The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-03-21

washington. March 20.-President
Mckinley did not attend church this
morning as is his custom, but instead
spent two hours or more in conference
with several members of the cabinet
Assistant Secretary Day called about
1880 and remained until nearly l. Sec
rotary Long and Secretary Bliss were
the other members present. They re-
NAMED more than an hour.
Commander Clover, in company WIN
Mr.. Flint. who has been acting for the
government in the negotiations for the
purchase of ships. also called, and We're
shown into the presidents private OF
fee The members of the cabinet, on
leaving the White House, said that
there was nc special significance in the
meeting this morning.
EARLY IN TIE WEEK.
The report of the court Of inquiry
had not been received. nor was it deli
nitaly known when il would reach mere:
1t was said. however, that IT Woulc
probably arrive early in the week, aHu
as soon as received it would be handed
at once to the president, and when II
has been read and considered by the
president it would be made public.
Secretary Long, in speaking OF the
report said that while fully realizing
its Importance, the country, IN MS
opinion, would willingly accord to the
president a day or two. If necessary
for its consideration. The indications
seem 10 be that the report will be made
public by the middle of the present
week.
SOUTH AMERICAN SHIPS. q
The presence of Mr.. Charles r. Flint
at the conference naturally gives in
ference that The president and his ad-
viscrs were discussing the question OF
acquiring additional ships Mr.. Flint,
whose commercial interests are largely
with South American countries, is be-
Teved. in a measure. at least, to rep
resent Chill and Argentina in negotia-
tons which are under way for the dis
position of their war vessels. A re
porter today asked Mr.. Flint If he
could say whether or not the United
States had secured possession of the
Chilian ship O'Higgins and the Argen-
tine ship San MARITIME, but he declined
20 make any statement as to that par
ticular feature of the subject. When
pressed for information in regard to
the matter, he replied:
WARM FRIENDSHIP.
both Chill and the Argentine Re-
public have the warmest friendship
and admiration for the United States
and her institutions. Neither country
is anxious to sell their ships to this
government. basing the indispositicn on
the belief that we have an excellent
navy of our own. They want these
vessels themselves. If the time should
come. however. when it was apparent
that the United States needs these yes
sells they would gladly part with them
to u.s.
The attention of Mr.. Flint was called
to the published report that the United
he IQr.,z lfr.,a
torpedo gunboat Tuby, but he said this
was not done so far as he was aware,
as there were no negotiations under
way to that effect.
QUIET SABBATH
Aside from the meeting of several
members of the cabinet at the White
House. there were no incidents of i'm
portance during the day. Judge Day,
Assistant Secretary Adee Chief Clerk
Michael and other officials were at the
department, but this has been quite
common during the recent month. Also
at the war and navy departments a
number of the chiefs of bureaus were
at their desks for several hours, mainly
for the purpose of disposing of the
business which recently has accumu-
lated so rapidly.
CUBAN CONFERENCE.
The most interesting topic of the day
was based on the dispatches from Ha-
vana, indicating a prospective confer
ence between General Pando and Gen.
erals Garcia and Gomez and others
of the insurgent army, for the purpose
of submitting to the latter a formal
offer of autonomy. The basis of au-
tonomy as outlined in the dispatches
apparently found no credence with the
officials of the Spanish legation. They
stated their disbelief that a conference
on the proposed lines was probable,
and added that they had no informa-
ton on the subject. Minister Polo V
Bernsbe expressed the opinion that the
report from Havana was unfounded, as
he said the basis upon which it was
proposed TO great autonomy IVES alb
surd.