The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-06-11

positions are still avai able to enemy for that pur
pOse but there Is anchorage at the mouth of tho
Delaware or nearer than the two places Just men,
toned where an enemy's fleet of irOn-cads can
anchor securely The dTaua hit OF water of the foreign
ron.cads s too great Tor them to anchor Dennd the
sesses an economical advantage for q navy yard
from ITS Typographical position. which renders large
expenditures Tor forthcaiicBs comparatively un-
SPEECH OF @R. MYERS.
Mr.. Speaker;-My colleagues (Messrs. Kelley
and iO'NeilD have 60 ably discussed the subject
now under consideration; have so strongly pre-
sented the numerous advantages OF League
Island for the purposes of national construct
i've ship yard and naval depot for wooden and
iron vessels; the vast resources of the State of
Pennsylvania, emptying as 1t were into It's own
lap, at Philadelphia, as rivers run to the sea;
that l shall not long occupy the time of the
House in adding some OF the exhaustess argu-
ments in favor of this proposition. | shall be
more than fortunate II after this full discussion
! may obtain the attention Of the House for q
short time; and still more fortunate ii can pro-
duce, as hope to do, some impression by the
reasoninps which are floating through my mind
at present. and which convince me.
now call the attention of the members of this
House to the character OF the bill, and what it
calls for. 1t is bill Ito authorize the Secretary
OF the Navy to accept League Island in the Della
ware river tor naval purposes"
An attempts made upon this floor to show
that it creates rowing commission, loop upon
which to hang various other propositions, and
thus drawing away your attention from the very
question at issue, to effect by indirection what
cannot be done directly. 1t is true that the ac-
ceptance of League Island Is not to be perfected
until the board of officers provided for in the bill
shall recommend it. That was added by the
committee, i suppose, for the purpose of salts
tying the delicate and sensitive minds of certain
gentlemen who, year after year, have been
throwing out ISLANDERS against this place, at one
moment alleging there was not sufficient depth
of water, at another that there was too much
ice there in certain seasons OF the year. and who
hnu IN az fnd oh nnn 4 10 nhnRn nfnrT Tf
the ground and the healthfulness of the locality.
Now, ask the attention of any member who
is willing to vote directly for the proposition in
favor of League Island while state to him that
the proviso says nothing more than that if this
commission, on visiting this place, shall find
these objections to it well founded, then, and
then only, may the Secretary refuse to accept it.
| should prefer to have no proviso in the bill,
but my faith in the advantages of League Island
is so strong have no fear for the result, and no
apprehension, even, that the examination will
cause any delay.
l learned yesterday. for the first time, that
the water of League Island is brackish. Sir, in
my district-a district whose ship builders
planned and placed upon the waters the Ne,o
HOnSides, a fit type OF the workmanship and en-
terprise and success OF Philadelphia mechanics,
worthy representatives of those who thirty years
ago launched the shipottheline Pennsylvania,
with, even then, one hundred thousand citizens
OF Philadelphia and one hundred thousand from
the surrounding country as spectators-I say
that in my district we have the Kensington
Works, whence large portion of its citizens
obtain their daily supply of drinking water, and
they never before heard that the waters OF this
stream shortly above League Island are brack-
ish. In my boylsh DAYS, when l used to swim
near Red Bank, opposite to League Island,
drinking in many mouthful OF water, never
tasted or dreamed that it was brackish.
Still further, fifty thousand ships come to our
wharves and go out again every year-wooden
ships, too, the most of them. They lie where
the ice is more likely to be, where the water
freezes and the ice gathers more rapidly than
at any place below; yet they sail up and out
yearly; and we never heard before that vessels
were locked up three months at League Island,
so that i'll case OF a war the vessels OF our navy,
if stationed there, would be prevented for that
length of time from getting at the enemy that
might be ravaglng our coast. So much for fact
No. q
Let me now call the attention of gentlemen
to another statement which has been made, and
which might, if uncorrected, mislead members
who are strangers to this spot and strangers to
the facts of the case. They have heard the gem
tleman's reference to the mud and ooze, as he
calls it, at that island. The gentleman from
Connecticut knows how much OF truth and how
much OF fancy there is in his statement, for he
has visited the locality. In 1890 this island was
marked out on the maps, fast land; and for years
and years there have been two hundred and
thirty-fve acres of solid land about which there
need be no dispute. Granting to the gentleman
that, in reference to the balance of il, or in
building the wharves, it might be necessary
here and there to drive piles as it has been
the United States-and on gravel bed they
| make better foundation than fock-granting
| this, however, beyond all dispute we have two
hundred and thirty-fve acres of solid ground,
| which the gentleman pretends to tell this
| House Is all mud and ooze-with all the sar-
| casm impaired TO pungent wit and fertile
| imagination l have disposed of fact No. 8.
| Mr.. Speaker, have often gone by steamer to
| Cape May in six or seven hours, yet learned
| for the first time yesterday that it would take
four days to go from League Island TO the
ocean. l pass from the Connecticut facts
| But even these pale their Intellectual fires be-
lore the generosity OF the gentlemen's amend
ment and his holy horror OF the necessity of
discussing the merits OF any site'in connection
with the present bill. Neither the report of
| the committee, who, with Others of this House,
| speak from observation, nor the opinions of the
most distinguished officers of our navy, nor
| the statement of the Assistant Secretary OF the
| Navy, nor the constant urgency of the Secre-
| tary himself, that we should adopt League
Island as the site for great national navy
| yard, have any weight with him; and the Secre-
| taIy Is roundly rated because he has failed TO
| become sectional, or to recommend q station
| simply because of his nativity near IL.
! We found navy yard OF sixteen acres with no
| workshops which Philadelphian is not ashamed
! to show to strangers; with no more than turn
| ing room Tor a large wagon; with no proper
| machine shop or steam machinery ior building
and repairing iron or ron-clad vessels or rolling
1 iron plates; no capacity for casting ordnance or
| building powerful engines; and instead of a
| national foundry and workshop and navy yard,
! place not half the size OF the Washington
| yard, not fourth that OF Charlestown, not an
eighth OF the kittery, OF tenth OF the Brooklyn
| navy yard; while abroad the private dock-yard
| OF the builder OF the pirate Alabama is more
! than ten times as large, and in England and
France the chief Government navy yards cover,
each OF them, hundreds of acres OF land in
| eXtert. We found the second city of our coun-
| try with not a stone dock and very limited
| water front, or wharfage room, or accommoda-