The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1898-03-01

40 formal with a view to its early trans
MISSION 10 the Navy Department.. Inc
ADMIRAL then forwards it 10 the Once
If the Judge Advocate General, "nefe
II becomes a permanent record: Iue
Secretary Of the : avy. and ultlnlateis
rhe President. passes on thF ohuloih9 y.
the court. but as Il rule the Iillulhss y
fact stand without approval.
The officials of the War Department
have CONNECTED all the preliminary ar
I - ngamentS for the immediate eXecu-
ZION of the bill which is expected to be-
come 4 law within the next few Gays.
providing for two additional regiments OF
ort;llarv There will be no difficulty
whatever in securing the men as appll-
cations for enlistment have been re-
oo;raa far in excess Of the number re
onirAd. viz. 1910 men. Great care will
;. taken in the recruiting and only the
best men will be accepted. Under the
law all the new men must be cluZenS
Of the United States. II Is propapic
,hat the ranks will be recruited to Il
large extent from men VINO lh.e a.
ready served one or more terms IN the
army.
With the two new regiments there will
he seven regiments of artillery anu lhe
1otaI strengt of the army, including the
hosnital corps. ordnance and engineer,
hattaions and the West Point detach-
mont. will be increased to nearly 2',OD
men.
The new organization will result III
the promotion Of two lieutenant colonies,
! four majors, ten captains, thlrty-1our
! first li~eutenants, three second lieutenants
and will absorb the eighteen ADDITIONAL
second lieutenants Of infantry. NO va
c~ancies will be created however, and no
appointmentS will have TO be made.
SECRETARY LONG SLEEPS.
Washington, D. c.. Feb. 26.-Secreta-
nv Long enjoyed n SOUND sleep last night,
the first he has had for some time. ano
in consequence he felt so much refreshed
this morning that he decided to ADAM
don. his proposed absence from the Navy
Department and continue at his duties.
so he was early at his desk. and III
consultation with Assistant Secretary
Roosevelt and Captain Cr0WmnshlFld,
Chief Of the Navigation Bureau. AS
to the outlook he said he thought things
were looking much better. He said
the public ought not to be under an
misrepresentation with regard to Naval
movements; that so far they had mostly
been ordinary disposition which ar"
made from time to time.
The attention Of Naval officers has
been strongly attracted to the statement
made by representatives Of the Spanish
governments to the effect that there
were no mines or torpcdoet> Of any KIND
in Havana harbOr. 1t can be said that
this statement exactly agrees with the
injuries that have been under way for
many months by agents of our govern
ment, for, so far, it is said. they have
been unable to find the slightest evi-
dence of the existence Of any plan OF de-
Tense in the harbOr by means OF MINES
or torpedoes. much less to locate them.
as has been reported in some quarters.
Officials Of the Navy Department say
that the effect OF this statement, if it is
to be accepted as conclusive on that
pOint, is almost certain to negative III
supposition that the disaster resulted
from other than accidental causes, as the
almost unanimous testimony of experts
here. based on the history of torpedo
work, is TO the effect that no single tor
pedo of any type could have caused the
terrific wreck of the Maine.
THE ACCIDENTAL THEORY.
In the pursuit Of details, some of the
ordnance officers. acting upon the theory
that the large tcn-inch magazine for
ward was not exploded. have been look
ing into the contents of the smaller and
adjoining Six-inch magazines. They find
that allowing for the amount Of powder
that was probably consumed III practice
drills by the Maine before she arrived
in Havana harbor. there was certainly
no less than 5000 pounds of powder in
this magazine, an amount sufficient to
, have caused enormous destruction had
, it been exploded at one time.
: When the attention Of Philip Alger,
! Expert of the Bureau of Ordnance, was
called to Senior Du Bosc"s statement,
: said:
The statement is important as repre-
senting the position taken by the Spanish
officials w1hO nave absolute knowledge
Of whether or not Havana harbor was
mined. 1t is Of course inherently inn
probable that such mines existed since
it IS not customary to plant torDedoes
in harbors at all. especially not in har-
: bors constantly occupied by friendly
vessels. Should it be possible to prove
Senior Du Bosses statement to be true,
= the whole theory of the Names destruc-
ton by 4 torpedo will become untenable,
, III my opinion. But the only proper
course to be now pursued is to await
patiently the report Of the Board Of
2 Investigation and to accept their findings
as conclusive. When the first news of
\ the catastrophe arrived. it was well to
A attempt to allay excitement by pointing
\ out the fact that the probabilities We're
greatly in favor of the explosion having
Y been en- accidental one. Nothing that
las yet become known should lead ia
a modification Of this vew. 1t is still
= vastly more probable that the. cause
!; was an internal one than that it was
external. There seems. however. to be
! a prevalent feeling that the accident
theory casts a reflection upon the Navy.
4 and also that its acceptance would be
hurtful to the Nays interests. The
contrary seems to me to be true. The
Wit of man has not yet devised any i'm
plemellt Of destruction which accident
o may not turn against friend with an
effect equal to that which it was intend.
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