The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1907-07-11

be fitting close for a long ant
very active and effective career
The exact route and stopping
places of the fleet are not we
fully determined. They will g
direct to South America and pro
badly will make only one stop fol
coal on the east coast of the con
tinent. Then they will pass thru
the Straits of Magellan and a
round to Valparaiso. They will
make a very brief stop there and
will proceed north to Peru. This
will bring them to the last log, as
it were, of their course toward
San Francisco. They will make
little longer stop in Peruvian
waters and will then loaf up the
coast, comparatively speaking,
taking in San Diego and Monte
rey on the way to San Francisco.
Their cruising speed probably
will average about IL knots, and
this, including the stops now con
templated, will make their voy-
age last about 60 days. This will
beat the record of the Oregon,
which took 63 days to come from
San Francisco to Key West dur
ing the Spanish war. But she
was accompanied by the little
gunboat Marietta, which retard-
ed her speed, and she was very
cautious about keeping we'll off
all ports and skirting the outside
of the West Indies as the Span
ish fleet was then supposed to be
in the neighborhood of South A
merica.
While the cruise of the battle
ship squadron will probably beat
the famous run of the Oregon in
point of time, the Oregon per-
formance is not likely to. ever be
eclipsed as a record breaking run
under all service conditions. 1t
was the first time in history that
a battleship Of her class had ever
attempted such a run in the face
of the enemy. She did the 49,
600 miles without a hitch, touch
ed at Jupiter Inlet on the Florida
Coast to report herself to the
Navy department, ran over to
Key West and took on coal and
Joined the rest of the American
squadron off Salt Key Bank of a
Sunday morning, finishing up the
run at a Is knot clip and ready
to go into action on the minute.
Capt. Clark, her commander,
said she had not loosened a crank
pin on the whole run. It will be
interesting to see if the great
battleship feet just starting can
do as well.
1t is understood that the Jap
anese government has known for
some time of the intention of this
government to send the battle
ships to the Pacific. It is looked
upon as a. wise demonstration OF
the intention and ability of the
United States to maintain the un-
questioned mastery of the Pacific.
It will certainly set at rest any
question in the minds of the jim.
go party in|Japan as to the in
tention of the United States in
case of a serious difference with
the Mikado's government. Oh
course, the serious difference is
not going to arise for many years
to come; But this is a case where
an ounce Of prevention is worth
a volume'of postmortem regrets
The first chapter is concluded
Of the trial of Edwin S. Holmes,
the enterprising associate stats.
tician Of the Department Of Ag.
riculture, who sold advance in
formation to the New York cot
ton brokers as to the figures o1
the government. crop reports
Holmes has been on trial fol
weeks. and after it had beer
shown in court that he had mo-
only used the advance informa
ton for speculative purposes bu
had doctored the reports to sui