The age-herald., 1900-07-06
Respons billy fer the Oregon.

The Oregon which cost about s50O0,0O0,
 has been floated and will soon be docked
 at Port Arthur or in Japan, and will
 speedily be repaired. The chief task now
 in hand concerns the responsibility for the
 accident-who drove the Oregon onto the | rocks?
 | All are glad at any rate that the splendid i and historic ship has been saved from de- struction. It is the same ship that was
 imperatively needed against Spanish
 Puget Sound, armor laden and gun laden
 and arrived at Juniper Inlet, Florida, with
 out mourning a mishap. She left Puget Sound, State of Washington, on March b. and on May 24 she was in Florida waters Without repairs of any kind, she was or 1 dered on May 29 to join the fleet at san 1 tiago, and she bore a conspicuous part Tn 1 the crushing and final battle of the war | with Spain. In that great sea battle she | was as fast as any of the cruisers, and Captain Clark handled her with con
 summate skill.
 Fortunately the splendid ship has been
 saved from the sea and the rocks ana
 Captain Wilde must now account for the disaster that befell her. It seems that the executive officer of the ship was man | who had been twice court martalled Tor l drunkenness on duty, and twice condemn ed, but who was pardoned by spineless | President. The navigation officer was an 1 inexperienced youth, and the watch was | under officers who had been graduated | within two years.
 If the real responsibility rests upon the administration the facts should be made known. rigid investigation is needed,
 and not a whitewashing affair of the Alger | and Eagan sort. The belief is that Captain | Wilde was not furnished by the Navy l Department with competent assistants. The belief is that Captain Wilde can, if
 he will show distressing and lamentable
 lack of competent officers on board the
 ship.
 The Washington Times thus explains the
 nature of the assistance furnished to Cap
 tain Wilde by the Navy Department:
 His executive officer and second in com
 mand within two and a half years, is
 stated to have been twice court martialed
 for drunkenness on duty. The second time
 he was sentenced to dismissal from the
 service. On his appealing to President Mo l<inley, and taking the pledge, his punish ment was commuted to loss of forty nine numbers, which placed him at the bottom of his grade. This is the kind of person to whom Captain Wilde com peled to turn over the control of his ship. | when venturing to snatch few hours of sleep.
 l ''As for the remainder of the officers, the | navigator is a young man, but seven years l out of Annapolis his previous experience having been confined to the navigation of small craft. He was recently attached to
 the gunboat Princeton, which draws only ten feet of water The senior watch officer
 on deck was graduated in 1898, and the
 six ensigns alternating with him in watch duty are all of the Annapolis class of 1900. Even the ordinary layman is Competent to say that whoever is responsible for plac- ing great national investment and de- fence at the mercy of such combination deserves utter condemnation and punish ment. Of the individual officers connected with the batteship it would be unfair to say more at present. But the country will demand the most searching investigation, and that, if blame is justly imputable to any of them, neither political consideration nor favoritsm shall stand in the way of discipline"