoke rising from a ventilator above the midship section, not from the writing-room stationery closet. Captain Riesenberg formerly head of the United States Shipping Board schools, held that the fire was electrically started. They point out that the ship's lighting system failed all over the vessel a few minutes after the discovery of the fire. This is proved by the facts that the electric steering gear failed, putting the ship out of control, the eclectically operated whistle ceased to function, the telephones went dead, the engine-room was in darkness, and most important, so far as the saving of passengers was concerned, the electric the alarm went out of business.