The independent-reporter., 1909-12-23
aaiss asks RAISING rHE ssiSr.
The New leFk sHH Ieeatss the Leg.
isialare In Lewiston.
New York sun ,

fNtA hufh sun
To the Hon. William suiEcr la The
cause OF raising the Maine from the
channel of Havana hArbor. where II
ls an obstruction to navigation aE
well as reproaeh 10 nnspectacnlaf
American patriotism. has come en-.
couragement from a source that mnai
be rcckoned with. In the Senate ON
Friday last the Hon. William Pierce
Frye rose TO ask that the following
resolution OF the Maine Legislature
be printed In the Record and referred
10 the committee on naval affairs:
'Wheras for eleven long years
the wreck of the battlcship Maine.
with more than three score of our
sailors who went down with 1t, has
remained in the mud and slime of
Havana harbor. a danger to shipping
and monument of neglect, oblivion
and national shame and
Whereas the Hon. William Sulzer
of New York Is endeavoring to have
a bill passed by Congress for the re-
moval of the wreckage and the prop
er interment of the bodies of the
seamen therein contained. be 1t there
fore
Resolved, That the people of the
State of Maine. in Legislature as
sembled. most heartily urge the
Maine senators and representatives
In Congress to do their utmost to OBJ
tain immediate favorable action on
the Sulzer bill"
For several years in the face of
stolidity IL not Indifference Mr.. Sulzer,
a Democrat, has urged upon Congress
the duty of making another appro-
priation to raise the Maine. The
Legislature at Lewiston is Republi-
can by a majority of 64. An appro-
priation was made by Congress in
March, 1898, and the work begun in
the month preceding the war with
throbbed with passion to liberate
Cuba. The task was necessarily
abandoned when the war bugles blew
A balance Of the appropriation re-
mains. available, but Is not enough
to complete the work. Congress has
been cold, callous. neglectful mute.
1t is thinking now of exerting the
authority of the United States to
punish the President of Nicaragua
for an act said to be in violation of
the law of nations affecting two
American citizens who enlisted in
the ranks of the insurgents in that
country. Retribution may be emf
nently proper-we are not disputing
It, But we sometimes wish that
Congress, representing the American
people, did not suffer from defective
memory.
1t is a fact recorded many times
over that the societies of Spanish
War Veterans have called upon Con-
gress to order the raising of the
Maine. 1t Is a fact that Admiral F..
e. Chadwick, who was a member of
the Maine board of inquiry which
found that an external explosion was
the cause of the Names destruction,
Admiral Stephen B. Luce and other
naval officers of high rank have
urged, with Representative Sulzer,
that 1t was the governments duty
to raise the Maine. ut should have
been done after the war" said Ad-
miral Chadwick two years ago. 1t is
now long after the war, nearly
twelve years. In two months from
this time, or on Feb. Is. the Ameri-
cans in Havana will decorate, as is
their custom every year all that re-
mains above water of the sunken
battlehip and hang memorial wreaths
upon the ruin They are constant. If
Congress Is not.
A copy of the resolution of the
Legislature of the State of Maine has
been sent to President Taft. He Is
not yet committed by silence and in
action by him. with confidence in the
Maine endure in the sight of the
world a reproach to the United States.
We have always held the hope that
William H. Taft would ring true"
on this issue when the opportunity
came to him, and we await favorable
alton by him, with confidence in the
quality of his patriotism.