The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-05-21
1t is Catching Before Hanging, With
Vengeance, in the Case of
This Elusive Mariner.
IF He REFUSES TO FIGHT
There's no Sure Way to Make Fim-Sampsons and
SchIeys Swift Vessels too Light and
Their Heavy Ones too Slow.

Washington, May 20-The disagreeable
fact is being forced upon the naval STRAIT
egists that the speed Of the Spaniard
gives him a tremendous advantage in
every way except in q battle with su-
| perior force. They are worrying over
| the problem of how TO catch an enemy
who can travel five miles. faster than the
| of Admiral Sampson. They are ready to
! fight the Spaniard and believe he can be
/ crushed but the enemy has shown no
disposition to fight.
1t is the popular thing for the amateur
strategists, who do their thinking on dry
goods boxes scattered about the country,
to say the Spaniard has shown better
strategy than the American, but that is
nonsense. He has the advantage Of
speed, and no strategy can rob him of
that so long as he persists in keeping 800
miles away from an American ship. He
cannot be chased, for he is too fast. The
American cannot leave his seacoast I'M
protected in order to go after the Span
lard, for that willy enemy would run
around the American and have the coast
cities at his mercy.
On the contrary. the official strategists
in Washington think the Spaniard COM
mitted great error In not making a
dash for Havana from Martinique He
had good chance of reaching that port
ahead OF both Sampson and Schley. and
would have found Commodore Watson's
blockading squadron an easy prey.
When the spaniard was reported at Mar
Unique Sampson was at San Juan. and,
hampered with monitors, could not make
over eight knots per hour schley was ct
Hampton roads, about as far away from
Havana as the armada.
The American war managers were very
much worried until they learned that the
enemy had thrown away his opportunity
by going to Curocoa, after which they
breathed easier. They are not likely to
put the American fleets IN danger again.
They will maintain a strong force to sup
port the blockade and to protect the
coast. But the problem of cornering the
Spanard IS worrying them. It may re
patriotic to say that the American navy
is equal to impossiblities, but it is not
good sense.
The battle ships Iowa and Indiana can
never catch the Spanish cruisers II the
enemy chooses to keep out of the way.
There is a chance of taking the enemy
unawares or finding him short Of col, al
though he seems to have solved the coal
problem for the time being If he wants |
a fight the BEETLE need not be long de-
layed. If he hopes to carry on a guerilla |
warfare against inferior vessels and in !
tends to steer clear of the American bat !
tie ships, SIMPSONS fighting squadron is
helpless so long as the enemy can get |
coal
The American fleets have three duties to |
perform. They must maintain the block
ade of two Cuban coasts, protect Ameri-
can ports and crush the enemy That is
not so easy as the stick-whittling strate-
gists may think.
The American Atlantic squadron has
only two armored cruisers fast enough
to hold their own with the Spanish cruis-
ers. These are the New York and the
Brooklyn, but neither of them has bat
teries as powerful as those of the enemy
Or could overtake the enemy if he had
little start.
The protected cruisers Montgomery.
Detroit, Cincinnati and New
Orleans might give the enemy stern
,hase, but the objection TO forming new
lying squadron with these fast ships is
he fact that in guns and armor they are
Tot an equal match for the Spaniard.
These are some Of the difficulties forcing
themselves upon the American strategists.
md the plain American citizen might as
veil understand them. He may he en-
husiastically patriotic ana blindly boast
vi. but the cold. hard fact remains that {
he Spanish armada can run around the !
American battleships. and the American /
,avv cannot do INCONSISTENCIES ?