Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-01-31
demonstrated that the power of guns has
outrun the resisting power of amor. In
concluding their report the committee say

outrun the resisting power of afmor. In
concluding their report the committee say
We want a navy capable of protecting our
commerce on all the seas, of defending our own
borders from invasion, and of destroying the
commerce and seagoing cruisers of any nation
which may make war with us. To do the hrst
we should put our iron-clad fleet in condition
of the greatest efficiency, and should develop
the torpedo system to it's fullest extent. With
our iron-clad fleet in q condition for coast and
harbor defense, and our torpedo system pei
fected. forty-fve millions of Americans can
defy all danger of foreign invasion. But we
should be able not only to meet and beat off an
invader from our shores, but also to extort
from an enemy terms of honorable peace by
aggressive war upon the high seas. The late
war has taught how much harm a few fast
ships gallaptly commanded can do upon the
high seas, and the lesson should not be lost up
on us. In the opinion of the committee the
time has arrived swhen it is a national duty to
begin the construction of a navy. In any
future wars with European nations we must
fight upon the sea or nowhere.
This sounds very well indeed, but it is I'M
sound advice nevertheless. In the first
place we have scarcely any commerce on
the high seas to protect. The policy of the
government of imposing heavy taxes upon
ship building and refusing American regis
ter to vessels built abroad, has driven our
merchant marine almost wholly from the
seas, and nine tenths of the business trans
acted between America and foreign ports is
conveyed in British bottoms. In the next
place what little commerce we have that has
survived the ruinous policy of the
Republican party towards it does not now,
and is not likely for century to
come, to need protection. We are at abso-
lutte peace with the whole world, with no al
liances that are at all likely to involve US in
war with foreign nations. Then, with the
fact demonstrated and admitted that no iron
plating of whatever thickness can resist the
power of modern ordnance, what is the use of
having fleet of ironclads when wooden
vessels will cost less than one-quarter of the
amount and prove faster and equally able to
resist the heaviest broadsides? Our expe
rience and that of England and Germany has
proved that iron vessels are more unwieldy
in action than those of wood are almost GER
tain to 90 to the bottom in a heavy gale,
and are less fleet. So thoroughly has Great
Britain been satisfied with her experience
with ironclads, that she has abandoned their
construction altogether, and is now building
only wooden vessels for her navy.
We disagree entirely with the committee
that the time has arrived when it is a ma
tional duty to begin the construction of
new navy. 1t is rather national duty to
dispense with the remnants of the old one,
which we now have. That the majority of
our vessels would be worthless in case of
naval engagement with the superior craft of
other powers. we do not doubt, but we insist
that We have no need for vessels of any kind,
good, bad, or Indifferent. For our coast de-
Tense we have an abundance of fortresses
and could erect an impenetrable barrier of
torpedoes at any point menaced. For our
commerce-well, We feel like recommending
the recipe for cooking hare-irst catch
your hare. We had better first get some
commerce, and talk about protecting it af-
forwards. The true policy of the nation is
to encourage the construction of merchant
marine under such conditions as would make
them available at any time as vessels of war.
They could then, in the event of disturb
ance, be impressed into the service at
few days notice, and America could cover
the entire ocean with feet of a thousand
vessels capable of coping with the best dis
cipllned navy in the world. But such an
emergency is not likely to arise, and for the
present a dozen vessels of war
are sufficient for every purpose.
Let us get rid of the enormous expense of
maintaining useless navy in time of pro-
found peace ;of furnishing breeding place
for corruption in our navy yards the prosti
tuition of public officers by means of bribery
in contracts, a horde of expensive and worth
less officials who fatten at the public crib.
The country has already been plundered suf-
fciently for purely ornamental branch of
the government, and it is time that the leak
was stopped. Instead of building new
navy we should sell the old one and pat the
proceeds into the public treasury, where it
will do the most good. The bill of the COM
mittee should be allowed to die with all due