The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-08-30
Serious Charges Against the sscre-
tary Of the Navy and Other
Officials.
The Design Of the Cruiser New
York Changed at Great
Expense.
Carnegie Got tho Benefit on Agreeing to
Subscribe Hsndsomsly to the Repub-
lican Campaisn Eund.

WARRINGTON. Au0. 29-ThsEs IL \ big
soandal brewing in the navy department,
which. II report be true. will involve no less
= pe son than the secretary OF ths navy
himself. Commander FolRer, chief Of
ordnance. also comes in for share Of the
notoristy attacking to the soaadsl- Still
another prominsnt rspablicsn will bs
dragged In before the matter ID siftsd, and
republican campaign funds Of the past have
been raised. Everyone still remembers the
much d-of-contraet awarded BY Sss-
retary Tracy to Carnsgis. : contract iAvolv
ing $4,000 for amor plate. II was =
long tims before this illegal action OF the
secretary leaked out. and sven then there
were very few who aavs it crsdsnse. For
sope strange and tnsxplioable reason the
lato congress, democratic though IL was,
did not take The matter In hand by the ap-
pointment of a committee Of. investig cation.
During the history Of tho government this
il the only contract ever awarded without
oompstition ss required by law. II was
openly charged BY naval men that the
amount agreed upon for the work was
largely ID access Of what 1t should be.
y
cabinet officers is revived now by the suit
filed in the Baltimore courts by Lieut.. Sea-
bury, Of the navy, enjoininR the navy de-
partment from the use Of certain improve
ments for rapid firing guns. Lieut.. Ssabury
makes the charge that he exhibited his de-
signs before patent was secured, to Com
mandsr FolRer, and that the latter stole his
ideas and bis designs and gave them to En-
sign Dashiel, who applied for and received
nte' patent upon thsm. FoleeT adopted the
edge, ~ Seabury claims. that they were the
latter's property. Secretary Tracy comes
into the 70 Y at this stage, and ID allege d to
have been unduly influenced by Folgsr
into accepting Dashisls invention. when
he knew that there was a suit psnding
When this matter became known, there
was little else talked about at the navy
department. and it has revived the Tracy
Carnegie scandal. From prominens
officer in the navy, in position to know
the inside facts of tho case, it il learned
than to award contract to Carnegie in
volving $30OO,00O. This officer says large
portion OF the armor plate included in
this contract msde with Carnegie was for
curved Armor plate, for which very high
figure was to be paid. Steel plate manu-
I3ctuTeTe KNOW tn0b g0lb WOtk WAS bu0 IuOSt
difficult in their line, but any Of them
woula have been glad to have undertaken
it at the price agreed upon between Score
tary Tracy and the Carnegie people.
But the work proved to be even . more
difficult task than the Carnsgies had antici-
pated, and after several unsuccessful At
tempts to turn it out Of their mills with the
machinery on hand it was abandoned. just
here il where tho ugly part OF the story
comes in. The Carnegiss came on TO Wash
ington, saw the secretary and told him it
the machinery necessary for this work.
This fgu:s .. naval men say, is hardly half
big enough. There were several lengthy
| conferences between Secretary Tracy and
the Carnegie ! eople and the latter went
| away. No mole was done on the curved
armor plate and nothing more was heard in
regard TO it for several weeks. Then an order
was issued Ring the curved plates to ver-
tieal. This neosssitated a change in the
designs of the armored cruiser New York,
still in cou se of construction at Cramps
shipyards in Philadelphia. This made the
Cramps much trouble and expense, but in
some way the difference was made mp to
| them. The expense of this change so na-
val men say, was immense, and what thoy
are curious about is to know who paid the
bills. Every body at the navy dspa rtment
! says that neither Cramp nor Carnegie lost
anything by the operation. the inference
being that the government went down into
| its capacious rocket and settled the matter.
In return for this the Carnegie people
agreed to give a biz subscription to the 10
publican campaign fund. This is common
gossip at the navy department. and it II
easy to see that the Carnegies could well
afford to give even $4,000 and still have
something to spare out Of the transaction.