Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-12-04
Secretary Whitney's Report.

! The annual report of the Secretary of
! the Navy is not encouraging as far as the
new cruisers are concerned Those which
are finished are inferior to vessels of the
same class constructed in England.
Neither the Dolphin nor the Atlanta has
developed the horse power or the speed
called for by the contracts under which
they were built.
The vessels now authorized TO be built
are intended for commerce cestroyers,"
but II they do not have greater speed than
( those which are finished they will be fail
ures for that purpose. They VIII not be
able to overtake the average merchant
steamer, and VIII be Inferior 10 the cruis-
ers OF other countries.
The statement is made that at the
present slow rate at which the new ves-
sells are being constructed and the rapid
ity with which old vessels are becoming
useless we shall have no navy worth
speaking of in two or three years.
A point that the Secretary dwells upon
at considerable length and urges upon
the attention OF CONGRESS is that there are
no facilities in this country at present
capable OF making the armor needed for
the armored vessels or for constructing
the guns needed for the new
navy. This is certainly a very unfortu-
nate condition of affairs. 1t is not a sur
prlsing one, however, because there has
been no demand for either armor or guns
such as are now required, and conse-
quently no iced for works of the magni-
do e..
England for years has been building
war ships for the greater part of the
world, hence capital has been invested in
ship building plants. Unless the govern
ment undertakes to make the armor and
guns 1t needs, contracts sufficiently large
TO justify the building of immense works
will have to be given to one or two firms.
The Secretary has been seeking iniorma-
ton in Europe, as we'll as in this country,
on every point connected with
armor and guns, and he mas been criti-
cised to some extent tor dong so. When
his side of the story is heard, however,
there Is no reasonable ground for con-
demning the course he has pursued. He
is patriotic enough not to want any part
OF the proposed new navy constructed
abroad, especially as the necessary skilled
workmen and all the materials needed are
to be found in this country, but he wants
to snow Congress what has been done in
other countries, and what is now being
done there, in order that it may not only
act upon the fullest information, but that
it may also be spurred on to open the way
for the building Of war vessels in this
country which shall equal, il not excel,
those constructed elsewhere.
AS already stated the Dolphin and At
lanta are, according to the Secretary's
report, Inferior vessels. and the Secretary
is forced TO admit that he doesn't know
where TO place the blame for their failure
to meet expectations. In view of the fact
that European nations are all the time
advancing in the science of building of
war vessels this country cannot afford to
go on building vessels which are con-
fessedly inferior to those built several
years ago by England. 1t would be much
better to stop building at once and take
few lessons than to go on creating a navy
that will not afford the required protec-
ton when completed.