The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-01-31
GINCERY COMMENT
MESSRS. LEMLY AND HANNA IN.
DITE 1T IN REVIEWING
SCHLEY APPEAL
AFFIRM WELL KNOWN VIEWS
Government Counsel Insist That the
schley People Have Shifted
Their Ground, but Have
Made Out No Case,

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30--The com
ment' Of Judge Advocate General Lemly
and Solicitor Hanna upon the appeal of
Admiral Schley, as submitted to the
president by Secretary Long, is less than
third as long as the appeal itself
fact accounted for by the comparatively
few quotations from the courts testi-
mony in the case of the comment
The Commentators begin with the
statement that Admiral Schley and his
counsel have shifted their ground. They
say the chief features Of the case were
''The retrograde movement" 'Disobedi-
ence of orders, inaccurate and mislead-
ing official reports Failure to destroy
vessels of the enemy, lying within sight,
land injustice to brother officer"
The commentators say: Upon all the
above named features, believed by us to
be the most important, if not the only
really important matters, into which the
court made inquiry, the conduct of Ad-
miral Schley was condemned by that
most distinguished tribunal.
Insist Dewey Agreed.
Admiral Dewey and Rear Admirals
Benham and Ramsay united in their
findings and opinion upon all of these
several points, and they united also in
the significant recommendation that 10
further proceedings be had in view of
the length of time which has elapsed
since the occurrence of the events of the
Santiago campaign.
The commentators charge that Admiral
Schley now ignores all these grave mat
tiers and bases his appeal upon unim-
portant features of the case as COM
pared with the grave matters above re-
ferred to- upon which there was not and,
in the face of the testimony, could not
have been any difference of opinion in
the court.
Says Last Peg Is Gone.
The comment closes in the following
words:
THE contention that the magnificent
work of the Oregon, or any part of it,
was done under orders from the Brook
lyn or that the Oregon received and
obeyed even a single order from Commo
dore Schley from the time the Spanish
ships were sighted to the time of the
surrender of the Colon, which surrender
may fairly be taken as the close of the
battle, must be abandoned and with it
goes the last peg upon which to hang
the pretense of a claim that during the
battle Of Santiago Commodore Schley
effectively exercised any of the functions
of commander inc chief. The weight of
the testimony is to the effect that the
commodore controlled the movements of
exception of the loop.
Will Allow No Credit.
but it also shows, not negatively, but
affirmatively and beyond question, that
he did not control the operations of the
fleet in general on that day.
''AIl this is established not by theoret-
zeal deduction or expert or ineXpert
opinion, but by direct, positive, unim-
peached and unimpea chable testimony
given under oath by the admirals broth
ers in arms.
1.-THE plain truth of the matter, there
fore, developed for the first time under
the searchlight of this country, although
quite incidentally, is that so far as the
Gloucester, the Iowa, the Indiana, the
Texas and the Oregon are concerned, not
the stroke of a propeller blade, not the
touch of a helm, not the firing Of a shot
was done under the direction or by the
orders of Admiral Schley during this
memorable battle"