Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-12-10

not exceed SoOU,UUO per tnnum. LII Is
estimated by the Postmaster General
that II all the contracts proposed are
completed it will require S247,354 for
this year in addition TO the
appropriation for sea and in
land postage, already in the
estimates, and that for the next fiscal
year ending June 80. 1898. there would
probably DE needed about $3.50, 900. The
report OF
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
shows gratifying increase OF new
naval vessels In commission. The New
ark, Concord, Bennington and Manta-
nomah have been added during the
year, with an aggregate OF something
more than 11,000 tons. Twenty-four
war ships OF all classes are now under
construction in the navy yards and pri-
vate shops, but while the work upon
them is going forward satisfactorily.
the completion of the more impor-
tant vessels will yet require about a
years time.
Some OF the vessels now
under construction it is believed
will be triumphs of naval engineering.
When it Is recopected that the work of
building modern navy was only in
itiated in the year 1888. that our
naval constructors and ship builders
were practically without experience In
the construction of iron or steel ships,
that our engine shops were unfamiliar
with great marine engines, that the
manufacture of steel forgings for guns
and plates was almost wholly foreign
industry, the progress that has been
made Is not only highly satisfactory,
but furnishes the assurance that the
United States will, before long, attain
in the construction Of such vessels
with their engines and armament,
the same pre-eminence which
it awakened when the best
instrument of ocean commerce, was
the clipper ship and the most impress
sive exhibit of naval power, the old
wooden three-d ecker man-of- war.
SATISFACTORY RESPONSES.
The officers Of the navy and the pro-
prietors and engineers of our great pri-
vate shops have responded with won
derIul intelligence and professional zeal
TO the confidence expressed by Congress
in its liberal legislation. We have now
at Washington a gun shop organized
and conducted by naval officers that In
its system of economy and product is
unequalIcd. Experiments with armor'
plate have been conducted during the
year with most important results.
1t is now believed that a
plate Of higher resisting power
than any in use has been found and
that the tests have been demonstrated
that cheaper methods Of manufacture
than these heretofore thought necessary
can be used.
| commend to your favorable consid'
Grafton the recommendations OF the
Secretary, who has, | am sure, given &c
them the most conscientious study.
There should be no hesitation in prompt
ly completing navy OF the best modern
type, large ei ough to enable this coun'
try to display It's flag on all seas for the
protection of its citizens and of its ex'
tending commerce.
The world needs no assurance of the
peaceful purposes of the United
States but we shall probably
be in the future more largely
com peGtor in the commerce Of
the world, and it is essential to the dig
nifty of the nation and to that peaceful
influence which it should exercise OF
this hemisphere that its navy should be
adequate both upon the shores OF the
Atlantic and Pacific. The report Of
the