The San Francisco call., 1898-02-19
WILL INDICATE THE NATIONS HONOR

graded insinuation made here that an officer of our country, with the oath and with the flag above him, would lie and cast responsibility where it did not belong.
 "Ah, MT. President, war is grim decision, and when it comes it must come so that the people ot the world, whether they fight with us or not, can at least respect our conduct and our position, and above all, MT. President, it must come under cir cumstances which make us respect ourselves"
 Wolcott was followed immediately by Lodge or Massachusetts, who had sat very restless under Mason's reflections on the Navy Department. He also spoke With intense earnestnesS saying:
 MT. President, I have no desire and no intention of saying one word in re- gard to the war which is raging in Cuba. No one could detest the horrors enacted in that island more than I. No one desires more than I to see the spanish power swept from that island, as It has been from all the States of south America, but, Mr. President that question is not here. We are face to face at this moment with great na- tlonal calamity. The Americans have received the awful news of the sinking or the Warship Maine with a splendid silence and self-restraint, both in Con- gress and throughout the country Ihey are waiting sternly, quietly to Know the truth, and the truth they will have. This is not a question InVOlUnS C11h to, 1c- This is a question which involves brave American seamen, gone to their death m foreign port In the presence of tnat calamity what we want is the truth. How are we to get it? By the investigations of committee of Con- gress which knows nothing, which has no witnesses to summon, which has no expert Knowledge, which is miles from the place where the disaster occurred?
 There is only one way to get at the truth of this matter, and that is through the naval officers who have been selected already to perform that duty. Can any one suppose that the naval officers of the United States men on whose careers in the past and whose conduct in the present there Is not and never has been blemish, would seek to conceal the facts in such case as this? l would rather trust this in- vestigation to the officers of the Ameri- can navy than to any other men in the country. Does any one suppose that the captain of that ship, who, wounded. stunned by the explosion, remained until the last upon the sinking vessel, and who, in the midst of that awful terror and excitement with every duty nobly done, sent dispatch to this country showing a cColness ana nerve which are an honor to the American CJ1nnOCP tain Sigsbee. capable of such splendid conduct, is going to lie about his ship? The Secretary of the Navy is man of distinguished ability, hCnor and of patriotism. If any one lmaglnes that Secretary Long will not tell the truth, and insist upon the whole of It, he little knows the character or the man Wno has the honor to fill that great post at the head of the navy, and Tor one trust that Congress will await the ac- tion of the proper department charged with this inquiry, and will not attempt to do anything which could in the least degree derogate from the attitude which the American people and Con- gress should hold in the presence of a calamity so dire and SO tragic as that which befell the battleship Maine.
 1T think those who know Hon. Theo- dore Roosevelt who is Mr. Longs right-hand man, would be slow to be- lieve that he would ask to conceal the truth in regard to this disaster. MT. President I am sorry that any debate has arisen on this question. It seems to me that the attitude of Congress ever since the awful news arrived has been in the highest degree dignified and worthy-worthy of itself and wor- thy of the American people. We have not speculated or talked.
 "We have waited in silence of much deeper meaning than any words. We want to know the truth. If it was an accident that destroyed the Maine then let us provide so far as human foresight can against a