The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1909-02-19
THE maine
ANNIVERSARY
NOTED SHIP AND SIXTY-THREE
SAILORS WENT DOWN ELEV-
EN YEARS AGO MONDAY.
MUCH AGITATION FOR THE RAIS.
ING OF WRECKED HULK
FROM HAVANA HARBOR.

services in honor OF the SiXty-three
American sailors who went down
with the Maine in Havana harbor
just eleven years ago today, and
whose bones still moulder in the
wreck of the ill-fated battleship,
were held this evening by the Maine
Memorial Association. Patriotic So
cieties, particularly veterans of the
Spanish war, also observed the ami
versary.
This years anniversary is espec-
tally notable, since it is marked by
an insistent public demand for the
raising of the Maine, in order that
the sailors whose tomb it is may be
given proper burial. Determined
opposition to this project in some
quarters has aroused considerable in
dignation among the veterans of the
Spanish war.
The recent report of Charles e.
Magoon, late provisional governor of
Cuba, after referring to the wreck
as an obstruction to navigation, de-
clares:
Even more important is the fact
that this wreck. although it contains
the bodies of siXty-three American
seamen, or what is left of them, is
apparently abandoned and forgotten
by the government and the people
of the United States. 1t has become
national reproach, aud an inter-
national scandal"
tot 30
New York, apparently is the only
man in congress still loyal in heart
and work to a plan and an appro-
pration for raising the Maine. Mr..
Sulzer's bill asking for an appro-
priation to bring the wreck to the
surface and to remove the bodies
therein to Arlington cemetery, is in
the keeping of the house committee
on naval affairs, where it has been
for nearly nine months. Whether
the measure ever will receive a fav-
orable report is at best mere mat
ter Of guess work. Some of the
committee members are in favor Of
reporting the bill favorably, but the
majority seems to be held back by
some shadowy thing of which no one
has or seems to have any substan-
tial knowledge.
In Cuba the Spanish contingent
! attributes the failure to remove the
wreck of the Maine to the fear, as
Magoon points out, that the work
will disclose the falacy of the pop
ular belief that the Maine was de-
stroyed by a torpedo or mine in
| stead of an interior explosion. I"
There are Americans who think with
the Spanish sympathizers in Cuba
| that the government is afraid to
raise the Maine because an examina-
| ton of it's broken hulk might show
''that the Maine destroyed herself, .
and that the Spaniards had nothing
| to do with it.
A board Of competent men set
| tied to the satisfaction of most peo-
pie that an exterior explosion" sent
the Maine to the bottom of the har-
Dor. No one in the service or out
of it probably believes that the re-
port of the officers was not accurate,
and least of all believes that a wrong
report was turned in Intentionally
in order to lift "a burden of blame
from the shoulders of the officers
of the ship.
From a speech delivered by Rep
resentative Sulzer in the house of
representatives in support of this
bill for an appropriation to raise the
Maine, it is learned that the records
of the navy department show that
231 men were killed when the Maine
was destroyed; that "a bodies were
recovered Immediately and buried
at Key West, Florida; that later 144
bodies were recovered, and buried
first in Havana, and later brought
home for interment in the National
Cemetery, at Arlington. The bodies
of sixty-three sailors of the Maine
were never recovered or accounted
for, and it is supposed that they are
now entombed with the wreck in the
mud of Havana harbor.