The sun., 1895-03-28


the St. Louis will be soon. 1t is to
be subsidized. So is the st. Paul" Mr..
SIMPSON, who opposed some provisions OF
the bill, considered the subsidy rs excessive.
by that legislation" he said, "you have
given greater subsidy to this international
line than was ever given by any Govern
ment on the face Of the earth.' But no one
disputed the fact that the policy was estab-
lished that 1t had yielded two great Amer
ican-built Sners, and that IL continued on
anything approaching the scale adopted in
other countries, which fully appreciate the
value both of the shipbuilding industry and
of auxiliary cruisers, it would greatly aid in
the revival of American shipbulding.
To show the real value OF these four
auxiliary cruisers which the Government
now possesses, it may be mentioned that
they are much larger than the Columbia and
the Minneapolis, our crack cruisers. The
| latter have length on load-watcr line of
| 412 feet and displacement Of 1875 tons,
while the Paris is 585 feet long, and the St
| Paul has length of 535 feet between per-
pendiculurs and of 55d over all Again,
the Columbas frecboard forward is
19Is feet, while that of the Paris
above the water line Mt load draught is 80
feet. Mr. HORACE SEE, the well-known de-
signer, once declared of the Columbia that
at is questionable whether she can catch
the City of Paris in rough weather, as her
short length and small freeboard are against
her." The St. Paul's engines are quadruple
expansion, to develop, it is said, from 900
to 10000 horse power, while the Columbia's
horse power is officially given as 1S,509,
and that of the Minneapolis as ,493.
But without going into comparisons as to
speed it is enough to find that these four
merchant vessels are auxiliary cruisers of
the highest value. For it is said that the
st. Paul and st. Louis can. if required,
carry eight 6-inch rifles as main bat
terry. The main battery Of the Columbia is
one S-inch, two 6-inch, and eight 4.inch
guns, so that it can he seen that the aux
iliary vessels will have n genuine fighting
armament. Their boilers and engines, we
believe, can also be protected by coal or
other material.
1t is to be noticed that the new navy ap-
preparation act does not provide for ar1ning
these four vessels. On this point Mr. HER
BERT had been emphatic in his report:
Congress should give careful attention to the ord
nance requirements OF vessels that are liable be
called into service auxiliaries in time of war.
cordance with the acts OF Congress approved March g.
1891. and May 10. 1899. providing that steamers reg
istered under the provisions OF said be
by the United States transports or cruisers To
mention no Others the Paris and New York OF the In
man line. receiving large sums OF
money annually on condition that they hold
themselves in readiness to serve the Government
whenever demanded When they hauled down the
English 10 hoist the American flag they receiving
from tho British Government to hold themselves
in readiness to that nation and the English he'd
guns and gun mounts ready to put upon them q
moments notice. We hnvo now been paying subsi.
dies to these ships for months. and have gun TO
put upon them.'
tion act as whole, and this lack can be sup
piled ut another session. Meanwhile there
is reason for congratulation over the results
achieved thus far in the new policy, and
there is abundant suggestion for extending
it, When it is reflected that tha cost of the
Columbia and Minneapolis, simply for hull
and machinery, is, with the speed premiums,
over So, O0O,O 900 each, and that large body
OF officers and men must be paid and main
tanned while they are in commission,
whereas St. Paul is built at private ex-
pense, and costs the Government only an
annual subsidy very insignificant in COM
parison, especially as even that has an offset
in mail service rendered, the value of this
auxiliary system, simply as an economy
apart from its aid to American shipbuild.
ing, must be apparent.