The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1899-11-24
5eleft Misfrllurlll.
The schley Controversy.
MIR. GRAHAM, WHO WAS ON THE BROOK
LYN. AS ASSOCIATE PRESS COR
RESPONDENT, ANSWERS
SECRETARY LONG.

From the Albany Times Union, November H.
After eighteen months Of waiting
Secretary Long, of the navy, has writ
ten a surreptitious letter to the Presi-
dent, attacking Admiral Schley and
his friends and asserting that the latter
are the ones responsible for the contro-
versy and that their attacks are un-
called for, as the department has not
prosecuted the admiral, but treated
him better than lie deserved. That
the letter was never intended for pub
lication, but that it was to be covert
attack for the President's eye only, is
evinced by the fact that the New FORK
organ of the Navy Department, which
has been kept we'll supplied with ma
terial for its venomous attacks upon
Schley ever since it decided to apostate
itself and renouncc its opinions as ex-
pressed in its early stories of the cam
paign off Southern Cuba, was COM
PEELED to translate the document from
a Southern German paper.
"Schley's friends" says the Secre-
tary, are responsible. Indeed, Mr..
Secretary, you must have sadly mis-.
judged who Schley's friends were and
are.
Was it Schlcy's friend who took out
of the list of captains the second man
down on that list and promoted HIM
over the heads of seven commanders
and two captains, many of them men
who had performed conspicuou lily gal
liant service?
Was it Schley's friends who shipped
to China the present hero, admiral
Dewey, to get him out Of the way of
SIMPSONS promotion?
Was it Schley's friends who planned
the abortive attempt to find the Span
ish fleet at Porto Rico and induced
Sampson, without learning definitely
of its whereabouts, to turn tail and run
for home, dragging at the stern of the
Iowa and Indiana huge useless moni-
tors, running these two ships for future
rapid service during the war?
Was it Schley's friends who pre-
vented Sampson from coming around
the south end of Cuba with his fleet at
the time of his return from Porto Rico,
and SO intercept the Spanish fleet!
Was it Schley's friends who induced
Sampson to insist that the Spanish
feet would make for Cienfuegos, and
who, alter Il peremptory order from
the department sent Schley 4 merely
tentative order intimating that he still
believed his Judgment correct?
Was it Schlev's friends who, in the
face Of Brassey's naval record that the
ships in Santiago harbor had greater
speed than any of our ships except the
New York and Brooklyn, induced
Sampson to leave the line daily, using
the New York to chase unarmed
schnoners and run errands d.wn the
coast?
Was it Schley's friends who led
Sampsoi:, in the face OF the objection
of Schlry, to risk seven human lives in
an attempt to bottle I, p I feet so that
they would he in comparative safety
from our superior force outside and our
own fleet unable to force an entrance
and aid the army?
Was it Schlcy's frienls who made
Sampson, after notifying the fleet that
for the first time in weeks there were
suspicious movements in the harbor,
send away the battleship Massachu-
sets. the cruisers Newark and Suwa-
nee, and later to take the swift New
York and hins alf far from the line Of
bat le?
Was it Schley's friends who induced
Sampson to send out after the big fg Int
for an alleged Spanish battleship the
Brooklyn with damaged guns, dead
and wounded aboard and men tired of
the fray, when his own flagship, filled
with fresh men and with unexpended
animation, could have done the duty?
And yet no friend Of Schley's has init