Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-06-17
CHANDLER ON TIE NAVY.

Secretary Chandler has been making a
speech to the New Hampshire Club, in
which he exhibited the deplorable condi-
ton of the United States Navy, and urged
the necessity OF action. The American peo-
pie are certainly perfectly willing and even
anxious that the navy should be restored
to usefulness. They are aware that they
have been paying out enough money every
year for this purpose to have good navy.
If it is mere sham, as Secretary Chandler
declares, the responsibility rests upon Con.
gress and the Navy Department. There is
no reason why we should be without eff
cient war vessels to-day. The country has
never refused the necessary appropriations.
The two hundred millions which have been
squandered during the past ten years in
our navy yards would and ought to have
provided fine navy. Considering the cir
cumstances, we are at less to perceive
the object of Secretary Chandeliers com.
plant. Obviously what is wanted is q
complete reorganization of the Navy De-
partment, but he does not suggest anything
of that kind, and he is in fact in manner
bound, from his party affiliations and off.
cial position, to maintain that the existing
system is the best possible one. The prac.
tical way to obtain navy, unfortunately,
does not commend itself to Congress. So
long as ships are built as they have been in
our navy yards hitherto, it is idle to look
for any better results than have been al
ready reached. If the country is resolved
to have navy, it must begin by insisting
upon reform in the Government.
Mr.. Chandler, however, has other and
exceedingly dim and vague ideas. He ap.
pears to think that there is some connec
ton between the decadence of the navy
and the decline of our foreign trade, and
he seems to believe that the way to restore
the latter is to pay subsidies to Mr.. John
Roach. This will not answer, Mr.. Chand.
Ter. The causes which affect our foreign
trade cannot be reached in that way. Pay
ing subsidies to steamers will not modify
the tariff, and it is the tariff, and nothing
else, which is destroying our foreign trade
If American manufacturers could go into
South American markets and compete on
equal terms with foreign manufacturers,
they would very soon restore the foreign
trade. But this the tariff prevents them
from doing, and it would not change the
conditions at all to pay Mr.. John Roach to
run steamers to Brazil or anywhere else.
When, moreover, Mr.. Chandler asserts
that England subsidies her vessels, and
infers that it is because of those subsidies
that her foreign trade is go great, he mis-
represents the facts. All England does is
to pay certain vessels for carrying the
mails. These payments have nothing to
do with the foreign trade. If English
merchants could not compete with their
rivals in foreign markets, the substituting
of mail steamers would not help them, and
neither can such plan help us. If we
want the South American trade we can
have it at any time. All that is necessary
to that end is to remove the restrictions
upon commerce which the tariff imposes.
There is no other way to do it, however,
and Mr.. Chandler's proposition is alto
gether impracticable.
In fact it is melancholy spectacle to
see man of ability rise and bring
formidable indictment against his party,
and then propose to remedy matters by
doing something which is altogether IT.
relevant to the issue. The decline of our
navy and the loss of our foreign trade are
both due to causes which Mr.. Chandler
is doing his best to maintain in operation.
The remedy for the first is honesty, eff.
cheney and skill. The remedy for the
second is tariff reform. Yet Mr.. Chandler
is not prepared to adopt either of these
remedies, but directs all his attention to
the substituting of vessels, or, in other
words, the manufacture OF make-believe