The record-union., 1896-02-25
salssroom. All and A

was absolutely false, and nothing of
the kind has ever been found necessary
by the Navy Department. The truth is
that on that cruise the Monterey
achieved a speed and made a record,
the parallel of which is not to be found
in the record of any trip of any mon
itor built here or anywhere else. 1t
was an achievement over which the
press of America should have glorified
Another statement carefully preserved
by the Japanese Government runs to
the effect that the Texas, when docked
showed that her bottom was injured
OF course, it was a hand inimical to
American interests that forwarded
these documents to Japan, and it was
a press thoughtless to those interests
that originally published them. The
breaking of the piston of the Charles
ton, after ten years of pretty active
service, was also heralded to the Ma
rine Bureau by way of clippings from
the American press.
The persistent statements in regard
to imperfect arJnor plates were used
as reasons why Japan should secure
amor elsewhere than America. These
charges running to defects in armor
plates have never been verified, and no
armor has ever been removed from the.
ship OF which it was first placed. The
officials who certified to defects in armor
are the very same officials who passed
upon and are now using the very things
in which defects were claimed Per-
haps these things may strike the every
day reader as being harmless, but
when you consider that Japan is now
in the market prepared to offer con-
tracts for the construction of men-of-
war; when you consider that a local
journal, which should be interested in
fostering and encouraging local enter
prise, rather than tearing it down, free
ly gives voice to statements derogatory
to the ability of local concerns to con-
struct men -of-war; when you consider
that none of these improved statements
are in fact the truth; when you con-
slider that the English ship-builder has
deemed these attacks of sufficient inn
portance to be forwarded to the Japan
ese Government; when you consider
that the Marine Bureau of Japan gives
full weight to these lying statements,
assumes their correctness and places
the burden of elaborate disproof upon
the unlucky p-builder-it must be
apparent to anyone with a perception
extending beyond his nose that such
lies do not die; that they are expensive
to the community, and are likely to di-
vert millions of dollars that otherwise
would have been expended among us.
Competition between nations for tie
building of ships is sharp. To secure
contracts for such work is not only a
matter of monetary Importance, but it
should be matter of national pride as
well. It is from this point of view that
other peoples and other nations regard
it. Patriotic Japan cannot realize that
home papers would untruthfully decry
home products, and everything pub
lished in such papers, whatever the mo-
tive, is used by our competitors in ad-
vancing their own and destroying our
material interests. Probably these
senseless and inexcusable attacks have
cost this city millions of dollars and
have resulted in the enforced idleness of
thousands of men, who would have
been employed in the construction of
vessels of war.