The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-08-02
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
WAsHINGToN, D. c., July Goth

WASHINGTON, d. c., July Goth
MIR. EDITOR:-SeCretary Longs order
for Court of Inquiry into Rear Admiral
Schleys conduct during the war with
Spain, to meet in w ashington September
12th, next. is in effect equivalent to a
Grand Jury indictment of ten counts
against Schley-the Navy Department
clique, which formulated the counts,
standing for the Grand Jury. The Court
has no authority to punish yet the order
converting it directs that it shall render
an opinion and make recommen dations
after hearing all evidence. The makeup
of the Court is beyond criticism. Admiral
Dewey and Rear Admirals Kimberly and
Benham have never been connected even
in the slightest way with the clique which
has done so many dirty, undetermined
things to injure the reputation of ADMIRAL
Schley, nor has Capt. Lemly, Judge
Advocate General of the Navy, who will
serve as Judge Advocate of the Court.
All this seems to point to fair play for
Schley, but he and his friends will do well
not to count too much upon the magma
nimity of his enemies. 1t is public opn-
ion that has forced the formation of
Court beyond suspicion; but, as Gen.
Miles could testify, if he were disposed to
reopen the Eagan mess, evidence can be
iuggled with and manipulated even before
the fairest courts. 1t behooves Admiral
Soh1 ny, ND hi frin dc f,,c hat
portant witness shall be left uncalled or
unheard. Better late than never can be
applied to Secretary Longs order against
Naval officers publicly discussing this case.
An enthusiastic Irishman-Mr. W. O.
O'Leary, of Limerick-has been surpris-
ing not few Westinghouse by present
ing some not generally known facts about
the industries of the Emerald Isle He
said: ut surely makes me laugh every
time hear or see in print anything about
England, the great ship building nation
Why, the ship builders of Ireland can buy
and sell the ship-builders of England and
Scotland. Neither the Tyne nor the
Clyde nor the Mersey show anything
equal to the ship building concern of Har-
land & Wolff at Belfast. Yet there is
nothing the English and Scotch are so
proud of as their ship building. For years
this firm has held the highest place in the
world SO far as tonnage is concerned.
The yards employ 5000 men and support
good sized town. The works cover
eighty acres, and the Teutonic and Ma es-
tic, two of the most famous ocean grey
hounds, were built there. It's a by-word
in the British Navy that no break down
of machinery, a thing so frequent, has
ever occurred in any British Naval vessel
built in the Belfast yards. Ireland has
the largest brewery in the world. Ireland
supplies half the British Empire with
handkerchicfs, collars, table cloths and
shirts, and puts on British tables the
choicest breakfast bacon and butter. The
English usually conceal the identity of
the two last named under the brands of
Wiltshire and Dorset, but they are Irish
as the Treasury officials can testify.
Nothing shoddy ever comes from Ireland.
That is why balbriggan is so largely imi
tated by British and German manufac-
tories"
Even an army officer does not dare to
perform his sworn duty, if it happens to
be against the interests of one of the big
trusts, unless he is prepared to be punished
therefor. This is a broad assertion, but
case has just happened in Washington
showing it to be strictly true. The Engi-
neer Commissioner of the District of
Columbia is always an army officer, and,
of course, all street Improvements are I'M
der his supervision. Capt. Lansing II.
Beach, who has ! cen Engineer Commits
sioner for several years, has made himself
very popular official by the fearless per-
Torrance of his duties and by his intelli-
gent appreciation of tie needs of his
branch of the local government, but he
would not shut his eyes to the greed Of
big trust, and that trust went to the War
Department and had an order issued as
signing another officer to the duties of
Engineer Commiss Toner of the District of
Columbia. At the beginning of the fiscal
year there are always some big contracts
to be given out for asphalt paving in
Washington. These contracts have been
monopolized for a long time by the
Asphalt trust, either in its own name or
in the name of dummy contractors, who
are merely its agents. This year there
was an outside bidder for these contracts,
and the bid was well below that of the
trust or of any of its agents. Capt. Beach,
as it was his sworn duty to do, investigated
and finding the new bidder responsible
and able to perform the contract accord
ing to specifications recommended that
the bid be accepted and it was. Then
Gen. Francis Greene, row one of the
Asphalt trust magnates, who resigned.
from the army while connected with the
Engineer branch of the government of the
District of Columbia to join the trust,
hurried to Washington and had another
man put in Capt. Beach's place.
Representative Patterson, of Tennessee,
who is now in Washington, said of the
political outlook: "The democratic party
is now looking to the future and the next
campaign will not be fought on dead
issues. The lest evidence of this is the
Ohio State platform. i heartily endorse
that platform because it presents to the
people live issues. ! believe the demo-
cratic conventions in other States will do
as the democrats in Ohio did and adopt
platforms to meet the issues of the present
instead of the past"
, -
\ Deep Mystery.