The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-02-24
NATIONAL ApOTHECARY SHOPS.

If a "beggarly account of empty
boxes" and cracked jars and leaky tubs
make up the outfit of naval apothe-
cary shop, the United States own several
very expensive drug stores which the
statutes OBSTINATE as navy yards. Per-
haps no immediate good will come from
occasionally harping upon the enormous
and expensive fraud that is annually
perpetrated upon the American people
under the title of Naval Appropria-
ton Bill. But sooner or later the people
will make themselves heard by their
Representatives in Congress, and sup
preston of the wasteful folly which
these appropriations cause will follow as
a matter of course.
The House Naval Committee made an
interesting report last Wednesday. If
this report could be read by the voters
of the Republic, and their true senti-
ments scould find expression through
their Representatives in Congress, the
costly fiction, the ludicrous burlesque Of
a naval establishment would soon cease
to exist or be radically changed. After
providing by bill for future expendi-
lures on unfinished and partly rotten
hulls, and the appointment of expensive
commissions to investigate something or
other that is supposed to he connected
with keeping our washtubs in commits
sion, the said committee submit writ
ten report on the present state of the
American navy.
Let us calmly contemplate the follow
ing roster of the present naval force of
the country, which has cost not only
scores of millions of dollars, but hun
dreds of millions of dollars, to create and
maintain. OF the five "frst rates. on
the list the Committee say that "they
must soon be classed as obsolete and
practically out of use as vessels of war;"
that they might possibly be good for
something, but could not be relied upon
as cruising ships of war without large
expenditures, and that in case of war,
for which it is supposed they were built,
"they would take a very subordinate
place. We class them as non-combat-
ants" What charh..lg thing it is to
contemplate-that all our best men-of-
war are necessarily classed as "non-com-
batants."
Of the twenty-seven "second rates"
three are unfinished, on the stocks, rot
ten and worthless, seven are laid up and
unfit for further use and unworthy of re-
pair, two are undergoing repairs, three
are awaiting repairs, one is on the stocks,
but capable of being repaired-one is a
mere hulk, one has got the yellow fever,
and only nine are in a condition to 90 to
sea, but not in much of a condition to
fight anything above fishing smack or
an oyster boat. Of the twenty-nine
"third rates" six care worthless for naval
purposes, and should be sold or broken
up" six are worthy of repairs, two are of
obsolete type and of no account, and the
remaining fifteen are fit for service, but
they are only small cruising vessels and
haven't got any fight in them worth men
tioning.
The six s.fourth-rates' are declared "to
be of no account as vessels of war;" The
Naval Register gives the names of
twenty-four iron-clad vessels belonging
to the Navy, of which the Committee
dispose by saying that four of them are
rotten and worthless, four double-tur-
rc.ed, finished, and one single-turreted
are awaiting large appropriations of
Congress to complete their rebuilding,
and that fourteen are in nominal con-
dition for nominal service, and that is
about the long and short of it. There is
not single rihed gun in our iron-clad
fleet afoat! What navyl What a
country! What a people to submit to
such national imposition!l
Editorial Spinnlngs,