Prompt, immediate and gratifying reform marks this action of the International Mercantile Marine. It is doubtless true that this precaution ought to have been taken without waiting for a loss of life such as makes all previous marine disasters seem trivial. But the public itself has been inert. For thirty years, since Plimsoll's day, every intelligent passenger knew that every British vessel was deficient in life-boats, but neither public opinion nor the public press took this matter up. There were no questions in Parliament and no measures introduced in Congress. Even the legislation by which the United States permitted English vessels reaching American ports to avoid the legal requirements of American statute law (which requires a seat in the life-boats for every passenger and every member of the crew) attracted no public attention, and occasional references to the subject by those better informed did nothing to awake action. But this is past. Those who died bravely without complaint and with sacrificing regard for others did not lose their lives in vain. The safety of all travelers for all times to come under every civilized flag is to be greater through their sac-rifice. Under modern conditions life can be made as safe at sea as on the land. It is heartrending to stop and think that thirty-two more life-boats, costing only about $16,000, which could have been stowed away without being noticed on the broad decks of the Titanic, would have saved every man, woman and child on the steamer. There has never been so great a disaster in the history of civilization due to the neglect of so small an expenditure. It would be idle to think that this was due simply to parsimony. It was really due to the false and vicious notion that life at sea must be made showy, sumptuous and magnificent. The absence of life-boats was not due to their cost, but to the demand for a great promenade deck, with ample space to look out on the sea with which a continuous row of life-boats would have interfered, and to the general tendency to lavish money on the luxuries of a voyage instead of first insuring its safety. CHAPTER XXIX. THE SENATORIAL INVESTIGATION PROMPT ACTION OF THE GOVERNMENT--SENATE COMMITTEE PROBES DISASTER AND BRINGS OUT DETAILS--TESTIMONY OF ISMAY, OFFICERS, CREW, PASSENGERS AND OTHER WITNESSES PUBLIC sentiment with regard to the Titanic disaster was reflected in the prompt action of the United States Government. On April 17th the Senate, without a dissenting vote, ordered an investigation of the wreck of the Titanic, with particular reference to the inadequacy of life-saving boats and apparatus. The resolution also directed inquiry into the use by the Titanic of the northern course "over a route commonly regarded as dangerous from icebergs." Besides investigating the disaster, the committee was directed to look into the feasibility of international agreements for the further protection of ocean traffic.