Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-08-27
IN Honest Armor Report.
IN. Y. Tribue.l

The House committee on naval affairs
under the leadership of Chairman Cum
mings has investigated the armor frauds
with honesty of purpose and thoroughness
of method. Government inspectors, the
Carnegie officials and informers and work
men have been closely questioned, and no
branch Of the inquiry has been neglected.
The committee has been in earnest, and has
shown q determination to reach the bottom
of the scandal. The result of the investi-
CATION is report for which the committee
is to be heartily commended, discreditable
as the conclusions may be to the contrac-
tors and to the naval experts. The work
of the House committee offers marked
contrast to the imbecile and pusillanimous
inaction Of the Senate sugar Investigators.
The preliminary report fully sustains the
charges of fraud which have been made by
The Tribune and other journals, and ap-
portions the responsibility between govern
ment officials and the contractors. 1t does
not charge the inspectors with dishonesty
or collision with fraud, but it arraigns them
for incompetence and ignorance. From
this general conclusion We are not disposed
to dissent. We have not believed that they
deliberately betrayed their trust, amazing
as was the facility with which they were i'm
posed upon by fake reports and systematic
deception. They were not fitted by educa-
ton and training for the work undertaken
by them. 1t ought to be possible, and we
believe that it is entirely practicable,
for the government to command
the services of naval experts who are
competent to do the work of experts; but the
appointments must be made with painstak-
ing care and solely with reference to practi,
cal skill and scientific training. Line off,
GERS ought not to have the preference, since
there are other branches of the naval ser
vice which have received superior techni-
cal education for this kind of work.
The Carnegie Company is heavily scored
by the committee, and, we are constrained
to add, condemned with entire justice. No
summary of the report can deal adequately
with the exhaustive and detailed ac-
count of the systematic imposture
practised at the works. The contrac-
tors are charged with fragrant and DELHI
crate neglect to comply with the require
ments of the specifications; with varying
treatment of plates instead Of making il
uniform; with deliberately falsifying
reports and misleading the inspectors; with
retreating specimens so as to increase arti-
icially the tensile strength with manipulate
ing the testing machines and plugging
blowholes; with secretly using the insrec-
tors stamp, obtained either by theft or by
duplication. and with every manner of du-
plicity and fraud in inducing the acceptance
of plates and bolts which would have been
rejected if the methods of treatment and
imposture had been known. The re-
port not only discredits the bust
ness methods employed at the works and
compromises the reputation of the con,rAc-
tors, but it also throws suspicion upon the
defensive qualities of the srmor used in the
nex ships, and tends to prove that even
when the material is perfect, the plates are
held together by bolts which would break
under the shock of projectiles or ramming.
There is one branch of the investigation
which lay outside the range of the commit
tees intelligent scrutiny. That is the
action of the Cleveland administration,
in compromising abruptly with the
contractors when the navy depart