The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-12-02

lands policy of placing her first line
of defense at the enemy's coast, no
coast defense vessels are building for
that country. The displacement Of the
first class battleships in her present
pr Sramme is 1890 tons; that of the
second class 1880 tons.
France, with 144 effective vessels in
service, exclusive of torpedo boats, has
building programme calling for an
increase of 33 vessels, of which f1ve
(possibly six) are battleships and four
are armored cruisers.
Russia has Is ships building, OF
which Is are armored; in service, lOO.
Italy has in service Il vessels; the
number building is armored elght tsl&
battleships) and unarmored seven. :.
Germany has "a efficient ships, and
is building four armored and four I'M
armored
Spain is showing increased activity
and is building ten additional vessels,
Of which one-half are armored, which
will make a total effective strength OF
81"
Torpedo Boats.
Activity il building torpedo boats re-
mains about the same as in my laSt
report. France leads in the possession
of torpedo boats, with 21S in service
and 81 building; Great Britain mas lS9
IN service and 81 under constructor,
Spain is doubling her torpedo boat
force, and Japan, taking a. lesson from
her experience in the late war, and
having already with those captured
from the Chinese) total Of 40 in SER
vice, is building IL more.
These tables will show that while the
fifteen other countries mentioned have
altogether 1206 torpedo boats in ser
vice argentina with the smallest num-
Der showing ID, the United States mas
only two The average number pulio-
ing for these other countries is IA ana
a fraction. We have authorized ana
building seven.
Line of the Navy.
The secretary urges legislation touch
ing the personnel of the navy, saying:
ITO reoreanize the line of the navy
so as to bring about the promotion OF
officers to command rank at an age
when still young enough to learn ana
vigorous enough to be self-assertive,
would seem to be all-important- Inc
majority of our officers now approach.
ing command rank are over so years or
age These officers come now first into
command at a period of life when the
habit of relying on others has become
a second nature"
Age os Admission.
The secretary recommends that the
be reduced to either IA to 16, or 10 to
IL, instead IF 16 to 20 as now, for two
reasons: First, there should not be as
much as four years difference between
officers commissioned on the same day
and all of whom are to retire at
given age; secondly, statistics gathered
at the academy in previous years show
that boys who enter at an early age
more frequently succeed in graduating
than those of more advanced years
Considerable space is devoted to the
recently established naval war college
which the secretary regards as a very
important institution as putting before
the officers of the navy practical ques-
lions of actual war to be solved, thus
versing them in the principles Of
strategy and tactics.
The report says: THE increasing in
terest in the naval militia movement
IN the lake and seaboard states gives
such promise that the department
recommends that steps now be taken
to establish this arm of the national
defense on a definite footing.
THE states making returns of the
numbers of petty officers and seamen
and sharing the annual allotment of
the $685. 900 appropriated for 1S94-95 were
as follows: