The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-12-16
THE PRESIDENT ON TIE MAINE

President Taft's series OF messages 10
| Congress strikes the country Just right.
II has been the custom of Presi dents
from the foundation of tho Government
TO make one great summing up of the
affairs of the country and fire il al
Congress annually on the meeting Of
that body. President Taft has iuaugu~
rated the fashion, which we hope NAV
prevail with succcc,ling Presidents, of
dealing with some one subject at first
the most urgent, an1 with other sub
lects IN successive messages. in substi-
tuition for the old method. In this way
the President is able TO make distinct
and prominent and TO elaborate with
such detail as he may wish. the cspec.
iaI subject in hand. This elaboration
and full explanation was impossible un-
der the old method, because il would
have neceSsitatcd q message of imprac-
ticable lcugth,
We have had since the session began
three messages from The President;
first, on thc trusts; then on our for.
eien relations; AMI now on the the de,
struction of the Maine. The dispatches
which first told Of the evidence that the
primary cause of the destruction of the
Maine was an explosion from without,
was unsatisfactory vague in detail,
although definite and pronounced as To
the fact. But now President Taft sup
Olpmeufa ,hc Ersi uocoupt I,. ., dntaiI,l
explanation, which must convince the
world that the results that have been
reached are not subject To further ques.
ton The wreck of the Maine has been
exposed, and the finding is that the for
ward port line was lishcd upwards as
much as twenty-four inches from
straight line; that another strake. tech.
nlcally called &C. was displaced up.
wards and iuwards for 100 square feet.
and that part of the inner bottom plat
inc was 'lisplacel upwards and left
approximately six feet above lis origi.
nal position IuaSmuch rs there WAS
nothing upon which the wreck settled
to cause this inward bulge Of the
framework, the conclusion is very lust
ly reached that the inward in1entation
must have been caused by an explosion
from without; nothing else would drive
the framework in. These outward cx.
ploslons were two, and are said TO have
been "of distinctly different charac-
ters, " and "to be much more extensive
than had been anticipated -
The conclusion now reached fully
justiies the preliminary report made
soon after the explosion, by the naval
board of inquiry, The explosion oc-
Cured on the evening OF Tuesday, the
18th day of February. 1898, almost four.
teen years ago. In 1T the lives of two
officers and God of the crew of the ship
were sacrificed. The bodies of the sail
ors that were immediately recovered
were buried in the sands of the Dry
.lortucas; they have rested there ever
since. The programme now is, to take
the bones of those who perishel and
are found IN the wreckage and bury
them in the National Cemetery at Ar.
llngton. The bones Of those buried in
the Tortugas should also be raised and
Inferred with their comrades in the
same cemetery. Then, when the wreck,
age is cleared away and the framework
of the good old ship is sunk in the deep
sea, the distressing incident Of the de.
struction of the Maine will have been
c1ospd