The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1883-05-26
SUBMARINE WARFARE.

ton concerning the inefliciency of our
navy and the appalling decrease of our
Merchant Marine, has set some readers
of your valuable paper thinking, and
some have already concluded that we
are fast becoming nation of wheat
growers, horse-swoppers and political
wire-workers. It seems that few
Americans look to our commercial pro-
lection in the future. Our authorities
at Washington ''table" all questions of
great national po.tance and occupy
most of their time in skirmishing for
strong positions in the political field
The continual strife for political party
power seems to absorb all others.
Seeing that our navy is not in cond;-
tion to meet the hostile fleets Of other
nations, and knowing that it takes
years to build and equip fleet of iron
clads sufficient for that purpose, I
would ask why Congress failed to
make ample appropriations to con-
struct sea coast defenses sufficiently
strong to protect our commercial cities
from the attacks of hostile heetl
In the absence of a navy our national
existance demands that we cast and
mount on casemated forte, guns heavy
enough to pierce the sides and crush
the decks of any ironcIad bold enough
to approach our defenses-that we
build submarine galleries in all our haIe
bors having deep water entranco, for
the more efficient use of the torpedo
that we organize an independent tor
pedo corps of 500 men and increase our
corps of sappers and miners and train
them in the science of submarine war.
fare. The beggarly two or three hun
dred thousand dollars that Congress ap-
propriated for harbor defenses is totally
inadequate. Star routes, salary grabs
and credit mobilier swindles can be
passed through Congress, but money
appropriated for national security can
not.
Some readers may dissent from my
views and say that such preparations are
unnecessary. We are at peace with all
nations ard afraid of none. England
is the most powerful Of nationSA Aand we
whipped her twice, besides now we
have 50,0o0,000 of people to draw sol
diers from. All this is very true 30
far as it gees, but you must allow
that England was at war with France
when we whipped her and in imminent
peril of being invaded herself. Such
is not the case now, and besides Eng
land has increased I'M population in a
greater degree than we have, her pop
ulation being 3Oo,oooOOO, the Indian
Empire having 240,o0660e
In case hostile ironclad appeared
off the mouth of the Columbia. what
use would those pc oorly constructed forts
be with their old time ordinance? WHY
any modern irencIad could run by those
forts, destroy all the shipping in the
| Columbia, reduce Portland and Astoria
to ashes and run back to sea perhapa
without any loss. The Umpqua guard $
would be of no avail. See the havoc a
few hostile men-of-war could make in
San Francisco bay. I think it high
time the people should wake up and see
the kind of men that control our govern
ment at Washington, and the woods
are yet full of such fellows. (Roseburg
lawyers not included.) Let us send to
Congress men to represent agriculture.
commerce and the trades, with an
occasional Northern brigadier, and let
us see if in five years we are not better
prepared to protect cur interests at home
and abroad, by land and by sea than we
are now. B.