The sun., 1889-11-20
The Three Secretaries.

Two former Secretaries OF the Navy &C
companied Secretary BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
TRACY down the bay on Monday noon tc
witness the departure Of the finest fleet oi
war vessels that ever sailed out Of an Ameri.
| can harbor.
The flag we all love goes abroad this
time flying over ships Of which every
| patriotic American can be proud. The
pioneer squadron Of the new navy will as
| tonish an Old World which for years has seen
in our war vessels on foreign stations moth
ing but objects Of legitimate ridicule. To
this result each of the three Secretaries who
bade good-bY to Rear Admiral WALKER has
greatly contributed. Their respective shares
in the credit for the new American navy are
already matters Of history.
All OF the three Secretaries who went down
the bay on the Dolphin are lawyers. The
senior is GEORGE NJ. robson. 1t Is twenty
years since he took the Office which Mr..
TRACY holds. He is now practising his pro-
fession in an obscure way in a remote cor
ner OF New Jersey, and he has dropped al
most entirely out OF sight; yet no man now
living in America has exerted in his time q
more potent influence upon the course Of
politics and the destinies Of parties There
might have been a third term OF GRANT If
there had been no RoBEsoN in GRANTS Cab
met. 1t is because robson existed
and practised for eight years in the
administration OF the Navy Depart
ment the audacious methods which have
become inseparably associated with his name
that it was possible for the Democracy to
elect TILDEN in 1876 and CLEVELAND In 1884.
1t Is because Of robson and Robesonism,
and the waste and plunder OF hundreds Of
millions under his rule, that public opinion
took the robber gang by the throat and thrust
them out Of the navy yards and the naval
bureaus and the naval junk stores. In GER
tain sense the nation still owes a debt OF
gratitude to SEcoR robson, although 1t has
paid heavily in the past on account Of him
and his pals. They say he Is q poor man
now and that some OF the old swaggering
impudence has gone out Of his face. It was
peculiarly appropriate that SECoR robson
should stand for a few minutes alongside Of
WHITNEY and TRACY and contemplate the
Chicago, the Atlanta, the Boston, and the
Yorktown ships built by honest men with
clean hands and white motives.
The other ex-Secretary on the Dolphin was
WILLIAM ~. W hlINEI VI NO" 10TH, W WHOM
Mr.. TRACY has so generously and manfully
accorded his due share of the credit for tho
splendid event of Monday. AS Secretary OF
the Navy Mr. WHITNEY was all that ROBE
SON was not. and he was nothing that ROBE
SON was. In Mr.. CLEvELANDs Adminlstra-
tion. Secretary WHITNEY was the real re-
former. The word reform with him was
something more than cant with which TO
catch the fancy Of political weddings. He
found the department very much as ROBE
SON had left 1t. and the feet very much as
robson had repaired and rebuilt IT,
With a vlgor and an intelligence that
are perhaps not yet appreciated quito at
their full value, Mr.. WHITNEY applied him
self four years ago to the work OF genuine
reform. He talked little, but accomplished
immense results. He reorganized the de-
partment. Strengthened out the tangle OF
corruption and inef1lclency brought the
methods Of common sense and honest pur-
poses to bear on the question of naval con-
etruction, and gave tho country what the
country demanded-ships Of war that arc q
credit to the flag they fly. The squadron
that sailed on Monday is Mr.. WHIrRKrs
achievement and tho record OF his adminis-
tration OF the Navy Department.
Secretary TRAoY's own work Is Just begin
ming, but 1t bids fair to be as honest as
patriotic, and as creditable as was that OF
his predecessor. Standing on deck between
RoBEsoN and WHITNEY, tho present Secro-
tary OF tho Navy must have felt that there