The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-08-01

lhe d Onm Roach C0se-
Nothing has happened in the
United States this year that has
created as great q sensation in our
country as the failure of Roach, the
great ship builder. His failure SO
unexpected, this in itself was very
productive of establishment. But
what has given it far more attention
is the connection his failure had
with the administration as alleged
by some. The attempt on the part
of the Republican party to prove that
Secretary Whitney was wrong in
his action against Roach and the
effort of the Democratic party to
prove the contrary to be true has
been the cause of bringing the mat
ter fully before the public. 1t is
with difficulty that one is able to
form an opinion ON the subject that
will satisfy himself because of the
matter being discussed mainly from
q political stand point. The facts
in the case as deduced by an i'm
partial observer seem to be about as
follows:
Mr.. Roach had contracted with
the government to build certain
number of ships, while the govern
was in the hands of the Republican
party. When the Democratic party
came into power last fall his con
tract was about two-thirds complete.
The first ship that he had finished
as he claimed, under the present
Administration was called the Dol
phin. On examining the original CON
tract of the government with Mr..
Roach, and the Dolphin, the Secre-
tary of the Navy, Mr.. Whitney, de-
cided that the ship was not as good
as the contract called for. The loose
sort OF way the machinery was put
together violated the contract. This
was the first objection. And the
second was that the material of
which the ship was built was not as
good as he had agreed to use. The
contract specified that each ship
should go so many knots an hour.
The Dolphin failed to reach the re-
quired speed. And lastly the time
the Dolphin should have been done
was long passed before Mr.. Roach
presented it for inspection. For the
above reasons Secretary Whitney
thought he was not justifiable in ac-
cepting the Dolphin as a part of our
Navey. Mr.. Whitney not accepting
it Mr.. Roach's indebtedness was so
great that he was compelled to make
an assignment
That Mr.. Roach has the largest
ship yard in the United States no
one will deny. If the money he was
to receive from the government for
building these ships was not suffi-
cient to enable him to make the ships
as good as he had agreed, as is
claimed by some, that was his own
fault, and not that of the govern
ment. If this is true he should be
pitied for being so unfortunate as to
make the original contract. But if
what he wars to receive was enough
to justify him to build the ships as
good as he had promised he is not to
be pitied because he failed to cheat
the government out of large sum
OF money Either supposition being
true, of course did not justify the
Secretary of the Navy in waving the
original contract and accepting
ship, which, in value, is far less than
the government had contracted for.
A very difficult question is sprung
with this Roach discussion. 1t is
whether the United States should
hire her own men to build her ships
or hire Englishmen to do it when the
latter can do do it much cheaper than
the former.
One can readily see that this
question is a kin to the tariff ques-
tion. So near related are these two
questions that the former. has alb
sorbed some of the perplexities of
the latter.