Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-09-04
PARTIES AND OEFENSES.
Democratic Patriotism Shown In the
NAVY.

Democratic Patriotism shown in the
Navy.
Our Republican contemporaries are in
dulging in the familiar pastime of repre-
senting the Democratic party as hostile
to the national defense The Post in
forms us that when the country elects
Republican congress it will have navy
and coast defenses, and not before" The
Chronicle announces that Townshend, of
Illinois, lied the Confederate forces
against the senate amendments" to the
fertilization bill
The latter amusing journal airily re-
marks: Without looking the matter up,
it would DO safe to wager either that
Townshend is a free trader and advocates
buying guns from England or Germany,
or that he thinks the United States ought
to get down and crawl rather than fight,
no matter what the provocation may be-"
MAY we suggest to our esteemed contem-
porary that if it would occasionally look
matters up before writing about them it
would not make such frequent exhibitions
Of itself?
Mr., Townshend, representing the house
committee on military affairs. desired to
have the senate amendments adopted.
MIR. Savers, representing the committee
on appropriations, objected. because his
committee had matured scheme of its
own, appropriating three or four times as
much. On neither side, it is needless to
say. was there any proposition to buy
guns abroad, or to crawl rather than
fight"
As to the navy, the case is even
stronger The house naval committee,
composed of enthusiasts on the subject,
had prepared a plan looking to the expen-
diture of $4,000, 600 year on new ships
This plan was formed after careful study
and consultation with experts. For the
current year it authorized the construc-
ton of an armored battle ship of 800
tons, protected cruiser of 5000 tons,
and two protected cruisers of 5000 tons
each.
The bill passed the house, and when it
reached the senate the committee on ap-
preparations mutilated it by striking out
its most essential feature, the provision
for the armored battle ship The change
was supported in the senate BY the most
incredibly ignorant speeches it has ever
been our fortune to read. Senator Hale,
the chairman of the committee on appro-
priations, said that the ship proposed
would be a useless expense; that she
would have TO be twice as large to be of
any value; that she could not fight the
vessels of any European navy, or even of
Chill, and that We might as well confine
ourselves for the present to the construc-
ton of light cruisers. Apparently there
was not senator present who knew
enough to correct these absurdities.
The ship provided for by the house bill
could knock the whole CHILEAN navy into
kindling wood and scrap iron. She would
be a match for any three vessels in the
German navy. There is not ship aaoat
which she could not fight with some hope
of success, and there are very few which
she could not attack on at least equal
terms.
The Republican senate, the friends of
the American navy. struck out the
SO, 500 900 appropriated for this splendid
vessel, and substituted So 1860, 600 for
some gunboats.
When the administration came into
power three years and half ago, $780,
OOO,0OO had been spent in reducing us to
naval impotence. We had nothing that
could resist even the fleets of Chill, China
or Japan. Now. with appropriations
aggregating $45 DOC, 600. we have vessels
under way that will make us the fifth
naval power of the world When the
ships which the house has already pro-
vided for are completed. only England,
France, Italy and Russia will be ahead of
us; and if the plans of the house naval
committee can be preserved for few
years from the childish interference of
the senate. We shall pass all but France
and England Francisco Examiner.