The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1901-10-19
SchIey Has His Innings.

THE TESTIMONY offered to estab-
1 lish the ''reprehensfbility'' of Ad-
miral Schley is closed. The de-
Tense now has its inning, and the
prospects are that it will be a month
yet before the case goes to the court
of which Admiral Dewey is head: or,
in other words, the foreman of the
jury Such of our readers as sub
scribe for daily papers and have not
grown tired of reading the columns of
biased and embittered testimony, will
| copcede that this is a waste of time, as
the other side has made no case. The
witnesses brought forward by the de-
partment have not only coptradicted
each other on various occasions, but
have disagreed on leading facts and
have impugned the accuracy of nearly
every chart document. dispatch and
vessel log by which the charges
against the admiral were to be estab-
lished.
Some of the specifications have been
absolutely disproved by the depart
| ment's own witnesses, others have been
explained away. and while as to 9TH
ers errors of judgment may be
charged, in case they are not explained
away hereafter, still as no harm what
| ever resulted from them. and as vari
Gus charges made against Schley
/ could be made with equal force against
Sampson, it is not apparent what the
department has established except an
occasional might have been" Even
r
iards chance to elude him, they failed
to do it. Even if he were wrong in
making the loop-which Captain Cook
says he ordered-it did no harm. Even
if Admiral Schley erred in making the
retrograde movement, it had no I'M
fortunate result. The Spaniards were
attacked at the first opportunity and
defeated by the fleet with Schley in
command, and Schley's flagship led
and forced the fighting and was in it
to the finish. The charges themselves
were not only weak, but they have
been weakly supported. One after the
other they have been disposed of, the
only one left with anything like
prop under it being the retrograde
nosses can set forth satisfactory rea-
sons for making it they will clear him
OF all serious accusation. Even if they
should not the charge will amount
merely to might have BEEN
When the farce is over and Admiral
Schley comes out without blemish,
what sorry spectacle his accusers
and maligners will present to the Amer
lean people and to the Spaniards who
surrendered to the man who won that
memorable naval fight, Who will ever
hear again of Commander Vain
wright, the pet of the strategy
board? Will Fighting Bob" Evans
hide his head in the sand like the
ostrich, or write another book explain
ing what he explained? 1t must be
that he acquired the title of Fighting
Bob because, according to his own
story. he shot the bow off the Pluton,
put his helm to starboard and raked
the Theresa, damned the helm hard
aport and dismasted the Oquendo,
threw the wheel over again and set
the Vizcaya afire, and then, flashing
himself to the wheel, shot the stern off
the Terror and blew the Colon out of
the water Commander Wainwright,
however, insists that his ship blew the
Spanish torpedo boat Pluton ont of
the water. Presumably after Flight
ing Bob" had shot its bow.
Fighting Bob" forsooth- The Won
der is that he is not known as Demon
Bob" because the latter expresses his
great prowess better, at least to his
own notion