The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-02-14

average expenditures under the Democratic adj.
mlnistration during the seven years of peace
prior to the last year, was about Sl7 ,00OO 900 an
nually
Mr.. Conner of Texes, referred to the fact that
the navy has been gradually decreasing, till now
only nineteen.vesses are in commission mount
ing 1888 guns, and asked Mr.. Hale to harmon
lie his statement with this fact.
=, MIR. Hale responded that the gentleman from
Texas was too impatient. He would refer to
that point when he came to it, the means of
our navy are limited to $500. The British navy
mas u, 900 men. If we got into war it would be
impossible to send out three additional vessels
Iully armed with the present limited force.
During the four years of the war $500, 000, 900
were appropriated. What had become of that
money and the ships which should have been
Dullt! He was sorry to say the investigation
showd badly for our money as affecting the flu
ture Of the $50 vessels in the navy during the
war only 179 now existed Of the rest some
mad decayed, sunk OF been sold, of scores, of fif
tles of vessels, he did not know the fate. He
had not been able to follow them. They were
not on the books of the the department and the
department was not responsible for them.
They had vanished, faded away and were not to
be found or traced
The navy now contained 179 vessels in all
These he classified into four classes, not of
strength but of utility.
Glass No. consisted of vessels at sea, some
sailing vessels, som1 steamers and some iron
clads. They numbered &C.
Glass No. consisted of vessels suitable to re-
heye those at sea. They numbered IA.
Class No. 3 consisted of vessels worth being
repaired in case of emergency.
:. II this country should have war with Spain or
II the little cloud in the sky which had in the
MINDS OF some meant war, should grow and
trouble should come of it, vessels of this class
could be fitted out and sent to sea cheaper than
new vessels could be built. This is not a very
promising class, but still is worth something. 1t
numbered "a vessels, including six on the
stocks Below that class or any class that
could ever be used in peace or war was a class
Tor nothing but could be sold for old material.
The remainder of the vessels not comprised in
these classes were smade up of storeships and
transports, in all fifty odd vessels.
In conclusion he defended the present admin
istration OF the Navy Department and submit
ted that a provision should be made for building
new vessels for the navy and for selling all the
worthless vessels and machinery.
Mr. Morgan of Ohio,a member from the COM
mittee, replied to Mr.. Hale, and charged the
Navy Department with waste and extrava-
gance. He denied the accuracy of the figures
quoted by MIR. Hale as expenditures of the navy
before the war, and referred to the reports of
the Treasury to show the discrepancies.
Mr. Garfield of Ohio, explained how the ap-
parent discrepancy was accounted for.
Mr. Morgan denied that the explanation was
correct one and undertook to prove there was
a chaos in the Treasury, chaos in Navy and
cha0s In every department of the government.
In the course of long speech, Mr.. Morgan re-
viewed the course of the administration in ref
erence to the public debt and the expenditures
of the government, claiming alarming discrep-
ancies in the various reports of the departments.
He denied that any official of the government
from the President down to the page of the
House had any correct idea of what the public
debt really was.
MIR Beck of KY, inquired from Mr.. Garfield
whether the Navy, War and other Depart
ments of the government, were not in the habit
of selling material and making use of the pro-
ceeds in addition to the appropriation made by
Congress. r-r
Mr. Banks said that was not the case now.
MIR. Dawes remarked that the Navy and
other Departments did not dispose of material
and use the proceeds for the public service, but
there was no law requiring annual reports of
such sales to be made to Congress. He agreed
with Mr. Beck that the defect in legislation to
that effect shold be remedied.
Mr. Beck said that the question was whether
all these sales should not be added to appropra-
tons and whether they did not swell the expen-
diture by $100,000,000 He asserted that such
was the case 33 uI
Mr. Starkweather of Ct, made further illus
trations of the wretched condition of the navy
Without any disposition of the bill, the COM
mittee rose and the House adjourned