The Portland daily press., 1882-06-15
OUR NAVY.
Speech Of Secretary Chandler Before the
New Hampshire Club in Boston.

Speech Of Secretary Chandler Before the
New Hampshire Club in Boston.
BcsToN, June II. At meeting of the New
Hampshire Club held in this city tonight Sec
retary of the Navy Chandler, Senator Frye,
Collector Worthington and Gen. N. p Banks
were among the guests. Secretary Chandler
was introduced and after expressing his graft
tude for the invitation extended to him to be
present, and alluding TO the generous treat
ment he had always received from the people
of New Hampshire, he passed to the consider
alton Of matters connected with the navy. He
said:
g 1t would hardly be expected of me to speak
of the navy of the U nited States officially as i
find it has been spoken of by the committee of
Congress. The Secretary then read from the
report of the Committee on Naval Affairs, and
continuing, said: Now if these official utter
ances of the committee of Congress of the
United States be true, this country to day,
with all its wealth and intelligence, with all its
sea-coast, with all its seamen, with all its sea-
ports, is in no condition to enter into any in
ternational controversy with any one of the
great powers OF the earth. / have here COM
parison of naval vessels of England, France,
Germany, Russia, Italy and the United States,
which 1 will not read at this time, but will cal
attention to the fact that while we were once
rivals OF Great Britain upon the ocean, while
we once had navy which in the war of 1872
compelled British officers to haul down the
Great Britain to-day has 499 vessels in its navy,
65 of which are ironclads and 434 general SER
vice vessels, v hile the United States has only
Ill vessels in all, "a ironclads and 81 general
service vessels in wretched condition, and
which you have heard described by commit
tee of Congress in the language which 1 read.
Now / ask you, gentlemen, is this country in
any condition to enter into war which God
forbid may come, but which in the providence
of God may come in the future with Great
D,s4o FFan Pms % ant,
have iron-clad navies superior to our own, and
even Italy, although it has not superior ton
mage of naval vessels to ours, has two ships
which are equals of any iron-clads in the
world Now the question is what will Ameri-
ca do in view of her naval inferioriJy? No one
expects the United States to build O navy to-
day or tomorrow to compete with the great
powers of the earth. We are nation of peace
and expect to remain at peace with the great
powers of the earth; and do not advocate,
neither will any person advocate, that the
United States should expend the money nec-
essary to construct great naval armament
equal either this year or next year to contest
with the great naval powers for mastery OF
the ocean.
The inadequacy of our navy, 1 am bound to
say, think has been a little exaggerated by
the committees of Congress, who | am afraid
are not always entirely reliable in their re-
ports We have more than twenty liveoak
ships They are wooden ships, to be sure, but
are gOOu SHIPS. lH0y arc SOOu CEuioluS Von-
sels they are exhibiting the flag of our coun-
try in all waters of the earth and have been
sufficient to secure for our country in all sea-
ports and hwaters of the world that respect
which the stars and stripes at the masthead of
naval vessel OF the United States ought al
ways to command.
do not advocate therefore the expensive
construction of naval vessels. We want few
modern steam cruisers. Is there any reason
under heaven, gentlemen ofthe House of Rep
resentatives and Senators, why the United
States should not own one cruising vessel of
the navy that IS faster than any vessel that
can be built on the face of the earth? We can
build hersin this country. We want not twelve
or twenty, but cannotwe afford to exhibit on
the ocean the fastest and best cruising vessel
that human ingenuity can construct ZAP
plause) | believe so and believe we can af-
ford to build four or five iron clads for harbor
defence so we need not bluster and threaten
any of the smaller powers of the earth and run
the risk of having two or three of their iron
clads enter the harbor of San Francisco or
Boston or New York and destroy the COM
merce of those harbors and those eharbors
themselves while we are getting ready to I'm
ish half dozen iron clads which when finish
ed will be the equal of any in the world, but
which we have let lie unfinished with three or
four millions of dollars invested in them for
the last seven years. I believe we can afford
to faish these iron clads and l believe we can
afford to experiment in the direction OF con-
struction of torpeCoes and torpedo gun boats, so
that according to the rule of modern science
and modern art applied to destruction, we can
| by our torpedoes defend all our harbors.
Secretary Chandler then alluded to the con-
dltlon of our merchant marine. We do not
| absolutely today need navy. We only need
| to prepare navy for future contingencies, but
| we are dying daily for the want of CONNER
| cial steam marine. In 1880, sgentemen, out OF
| carrying trade of $780, 600, 600 we carried
I $3.50, ,000, 600 in American Ships or IS per cent
only, while foreign ships carried 81, ,000, 900,
| or 50 per cent, and we paid last year to those
| foreign ship owners $140,000,000 for carrying
| our products and our trade between our ports
and ports of other nations. In 1860 our ton
| mage had risen to $4,000 tons. In 1880, gen.
tlemen, I regret to inform you it had gone
down to $2, 2,643,000 decrease between 1860
and 1880 of $2,707 600.
Other statistics were given and he contin-
| ued: In the case of South America l find a
balance of trade against us of about $102 ,000,-
000 while England and France sent $102, ,000,-
COO Of manufactured goods to South America
| to pay our debts, when under wise and cour-
/ ageous policy we should have sent that $102,-
| 100000 in American manufactured goods. We
| can beat them, gentlemen, in manufacturing
goods; we can manufacture in Dover and
Manchester, and Nashua and Great Falls ex
| actly the same kind of goods they want in
| Brazil and in all South America. Why DOM
| we send Them there? Because we have sur
rendered the carrying trade to Great Britain