Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-02-24
RUMORS SET AT REST.
Sensational Stories Denied at the
Navy Department.
Captain Sigsbee's First Dispatch, Was So
Comprehensive and Complete as 20
Leave Little to be Told - The
Captains Conduct Approved.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19-The feature
of the day at the navy department was
the large number of rumors of a war;
like tendency that came to the atten-
ton of the officials as requiring contra
diction.
So formidable had grown the list
that at the close of Office hours Secre-
tary Long was induced to make the
following statement as the easiest
manner of disposing at one time of all
these stories:
Really no information has been re-
ceived since Capt. Sigsbee's first dis
patch adding anything to our knowl-
edge of the disaster. All we know is
that the Maine blew up. There is
abundant room for speculation of all
sorts, but no conclusion can be arrived
at until an examination has been made
by the divers and more facts are OBJ
tanned. 1t is a simple fact to say that
such thing might happen by design
or it might happen by accident. AS
yet there is no indication of design.
Therefore my impression has been all
along, and rather think the general
opinion preponderates in the same di-
rection, that it must have been acci-
dental.
SAT the cabinet meeting to-day the
matter was not discussed, except as
any body of men talk about an event
of that kind and most of the talk re-
expressions of sympathy for the suffer
ers.
sit certainly was very kind thought
3 / n
families of Capt. Sigsbee, OF the exc
cutive officer, Wainwright, and of the
lost seamen whose residences are in
Washington.
''You may say absolutely that there
has been no secret cabinet meetingi
that nothing has taken place in the
cabinet that the public have not been
informed about; that the whole policy
of this department has been to give the
public all the dispatches: that the de-
partment has no more knowledge on
the subject of the cause of the disaster,
or even of the circumstances attending
it, than have the public, and that the
report which was to the effect that
Capt. Sigsbee had warned the depart
ment that the Maine was in danger
from submarine mines or torpedoes is
utterly without foundation, no such re-
port having been received from him or
from anybody else"
The secretary also denied briefly and
comprehensively wild rumors that he
had requested the chief of police of
New York to guard the Vizcaya, and
that he had selected Constructor
Bowles to go to Havana and raise the
he la CT ORR of hn
him was to consult the representatives
of the wrecking companies who prob
ably will have charge OF this work and
endeavor to arrange for both of them
to work together so as to secure the
use of each peculiar plant and to save
time.
The secretary, when asked what was
the departments estimate of the con-
duct of Capt. Sigsbee in the terrible
situation in which he had been placed,
replied:
II think 1 express the feeling of the
president, as well as my own, when !
say that Capt. Sigsbee has conducted
himself as an officer of our navy should.
He was the last to leave his ship when
she went down. His dispatch to me
that night was so complete that
since then have thought of no ques-
ton of fact to ask him which is essen
tia1 to the situation, and which he
could answer, which is not covered by
that dispatch. Its tone, too, is that OF
a discreet and 1evel-headed man who
realized the impression any word from
him at that time would have on the
public mind. Nothing is harder than
for naval officer to lose his ship, so
that 1 have great sympathy for him.
1 await with confidence further re-
.%c