The times., 1898-08-08


Commodore Samrson is shown to have
displayed a kind and degree of previ-
sion that must ever astonsh and en-
thuse the tactical world. On the other
hand, when Cervera did finally make
his break for liberty, Sampson foreor-
dination as to the searchlights on dark
nights had so solved the problem that
a flag officer in the fight became an Of
fensve superfiuity. and the signals
under which the battle was fought and
won an affront to the absent ''com-
mander-in-ch
Like all others who are seek ng to rob
Commodore Schley Of the honors fairly
and exclusively won by him, Captain
Mahan attempts to prove first cause,
Schley being the inescapable proximate
one. So he falls back upon Sampsons S
perfunctory circulars of weeks before,
telling his officers to mind their eye
and work their lamps. as everybody.
naval authorities" of the Mahan sort
excepted, knows they would have done
without orders, supposing them to be
reasonably sane and sober As our dis
tinguished author is aware, there afe
scientific difficulties in the way when a
first cause is to be leeated. Behind
Schley. Mahan would place Sampson.
and stop right there and give him a
vice admiral's commission to mark the
spot. Unfortunately, such halt IS i'm
possible. Back CT Sampson we are
compelled to observe the lamps and to
assume something a little better than
blithering idiocy on the part of the
gallant officers whose watchfulne SIS
their fiery glances demonstrated. To
account for an ultimate consequence
flowing from a first cause. that cause
must be established as necessary
one, and the necessity of Sampson at
any stage of the proceedings has never
been made out, any more than has his
usefulness.
There is one phase of Capt. Ma
hans acton in taking up the cudgels
for Commodore Sampson, which is cal
culated to cause as. much resentment
as surprise Perhaps as a part, san,
and practically the apologist for a
bureaucratic system of favoritism and
malyersation Of justice which is GER
tain TO receive Congressional attention
next Winter if the press of the country
has any influence. we might expect him
to take the undeniable record, and
make the best case he could out of it
for the object of his and his colleagues
solcitude. He goes beyond that and
ignores the record, just as Sampson
does in his report, suppressing facts,
one of them at least being material.
Why does Capt. Mahan fail To re-
member that, when Sampson sailed
away toward the eastern horizon at
break of dav on July third, he turned
over the command of the fleet To Com
modore Schley, not constructive,y, but
by formal signal? If that act did not
impose upon Commodore Schley the
responsibility for whatever might oc-
cur during the absence of the com
mander-in-chief," and, hence, entitle
him to the credit Of whatever he might
achieve in command while that absence
continued. what in the name Of God
is the use of human logic, and what
has become of the ordinary sense of
equity and decency usually presumed
to inhere in officers and gentl5menE
In the i'll advised encyclical which
Mahan of the War Board has uttered
from the barnacle- -bottcmed hull Of OBJ
noxious bureaucracy, he has failed to
! promote the interests or to improve the
~
Sampson, while he viii discover that
he has very greatly depressed his own