The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-10-25

Nearly twenty-three centuries have
elapsed since the statesmen uf Republican
Ro me convinced themselves that the main
tenance of Roman power required the con-
struction of irst-class navy. Skill and
funds were forthcoming, and the Mediter-
ranean was presently furrowed by fleets of
ouinquirenes, so large that they covered the
lace of the sea as far as the eye could reach
and, III time, they accomplished their object
in the destruction of Carthage. Now. after
the lapse of all these centuries, history is
repeating itself, and once more Italy is
building a navy which will be unequaled in
the world, and which will be able to organize
victory as il mathematical certainty.
The crack ship of this new navy is the
Sardegna, which has lust been launched.
She is one of five armored battle-ships,
which have a displacement of about Is, 800
tons. The two first of the list, the Italia
and the LepantO, were launched ten years
ago. OF these two, the horsepower is set
down at $4,000. The Sardegna will be
driven by a horsepower of 22,G00. In
length she is less than several of the new
Atlantic liners, being only $40 feet, but her
beam, which is 81 feet, is almost unexampled,
1t is not yet settled what guns she is to
the Sardegna viii probably carry even
heavier metal. Her guns are to be mounted
en- bari cite, or, in other words, in unroofed
turretS, clad, as to their sides, with I9-inch
steel armor. The contract for the Sardegua
requires her to steam Is knots; whether
vessel with S1-feet beam can be propelled at
that rate through the water by engines OF
-, coo horsepower is rs yet a problem in
Z G,r-ir AT 81
could not carry coal enough to keep up that
rate of speed for any length of time.
Finally, this tremendous engine of war has
already cost the Italian Government six
millions and half Of dollars, and no one
can tell how much more she will cost before
she is finished Italy will probably get off
well if she can be sent to sea under ten mill
ions, The people who have got to pay for
this interesting toy nun Der IS. sec, eco, among
them the poorest peasantry in the world.
Yet out Of their scanty earnings they have
got to contribute something each year for
the maintenance of their royal Government
the cost of that Government amounts to S13
per head per annum of the entire people,
the cost of the interest charge on the pub
lie debt being So 90 per year. There is an
army of 255.o00 electives under arms all the
time, and d navy of 23S vessels in commits
sion or under repairs. This small nation,
with its scanty resources, keeps on foot an
army ten times as large as that of the
United States, navy nearly ten times as
great, and collects by taxation about as
much money as onr Government receives
from $4,000 900 of prosperous people.
If the Sardegna and her consorts were
designed to increase the wealth or promote
the prosperity Of the Italian nation; II they
in any way, manner or shape earned any
money, or afforded productive occupation to
idle Italians, the investment of such vast
sums on their construction might be under
stood. But these leyathans of the deep are
as useless, except for purposes of destruc-
ton, as the tabled leviathans of prehistoric
ages. Their sole utility is for mischief.
They can kill, burn, destroy and ravage,
but they cannot add one dollars worth of
property to the possessions of the Italian
nation, nor can they increase the sum of its
knowledge by a single thought. They are
wholly and solely engines of destruction :;
diabolic coutrivapces such as Satan used in
paradise Lost" to produce disaster and to
spread woe. The building of them suggests
the building of corresponding engines by
other nations; and the possession of them
secretly inspires statesmen with wish to
provoke wars in order to t~st their mettle
II there were no men-of-war afloat there
would be no naval battles and no maritime
wars; the gallant Jack tars who man navies
would be sailing merchant steamers carry
ing goods round the world, and adding COM
forts to the people at large. Italy has not
even the excuse which the old Roman re-
public pleaded in justification Of the quin-
quiremes; she is not engaged in a life and
death struggle with a relentless foe; nobody
has the smallest notion Of molesting King
Umberto. But ii is the fashion, and Siguor
Crispi bows to the decree.