Arizona republican., 1898-06-18
PRESIDENTS HAND
(Continued From First Page)..

authentic news, and they catch at the flyers which are put out to influence the stock market Anaiyze all the peace Tumors and see what they amount to. Austria is going to inter pose. We'll, I was talking to one of the German embassy round at the club the other evening and casually men tioned Austria's naval strength. He answered me in the most matter of fact way by saying he thought Austria had six or seven modern vessels in it's navy and he believed two of them were sea-
 worthy. Then I began to think my self that we had managed to get along under a suspension of diplomatic rela- tions with Austria for a whole year, after our proposed Minister Keller had
 been rejected, and did not feel one whit
 the worse flor it. Also it occurred to
 me that there had been a somewhat
 peremptory demand made by Austria
 Hungary for satisfaction for some
 subjects of that empire killed by one
 of our sheriffs in riot in Pennsyl-
 van1a year or so ago, which we had contemptuously ignored, and nothing had come of it.
 Russia, France and Germany suc- cessively came into my mind as being
 possible props upon which Spain
 could lean, but each and every one of
 them dismissed itself with the reflec- tion that each was engaged in land grabbing in the east, and not one of them could afford to trade off the silent |acquiescence of the United States for the solid support of bankrupt Spain.
 "Then, further, reflected what pos- sible basis could be offered for peace.
 The surrender of Cuba? Don Carlos would be enthroned in Madrid in ten days if Sagasta proposed it. The payment of an indemnity equal to the expenses of the war and the submis- sion of territorial questions to arbitra-
 tiOn? Spain cannot raise enough
 money to coal her fleets and pay her
 soldiers their back wages. How can she offer any terms which the United
 States would for a moment consider,
 let alone accept? No, the war must
 go on to the bitter end, and that will
 be matter of months to come''
 It was impossible to resist the logic
 of these conclusions. For my own
 part I felt little inclined to contest them. inasmuch as I had ventured to express much the same views in The Republican some time ago.
 MORE ABOUT HOBSONS NERVE. Now that the whole world is ring ing with praise of the great exploit of Lieutenant Hobson it becomes rather interesting to recall the fact that the United States navy came very nearly losing his services few years ago, in which case the daring sinking of the Merrimac might have remained in the brain of it's conductor uneXecuted Some of the collateral facts have been published, but not the whole story Its details happen to be known to me personally.
 When the Chinese-Japanese war be- came fragrant (here my story follows
 on established lines, but for time
 cn1y), Assistant Constructor Hobson
 a protege of MT. Herbert of Alabama
 then secretary of the navy, was sta toned in Washington, and developed a
 plan to his friend the secretary to go
 aboard one of the armored ships of either nation, he did not care which, and observe by personal experience the effect of high power projectiles upon them. He wanted to be on board
 battleship when a shell hit it and to note the result. This plan he urged
 with so much persistence and so many arguments as to the incalculable value which such knowledge would exert on the future construction of our navy, that Secretary Herbert yielded to his importunities and secured the sanction of President Cleveland to appoint Constructor Hobson's designation as naval observer with the contending na- tions, provided they would assent.
 The Japanese minister promptly se- cured from his government a permit for Hobson to join the Japanese fleet, and Minister Denby, in Pekin, secured by slower methods the consent of the Chinese Tsung sf Lamen. The obtain ing of these permits consumed some time and necessarily obtained some publicity. When some of the older naval constructors and line officers learned that mere boy was about to be preferred over their heads on an i'm portant mission, which if successfully might lead to high pro- motion, they raised such an internal turmoil within the privileged ranks of
  ,ould not fail to reach the newspapers. |
 The fact of Hobson's designation for | his duty was announced by one of the | wo rival press associations then exist l ng in Washington. The other asso- i .iation made inquiries. about the mat 1 CT and was met by a diplomatic de- lial" This put those officers who l lad originally given publicity to young Iobson's appointment on their mettle, nd they took care that the original ,apers designating him should be hown to some of the doubting Thom- ses This settled the question of ve- acity, but also knocked HObson's mis- ion on the head. The Japanese min ster informed the state department hat it had granted a special permit to naval representative of the United States as an act of extreme friendli- less, after having refused similar ,ermit to Great Britain, Germany and ,ther powers, but now that the fact lad been made known it was compelled