Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1898-04-03
'TNE DEFECTS OF OUR NAVY.
Assistant Secretary Roosevelt CriticiSes
Niggardly Action.
It Was Costly Parsimony- Recent
Purchases Have Added Compar-
atively Little to the Departments
Efdciency-The Bulk Of the Fight
ing Must be Done by Thoroughly
Trained Men.

ing Must be Done by Thoroughly
Trained Men.
NEW YORK, April 2.-THhe Press pub
| fishes the following from it's Washington
correspondent: Assistant Secretary of the
| Navy Roosevelt, in talking about the con-
dition of the navy, explained the need OF
| hurried preparations and the handicap
| under which the department worked pc
| cause of previous lack of understanding
| and nigeardly policy on the part of Con
gress. He said:
| .If there remains any person SO unWlse
| a,s 10 think a navy can be improvised, or
| even materially enlarged, or made more
| effective at the last moment, the events
| of the past month should undeceive him.
No expenditure of money, no amount OF
| energy and no administrative capacity or
mechanical ingenuity can take the pace
| even TO small degree, of faithful and
| far-sighted preparation in advance when
| we come to deal with an instrument at
| once so formidable and 50 complicated as
; a modern navy.
This applies quite as much to the per-
| sonnet as to the material. Only the Of
! fcers and men who have already had
! thorough training on warships can be re-
! lied upon to do the best work. OF course
| a rumber of new recruits en- be added,
and as long as they do not make too large
| a proportion of the crew they can be put
| in shape. but the bulk of the fighting must
| be done by the men already in the service.
f, So it is with ships and guns.
Nearly a month ago Congress sppro-
priatef $50, COO coo to prepare for war. The
navy department has bent every energy
| to buying ships. 1t has sought
IN EVERY PART OF THE WORLD
| to get them, with the net results SO far
| of two fair sized cruisers and two sec
ond-cass torpedo boats, together with a
dozen tugs and yachts in our own waters.
| More of these craft are yet available for
| use.
THE New Orleans is about as good as
| our average unarnored cruiser: better
| than the Cincinnati, for instance. and
much below the Olympia. The two tor
| pedo boats are distinctly inferior to our
| OWE torpedo boats. The tugs and yachts
| are mere makeshifts, with which their
| officers will Go the best that can be done,
| but they are, of course, in no way SO sat
| isfactory as the vessels against which
| they will have to be pitted. A few. a
! very few, guns have been bought, and it
| is, of course, possible to greatly Increase
| the output of powder, but it is entirely
! impossible to build either guns or tor
| pedo boats in time to make them avail
able, in amy contingency that might oc-
| cur within the next two months.
| 'In short our experience shows that
| not the richest nation in the world by am
| expenditure of money or any exercise Of
| ability could improve a feet capable of
| coping with that of even a tenth-rate
! power in three or four months, while a
really respectable navy could hardly be
| begun under less than as many years.
Just two years ago a proposition came
up in Congress to allow for the construc-
ton of number of torpedo boat destroy
| ers and torpedo boats. Senator Lodge
| heartily championed it, as did Senator
| Chandler. 1t was, however. voted down,
| the opponents of the measure stating that
| there did not seem to be any immediate
| likelihood of war, and that the govern
| ment could not afford to incur such ex-
! tor Lodge had been followed at that time
! We would now have a torpedo boat fotilla
MUCH MORE POWERFUL
! than that of the Spanfards instead of not
! having a single torpedo boat destroyer
which could be pitted against the Span
/ ish torpedo boat destroyers: and this
| great increase in the efficiency of our
service would have been obtained for
| rather less cost than the nakeshift tugs
| and yachts which we are now Obliged to
| get; moreover. the torpedo boats would
| have represented a permanent increase Of
| strength in our naval force, whereas most
| of the tugs ard yachts would be valueless
| in the present emergency
| so it is with taking vessels like the
| ST. Louis and New York of the American
| line. A certain class of crude Missionaries
| believes that these ships can be suddenly
! made formidable warships Now. they
| can be made of great use in time of war.
| but it will take time to fit them out even
| for the purposes for which we would need
them 1t will be enormously expensive
| thus to fit them out and by no POSSIBLE
| ity could they be employed against any
| real fighting ships. No amount of money
| would make them as efficient as amy bat
| tleship or any armored cruiser. The SER
| vice on which they would be employed
! would necessitate their being able to run,
and they could be trusted to fight only
| weak regular warships.
| "As l said before, these services might
| be Very important and the ships will in
| all probability be utilized in the event Of
| war as auxiMaries to the regular battle
| fleet, but they in no sense or manner
could take the place of the battleships
| even insufficiently. The advocates of pas
| simony in naval and military affairs
| would do we'll to reflect that the expendi-
| ture of s25, GEO 600 two or three years ago
| would have rendered it quite needless 10
| expend coo now
BACK TO WORK.
| Cleveland. O.. April 2-The coal