New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-05-29
Pitiless Publicity Urged by
Senator Frelinghuysen
in Resolution
Naval Affairs Body
Will Push Inquiry
England's Blunders Cited
in Attack on "Supine
Sensitiveness"

Washington, May Naturalization
by the Senate Naval Affairs Committee
Of the accident on the armed merchant
ship Mongolia, in which two American
Red Cross nurses were killed, was or
dered to-day by the Senate. A resolu-
tion OF inquiry. pressed by Senator
Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, was
adopted.
The resolution provides for "thor-
ough and careful" inquiry of the acct
dent in which part Of shell fired at
target practice by the naval gun crew
struck the nurses. 1t will be done by
the Naval Committee instead of spe-
eisl committee, as proposed by Senator
Frelinghuysen's resolution.
Speaking in support of his resolu-
tion, Senator Frelinghuysen denounced
"thst mocking and foolish doctrine that
the people of America must be kept in
ignorance"
my one object is to prevent such
accidents hereafter" he said. This
duty is one we owe to the young men
we will call into service"
Cites st. Louis Accident
Senator Swanson, of the committee,
said that more than two hundred mer-
chant vessels had been armed and that
between four and FIVE thousand sailors
had been placed aboard them TO man
the guns. An accident similar to that
on the Mongolia, except without fatal
results, he said, occurred on the st.
Louis, and in that case nine shells ex-
ploded in the gun and four before they
struck the water. Eighty-nine shells
were taken from the st. Louis and ex-
amined, all being found perfect except
two.
Senator Swanson added that Secre-
tsry Daniels and the Navy Department
welcomed official inquiry. The Mon
golia's shells were defective or old.
Two shells on the liner st. Louis, he
admitted, had been found defective
from age, but those on the Mongolia
were of newer and better type.
lows. in part:
"This Is not a one-man war. This is
not a one-party war. This is not the
Presidents war. This is not the war of
the War Department or of the Navy
Department. There are many agencies,
bet only one principal-the United
States of America.
This is the war of the American
people, and every American citizen is
called upon, or will be called upon, to
render the highest degree of service of
which he or she is capable, toward
successful issue of this supreme
struggle.
Such being the case, every citizen
Of the Republic has the right to know
and that right | sustain.--every
phase of national development, along
the line of offensive or defensive SER
vice, unless such publicity is reasona-
bly, certain TO prejudice the success of
our arms.
Urges "Pitiless Publicity"
"0f the many remarkable express
sions TO which the Chief Magistrate of
the Nation--s past master in the art
of word painting given utterance,
none has so strongly commended itself
TO me as 'pitiless publicity
However, we have a right TO expect
that the element OF accident shall be
reduced TO a minimum, TO d negligible
quantity. We surely have a right TO
demand that none of our brave, young
men shall suffer death at the hands of
their comrades, or as result of defect
i've equipment placed at their disposal.
within two weeks, understand, five
of our aviators have met death in ex-
perimentsl or training work. Whether
these accidents were due to careless
ness upon the part of the victims, or to
defective machinery, ] do not know.
can only venture the opinion that such
results are deplorable.
"The most shocking occurrence, how
ever. along this line is that brought 70
our attention few days ago. when the
merchant ship Mongolia steamed back
into New York Harbor with the infor-
nation that two Red Cross nurses had
been killed as the result Of the prema-
ture explosion Of she'll fred in gun
practice.
"This was a pitiful story. A band of