Bisbee daily review., 1908-10-23
SAYS WAR WITH JAPAN WAS \
 POSSIBILITY '
Officer of United States Battle ship Alabama Declares That It Was Once Only Thirty-Six Hours Distant.

NEW YORK, Oct. 22.-"One would not think that not so very long ago America and Japan were within thir- ty-six hours of war, when reading the accounts of the welcome that the fleet has received in Japanese waters" said an officer of the United States ship Alabama, which arrived at the Brooklyn navy yard this morning after a world-encircling voyage.
 It was rather 8 startling statement to make-that the United States and Japan were so close to hostilites- but 1t was, nevertheless, true, for had the training ship Matsushima remain ed just thirty-six hours longer in Ma nila Bay the explosion that destroyed her ip the harbor of Makang, Pes cadores Islands, would have happened in Manila Bay on April 90, and the ilLfated Maine incident would have been repeated, but with far more har- rowing results.
 For several days the Japanese train ing squadron, of which the MatSu- shima was a member. lay in the waters of Manila Bay. On the morn ing of April 29 the Jspapese Admiral
  squadron stood out to sea, proceeding northward.
 The following night it came to anchor at Making, harbor on the coast of one of the Pescadores Islands, just north Of the Philippines. A few hours later, at s minutes after o'clock on the morning Of April 39, an explosion occurred in the stock magazine of the illfated ship that de mofished and sunk her and killed 207 of her officers and man
 Officers of the Alabama, however, declare that, Japan is not at all an2- ious to go to war with the United States and that her pretensions in a naval way, at least, are taken more or less as a joke by the American of ficers. The fact that she selected six teen of her battlesnips to match, ship for ship, the American fleet, is inter preted by tine Alabama'S officers as a piece of brayado.
 They might have said" exclaimed one of the officers, right out in open court, that had we brought over hun | dred ships they would have duplicated the feat, ship for snip"
 The cruise of the Alabama in many respects will go down in history as more marvellous than that of any other of the ships that participated in the round-the-world voyage; for she made the entire distance in crippled and even dangerous condition. One 1 of her high pressure cylinders mad de yeloped cracks even before the start was made from Hampton Roads. Before the fleet reached Trinidad on the first leg of the cruise, tue officers of the Alabama began to worry over the condition of the cylinder, which had been patched up temporarily. The communicated their feelings and apprehensions to Admiral Evans That officers thought things were i looking bad. but he thought it would i look worse to the foreign powers to have ne of the fleet turn back from the voyage before 1t had fairly begun so he said to the officers of the Ala ! bama:
 If you can keep her up, for Gods sake do it." @ i And with a nerve and a grit typical of Americans, the officers of the ship kept ner going with the squadron. Ii certainly was a courageous thing to do and Is comparable only with the old time trick often often indulged in by used to make negro sit on the safety valve whenever there was a possibil- Eity of race with other vessels.