The Portland daily press., 1884-05-14
The Naval Establishment.
One of the False Representations Of the
Democratic Party Thoroughly Exposed.
(From the Speech of Hon. Eugene Hale in the U. .
Senate on the naval appropriation bill.0

One of the False Representations Of the
| Democratic Party Thoroughly Exposed.
| (From the Speech of Hon. Eugene Hale in the U. S
Senate on the naval appropriation bill9
| The Senator from Missouri last night before adj
Journment was SO aggressive and so bitter in his
treatment of the management of the Navy Depart
meut, and expressed SO clearly his entire lack of
confidence in the department. and was so frank az
last in declaring that whatever objections of detail
he had to any of the provisions OF the bill they s
yielded to his superemiuent objection that he
was unwilling to trust the Navy Department with
the expenditure of any more money, that shall be
drawn INTO more Of discussion OF some Of the
things stated by him and some of the reasons ad
vauced by him for his position than had intended
There are two or three of his propositions fallac
1ous, SO wholly without ground that cannot let the
ceasion go without attempting to answer them.
FIRST and foremost the Senator is too bright a
| man, too old Senator too much in the habit of
reading and investigating before he talks to repeat
the old and stale statement that $685. 900 600 have
been spent for the naval establishment in the last
twenty years without results; that no account has
been given of it; and that the record of that
penditure is such that the Navy Department ought
70 be shut off from any extra supplies at present
Does the Senator know the condition that the Navy
Department found itself in at the end of the war
for the suppression of the rebellion? Does he know
that fleets and nayies were improvised under the
whip and spur of necessity at that time which
ed their purpose and did their work and then went
| out of existence like dream? Does he know that
could only float in the waters for three brief
years. and that the administrations succeeding the
Il war IOuQu themselves with an establishment
hand that in the main was only fit to be broken up
and solo, that during all those strenuous years the
pressure that was upon the Navy Department was
not to build ships for the future, but to maintain
an existing blockade to improvise few fast cruis-
ers, so that the depredations of the Alabama and
her consort cruisers should be stopped by speedy
ships that could chase and oYertake and capture
her?
The record upon this subject shows what sort of
an establishment the Navy Department found itself
in possession of at the close of the war; We built
during the war 1913 vessels in private yards at a
cost Of S43, 13S ,116 We built in the navy yards
their machinery being built in private yards So
vessels, costing S21 SOC, 82I. We took from the
merchant marine by purchase 497 vessels, costing
Sl9,625,593 and 75 canal boats and schooners for
the purpose of sinking and obstructing he harbors
at cost of Sl93,77l. These are the figures, and
that is what during the war was improvised as a
navy.
When the war ended and peace came we had
nothing that went to make permanent navy. The
vessels that were taken from the merchant service
could only run for a year or two afterward and
under acts of Congress these with other vessels
which were useless Sold realizing to the gov
eminent $l5, 900 900; but they went out of exist
There were fifteen to twenty wooden vessels on the
stocks in the navy yards. They had already cost
them would cost SIC, 0OO, 900 more. II the money
had been put into them and finished them we should
have only repeated England's experiment when she
tried to utilize her wooden ships and $l0O,t 10000
that she had spent on that kind Of naval construc
ton went absolutely out of existence and being,
and was charged to profit and loss.
We had not in the navy at that time q sing iron
screw steamer nor a single modern compound en-
| CINE, nor had such an engine been built in the
country. What we should have done them as Eng
land and as France and as Germany and other pow
ers making any pretenson to naval force have since
DONE was to have sat ourselves down and by liberal
navy. We have done nothing of that kind.
In all the years since, from 1866 to the present
time the only single special appropriation that has
been made for the purpooe of building new ships
and reconstructiBg the American navy has been
| that OF $4,000, 900 appropriated in 1873. What
lie hare 4bax
have sent and got some of the figures here to
show what has been done during these years by the
souri, Take England. Ten armered ships she has
built of the Dreadnought class that cost $23 020-
| $50. The Infexible alone cost So 1856 .925, the
| Dreadnought herself costing S2,799,825. Sixty
| two armored ships of the second class cost $751;
2O9, 1906 eighty unarmored ships cost S33 432 525
and sixty -nine gunboats cost Sc 0OS 600 making
| these years up to 1879. of SAL Gas, 705, and
| since 1879 this sum has been added to enough to
make it almost 200,O00O0O.
| Other nations have followed in the same line of
policy. France, during this time, has built five
mo ot!a ships ZOO Of 6oo the Formidable class,
| costing S65, O0o,O0G and the total cost
| of her ships up to 1879 was S8S 800 900; and
| enough more has been added since then to make it
| more than $10J, 100000. Russia has built five
| frst-class ships at cost of STOPS 900. The
largest one, the Peter the Great, cost alone ST.
100000 more than We propose in this bill to sp-
proprate this year for the new cruisers that are
be built hereafter Italy, referred to by the Senator
from SllsSOuIl jdSb Us an 6Xdmp mas built
| the most powerful naval war ships known of the
D6so class. Five of these cost SIS, 800 0O0 over
| $3,00000U apiece The Duilio cost SO, 100000,
| the Italia the Lepanto, and the Colombo So
1856, 900 apiece. Ten other armored ships cost So
| 445, 600 and seventeen unarmored ships $4300,-
600. making a total expenditure of $50, 100000
of The KONG Wilhelm class. She alone
ships cost SIS, 1e7, $50, thi T l'O n ~
armored ships over $12,6o0,o0u; making in all
$37 900. Austria has built five armored. iron
huh ships, costing IS 81 800; five armored wood
enhull ships, costing 81. 400 $50; and twenty-five
pnarmored ships at cost of S. 100000, her total
being SIS .664 200. Turkey alone has expended in
| this time $l7,228, 500, against our $4,000 600.
Grouping these six nations together we have total
naval construction expenditure up to 1879 of 1857
Sl3 100, and the total amount expended since 1879
certainly can be less than not 81 900 900 to $780,
100000 more. have not the figures for the late
years.
Now contrast that with what we have done So
100000, and then consider what left to us from
the war, and the wonder is to-day that we have
en- the remnant of navy, that We have anything
left upon the waters of the globe to bear flag.
The Senator from Missouri in and repeats
that old stale charge that 1886 600 900 nave been
expended for the Navy during these last twenty
years, and asks where it has gone and wants the
Senate to pass vote of want of confidence in the
Navy administration or in the administration of the
Government itself because of that
He ought to know that 1885 900 900 does not
represent navy; it does not represent new ships.
/ 1t represents simply the expenditures of the de
l. partment, and hardly dollar of 1t has gone into
| anything like new ship. These appropriations
have been made for the running expenses of the de-
partment. Does the Senator what to know how it is
| that money has gone? Let ne tell him-for have
| been getting the figures, some of them exact and
| OF that $685., 100000 which the Senator com
| plains has been spent wantonly aud unaccounted
Senator Enow 'ws Rs does hs s9s
| gone for the pay of the navy, pay regulated
| by law, and upon which limitations are fixed by
Congress- and of which not dollar could eater in
to the construction of a vessel of the navy, any
more than it could enter into the construction of
his house in Missouri, or mine in Maine? There is
$l65 900 0oJ of it gone at once. Does the Senator
know that for provisions and clothing as essential
it is that life should be maintained in the navy,
over $50 O000 900 have gone, and not dollar of it
has touched the structure of a new ship? Would
the Senator like to be informed that for repairs and
maintenance of navy yards, S70,000,000 have gone
in these several years, and that not dollar of that
goes into building up and maintaining a navy? Does
| he know that in the Equipment Bureau for coal
and other supplies needed to maintain the life of
the navy, as it exists as much air. water and food
are needed for mans sustenance, Sc, GOO 900 have
gone? And for repairs of old ships that come to us
/ as legacy from the war, that we have been
straining to keep afoat SAL ,00O 900 have gone?
| In these great items alone have accounted for
| 5000 600 out of his 1856 100000, aud if go
into the details of the smaller bureaus. the Naviga-
| ton Bureau, the Annapolis Academy, the naval
asylums, and all the contingencies that have been
appropriated for, his 1886, 100000 is swept aside
and accounted for, and not dollar of it has gone
or could 90 into the rebuilding of anavy. And yet
/ the Senator repeats that old story.
have gone into this for the purpose and with the
hope that during this discussion we shall hear no
more of that oit-repeated cry of the $685. 100000
and the want of confidence expressed in the Navy
| Department because of that.
Mr. Bayard-May ask the Senator from Maine a
/ question?
Mr.. Haie-Certainly.
MIR. Bayard-I ask him whether it is not Just also
to state that in addition to the sums of money which
have been appropriated by Congress since 1866,
which amount to 1886, 000o 900 for the naval estab-
ishment, large sums, the proceeds of old vessels
sold and old material sod not justly to be ad-
| ded to that?
Mr.. Hale-No, sir that is not so. All of the late
sales have been in subordnation to the enactments
of Congress, which have been extremely rigid and
thoroughly observed. Every sale of vessels or ma
teral in its results is turned into the Treasury aud
| the New Department gets no benefit from them.
/ Immediately succeeding the war when legislation
was looser and when there not that close seru-