NEWS AND COMMENT

223

ENCAMPMENT OF INDIAN FIGHTERS of the Indian war veterans was held at Portland June 18. The veterans adopted a memorial asking Congress to equalize the pensions of the Indian fighters. Officers elected are: Cyrus H. Walker, grand commander; C. W. Wallace, vice grand commander Otto Kleeman, grand adj utant Mrs. F. L. Benedict, assistant adjutant; Charles H. Chambreau, grand paymaster; T. Brouillette, grand chaplain; W. R. McCord, cap-

The annual grand encampment

of the North Pacific Coast

tain of the guard.

THE BATTLESHIP OREGON Whether the as a memorial

is

papers since the fleet

Oregon shall be broken up for junk Oregon shall maintain the sea fighter

battleship

or whether the state of

a question that has been active in the newsgovernment has had to supplant its old war

with modern vessels.

The annual

cost of upkeep of the

Oregon has been estimated at $20,000, a sum which has discouraged advocates of the memorial plan. The Oregon was San Francisco and commissioned there in July, 1896. made its famous voyage of 14,000 miles in 68 cruising days from San Francisco to Santiago, Cuba, to

built at

In 1898 the vessel

participate in the destruction of the Spanish fleet July 3, 1898. Sister ships of the Oregon, the Iowa, Massachusetts and In-

diana are to be relegated and broken up, together with the Kentucky, Kearsarge, Alabama, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Missouri and Maine. These battleships made up a very powerful fleet fifteen years ago and cost more than $90,000,000, but are obsolete in competition with newer vessels. The most famous American battleship is the Oregon, and there is strong

sentiment for preservation of the vessel, but ways and means for paying the expense have not been devised.