The Plymouth Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1878-1901, 1901-10-03

ates on the Schley court of in
quiry have been busy for ten
days or so listening to evidence
submitted by the navy depart
ment, and it is a curious fact that
up to the present time absolutely
nothing has been developed
which could convict Rear Admir-
al Schley of anything worse than
an error of judgment, but this
same evidence shows beyond the
shadow of doubt that Rear-Ad-
miral Sampson, who was Schley's
superior during the war. but
since then has been his subOrd-
mate, has been guilty of a gross
SANDER against his superior ofic-
er. The evidence against Rear
Admiral Sampson is so complete
that he could hardly escape a
trial and conviction by court
martial if it were not for the fact
that the scandalous attack was
published more than two years
ago and hence is barred by the
naval statute of limitations.
Rear Admiral Sampson is not
on trial before the court of IN
quiry, but has been on trial be-
fore the people and still is. 1t IS
therefore interesting to note that
Rear Admiral Sampson made a
charge against Rear Admiral
Schley of the gravest possible
character which has been dis
proved by the testimony of every
officer on the stand, including
many who are known as the bit
ter personal opponents OF Schley.
Rear -Admira, Simpsons no
torious dispatch. in which he
speaks in the most ungenerous
terms of what he calls Schley's
.'reprehensible conduct" is at
matter of official record, and as it
occurred in the oody of a regu-
lar report it might be excused on
the ground that it was an official
utterance of the commander in
chief of the north Atlantic squad
ron speaking of his subordinate,
and therefore could not be con-
sidered to be a public scandal.
The other charge by Rear-Ad-
miral Sampson was not official.
but was accompanied by other
charges which were manifestly
malicious. The evidence submit
ted tc the court this week has
shown that any time since the
Spanish war Rear Admiral
Schley might have demanded the
court martial of Rear Admiral
Sampson, aud it is apparently
only Schley's forbearance which
has saved the professional repu-
tation of Rear Admiral Sampson.
Rear Admiral Sampson, in his
magazine article, did not make
any reservation whatever, but
made the positive statement that
it had been the custom" of
Schley's feet to retire at night
for adistance of twenty five miles
from the coast. IL seems almost
incredible that a man like Samp-
son should have made such a
charge without being able to
back it up, but the evidenc taken
by the court of inquiry has shown
conclusivcly that this charge was
false from beginning to end.
Captain McCalla of the Marble
head, who has been known as
bitter personal opponent of
Schley and ano less warm admir-
ef of Sampion, tore the Century
article to pieces and is corrobo-
rated by the other witnesses.
Thus it will be seen that after
being given an opportunity to
present its evidence the navy de-
pertinent has only succeeded in
showing, first, that Rear Ad-
l4.iral Simpsons magazine article
was, in its most important par
ticular, wholly untrue, although
it was written long after the
events complained of, and, Sec
ond, that Rear Admiral Samp-
sons official report. only a week
after the battle, was no less un-
justifiable. 1t is possible the
navy department may have some
thing in reserve regarding Rear