The record-union., 1897-11-27

those on foreign stations, have been
equipped with them.
Fifty automatic guns, firing small
arm ammunition, have been procured
and are in process of issue to the SER
vice. Fifty more are in process of man
ufacture.
When the present contracts for tor
pedoes are completed the department
will have on hand 800 Whitehead and
o1 Howell torpedoes.
NAVAL ACADEMY.
The superintendent of the Naval
Academy recommends, and the Board
OF Visitors concur with him, that the
ultimate age of admission to the acad
emy De fixed at eighteen years, instead
OF twenty as at present, in order to in
sure more uniform age of officers
entering the service Under the present
system graduates are sometimes near
ly 26 years of age at the time of leav-
ing the academy, and are frequently
outranked by those who are younger
by four or five years. AS large per-
centage of those who fail at the acad-
emy ere over eighteen when they enter
it, this change would tend to lessen the
NNpCiASC W WHICH liie government Is
put in maintaining and educating them
from one to six years, only to find that
they ultimately fail to pass the re-
quired examinations.
Attention is invited to the unani-
nous resolution of the Board of Visi-
tors to the Naval Academy, in which
the board calls attention to the OBJ
yious fact that the irregular method
of constructing buildings upon the
academy grounds has been wasteful
and unsatisfactory, and recommends
that IN future different construction OBJ
tain here, especially in conformity with
the general plan previously adopted.
The condition of many of the build
lngs at the academy is such as to make
1t desirable that Congress should con-
slider the question Of their reconstruc-
ton.
OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE NAVY
The following table shows the present
number, class and pay Of officers and
men:
Pay of 1.5oS officers on the active
Pay of 46S officers on the retired
list ................. ......,....... 1,036, ,s76
Pay of II 900 petty officers. seamen
and other enlisted men n......... 9, ,40S, ,s95
Fay OF l,200 apprentice boys at
training stations and on board
training ships ........... 129, 600
Stat) ............... .. 1S.o0o
Total ............ . IS, ,007, ,971
The ,00S officers on the active list
are divided as follows: Seven hundred
and twenty-seven line, 10 medical
corps. 96 pay corps, 1873 engineer corps,
% chaDlains, y professors of mathe
MATES, 80 naval constructors, Is civil
engineers and 245 naval cadets, war
rant officers and mates
PERSONNEL.
'It is a pleasure to report to you the
high character and fine sense of duty,
the professional attainments, and pat
riotic spirit of the great body of officers
of the line and staff of the Navy and
Marine Corps. The whole impulse, from
their entrance into the service at the
naval academy, is to develop not only
efficiency in the performance of duty.
but variety and breadth of ability and
culture. They have the liberal educa-
ton of extended foreign travel. Their
employment necessitates the study not
only of international and commercial
relations, but also of modern scientific
forces and their application to the prac-
tical demands of great department of
the national life.
Naval service is not limited to the
sailing of ship and the firing of a gun.
A modern man-of-war is q compendium
of industrial inventions and appliances;
q business and manufacturing plant as
well as a fighting machine. A large
part of its crew is engaged in skilled
abor-the running of engines and the
movement of machinery. An officers
duties, and the demands upon his pro-
fessional resources, whether in the
movement of ships or in the work of the
mechanical departments connected with
their make and repair, involve problems
of construction, the use of dynamic
forces of air, water, steam and electric
ity, and the nice adjustment of batter
les, guns and gear of enormous ton
mage, yet moved on hair lines and by
touch of the finger.
"All this calls for advanced require
ments on the part alike of those who
command and direct, and of those who
construct and operate. The response
bility that attaches to the Captain of
single battleship, or to the Admiral who
commands meet, UtceSSltdIeS the
greatest resources of skill, prudence,
discretion and education. To these de-
mands the navy rises. Whether serving
on shipboard, or in the important work
of instructing our naval youth, or study
ing war problems, its officers in every
line of the naval establishment deserve
the public confidence.
INCREASE OF THE NAVY. |
Our remoteness from foreign Powers
the genius of our institutions, and the
devotion of our people to education,
commerce and industry, rather than to
any policy that involves military entan-
clements, make war to be thought of
only as last resort in defense of our
rights, and our military and naval es-
Establishments as a police force for the
preservation of order and never for ag-
gression. While all this is, therefore,
an earnest of peace as the normal con-
dtion of our national life, there is no
question of the necessity, the wisdom,
and the economy, to the same end, of an
effective navy, in view of the vast extent
of our coast and the possibility of at
tack from the sea upon our great cities,
where the concentration of population
and property is enormous.
The country is committed to the in
crease Of the navy by the declaration