The age-herald., 1898-08-28
NAVY CONTINUES
 TO BE UNRUFFLED Nothing Being Done to Mar Its Great
 Record. FORCE IS BEING CUT DOWN Ships Are Taken Out of Commission As
 Rapidly As Possible. A TRIBUTE TO cROwNENsHIELO He Has Done His Work Faithfully and Well, Yet He Has Received No
 Reward and Has Been
 Promised None.
A TRIBUTE TO cROwNENsHIELD
BY ARCHIBALD W. BUTT.

army is torn almost asunder by factions jealousies, the navy continues its service unruffied; doing no hing to mar its great record during this war. Ships are being taken out of commission as rapidly as possible and the force cut down in every way. There has not been a breath of scandal connected with the navy and as far as the eye can range there are no signs of any. Some extraordinary prices were paid for ships, but they had to be had, and the government was almost at the mercy of the ship-owners. Secretary Long conducted nearly every sale and no touch of suspicion can ever come near this sturdy New Englander. The prompt ness with which the department went to work and built up navy of auxiliary ships in day it might be said short ened the war many months and certainly saved thousands of lives in the army and as many dollars in the shipping interest along the coast. The fact that every port was protected made it impossible practi- cally for Spain to send her fleets to harass our coasts When the history of the war is written it will be found that long be- fore the president had begun to believe there would be a war, when the secretary of the navy was depricating any talk of hostilities and presistently blinding him. self to the real situation there was one xxyI1n aI,n 6AI prepared to mee, it. Had the war not been declared this man would probably have come in for much censure, but as 1t did occur he remains today one of the un- known heroes of the struggle.
 Several years ago Captain Clark, of Mis- souri, made speech. famous spech it was at the time, wherein he called up from the graves of buried hopes and ambitions, . men whom he termed the unknown heroes of the war of '61. It is to be hoped that Captain Crownenshield, the head of the navigation bureau. will not have to wait thirty-five years before he gets recogni- tion from this government for labor per- formed in its service.
 Already the army is seeing to 1t that Adjutant-General Corbin shall be made major general when congress meets. Yet up to this time no suggestion has come from any point that Captain Crownen- shield, whose duties corresponds exactly to those of the adjutant general of the army shall have promotion.
 Already Captain Crownenshield has been pushed down several numbers by promo tions of men over him. The very men whom he has put forward, many being his juniors in the service, have gone over him. He is a sturdy individual and has never winced at this apparent injustice. He knew what he was doing when he took the bureau of navigation and realized the odds which were against him when he continued there when the war broke out. He could have had almost any ship, had he demand ed 1t. He asked for sea duty at once, but was urged to stay at his post of duty. How well he has performed his labors only the navy knows.
 The point has ueen made that he should have protected himself by giving conspicu- ous duty to men who were his senior, then it. would not have mattered to him how many points they were promoted. But this would not have ben like Crownen- shield. He has control of the personnel of the navy just as Corbin has of the army.
 
 a war board he had command of every ship in the navy, it might be said, with truth. Here is what the law provides for him to do. The duties of the bureau of navigation comprise the promulgation, re- cord, and enforcement of orders of the sec- retary of the fleet and to the officers of the navy all that relates to the educa- ton of the officers and men. the enlistment and discharge of the enlisted men. It es- tablishes the complement of all ships in commission.
 This Is only a part of its dutis.
 But as I have said above, the entire pre- parations for the war largely depended upon Crownenshield. He believed that war was inevitable and that this country must be prepared for it. In January he said: "You can't keep two armies facing each other long without having a fight unless one is drawn off," He saw no chance of the latter happening and therefore began the work of preparing the navy for the fighting ahead of 1t on his own responsi- bility.
 This much know. It was Captain Crownenshield who as early as January 17th informed the South Atlantic station that affairs were in a perturbed condition, and to move the ships north to Para. On the same day he stopped the Helena and Bancroft. bound for China, at Lisbon, and the Wilmington at the West Indies. On January p he ordered the Marblehead to Key West, and wired the vessels in the Mediterranean to proceed slowly to Lis bon and be prepared to make the trip across the Atlantic.
 On the 27th of January he directed Com modore Dewey to discharge all men whose terms of enlistment were about to expire and fill with new enlistments. He likewise ordered Dewey to be prepared for any emergency. and to gather all the Asiatic squadron at Hong Kong, with full bunk CTS. It would be a useless detail to fol-