The San Francisco call., 1898-03-13

4
 An evening paper prints to- q night a statement purporting .
 E to be "semi-oficial," denying . q that the President or his ad- . . visers have received any off 2 . cial intimation as to what the Q naval courts report will be. n It is admitted, however, that q
 = the President and individual q r members of the Cabinet have q . their own opinions as to what 9 . the boards report will show, Q and that Git is thought that on r = these mere expressions of be- x se< lief have been founded stories x = that the administration knows q q of the findings .
 The following dispatch is sent to the Philadelphia Press by it's staff correspondent, MT. E. J. Gibson, who is considered one of the most reliable correspondents in Washington. He is known to stand well with Presi- 0C4I 4hCA1A4Oys PO44 LIS 4OSo1 II from Cuba, MT. Gibson was invited to the White House and had a long interview with the President. MT. Gibson telegraphs his paper as fol- lows:
 Ut is certain that letters came to the President bringing information from members of the Court of In- quiry, and it was this Information that brought about the extraordinary conferences on last Sunday and Mon day, resulting in the fifty million dollar emergency appropriation. It was not until the board had practi- cally closed it's inquiry and had what is regarded as absolute proof that the Maine was blown up by a mine, that the information was transmitted to the President and Secretary Long as to what the board would report. A letter from one of the officers of the board conveyed that information, and there were also two other letters, conveying like information.
 '"The prompt and momentous ac- tion of the Government on the re- ceipt of such information is proof enough of it's tremendous import ance.
 ''The Maine was blown up by a mine, and the Board of Inquiry will report that the mine was placed in the harbor by Spanish officials.
 Confirmation of the dispatch, printed in the Press, to the effect that the Maine was blown up by a mine, and that it was this informa- tion which led to the conferences Sunday and Monday and the emer- gency appropriation by Congress, came to the Press correspondent to- night from very high source. An intimate friend of the President from an Eastern State, who has been in consultation with him, said tonight he had talked with the President on this subject, and the President had intimated that the probability of set ting the controversy with Spain without war was remote.
 "This gentleman was told by the President that he had had in his pos session for nearly week full infor-
 
 nation of the cause which led to the disaster at Havana, and that the circumstances were such as to render peaceful settlement very difficult.
 '.The President said further, ac- cording to this gentleman, that both the War and the Navy Departments were actively engaged in work which was intended to anticipate the worst, and that, while he hoped for peace, if the honor of the nation were in volved, as appeared to be the case, it might be difficult to avoid war.
 .tAn intimate friend of the Presi- dent, living in his own State, ex- pressed the opinion tonight that so far as he could see war was inevit- able"