Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-09-06
ENVIOUS BRlTONS.
Uncle Sans Naval improvements
Open Their Eyes.
The New American Navy Is Regarded In
England as an Unnecessary Expense
What They Think of Our
Big Warships.

How far the naval renaissance of the
United States results from any convic-
ton on the part of the people that
warships are required, or appeals to
national sentiment promoted by the
shipbuilding interest, is not worth in
quiry, says the London Standard. The
Americans know their own business
best. Nevertheless, to an outsider,
the great republic seems to have begun
to build war vessels when they are
least requisite Her seaboard is of
enormous extent, but is in little peril
from any enemy. and science within
the past ten or fifteen years has ena-
bled harbors to be defended by mines,
torpedoes and other deadly means
which were unknown in the days ''be-
fore the war" One cannot we'll mag
inc the circumstances under which the
United States need, unless by the
most deplorable folly or intentional
responsiveness, drift into hostilities
with any other great power. The re-
public is in the happy ition of hav
ing-except in one instance, and as
that instance is our Canadian fellow
subjects we decline to discuss any such
possibilities as an Anglo-American
war-no neighbors at all fit to cope
with her. The nearest are, indeed, ma
vyless, and all the rest know their own
resources too well to think, even if
there was tie least chance for a quar-
rel, of trying conclusions with her.
Chilli, it was at one time believed,
might perhaps give passing trouble.
But even at that period the United
States feet in the Pacific was quite
equal to that of the smaller powers
The good fortune of the country
which recently made so creditable a
display OF sea-going fighting machines
is that she can concentrate all her
fleets along her home coasts. She does
not possess colonies scattered all over
the world and requires none. She has
no fleets of corn ships to convoy
from the other side of the globe, as a
power like England must when by any
evil accident we are threatened with
difficulties by one of the huge armed
states of Europe. The southern cruisers
almost ruined the merchant fleet, but
it was not the absence of navy that
for twenty years subsequently pre-
vented the Americans from recovering
their carrying trade. If, therefore,
the republic is prepared to continue
pacific career, neither to annex nor
protect" and to refuse-in accord
ance with the early and, it seemed. the
fixed policy of the republic-to form
any ''entangling alliances" or acquire
any territory beyond the sea-
much smaller navy than that she is 80
feverishly building might serve all the
wants of the country. At present, in
Guiding gunboats and other small
craft, the United States navy numbers
eighty vessels, mounting more than
eleven hundred guns, and including
among this generally Indifferent roll
of ships some very fine specimens of
the modern floating battery. The Chi
cago, Philadelphia, Newark, San Fran
cisco, Atlanta and Yorktown are all
craft of formidable description. In
addition there is the dynamite-gun
vessel Vesuvius, the efficiency of which
has still to be proved and, as it is not
unlikely to be quite as destructive to
friends as to foes, the most sincere de-
sire of every wellwisher Including her
inventory is that this outcome of
American ingenuity may forever re-
main speculative curiosity for such
friendly exhibitions as that of the Co
lumbar naval review.