The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-02-24

chairman of the house committee. was
SATISFIED with any Southern location
winch had reasonable claims and held
the balance evenly between South Car
Gina and Louisiana, his own state not
being in the contest. In the senate Don
cameron was chairman of the COM
mlttee on naval affairs, welding an in
huence in that chamber corresponding
10 Mr.. Herberts in the other. Came
fonS intimacy with Senator Butler. Of
SoutE Carolina, was one of the note
worthy features of the senatorial life
OF that day. Mr.. Butler had no great
difficulty, therefore. in bringing his
friend and boon companion to the sup
port of the Port Royal site. This was
enough to tip the scale, and South Car
DINA obtained her dry dock.
The board which was sent to inspect
the site reported that Port Royal was
one of the few places on the southern
Seacoast which presented any advan-
tages for such a structure. The place
for the dock was several miles uD the
river and a point of land projecting
into the river afforded facilities for its
defence so that with submarine mines
and torpedoes planted at proper poipE.
10 fleet of hostile warships could ever
reach 1t. The prognostiCatiors of the
board did not include -th;. suggestion
that none Of our own or other friendly
ships could reach it. either. torpedoes
or no torpedoe2; but perhaps it was not
the poaro's business to consider this
question The dock had very nearly
re&ched completion before anyone in
authority ventured to point out that, as
a bar extended fully four miles across
the rivers entrance, and at high tide
was covered with not more than TWEEN
ty-siX or twenty-seven feet Of water,
battleships drawing twenty-six or
tWenty-seven feet would probably have
to be helped over with a derrick if
they were to cross at all. About the
same time the difficulties result and
from the bend in the channel. coupled
with the channels narroWness, would
make very large and expensive job
or dredging necessary before the dock
could receive ships like the Iowa or
Indiana. This is a fact, however, and
IT is made not the less serious by the
further fact that at Port Royal it is
impossible to command capable labor
for this work in any quantity, a con-
sideration which places this site at
great disadvantage as compared with
New Orleans.
1t should be said, In justice to the ad-
vocates of the Port Royal site, that
they could hardly have anticipated
Secretary Tracy's policy in building up
the new navy. One peculiarly of this
policy was that or the strength of the
authorization given him by congress
TO build battleships of about $500 tons,
he forestalled future emergencies by
allowing himself a generous discretion
and building ships of 1000 tons. 1t
is the difference between what congress
wanted and what Secretary Tracy did
that has made most of the trouble for
Port Royal. The dry-dock there is
ample for the needs of an s. 500 ton yes
sci, both as regards the capacity Of
the dock itself and the approach to it.
1t is the draft incidental to the extra
$500 tons which DOES the mischief In
response to this criticism the late sec
retary's champions remark that even If
everything at Port Royal had been
adapted to the docking of vessel or
the Iowa class. all this work would
in turn be useless as soon as we be.
gin to build vessels on the model and
measure of the British Majestic The
progressive" character of our naval
enterprises requires that some allow
ance shall be made in cases where a
structure If begun at one stage of our