Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1898 — COURT OF INQUIRY. [ARTICLE]

COURT OF INQUIRY.

NAVAL BOARD TO SEARCH OUT t >f THE FACTS. Several Days May Elapse Before a Verdict Is Reached, but There Will'Be No Unnecessary Delay—lnvestigation to Be Rigid, - Four Men to Decide. On Thursday the court of inquiry to investigate the cause of the Maine disaster was called to meet in Havana by Admiral Sieard. It is composed of the following officers: Capt. William T. Simpson, Capt. French E. Chadwick, Lieutenant Commander William P. Potter and Lieutenant Commander Adolph Marix, judge advocate. The verdict of these four naval experts, -writes a Washington correspondent, may mean war with Spain. Under the direction of Admiral Sieard, says the correspondent, writing immediately after the culling of the court, the members will hear evidence and examine the debris. The splintered and twisted hulk is expected to tell its own story. The plates will be bent in or out. If all point outward, the disaster was caused from carelessness or probably treachery on board the ship; if they point inward, then' to Spanish treachery from without. Beneath the waters of the harbor the divers will turn their electric searchlights as they search the deep for the submerged debris of the once mighty battle ship. They will report speedily to their superiors. There will be no unnecessary delay/ Public opinion will not stand indefinite suspense. The verdict of the court of inquiry will go to the Secretary of the Navy and to the President. There will be a cabinet meeting. There will be no splitting of hairs, no quibbling over official etiquette. This matter executive; it will not follow precedents; there are none to follow.. AS VIEWED BY EDITORS. Opinion of Leading Metropolitan Papers Upon the Maine Disaster. It seems sufficiently clear that our navy is lacking in discipline.—Cincinnati Yolksblatt. Either a great crime has been committed or there has been an amazing piece of blundering carelessness. —Chicago Rec-, ord. If the Maine and 230 of her men have been lost through Spanish treachery let Spain take the consequences.—Cincinnati Enquirer. To attempt to pass judgment on the Maine disaster with the present information would be the height of folly.—Detroit News. The first duty of the country with regard to the terrible tragedy is to keep cool, that we may learn the facts.—Boston Transcript. There is nothing in the reports to offset the fearful suspicion that the Maine was deliberately destroyed by a Spanish torpedo.—Cincinnati Times-Star. No possible explanation can stifle the voice of the people calling for intervention in the interest of Cuba by our Government. —Chicago Inter Ocean. The American people should decide whether playing at war is not too expensive an amusement when it entails such a terrible cost.—Chicago Chronicle. The people believe the burden of proof rests upon Spain beyond cavil that the blowing up of the Maine was an accident.—Cincinnati Commercial Tribune. ~ Many modern battle ships have been wrecked in a similar wny and just as suddenly without any reasonable ground for suspicion of an attempt at wholesale murder.—Chicago Staats Zeitung. All this occurred in the harbor of a “friendly nation.” Now let the Spaniards prove theit friendship by absolving themselves from all responsibility for the catastrophe.—St. Louis Republic. There are scores of possible explanations, each of which would seem more reasonable than the base insinuations against the nation whgjse hospitality our representatives were enjoying.—Philadelphia Record. The disaster to one of the finest ships of our navy and the sacrifice of so many brave lives, not to the formal defense of the country, but to a strange and horrible fate, casts a gloom over the whole nation.—St. Paul Globe. The American people nre not so calloused by prejudice as to close their eyes and ears to the probability that the explosion was due to causes with which the Spanish Goverumeut could have no remote connection. —Detroit Journal. Sober second thought will carry conviction to all fair and open minded men that it is better to await the results of an investigation before jumping to the conclusion that Spanish malice is at the bottom of it.—St. Paul Pioneer Press. Has treachery been added to duplicity? will be the almost universal inquiry, to which a reply will be awaited with the deepest interest throughout the nation. If such were the case it would take rank as the crime of the century.—Chicago Tribune. * . +-! The suspicion of Spauish treachery exliibited by a section of American opinion looks* ill 'beside the accounts of the splendid gallantry of the suspects in saving drowning Americans, and it indicates an nglv temper toward Spain.—Loudon Daily Mail. It is impossible to refrain from the suspicion that the explosion may have been caused by foul menus. That this terrible event should have occurred in the harbor of Havana renders a solution of the mystery of international importance.—Loudon Globe. If Hidalgo hatred of Americans blew up the Maine then the price of every life must be paid for in Spanish gold. The amount of sueli damages might reach Jfilio,000,000, but it would have to be forthcoming or the bill paid iu blood. —Cincinnati Evening Post. It is not surprisihg that there should be many wild rumors uflont, for in the present strained relations between this country and Spain there will be it natural tendency to attribute the explosion to the Spaniards—if not to the agents of the Spanish Government.—lndianapolis News. • As disastrous things as nn annihilating explosion have happened to American battle ships through accident or mismanagement, and the terrible incident i xf the Havana harbor may be but another of the long series of misfortunes that have bifallen our navy in the last few years.— Detroit Free Press.