The San Francisco call., 1898-02-23
Uncle Sam to Construct the George Washington in
 One Year.
In Addition to This the Senate Passes the Bill Providing for Two More Regiments to
 Man Coast DefenseS.


 and l have strong hopes that the i George Washington will within year be added to our navy"
 Senator Morgan was asked whether, In his opinion, the destruction of the Maine would have a tendency to make Congress more liberal or more eco- nomical in it's appropriations for war vessels. He replied: It all depends on the report of the naval court at Ha- vana. If the court finds that the Maine was blown up by the Spanish, the tendency, of course, will be toward a great increase in our navy, for in that event war can scarcely be avoided But if 1t appears that the ship was de- stroyed by reason of the carelesSneSS of our naval officers, many members of Congress Remembering the disasters that have overtaken other American naval vessels) will naturally say What is the use? We might as well throw our money into the sea
 A leading member of the House Ap- propriationS Committee expressed this view of the matter tonight when he said to The Call correspondent: Up to date the modern steel-clad battle ship has only been a peril to herself and holy terror to those on board of and inside of her. Except for the one naval battle between a Japanese and Chinese cruiser and the little scrim- mage in front of Alexandria, Egypt, when the English fleet silenced the Egyptian shore batteries, the present type of steel-clad battle-ship has never done anything but blow up or run on mud banks or sink at sea or cut up some caper dangerous to her crew and costly to her owner. Moreover, just as soon as millions are invested in these metal monsters, the type is changed and more millions are sunk.
 The whole mad struggle for power is a costly folly. It is folly which we. thanks to our isolation and the com pactDess of our country, can escape if we will mind our own business, in our own proper sphere. Yet. despite these heavy tuition fees in the school of bit ter experience, a conspiracy is afoot to annex the Sandwich Islands and start a grand colonial scheme, throwing away the greatest advantage we have possessed as a nation over all others in our isolation which has exempted us from maintaining either an army or navy of any size"
 Congressman Hilborn of California, a member of the Naval Affairs Commit tee. believes that the monitor is the best type of naval ship for harbor de- fense, although, of course, a monitor cannot carry coal enough for a long cruise He says: "The modern battle lS human brain. Theoretically this great steel battleship. weighing II ,o00 tons, protected by heavy armor, a floating fortress, is a powerful engine of naval warfare. But what she would do in action no one knows She has cost millions of dollars and carries within her sides hundreds of human beings, but little torpedo of insignificant cost touching her sides would send her to ha hot wit a ioht of human life.'
 It must not be inferred from this, however. that MT. Hilborn does not ad- vocate liberal appropriations to put our army and navy on respectable and safe war footing, but he believes in an- other style of battleship, constructed on the monitor plan and besides he is in favor of a Government factory for the production of our ammunition
 4 Congressman who is strong advo- cate of the seamen's bill said: We can have no assurance of safety for our naval vessels as long as they are manned by crews composed largely of foreigners. Any one who can read the list of the dead and of the saved crew of the Maine could not but be i'm pressed with the preponderance of for eigners who composed the crew of the unfortunate vessel. American vessels should be manned by loyal Americans. They cannot be educated in the ap- prentice schools. but must have years of hard and practical experience, but under our existing laws the sea offers no temptation to our youth The hard exactions that shipmasters are now al- lowed to impose upon sailors must be removed by Congress before we will be able to enlist American seamen for our naval vessels.
 A seaman is a slave and can be i'm prlsoned for failing to carry out a civil contract. He may be f1ogged and abus- ed. All of this must be remedied by Congress If not foreign sailors will continue to compose the crews of mer- chant vessels and therefore our naval ships will also have to enlist foreign CTS, for our naval apprentice schools do not and will not accomplish the pur- pose intended and must continue to employ for our naval vessels practical seamen who are under existing condi- tions chiefly of foreign birth In order to guard against explosions from inter- nal cause we must have good. loyal Americans for crew. I think that the seamen's bill advocated by Andrew Furuseth of San Francisco and the Sea- mans Union. and introduced by Sena- tor Frye, will be passed by Congress. At any rate it's chance of success is greatly improved on account of the Maine disaster"