The Oregon daily journal., November 29, 1908, Page 25, Image 25

I.' fni'i- . --5?f- i i ..., - W K f,ttl. fekWT -J. ?
The Remarkable Cam
paign That1 a Woman is
reading
I.
r
ffioS&Azs Life
A. '
AHPAIGNING
as valiantly as
sdld'ters in the
field, the fraz
zled heroes of
humanity are in
" rebellion. A t last
an active, -wide-
spread ft g h t is
on to put an end
to the clatter,
l rumble and roar
o f unnecessary
noises in the
crowded abodes'
of man.
Beginning in
New York, head
quarters ojft the
evil spirit of hid
eous din, the war
on noise has
spread over a
large part of this
country, and in
Europe is enlist
ing thousands of
v it ' a m v ii ,
k.:iL &M4m
influential people in tts cause.
City life at best is wearing on the
nerves, yet city life in a continual uproar of
harsh, startling sounds has grown to be al
most unbearable to hundreds of thousands.
The ears of the nervous hospital patient,
the shrinking schoolchild at its desk, the
weary men and women in the downtown
business houses, pedestrians along the
streets and even worshipers in the churches
are continually assailed by the fearful din
of modern city life.
Is there no relief? That is what a
determined band of campaigners against
noise, headed by a woman, started out to
ascertain some time ago. Since the war on
noises has spread with gratifying rapidity,
and some interesting results have been ob
No himmir fell, no ponderoui axes rung;
Like some tall palm the myitic fabric sprung
Majestic silence,. Heber.
A , THUNDER of crashing iron, the gr&t
l ing of steel girders, the deafening clatter
L lT""of pheumatio'hammers. the pufilng and
roaring of . steam engines, the whir of
trolley cars, the hoot of, automobile horns, the
rattle; and rumble and roar of a thousand loose
jointed wagons pounding over the streets, the
growl'of "overhead cars this is the city by day,
and night, too.
A pandemonium of noisesnoises that con
tinuously beat upon. the poor, tired eardrums
. V-1 "
I. n .
J ii ",1MI"1 i-jf
,
1 -
, tl
Jdrs. Isaac Xj. Kice, who is devoting her life to
the suppression of unnecessary noise. . Most
and gradually wear out one's nerves: that follow noise, according to Mrs. Rice, is unnecessary.
you when you retire at night; that, boom and The crusade for peace to the nerves began
whir in your restless dreams; tbat assail you about three? years ago with a little meeting at
and make your head ache in the mornings, and Mrs. Rice's apartments on the Riverside drive,
aj;IlP ro?1?out you all day long- . in New York city, Mrs. Rice, who had been a
SS6' tH:2: JSSftftS from
.TtTu-'-.Ti' ' . l .r . .. . She interested a number of influential rer-
w. reaiiy i in me miast oi a Dig cityl BOn9 itt,New York-eitv in her idM ,nl) tl r,.
suit was tne orj
home of the Soc;
greet tna necessary Norse. Amona the memWW. -mm tbA
rr l ii 7 tT, , . ri' Bons iu -iiew xorK CUT
now mini reaiiy emov souna aieen i whn i...- v. a. . '.. . .
.v.Wn.. lvtmUn ,.i -1 " : :f U" w? . uaUon, a a meeting m ner
r; . rr irWri ' , , v v , Come oi me aociety tor tne Suppression of Un
of absolute .repose t ,Who would not greet tha neB8flrv NW ; a i,J . ISuH Ti
missioner of health, an archbishop, several con
gressmen and many other men of influence.
'Along the East river of New York are lo
cated two-thirds of the hospitals . of the city,
among them the Bellevue . Ward and the Man
hattan State Insane Hospital.
To silence the uncanny and demoniacal
blasts of whistles on the river became the task
of the plucky New York woman. ' "These noises,"
Mrs.: Rice ' declared, "wer ' menace .both to
health and to navigation.
MI contended that all signals" given besides
those required by statutes were a detriment be
cause, they covered or rendered hard to dis
from neighboring- saloons or from their sleep
below decks.
"I maintained that signals could be given
noiselessly, except in foggy weather,. rind that
the parties leasing the piers Could, for' a small
sum, hire watchmen to summon those attached
to the scows so as to be in readiness for the "
approaching tugs. - '
"Sleep would thus not be rendered. impos
sible for a large part of the city's population, to .
say nothing of the -relief thus afforded to the
sick and Buffering inmates of our municipal in
stitutions along. East' river. j .' .
"At that time it was declared that this be-
.wujr, suenyiy, wiurat jar.or xncuoni, dent of Columbia University.' the wreaidAnt of
.lI l1118. '. the CoUege of the City of New York, the chan-; ' to to
tinguish those necessary -for :safe navigation,,,' ing a local nuisance on a federal. waterway; it
and that there was absolutely no excuse for a could be suppressed by neither municipal, state
tug captain,' while-leisurely making his way up nor federal authorities. In other words, there
the manner in which it might be blown, no one
to forbid the smallest tub carrying the largest'
whistle and shrieking it just as madly as pos
sible." But Mrs. Rice won her first victory over the'
tugboats. And she did it just this way:
She began to gather evidence with which to
justify an amendment forbidding the abuse of;
noise. With the aid' of stop watches a corps of
Columbia University students for aweek kept
tally on the whistling in the harbor, day and
night. They learned the names of the vessels
by following boat3 in launches, and according
to their reports, there were 6000 unnecessary
deafening shrieks a night.
Meanwhile many persons laughed at Mrs.
Rice, the harbor men sniggered, and the noises
became all the more intolerable. Mrs. Rice was
serenaded by night by the most infernal
" whistles. Boats passing her home in a con
spicuous apartment house on Riverside drive
gave vent to wild outbursts of savage glee. One
night a boat focused its searchlight on Mrs.
Rice's room and all the boats passing joined in
a horrible charivari.
A few days later Mrs. Rice went to Wash
ington and saw the secretary of commerce and
labor; she gave him proofs of the noise nuisance,
cited the evidence of physicians concerning the
wreck of noise upon the nerves and the evil ef-
fects in the hospitals. When she returned to
New York an order was promulgated forbidding
" all unnecessary whistling.
But the harbor men still flaunted their defi
ance. One boat shrieked its whistles whenever '
it passed a hospital. Mrs. Rice secured evi
dence and preferred charges against the skipper.
He was found guilty by the secretary of com
merce and labor and suspended for five days,
with a warning that with another violation his
license would be suspended. Following this, the .
first test case, were other prosecutions, and the
whistling on the river near hospitals stopped.
But this was only the beginning.
There are other noises ' in the city than
those of steamboats.
THE CONFUSION OF DINS
The city noises you know them! Trolley,
cars thumping along, gongs ringing crazily; au
tomobiles flying through the streets with hoarse,
ear-splitting horns rending the air; new build
ings going up where steam engines are thumping
hideously, hammers ringing on the steel frame
work, laborers crying to one another, teams
loaded with girders and stones lumbering' into
the alleys, rails clattering to the ground 1
Noises, of all sorts and all kinds, rising in one
hideous cacophony. The blowing of whistles and
the clanging of bells of factories, trains, boats;
the noise made by street venders, creating a din ,
with bells, whistles and cries; of amusement; re
sorts and nickel palaces with phonographs jlrat
tling of loose wagons; noises due to bad paving
of streets the noises arising from a hundred
sources to smite the nerves and make both day .
and night hideous. -
With the formation of the Society for the ;
Suppression of Unnecessary Noise in New York '
an advisory board was elected, as follows: ;
Dr Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Co-
lumbta University: Dr. Thomas Darlington, com
missioner of health: Dr. Charles X Dana; presl-i
dent of the Academy of. Medicine; Dr. J. w. Bran- . t
nan president of the Bellevue Hospital board;-Dr.''
Delafleld, Professor W. H. Thompson, ; Professor
Klrchwey, dean of Columbia College Law School; ;
Professor 3. Bassett Moore, professor of Interna-. ,
tional law, Columbia University; William .Dean
Howells, Frofessot Howe, -Congressman, J. i Van,. ;:
Vechten Olcott. Congressman William 8.' Bennet.
Dr. Stedman, editor Medical Record; Captain Nor- ,
ton. editor Marina Journal; Dr. William Hirsch, Dr. ,
George J. Jacoby. Captain Luther B. Dow. of tbs .
American Association of Masters, Mates and Pilots; ,
De Lancey Nicoll, Dr. E. JLederle, x-comralaaionsr
of health.
The campaign was waged valiantly. An tl
derman became interested and an ordinance es ,
ta,blishing "quiet sones" about hospitals was
drafted. It was passed by the Board of Alder- .
.men and promptly signed by the Mayor.
police Commissioner Bingham enforced it ;
he forbade peddlers to invade the sones, com
pelled drivers to walk their horses and trolley
cars to cease ringing their gongs. The era of
peace began in New -York the noisiest city pf
the world. -M? ',J:.V'.
I So far has the movement progressed in 2Ce
York that a campaign was recently waged for
the passage of an ordinance proposed, by Alder-
wo;
CONTINUED- OH INSIDE FAGS.)
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