The age-herald., 1898-07-07
Honor to William C. Whitney.

Honor to William c. Whitney.
 In this successful war we are waging with Spain there is man deserving of credit almost equalling Dewey's, Hobsons, Shaf ter's or any of the other gallant fellows at the front Yet he is not a participant in the fighting, nor is he on any board of strat- egy. Indeed, he is now but a mere private citizen whose name has not appeared in a newspaper in many moons. Yet it was this mans foresight and ability which enabled Dewey to capture Manila and Schey to de- stroy cervera's fleet. To him is equal praise with all the heroes due
 Thirteenyearsand fourmonths ago the United States navy was the laughing stock of the world. There were few ships of any worth in it. Congress had been parsmoon- ious in appropriating for a navy. Then it was that William c. Whitney of New York was made secretary of the navy. His first act was to impress upon congress the ne- cessity of a great navy. He dined and wined and entertained the members of the naval committees of the two houses of congress. He presented them with the stubborn facts of the weakness of our navy and he begged and pleaded with thm to begin the con- struction of modern war vessels. Whitney was finally successful. He sent officers to inspect naval vessels all over the world and he adopted the best ideas and plans to be found He encouraged constructors. He in- duced the Cramps at Philadelphia to put in a plant equalling the best in Great Britain. He improved the government plant at Brooklyn, built the plant at Newport News, encouraged the Union Iron works at San Francisco by giving it the contract for the monitor Monterey, and, indeed Whitney planned and began the new navy without which today this nation would be a weak ling beside Spain.
 Under him the Vesuvius was planned. Its keel was laid in 1887 and in the spring of 1888 the dynamite cruiser was launched at Philadelphia before an audience consisting of nearly all the members of both houses of congress and hundreds of others who had gone from Washington as the personal ! guests of MT. Whitney. This practical vis ion of many congressman who had never seen a warship was the inspiration which led congress to begin appropriating for a navy.
 In the next congress many ships were ap- propriated for, among them the Philadel- phia, Bennington, San Francisco, Newark, Texas and Maine. The Baltimore, which made such a gallant fight at Manila, and wrought such havoc with the Spanish fleet, was one of the first ships begun under Sec retary Whitneys regime. The Olympia was begun few years later. The Concord, Petrel and all the other ships at Manila, ex cept the Boston, were planned and built while Mir Whitney was secretary. These were followed from plans MT. Whitney had prepared by the construction of the bat tleships Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts and Oregon; the armored cruisers Brooklyn and New York; the protected cruisers Charles ton, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Columbia, Marblehead, Montgomery, Minneapolis. Newark, Olympia, Philadelphia, Raleigh, and San Francisco and many gunboats.
 The Cushing, the first torpedo boat in our navy, was designed and built under Whit ney in 1888.
 Indeed, William c. Whitney is the man who made our navy But one single vessel the Boston-which has appeared in the present war to any advantage was built new navy. It was his idea, his work, his foresight, which gave to the United States the navy which has brought glory to the flag and honor to the great American peo- pie.