The Irish standard., 1898-03-05
THE EXPLOSION OF THE MAINE.

The cause Of the disaster to the Ameri-
can battleship in the harbor of Havana
is yet a mystery. Pending the official in
quiry the American people, in that spirit
of conservatism which characterizes
them, will suspend judgment and await
the solution with composure. The yellow
journals of the East, however, are de-
termined to have war. The most able
| bodied liars. with fertile imaginations,
are. employed by them to write the most
exciting stories of Spanish treachery, and
! they are trying to surpass one another
in lying to favor the pecuniary interests
of rival newspapers. The American peo-
pie have lost confidence in such papers
and consider them totally unworthy of
credcnce. They nh-7=bnger represent
American sentiment and utterly fail to
mould public opinion. They give out the
most conflicting and contradictory re-
ports. Men with excitable temperaments
are deceived by such publications and
threaten dire disaster to all the Spani
ards in creation, whom they emphat lilly
And strange to say. the men who depre-
cate war with England and favor an
Anglo-American alliance, both offensive
and defensive, are loudest in their de-
nunciations. The cool. calm and level
headed Americans are willing to wait
and learn the cause Of the catastrophe
from an official source. If they find that
the destruction Of the Maine is due to
Spanish inhumanity they will be aroused
to Indignation and ready to buckle on
their armor at their country's call. If
they find that the explosion was caused
by accident they will exonerate Spain
from all responsibility and congratulate
themselves upon preserving their equa-
nimity. Hasty conclusions are to be
deprecated at this solemn juncture.
The sensational correspondents who
say that Everybody in Havana" knows
that the ship was blown up by Spanish
mines or torpedoes must not be believed.
the Maine was wrecked from internal
causes. The New York Sun, which is
more trustworthy than it's local contem-
poraries, gives the opinion OF an engineer
who was engaged on the construction
OF the Maine in the Brooklyn navy yard.
He says she was wrecked by the eXplos-
ion of the magazine forward of the boiler
room or firc-room, with coal bunkers on
either side of it. He declares she could
not be exploded by conclusion from
without. He gives the following suggest
i've statement from his interview in the
Sun:
when the Maine was completed so that
her fires were lighted under The boilers
was with others in the magazine,
and the bulkhead separating the fireroom
from the magazine became SO hot that
couldn't hold my hand en- 1t. When this
was discovered il was proposed to put
IN a second buushead. leaving an air
space between tue fist and second to
separate the boiler room from the maya
zine. But it was decided that there was
not room enough for this. so sheathing
of asbestos on the original bulkhead was
substituted l think that the fire heated
the bulkhead redsAot. and that the brass
powder cases or one 4 them became red
hot from contact .Yithsat. know Of moth
ing that neutrality-suspicious. rapidly than
brass If this brass case became red hot
it would explodeMe go pounds of pow
der within it, which explosion would fire
the whole magazine. There would be the
two explosions which the dispatches say
We're heard"
1t appears there were 1920 pounds of
brown powder In tho magazine on the
fatal night, which could be ignited by
the application of flame or red heat
and cause the destruction Of the shin.
If 1t develops that the disaster was
caused by an internal explosion the de-
signer of the ship will be the man held
responsible for the sacrifice of life and
property. In any event. the American
people will wait patiently for the cause