The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-03-03
What Is the Matter with Maine ?

The Chairman Of the Senate Committee
on Naval Affairs Is the Hon. EUGENE HALE
of Maine.
The Chairman of the House Committee
on Naval Affairs is the Hon. CHARLES A.
BoUTELLE Of Maine.
The Chairman of the Committee on Ways
and Means and the leader Of the Repnb-
lican majority in the House is the Hon.
NELSON DINGLEY Of Maine.
The Speaker of the House Of Representa-
tives, the Chairman of the Committee on
Rules, and the most powerful factor in the
determination of legislation at the south
end of the Capitol, is the Hon. THOMAS b.
REED of Maine.
This is a remarkable catalogue for moro
reasons than one. 1t is singular that the
fate of any measure for strengthening
the American Navy in the present emer.
agency should depend to such an extent upon
the patriotic cooperation of four statesmen
from the same State of the Union, namely,
the State which perhaps more distinctly
than all others is maritime in its tradi-
tions and relations.
I" These all IRE l%ongshore statesmen, and
they know and love the smell of salt spray.
Bangor and Machias and PASSPORT are in
Mr.. BoUTELLE's district. Bath and Rock
land and Damariscotta and Wiscasset are
in Mr.. DINGLEY's. Portland and Kenne-
bunkport and the so-called Portsmouth
Navy Yard are in Speaker REEDS. Mr..
HALE represents not only Ellsworth and
Deer Island and Castine, but also the whole
coast; and his constituents are of that sea-
board population which for generations
I-- $1,000 H. - A.
ocean and learned to know Havre and
Hong Kong and Havana about as we'll as
they know their own wharves at home.
From Quoddy Head to Kittery Point, those
seaports on the Maine coast nave been for a
century the b%irthplaces of American ships
of and of war, and the breeding
places of our sailors of peace and our fight.
ing tars and they are represented in the
Congress to-day, every one Of them, by Mr..
HALE, Mr.. REED, Mr.. DINGLEY, and Mr..
BoUTELLE.
What a fortunate circumstance, people
would say, at a time when the navy par
ticularly needs the generous attention OF
Congress, that the four men so stationed
as to be able to do more than any other four
men in the United States to promote the
navy's welfare and to uphold its glorious
traditions should all happen to be men
from ain
What is this, then, that we hear about
obstruction to naval appropriations on the
part OF Chairman HALE of the Senate
Naval Committee and Chairman BoUTELLE
of the House Naval Committee, tacitly but
powerfully aided and abetted as a matter
of party policy by the Speaker and the
leader of the Republican majority3 Party
policy, with q view to the vindication of the
tariff act of last July, is it2 AS IL any one
of the four men from Maine is capable of
the treason to larger national interests
which such a combination at such a time
would involve
There is no party policy now but the ma
tion's policy of preparation, not necessarily
for war but for the possibility of war. 1t is
the flag and not the Dingley act that should
engage the solicitous attention of the
statesmen from Maine at the present time.
Let the navy have every dollar and every
man 1t needs.
AS for the tariff, let 1t go, II It deserves
1t, to the place to which Chairman Boz.
VELLE Is reported, falsely. we hope, to have
dismissed the American public.