The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-06

at all that Commodore Schley Is at San
 tiago," he continued. Tt is to inform Commodore Sohley and also the com
 manding officer off Santiago. So tha
 at that time the department evidently
 did not contemplate that Commodore
 Schley had arrived al Santiago, and ye
 we have heard it said he was due there i on the 24th."
 Quoting from the dispatch, Captain
 Parker read: "The departments infor-
 mation indicates that the Spanish divi-
 sion is still at Santiago"
 "Is there anything positive about
 that?" he asked
 If the department had chosen to say
 that the Spanish squadron Is at Santi- ! ago that would have been another
 thing, but 1t did not say that. There
 were still some doubt apparent in the
 mind of the department on that sub- l ject."
 | Referring at this point to the testi-
 mony of Captain Sigsbee, Captain Par ker said it was not necessary to inn
 peach anybody's veracty, but slippery memory after all these years Is a very
 unsafe thing to go by he continued,
 and the memory of four or five per-
 sons as to what Sigsbee said is better than that of Sigsbee. think the court can be sure that Captain Sigsbee did say to Commodore Schley, when he came aboard the Brooklyn that the Done are not there.'"
 Again quoting from the dispatch, Captain Parker raid "The department looks to you to ascertain facts"
 Didn't the commodore ascertain facts?" he asked.
 And that the enemy therein does not leave without decisive action," he con- tinued reading.
 Well, was there not decisive action?" he asked ..
 "The poor old Spanish admiral, with his flags flying gaily at his mastheads on that Sunday morning, and before o'clock of that day he saw his ships on the beach, burning, blowing up and all destroyed. He came on board the Amer ican ship without shoes for his feet, or hat for his head, and a pair of drawers and an undershirt. Decisive action? Was there anything that was more de- cisive than that?"
 There Is doubt" he went on, from one end to the other. There is nothing positive about it. Then follow injunc tions about coal, but they cut no. ice whatever No doubt the commodore could have gone somewhere for coal, but I do not believe it was ever con- templated that he should have gone off 125 miles for, it. So there Is nothing positive or mandatory in that Harvard 
 Then he took up Commodore Schley's dispatch forwarded by the Harvard and defended the position taken by the com modore in that message. He then re- ferred to the sentence in which the com modore informed the department that he had been unable to obey orders, ear nestly as all have striven"
 If a subordinate informs us that he Is unable to obey orders we do not charge him with disobedience. We may ,ensure him for bad judgment, he con- -inued, "but for nothing more serious. 1 Failure under such circumstances Is not 1 always disobedience. We can all look back and see how we could have done | ] No one can say that Con- nodore Schley ever had any orders. It vas merely suggestion as to what he | should do. He was to find out if that | squadron was there and to see that it | lid not leave without a decisive action. Even if true that the commodore com nitted gross errors of judgment, which |
 do not admit, but even if true, he had | 10 motive but to do his whole duty, as rom the beginning he had always done tho more, no less"
 Concluding his remarks for the day, Captain Parker said:
 That brings us to a discussion of the o-caled reconnaissance which I think an be summed up in very few words. We have had the information of all the .entlemen who were clothed with the responsibility in the case that they ould and they would, etc. Well, per aps they would undoubtedly they ould. have gone in the whole of them nd risked the ships and been called ools for their pains. They might have ome out successful; they might have one something to the Colon which was ot done; they might have sunk her, ont think that is in the least proba- le There is one little incident about his matter. We are permitted to go D to the first of June and we see by ne log of the Colon that she was there ntil 10:30. The commander in chief, dmiral Sampson, came there and the { olon was pointed out to him and there 1e lay for four hours and half with ut a gun being fired at her. I am not I ,ulting anybody for this" l "The exercise of the slightest judg- ent" the speaker said, when the clock ,ruck 4-"Time's up," said Admiral z ewey and without giving the captain ( oportunity to conclude the sentence Q le court adjourned. 6