The times., 1897-05-27
STAFF OFFICERS AMAZED
Several of Them Reprimanded by
Assistant Secretary Roosevelt
They Were of the Iowa Trial Boa rd
and Let the Contractor Pay
Their Bills as Usual.

Assistant Secretary Roosevelt has sent
letter that has caused considerable aer
| vousness to each of the staff officers WHO
| were members OF the board that wit
messed the trial trip OF the Iowa. Tie Il t
| ter, 1t is said, is so strong in its terms and
pnrascology that the recipients will Dreb
ably waiton Mr.. Roosevelt when he returns
from Philadelphia and confer with I'm
concerning it.
1t appears that IL has always been the
custom in cases Of trial trips for the con
tractors who build the ships to pay all
the expenses OF the trial board, aud il
the trip proves a successful one, and the
Government accepts the vessel, the con
tractor presents tie bill OF expenses Of
the trial board to the Government and
ii is paid. lf-ihe vesse, is not accepted i,y
the Government the contractor must stand
all expenses AMI lose the amounts paid cut
In cases such as the trial trip Of the iowa
the expenses of trial board, it is said
frequently reach from $4,000 to $1,000
For some reason which has not been
made known to the Naval constructors Iud
engineers, who were the staff Officers.
the line officers all paid their own ex-
penses Incurred on the tliaI tiip OF tue
Iowa, and, when they returned TO Washing
ton, the receiptetl bills were tuned III TO
The department, and charged against IL as
expenses.
When these accounts reached Assista n
Secretary Roosevelt, he inquired for tie
expense account OF the staff OFFICERS,
and was Informed that there was ilone.
that the contractors had the bills This
Information greatly displeased the as
sistant secretary, who immediately wrote
the letter referred To, which, it is said,
repduanded the staff Officers In TIE most
severe terms FOR having allowed them clves
10 be placed In POSITION OF being ,mCler
obligations TO CONTRACTOR while testing
the qualities OF his ship,
The start officers, when spoken to about
the affair today. were unanimous in ex-
pressing tie belief that the letter would
not have been written IL Mr.. Roosevelt had
been better acquainted with the rules ,f
the service, and that the trial board 10y
permitting the contractor to pay the bills
vas under no obligation to him, for the
contractor was reimbursed for his outlay
by the Government
To show that these conditions prevailed
in regard 20 the trial trip OF the Iowa. an
examination of the contract for the build
ing OF the vessel was made and il was
learned that specificati ton 10. section 3,
OF IL provides that THE number OF trials
snail be determined and limited by tie
Secretary OF the Navy, and that the ex-
penses of a successful trisl shall be paid
by the party Of the second part: but that
any unsuccessful trial OF the vessel or her
machinery, prior to her preliminaryOr CON
ditional acceptance, shall be al the ex-
pense Of the party of the first part
The officers who constituted the trial
board oftheI Iowa were: Commodore George
Dewey, Passed Assistant Engineers W. C.
Herbert, w. B. Day, n. G. Leopold, c. E.
Rommell, X. McAlpine, E. Thesis, W. s.
Smith and F. c. Bieg; Chief Engineer B.
Bayiey, Chief Engineer c. W Rae, Lieut.
s. a Staunton, Chief Engineer c. r. Rocker
Naval Constructor j, F. Hanscom, 4 ssist-
ant Engineer C. E Price, Passed Assistant
Engineer c. n. Offiey, Passed Assistant
Engineer g. w. Danforth, Commander w
II. Brownson. Capt G. W Coffin. Passed
Assistant Engineer H. o. Stickney, Lieut..
\. Sargent, Chief Engineer W. w. DUNCAN,
Naval Constructor J. II Linnard Lieut. L.
Flynne and Lieut. n L. Witzel