The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1878-06-21
The Naval Debauchery.

The report of the House committee on
naval affairs, embodying the results of pa
tient and searching inquiry extending over
years, simply puts into clear and definite
shape the shameful record which, in gen.
eral way, has been long notorious. The ex-
travagance and corruption of the Navy De-
partment under Secretary Robson has not
been a matter of conjecture merely. 1t is
true that the whole extent of the rottenness
has never before been laid bare, but wherev-
er there has been the least effort to look b e.
meath the surface nothing but corruption was
revealed. AT Mare Island, at Philadelphia,
at Portsmouth or at Boston, wherever inqui-
ry was made, there was the same evidence of
systematic plundering, so that the report of
Mr.. Witthornes committee can cause no as.
constituent except in the very great
magnitude of the jobbery which it lays bare.
1t is notorious fact that the navy of the
United States, which at the close of the
war, was among the largest and strongest in
the world, has gradually deterorated, until
to-day we have scarcely a respectable squad
ron on the sea and yet, during this time,
there has been expended upon this navy the
enormous sum of four hundred millions of
| dollars, nearly half of which was expended
under the administration of Robson alone.
This single fact is evidence of the post gross
mismanagement, to use the midest term.
1t was simply impossible to spend all of this
money honestly, and there was no conceva-
Bile way in which it could have been got rid
of except by monstrous scheme of pluuder.
What this scheme was, how it was carried
on and who were engaged in it, it became
the duty of the committee on naval affairs
to find out. While Robeson remained at the
head OF the department every kind of obsta-
cle..was thrown in the way of investigation,
and it was impossible to reach the truth.
But with new administration came an ell
tire change; the records of the department
were thrown open to Congress, as they al
ways ought to be; officers dared to tell what
they knew without the certainty of being
ordered to foreign ports, and little by little
the record OF eight years of robbery was laid
bare. 1t is altogether the most astounding
story OF official debauchery that has been
given to the world since the downfall OF the
Tammany ring. The Times long since ex-
posed the rascality practiced in the removal
of the Philadelphia Navy Yard, but that
was only small example of the system that
was carried on in every navy yard in the
country. Contracts were given out in utter
violation of law machinery and stores of
every description were sold at merely nomi-
nal prices and bought back again at the
highest rates; property to the amount of
millions was actually given away, and mill
lions more were spent for property which
had no value officials whose duty it was
to guard the public interests were corrupted
or intimidated till they forgot their duty, or,
IT they were incorruptible, were got ..out of
the way, until the only rule of the depart
ment appeared to be that every man should
steal what he could lay his hands on. Not
In France under the late. Empire, not even
In turkey under the feeble'r rule of the Sui
tans, did official proHigacy ever touch the
depth it reached in the administration of the
Navy Department. under Grant and Robe
son. Belknsp's ofiense was a trifing thing
compared with the fragrant crime which
Robeson .fostered, yet Belknap was driven
from office and from public life in disgrace
while Robeson was allowed to retire unchal-
lenged, after having plundered the treasury,
stripped the dock-yards destroyed the ships
and debauched the officers, and made the
once proud navy of the United States a
shame and eproach.-Phiia Times