Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-12-07
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN.

The Secretary of the Navy in his report
to the President proves conclusively that
1t will be wise for us to remain at peace
with naval powers. He draws graphic
picture of what would happen to New
York City should We engage in war with
any such power
Hesays that the harbor is entirely de-
fenseless. The forts at the Narrows would
offer no obstruction to fleet Any vessel
armed with the modern eight-inch guns
far from being the heaviest guns aaoat-
could lie out of range Of the forts and de-
stroy them. Long Island Sound has no
forts worthy Of the name, and the entrance
to the East River by that route is unob-
structed. But could not guns be mounted
on shore to fire at such a feet? The
army possesses no modern guns for the
purpose, and the cast-iron shell from the
guns now In its possession would make
no more impression on modern ironclads
than hailstones on roof But would not
torpedoes prevent the entrance of the fleet
We have no torpedoes. Stationary torpe-
does or mines, we have in abundance, but
an attacking feet could pick them up or
countermine without danger to itself. OF
automobile torpedoes We have not one. As
for our unprotected cruisers, if they staid
in port, it would be to become involved in
a general capitulation. There is nothing,
therefore. to prevent the access of a fleet to
New York by either entrance.
The attacking feet having gained en-
trance to the harbor, what then would
happen? The popular impression is that
the danger of a sea- coast city is one of
bombardment, with ransom as an alterna-
tive. Leaving out, however, the possibil-
ity that state at war will forego an over
whelming strategic advantage out of
Difference to the Civilized tendencies
of the age" and that any State or
city is rich enough to pay the fifty or
one hundred millions that may be exacted
as the price of immunity, the danger does
not stop here. The terms of ransom would
undoubtedly include the surrender of all
the shipping, naval or mercantile in the
port In the case of New York, it is hard
TO say what limit would be fixed to ran
som, and Brooklyn and Jersey City would
contribute their shares.
But the calamity would not end with
the payment of money and the surrender
of ships. An enemy's fleet once in would
remain there. Commerce would be ami
hilated. Communication would be abso-
lutely cut off. The ferry-boats would cease
to run. The Brooklyn bridge would be
closed to traffic as the condition of its
preservation. The railroad communica-
lions would be cut and the food supply of
two and one-half millions of people would !
come to an end. Capitalists might afford |
to pay ransom, but famine would fall |
first on the homes of the poor The ran
som paid by that population would be !
anything which it was in their power to |
give, and which the feet in the harbor
would accept.
If any one fancies that this is an over
drawn picture, let him, says the Secretary,
make simple calculation of the amount of
food daily required by two and one-half
millions of people. Take the navy ration,
fair allowance of the food, and there is
consumed daily in New York and Brook
lyn: Bread, in pounds, 1,57500O; vege-
tables, 1,575,000; meat, 100000; butter,
225,oO0; coffee, 225,OoO; sugar, 100000.
This amount or its equivalent must, as
an average, be received daily in the two
cities from outside. Whatever the GUAM
tity on hand for consumption, or stored for
expectation, it would soon be exhausted
by such drain when additions to the
stock had ceased. All the elevators and
many of the stores-houses containing the
supply are on the water front and not a
few of them on the wrong side of the river.
Those who recall the scarcity caused by
the snow blockade in the great storm of
March, 1887, may form some idea of the
effect of absolute stoppage of communica-
ton. Starvation would be only question
of days.
The present statement is revealing no secret.
at least no secret TO foreign States. It is only
our own people who ignore it. The facts are
patent upon the charts of our own coast survey
charts upon which every channel on the
water and every typographical detail on the
land are plotted with fatal aecursey-and
which anyone, American or foreigner, has for
years been able TO have for the asking. No
land force, however numerous or resolute
could prevent the result have described. Cur
present naval force would be equally powerIess
Even when all the ships now authorized are
completed we should not have a lighting chance
against a respectable fleet of foreign ironelads
There are other seaboaTd besides the Atlantic
exposed to attack other cities besides New
York of commercial importanee-New Orleans
on the Gulf, San Francisco and Tacoma and
Seattle on the Pacific. Our line of defense is
long, ana its parts are so divided and SO re-
mote that they could not be included in sny
single plan of concerted operations Zach
would inevitably become the object of separate
attack. and each must be effectively and sepa-
rately guarded
This is very doleful picture. If we
are to allow nothing whatever for the sem
timent of humanity and the claims of civ
ilization to restrain the hand of the be-
sieger, then, indeed, the United States
must expend the money necessary to make
each of our great commercial ports strong
in local defense through the agency of
harbor defense ships and batteries, no
matter what the cost, or else we must ex-
pose the nation to the humiliation of be-
ing cowed by any foreign demand, because
we would be in danger of receiving fearful
punishment, and which nothing could