The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1901-11-23
Discussing Probable Verdict.

O10C00O6nG Pra,b0b1e Verdict.
New Orleans States.
There seems to be growing impressoa
that that the verdict in the Schley will
be in the nature of q ..dog. fall In other
words. the Impression appears to be that
the court will find that while Admiral
Schley accomplished spIsndid work for his
country at Santiago, he nevertheless took
liberties with the rule, of the navy aud the
instructions OF his superior officers for
which, in the interest of discipline in the
service, he deserves to he censured. No
body is authorized to assert that this will
be the finding of the court, but among
those who discuss the affair in naval circless
the preponderance of opinion is that such
will be the final verdict.
4 Whatever the verdict of the court may
be it will not in the least alter the estimate
the people Of the United States have already
made. They kept close watch upon that
memorable fight off Santiago: they know
that Schley bore the brunt of that fight,
and that in one of the greatest naval engage /.
ments in history he directed the fight.
fought the greater part of it with his
guns and won the victory. They know,
also, that he has been the victim of the
fouest conspiracy that ever was concocted
to rob great man of the glory which justly
belongs to him, and they will not permit a
lot of departmental red tape and technical
quibbles to tarnish for one single moment
the lustre of his notable achievement. Rules
and red tape were devised for machine men,
and all the great achievements that have
affected the current OF human affairs and
influenced the course Of human destiny,
have been accomplished in defiance of the
narrow rules laid down for the government
of mere automatic. 1.-THE letter killeth, but
the spirit giveth lite Calico travelled
outside the rules of contemporaneous
nomsts when he announced his startling
astronomical deductions, and he was once
set upon by the machine men of his day and
came near paying with his life for the i'm
dependence of his conclusions. Columbus
won a new world for Spain and was
warded for upsettine the traditions of the
narrow machine -made schoolnen of his day
by being loaded with chains and suffering
the indignities of spoliation and imprison
ment.
In all ages of the world small men have
woven their ain,sy nets of cobwebs and
then constructed their engines of torture for
the men of daring spirit whose robust in
tellectual stature was built upon proportions
too generous to be CENTRALIZED by them. If
we had no originality in men there would
be no progress. The Chiness have been
held down by rule for ages, and as a result
their civilization is to-day what it was two
thousand years ago. Great genuius is. to
a very large extent, neutralized by being
bound in leading strings and the greatest
deeds are accomplished by men of original
ideas who, when rules and red tape prevent
progress, are strong enough to break away
from the restraints made for smaller men
and to act in great emergencies upon their
own judgment and responsibility. Nobody
would think of enforcing the rules of the
shop against the man who saved the shop
from destruction. and yet, when the judg-
ment of Schley is vindcated by one of the
most brilliant naval victories in all the
worlds history, find the victor besiesed
by all the swarms of small vermin, whose
capacities limited that their conduct
must be regulated by the tape line and foot
rule, breaking out in clanorous denuncia.
ton because, forsooth, great genius did
not win his victory according to rule. Ac-
cording TO this clamorous horde OF Jacks-in-
the-Boxes the "sun do move,'' because the
demonstration that the earth revoIves in
stead, made outside the rules. and
therefore it is wrong.
1t is such contemplate smallness as this
that would kindle the fires of the Inquisition
for the daring intellects that refused to be
nnanacled by the supersititions of kingcraft
and schoolcraft and Priescraft, and bidding
defiance to them all, scared out into the
pure atmosphere of truth and elevated and
dignified mankind in spite of itself. The
verdict of the Court of Inquiry. whatever
it may be is not a matter of great moment
TO the country. The American people do
not care a rap whether Admiral Schley Went
into the battle of Santiago with every rule
observed. or in utter defiance of every rule
that all the pigmy Crowninshields. and the
Lilliputian Longs, and late at-school Samp-
sons ever DEVISED, They do not care if he
kicked the whole code Of rules and cipher
signals into the sea, and put the latest litho-
graph picture of Secretary Long into the
furnace to make fuel for his engines; what
they do know, and what they are proud of,
is the fact that when he saw the enemies of
his country coming out of the harbor, he
turned loose his biggest guns upon them and
made kindling wood of the Spanish navy.
The people do not care whether this
done according to rule in contempt of
the rules; they know that it was done. and
done thoroughly, just as they had reason to
expect any big, bravehearted, capable