The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-07

Chief OF Bureau of steam Engineering.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 7.-The following part OF
the proceedings of the House was uninten.
tionally omitted from the House report of
Tuesday. During the debate on the bill
authorizing the appointment OF a civilian to
I'LL the position OF Chief of the Bureau OF Steam
Engineering in the Navy (Which was passed
the following discussion took place:-
Mr.. X eIley-Now, Mr.. Speaker, l want to say
that thus far l have been speaking foc the
committee, and expressing the views which L
heard expressed around me In the committee
room when the bill was under consideration.
l will now speak for myself, and present some
facts thai impel me to support the bill when !
was directed by the committee to present and
advocate. l say that the esprit dm corps as
disclosed In series of stupid or corrupt trans
Corps OF the navy. that would not trust the
corps to indicate Its own chief We advise the
head OF the Government as to his selection.
Sir, the steam navy depends upon its ma
chinery. relterate what have already sald
sppiiances for erecting and managing machio
merry exceeds the progress made in any other
branch OF useful science during the last quarter
of q century Yet / tell the gentleman from
Illinois and you, MIR. Speaker that within the
last two years your engineer corps have been
buying out old machine shops and converting
the machine shops OF your navy yards into old
junk-shops tell you that at the Phlladelphla
Navy Yard, under the shadow of the shops of
the most celebrated tool max ers In the country,
William Sellers q Co. and Bement Dough
erty, they have purchased within eighteen
mOn hs tools that were superannuated twenty
years ago; that they have bought. tools such
as you cannot find In any modern workshops
in the United States or Europe; tnat they have
paid S2O,0 900 for three superannuated or worn
out tools which any practical engineer In the
country would swear would not be WORTH In q
machine shop the space they occupy II the
proprietoTs had the means of buying adequate
tools. And, sir, 1 tell you more that they nave
paid for the scrap-iron which still retains the
General form of machines more money than
would have bought new tools In Philadelphia,
in Newark, New Jersey; In Providence, Rhode
Island; In Worcester, Massachusetts,, or at any
the manufacture OF steam enginery are made.
These facts will hereafter come before you,
sir, officially, though now state them on my
personal authority only. My argument Is,
sir, that for the purpose OF breaking up
whichever 10 may be-the compllclty In
crime or the esprit du corps OF the engineer
corps, we should allow the incoming Admin
istraton to select an engineer-in-c chief from
the widest field. L ask the attention OF
the gentleman from Illinois to this suggestion:
that SO widely diffused is the esprit du corps In
the engineer corps, or so complete Is the COM
plicity in wrong among Its head and certain
cal Judgment and the general integrity OF the
community go into that Department and en-
deaVor TO reclaim, II possible, our Navy from It's
aestroyers and our Treasury from those who are
pleeolnR IL TO death. beg leave to remark to
gentlemen from New England that II they Will
60 10 the navy yard at Portsmouth they Will
nnd tnere boxed up under sheds, for which the
Government has no use, and which, though
bought more than eighteen months ago,
nave mol peen set up, old Tools Dought
Hom an engine nAn1fRetory which was