Morris tribune., 1908-03-14

Lilley probing. twas SAID
that Lilley would be placed somewhat
on the defensive by being required tt
prove his charges on penalty of being
censured. Two men not in congress
who were implicated in the charges
have brought libel ssuits against Lilley
Sims Supports Warship Critics.
The senate committee on naval az
tairs struck what might be called
'",l;y dirt" in it's investigation of the
charges published against the bureaus
responsible for the construction of the
navy when Commander W. II. Sims.
naval aid to the president, was called
to the witness chair. Sims is the
officer who was thought to have in
cpired the article in McClure's by Art
1T Reuterdahl, and Sims frankly told
j11-t committee at the outset that he
was the cause Of all this trouble -
Tnt committee, however. headed off
H. general statement and confined him
to particular questions of construction.
SIS said that for twelve years in his
of'"iil capacity he had been pointing
NuI !he plumbers of the navy depart
n3,nc and coatradicted the impression
si;en out that he was either young
or IN inexperienced officer. he frank
y accused Rear Admiral Converse and
Chief Constructor Caps with having
made misleading and inadvertently
false statements in the defense Of the
navy and virtually repeated the state
Diants of Reuterdahl as to the rejec-
ti.,l of criticism, the lowness Of the
arnlor belt. and SO on. In the course
OF his statement Sims asserted that the
~; "ksmanship of the American gun
Ie:S in the Spanish war was ''the most
that ever took place." At the battle Of
Santiago the percentage Of hits was
less than four. He insisted that the
s"mor belt on all our battleships is too
low and that European constructors al
low for full coal bunkers and long
voyage conditions in fixing the height
Sc their belts. The logs of the Pacific
feet would show that when the ships
arrived at Rio their belts were a foot
and half under water. Admiral
Capps. who was allowed to cross ex-
amin" Sims, doubted the truth of this
state lent.
Pleas For Woman Suffrage.
Before the senate committee on wo-
man suffrage and the house committee
on the judiciary representatives of the
National Wou,ap c,rffra 90 association
made their annual pleas. The Rev
Anna Shaw, president of the associa-
ton: Mrs. Belva Lockwood. who once
ran for president, and Mrs. Fannie Fer
mails addressed the senate committee. In
the house committee, besides Mrs. Gait.
Mrs. Upton and other we'll known wo-
men orators, Senator Owen of Okla
homa joined in the speaking. This
was an unusual feature of the hearing.
the senator advocating universal suf-
frage and saying that only the saloon
element kept the suffrage clause out of
the new Oklahoma constitution. He
drew attention to the fact that in suf
frage states the percentage of women
convicts is very small. Wyoming hav
ing not one woman so confined. Most
Of the speakers laid great stress on the
opposition of the liquor interests, i'm
plying that the woman vote would be
for temperance" reform.
Aldrieh Losing Ground.
Following the report of the Fowler
currency bill from the committee to
the house last week. interest in that
measure as a rallying point Of the adj
versaries of the Aldrich bill greatly
increased. Senator McCumber of North
Dakota Joined the Republican process
sion Of d$a Election by saying that he
did not like the Aldrich measure. al
though he would probably have to vote
for it as the only thing offered by his
party in the senate. Both Senator
Smith Of Michigan and Senator Bever-
adge had criticised the bond feature of
the s.'' Aldrich said he could not fix
q dat ,r the vote until Senator La