Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-02-17
PURELY AN ACCIDENT
SEEMS TO BE THE IMPRESSION AT WASHINGTON OF THE
 MAINE DISASTER
Ex Senator Butler Hints at Preach. ery-The Cost of the Battle.
 ship Maine.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1G.-The great est interest prevails among Senators and Representatives as to the ex- tent of the Maine disaster, and many of them hurried to the Navy and State Department 10 learn if there were any further details. With only the first reports before them and a recognition of the graveness of any utterances, there was hesitancy to express opinions at this time.
 Senator Platt, Of Connecticut, ex- pressed the opinion that the explo- sion would be found to be the result of an accident from within, and he doubted that any one could have planned and carried out a plot to bring about an explosion on theship.
 Ex-Senator Butler, of South Caro- lima, who was member of the com mittee on Foreign Relations in the Senate during his service, said that it was decidedly strange that Ameri- can vessels have visited every port in the world and no accident befallen them, but that as soon as a vessel visited Havana this great disaster should occur. Gen. Butler was of the opinion that some bold man had gone aboard the Maine and placed a grenade with slow match where it would explode the magazine. It is probable, he thought, that many people had been permitted to visit the warship and that some one of the visitors had ea.lied q tsry,.stde aboard.
 A very prominentnavalo officer wEo did not wish his hume used because of the lneagerness ofpresentinforma- tion as to details, expressed the in- formal opinion that the accident oc- cured from spontaneous combustion in the coal bunkers, the heat of which exploded the powder in the supple mentary magazine adjoining. Still another prominent officer was very confident that the forward maga- zine of the Maine could not have ex- ploded. "Had the magazine explod- ed, said he, "the ship would have been blown to flinders"
 Senator Hale, Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs and member of the Committee on Appro- priations, said that he had iustcome from an interview with the Secreta- " of the Navy and that he felt conf dent that the Navy Department would institute q thorough investi- gation of the disaster.
 "There is no occasiOn,' said the Senator, ''for Congress to take the matter up. Surely something should be left to tine department, and this IS one of the things which, in my opin- ion. should be so left. It is, ofcourse, impossible, from the information re- ceived, to say how the accident oc- cured, but feel confident that the facts when developed will show that it was an accident. The Maine was, of course, prepared for action in case action should be necessary and had, therefore many vulnerable points ex- posed. A battleship is little less than a volcano under the most fa- yorable circumstances, ana when legislating for the increase of the navy I always feel that a war vessel may prove to be almost as dangerous to those on board as to those whom it might engage i'll hos tile conflict. For this reason am sure the affair in Havana harbor will prove genuine sensation Tn naval circles, aside from any politl- cal aspect of it."
 The Senator expressed the opinion that Congress would take steps to prevent the decrease of the navy, but did not undertake to say that there would be immediate efforts to replace the Maine He said that whatever could have caused the catastrophe, he was sure that no friend of Spain could have been guilty of such conduct, for the reason that if their had been no higher motive the act would have been very foolish and foolhardy one.
 He said the Maine had cost, ae- cording to his recollection, between $3 ,000, 1000 and $4,000,000.
 AnAIJRAI. RRoWN'S OPINION.