The herald., 1894-03-15
NAVAL SCHOOLS FOR BOYS.

The HERALD has ct various times
called public attention to the fact that
we are building q new navy, but are
making no adequate provision to afford
a source of permanent supply Of Ameri-
can sailors to man that navy. The de-
cadence of the merchant marine service
Of the United States commenced just
after the war OF the rebellion, and for
thirty years-or one generation nearly
American commerce has been carried on
foreign bottoms. Before our civil war
the merchant marine service was the
nursery from which our men-of-war
were supplied with sailors. Since that
time there has been no narsery for
American seamen. 1t is not, therefore,
to be wondered at that since we COM
msn05d 10 commission our new iron
cruisers they are in the main manned
by foreign sailors.
A glance at the statistics furnished by
the report Of the commissioner of navi-
CATION will show why il is that our war
ships are now manned nearly altogether
by foreign seamen. In the year before
the war the tonnage OF American vessels
engaged in foreign commerce was 2. 379,-
1896; in 1898 1t Was Ss3, 1879. In the year
1856, II per cent of the tonnage of sea-
going vessels entered at American ports
was American; in the year 1898 1t was
only 81 per cent. In 1868, "a per cent
of the total value of the merchandise
imported into and exported from the
United States WAS carried in American
vessels; in 1898, only IL per cent.
These figures plainly show that not
only American merchant ships but
American seamen have been driven
from the sea, and that in building up q
new navy we have no American seRmen
to man our new war ships, but must
depend upon the natives OF those coun-
tries that have kept possession of the
ocean with their merchant or war ves-
sells. II we place the ratio of American
seamen in our new navy at the same per-
centage as the merchandise carried on
American ships last year, namely, IL
per cent, we shall probably make too
high an estimate, for American mer-
chant ships have also been handed over
to foreign crews, and afforded no invit-
ing nursery to American boys to become
sailors.
In the month of April next seven new
war vessela will be commissioned for
active service in the American navy,
and the complaint is made that there is
great scarcity of sesmen TO man them.
In this contingency the usual difficulty
will confront the navy department
where the supply is not equal to the
demand. 1t will either be compelled to
increase the wages of the sailors or send
the vessels to sea with an inadequate
complement of men. There is no ap-
parent prospect for a change in this re-
spect perhaps for many years, for our
amy degree of rspiditv. ana We nh~ii 49,
to continue to draw our navy sea-
men from foreign sources unless we
establish our own nurseries as a source
of supply. Of course there are objec-
tions of a serious character to the con-
tlnuance of manning our cruisers and
battle ships with foreign sailors. the most
important of which is that should we
engage in war with a naval power from
which large percentage of our sailors
are derived, they might fail us in our
hour of greatest need. For instance it
would hardly be surprising, if we were
at war with Great Britain, that the
English sailors on an American man-of-
war would fight British ships with less
zeal and alacrity than American sailors
would.
In all the leading ports of the United
States a system of naval schools ought
to be established, and facilities should
be made by which our wayward boys
who now are placed in reformatories
could be sent to those schools to be
trained for service in our men-oi-war.
In this way we would have nurseries for
the supply of our navy with American
youths who would make as good fight
ing sailors as the world can produce. In
few years the entire navy would be
supplied with hardy race of American
seamen, and such difficulties IS the
department is now confronting would be
obyiated