The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1895-11-14

and few modern guns and rides have
been placed These, however. are but
q small part of the general plan for the
defense Of the harbOr, while San Diego
is In the same condition as Puget
sound entirely at the mercy Of any
foreign feet,
General Miles recalls what he said in
his report Of 1889 upon the absolute i'm.
portance Of the defense of the entire
Pacific coast, In view Of the fact that it
was possible for any naval power to
blockade every important port within 80
days, while IL would take many years to
make successful resistance and the
country might be required to pay an
indemnity OF Is, 900, 900, 900. While the
railroads might transport 1000, 900
brave men to the coast, they would be
useless without appliances to cope with
the modern engines Of war, and with
all our intelligence, pride, inventive
genius and enterprise we are as far be-
hind in the modern appliances of war
as China or Japan. Such were the con-
ditions six years ago, says General
Miles, and such are the conditions to.
day, with the exception Of the slight
progress made at San Francisco.
The entire gulf coast and all the
great cities of the Atlantic coast north.
ward to Philadelphia are entirely with.
out modern guns. In position are q
few obsolete guns and none of these
batteries could stop a single frst.class
warship much less q fleet, Some prog
Tess has been made at New York but,
like San Francisco. only a small part Of
the project has been accomplished.
With one exception the cities north Of
4 -.
those south Of it Some guns and
n ortars have been constructed and
some shipped to their destination, car.
riages for them arc under construction
and emplaoements have been made
He says that our people cherish two
misleading delusions, first, that torpe
does can be depended upon to protect
our coasts, and, second that its I 900
miles Of coast can be defended by o
navy He shows that torpedo plants
are useless without protective batteries,
and that the water In our principal
harbOrs IL so deep that light draft war
vessels might pass over torpedo mines
without danger lie asserts that the
recent manDuvers in England have
shown that even the powerful English
navy iG unable to defend the British
coast against foreign fleet; there, he
argues that the main reliance must be
upon coast batteries. Therefore he
HIrongIy ToUUuim5uus the construction
OF all the high power guns and system
OF detenses called for in the general
plan Of the board 81 ordnance and forti.
hcations and other boards, and to moet
in part the expense Of this costly under.
taking he suggests the application OF
the funds that might be derived from
the sale Of abandoned mill airy reserva-
tions To man these guns he asks an
increase Of the artillery arm.
Touching the infantry, General Miles
recommends the three battalion organi.
2ation, and regimental posts to keep
the companies OF a regiment together,
To thoroughly demonstrate the utility
of bicycles and motor wagons in the
army, it is recommended that force
Of l2 companies be equipped with these
devices 10 be manned from the ,00O
officers and men in the army able To
use bicycle which has been already
found extremely useful General Miles
also argues for an increase In the
strength OF the army. General Miles
concludes his report with several rec
ommendations intended to benefit the
condition OF the officers and men and
attract 10 the military service the best
element in the community.