The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-13
SCHEMlNG AGAINST SCHLEY.
FAVORITIsM FOR SAMPSON APPA-
RENT AT WASHINGTON.

FAVORITISM FOR SAMPSON APPA-
RENT AT WASHINGTON.
Promotions VIII he SO Timed ms 20
Permit the bureaucracy FRvOrite
to Rank the Commodore Who OIL
cinted at the Destruction of Ger
veFa's Fleet - Why sampson WAS
Ever Made Acting Renr Admiral IL
Procedure without Explanation.
Letter of the Secretary of the Navy
Gives No Force to the Claims OF
sampson - Public Not BeIittIing
sampson hut Insisting That schIey
should Have Due Credit.
Washington. Aug. 12-The threats of
the clique running the navy department
that they would do" Commodore Schley
before this thing was through with, seem
certain Of success. The bureaucracy
has evidently secured control of the ear
of the Secretary of the Navy and the
combination is too powerful for any man
to break even II he was anxious to do so,
which Commodore Schley apparently is
not.
The announcement that Sampson is TO
be advanced eight numbers ana Schley
SIX means on the surface that both are
to be made rear admirals; but back of IL
is the certainty that when these promo
tons come, they viii b. timed so that
Sampson win rank Schley. There is no
question that this will be the course mat
tres win take. Schey is to be put below
the man whom in actual rank he pre-
cedes, and all because he was brilliantly
et.I ~
fleet.
No man has ever yet been able to get an
explanation of the reasons which impeH-
ed the appointment of Sampson as acting
rear admiral this placing him over the
heads of all the men of nag rank in At
lantic waters. That 1t was due to rank,
arrant favoritism there can be no doubt.
Sampson is of the bureaucracy; his
clique was in charge of affairs at the
navy department. and they put him in
over the head of Schley and others. When
Schley had CerVera bottled up they sent
Sampson at Santiago to take command
over his head; and now they have joined
in the effort to make it appear that Samp-
son deserves the whole credit for the
great naval victory at Santiago, though
he cut absolutely no figure in II, and they
win put a fitting climax to their acts by
fixing the promotions so Sampson Will
rank Schley.
The Secretary of the Navy seems TO
have added nothing to the controversy
by his widely published open letter on the
subject, aud IL he has done his man
Sampson any good l have failed 10 see It,
Long hits at the same man of straw that
Capt. Mahan did in his recent letter in the
sun. Both try to make it appear that
there is an effort on the part of the pub
lie and the newspapers to take from
Sampson credit to which he is entitled
nFrlr AnNF
that effort.
That is the man of straw. Everybody
agrees with them that Sampson did all
they claim for him. He was in command,
as commander he ordered that a close
watch be kept upon The mouth of the
harbor, and he undoubtedly assigned the
ships of the fleet to their positions. But
Long and Mahan seem TO think that
Sampson was the only watcher. That is
mistake. And It is a mistake 10 presume
that any other commanding officer would
have done any less. There is virtue In
having done that sort of duty well, but
there is no stupendous amount of credit
due the officer or the man who does that
sort of duty.
Still there has been no effort on the part
of the public or the newspapers to take
from Sampson the credit for this There
is a disposition to think that there was not
such a great feat, and to believe that any
Lieutenant in the navy could have done
the same thing.
But there is an effort to take credit in
which the people are much interested, and
il is This effort that is at the bottom of
the controversy between the people and
the naval clique. That effort was made
by Acting Admiral Sampson, and he
stands convicted of it on his own official
report He is the man who has sought
to belittle the efforts of another, and who
has tried to take to himself the credit
which belongs to Schley. Sampson might
have been just as much in 1t as Schley
# he had been there; but he was not there.
For him and the other members of the
navy clique to try to take the credit from
Schley has brought out the protests of the
people. Secretary Long and Capt. Mahan
cannot know public sentiment or they
would not try to change the verdict by
newspaper letters, especially when these
letters consist in creating man of straw
and hitting at him
Sampson may rank Schley on the re-
cords, but history viii give Schley credit
for one of the greatest naval victories OF
this decade; and to the people Admiral
Schley will mean a vast deal more than