The sun., 1908-04-13
Raise the Maine.

the hulk OF the i'll fated Maine from It's
resting place in the mud of Havana
harbor, painful as that decision might
be to the naval bureaucracy, it would
probably settle one way or the other
some momentOus questions
1t has always, for instance, been diff
cult TO understand how il happened that
the Spaniards who blew up our man-o'-
war managed to hold their tongues.
Il will be conceded that more than one
Spaniard mllst have been concerned in
that dark deed must have shared In
making the deadly engine Of destruction
and must have had to do with submerg-
ing it beneath the fated vessels hull
Indeed, it would seem that there must
have been several persons privy to such
an enterprise When it is considered
that the sentiments with which their
achievement would necessarily have been
regarded among their fellow countrymen
would have varied somewhat from
those with which we viewed it here, il II
difficult TO believe that the conspirators,
one and all, have for a whole decade
preserved the silence OF the grave. II
is against human nature. Such secrets
are never kept, except when the com
mission Of the act involves its authors
in annihlatOn.
We have stated one Of the reasons why
we have never believed that the Span
iards had anything to do with the de-
structiOn of the Maine in Havana har-
Dor. We wish We could be as clear in
our minds as TO what was the contribut.
ing and active cause that led to the find
ing by the committee of inquiry that the
Maine was destroyed by an external ex-
Nlosion The raising Of her devastated
hulk might afford some clew to the mys-
terry, some fact hitherto obscured or con-
cealed, and so make known the truth
II is a deplorable confession that for
twenty-five years the naval bureaucracy
has been in every matter that touched
upon its own convenience or selfish adj
vantage a packed jury However the
welfare of the service or the interests Of
the public might be involved the bu-
reaucracy has never receded one inch
from its selfish autocracy. Was it any
easier in 1898 to lay the destruction Of an
american battleship at the door Of Spain
than it is to-day to suppress the evidence !
Of the existing criminal mismanagemen |
Of this identical bureaucracy? The rails
ing Of the Maine has been steadily cir
cumvented and defeated by the naval !
bureaucracy 1t will be defeated now
by the same agency unless Congress
proves the stronger. And IL Congress
prevails the recovery of the hulk will |
bring no tangible evidence to light un-
less the most dnigent precautions are
exercised 10 the contrary.
The questions which interest the whole
American people may be roughly re-
sumed in this fashion: Is ii not true that
a search of the harbor bottom about the
sunken Maine revealed no fragment or
trace Of the engine by which il was
assumed that the ship was destroyed?
ls il not true that the nature Of the ex-
ternal rent in her structure as reported
by the divers gave no indication what
ever that the force producing IL had
operated from without? Was IL not on
the contrary, evident, SO far as it was
possible TO ascertain, that it had been
produced from within? Was not the
Maine structurally defective in that her
magazine was inadequately isolated from
her coal bunkers? Were not the coal
bunkers filed at the time with a coal
notoriously, liable TO spontaneous igni-
tion? Is there not in the Navy Depart
ment a record of the discussion Of these
very points? II so, what was the ev-
hence upon which this discussion was
based and in what circumstances did il
ctme before the bureau head? Pre-
cisly what obligation rested upon thG
naval bureaucracy in the early spring Of
ls9Sof according material and concrete
cdSut belH with Spain? Whence was de-
rived the warlike spirit which construed
the Mines injuries with such convent
ence t0its hot desire? Whose was the
hand TINT dictated the finding that the
Maine WIS sunk by an explosion from
without? Whose lust for strife conceded
at this critical juncture with the comfort
Of the Bureaucracy OF the American
navy?
II hCongres can answer these questions
by raising the Maine it will hardly shrink
from undertaking the task.