Los Angeles herald., 1892-01-31
PUT UP sHIPBUILDING AND ORDNANCE
PLANTS AND BUY SHIPS.

The HERALD has received letter from
a gentleman who entirely misconceives
the spirit OF an editorial which appeared
in this paper the other day. Our argu-
ment was that, in view of the decadence
of the American merchant and naval
marine, and the imminent danger of
war springing up without a moments
warning, this country ought to buy war
vessels wherever we can find them, and
to SO modify our navigation laws that
enterprising Americans should be per-
mitted to give an American register to
merchant vessels which they might buy
abroad. This by no means implies that
we should be laggards in building the
new American navy, whose conception
and plan are due to the sagacious initia-
tive of Mr.. Cleveland's administration,
and whose successful evolution was so
materially assisted and supervised by
Mr.. Whitney, Mr.. Cleveland's secretary
of the navy, and all without material
diminution of the big surplus which the
fiftieth congress left to the fiftyfrst,
and which Mr.. Cleveland's administra-
ton left to that of Mr.. Harrison.
The circumstances of today are quite
peculiar. Nearly thirty years of Re-
publican misrule have almost destroyed
the American merchant marine, and
had allowed our navy to fall to pieces.
An uncommon succession of good for
tune has enabled us to escape any seri-
GUS national disaster from this state of
things. That our immunity from grave
national misfortunes has been purely
fortuitous has been shown within
very brief period, during which we
have been threatened with war from
Italy and from Chile. The part OF
wisdom would thus appear to us to be
that we should, while fastening the
building of our own ironclads, and insur-
ing the completion of shipbuilding and
ordnance-casting plants, buy as many
likely ships of war and merchant ves-
sells as might be conveniently secured.
There is nothing antagonistic in the two
ideas, and there is a doubled national
safety in policy which should keep
our own shipyards going while we
availed ourselves of those of the rest of
the world.
The peculiar tariff policy of the Re-
publican party has for years made it
| impossible to build ships in the United
States on terms as favorable as those
which exist in the shipyards of England
and France. This is the solemn truth,
and every American must realize the
fact with grimace of disgust.
Rear-Admiral Porter, in an article
which appeared in the North American
Review, about q year ago, said that it
would take five years to provide this
country with plants capable Of supplying
us with the modern ordnance we need
for our navy and with an efficient sys-
tenn of coast defence. Our correspondent
will perceive that four years OF this pe-
riod has still to elapse. Meanwhile,
what guarantee have we that we shall
not be plunged into war with some pow
erful nation this year, next year or the
year after?
Would it not be wise, realizing the
inadequacy of our present means, offens-
i've and defensive, to increase them by
all the resources which our plethoric
pecuniary ability as nation could COM
mand? The fact that we should bny
some big guns from Krupp, and some
ships in Glasgow or Toulon, need in no
whit cause us to intermit the red-ho
work in our own shipyards an6 foundries.
Why should it? The appearance OF
trim steel and iron vessels in our mer-
chant marine would only stimulate the
genius and enterprise OF our shipbuild
ers on both the Atlantic and Pacific
coasts. There is nothing gratifying to
American pride, and, there is no increase
in our ocean tonnage, in forcing ships of
American ownership to fly foreign flag.
This country has been compelled to
submit to depreciation CALLING to our
national punctilio through the made
quacy of our navy. The mortifying gap
between our pretensions and our pos
sible performance ought to be closed at
once by any means. There lis no dan
ger of our forgetting the art of building
ships, but there is great danger that the
noble race of American sailors will die
out unless we provide them with vessels,
OF home or foreign build, in which they
can harden into splendid Jack tars
who have made American naval history
80 illustrious.