The Coconino weekly sun., 1893-12-07
OUR NEW NAVY


 WASHINGTON, Dec L-The ann
 report of Secretary Hilary A. Herha.. is an interesting summary of tbe ,,s. gress made in naval construction sin the inauguration of the new Amar;aNN steel navy, with the result ot placing with high powered s,as, ships nearly all the old timber s;a
 that made up the navy lists at tSs close of the war. The report sbow' that the total number of sa.n iceable war vessels in the Un;toa States navy is forty-one, fifteen '. which are armored. In addition tbora are sixty-four vessels on the lists naoet ly wooden cruisers, tugs and anti. quated monitors that are set down .. unserviceable for war purposes. Table. are given, showing the naval strength of the leading powers. and comnari. son from them places the United Stata. seventh in the rank of naval powers. The delays experienced in buildin, ships as result of the failure of tbs steel companies to furnish the neces. sary armor is alluded to. Of 12, 300 ton, covered by the two principal contracts only 1,949 tons had been delivered on the first day of March last The great difficulties experienced by the armor makers have, however all been over. come and deliveries of armor are now { being made with satisfactory rapidity Reference is made to the remarkable success of the steel makers in produe. ing arm or-piercing projectiles in this country, and it is said that they ara equal. if not superior, to any such made at other places. A higher development of these projectiles has been mads necessary by the discovery that they will not penetrate curved nickel plate at angles of 45 degrees.
 The atmor plate tests during the past year have in cases exceeded in severity any ever attempted, either in this coun. try or abroad. The results have con- clusively demonstrated the desirability of using the Harvey process for the ar. nor of all vessels now under construc. tion, and having induced the secretary to expect that all of the armor already ordered and not too far advanced should be treated by the Harveyized process.
 The apartment is conducting care ful investigation to ascertain what would be- the effect upon the crew of submerged boat of the detonation of a high explosive under water near by. It appears that the department is wait. ing for the result of the experiments with the fifteen-inch pneumatic guns now being constructed for the war de- pertinent before proceeding further with the test of the Vesuvius
 Probably the most important chap ter in the report treats of the naval policy of the country. He says that our i navy has not yetcome up to the stand 1 ard; that our navy shall be as effective when compared with others as that which the country possessed before the era of modern improvement, and when our seaports were deemed to be, as they certainly are not now, amply pro- vided with Qualifications fully up to the requirements of the age. The sec- retary says we now have building only four ssels which can properly be denominated first-class battle ships The cruisers and gun boats we now have built and are building con stitute an efficient fleet. They can destroy merchant ships" says the sec retary; they can fight vessels of their own class but they can not meet ar mored vessels with any reasonable hope of success, and in time of war, scattered abroad over the high seas as they would be if we sent them against an enemy's commerce, they would ,eave our unfortifed sea coast, with all its cities, absolutely without reliance, except upon our four first-class and two second-class battleships, seven coast defense vessels and two little tor pedo boats"
 The secretary says that no one can value economy more highly than he does, but that safety of the country, its honor and its dignity, must rise above every other consideration, and the pro- gramme of authorizing the building of at least some vessels at each session of congress ought not to be interrupted now. Therefore, he recommends that the construction of at least one battle ship and six torpedo boats be author ized by congress at the coming session.
 The secretary again calls the atteIl- tion of congress to the alarming state of the personnel of the navy. He points to the evils which result from retard- ing promotions, so that men have passed the line of life without aequir- ing knowledge of responsible duties or having had the opportunity to assume the control of man-of-war. This i'm portant branch of the public service now suffers from two great evils. First-A large proportion of officers of the line of the navy, at time when mind and body ought to be at the best are serving in the lower ranks without command and the habit it begets.
 Second--No o method now exists where by the government can get the very flower of its personnel into those posi- tions where they can be of good service to the country, imconsequence of which a dull, mechanical movement takes the place of healthy progression, led oy merit and fitness He recommends that the number Of enlisted men a1pl boys in the service be increased by 2,0eo men, also that the | onlicfol ,,,au of tl,xN navy he allowed to