The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-03-15
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Yai1u . eagle
M. M. MURDOCH. Editor.
POWDER AND SHIPS.

POWDER AND SHIPS
War always proves a great stimulant
10 speculation, inspiring trusts and
combines. The powder mills of this
country are now turning out forty or
fifty tons of powder per day, and the
dynamite manufacturers are running
extra time. War talk in the east
where Russia is preparing to have II
out with England, Germany, or any
other power that may dare to inter-
fere with her schemes, and war talk IN
the west, has given rise to the runor
that the powder makers of the World
are forming a trust. According to this
story the work is divided into three
parts. The European powder makers
will take that continent, the American
powder makers this, and both together
will take what custom comes to them
from the remaining continents.
The talk of buying warships may
have the effect of establishing trust
among the shipbuilders. The reports
go that the stories of SPANS negotia-
tions have been started for the pur-
pose of making the United States an
eager bidder. 1t may be, but If our
navy department is really in the mar
ket for warships it was not good policy
for Captain Brownson to say the day
he sailed for England that his mis-
sion was to examine the qualities OF the
ships offered for sale.
When the war of the Rebellion broke
out agents of the Confederacy were
sent to Europe to purchase rifles. the
war department at Washington sent
an officer with unlimited credit to buy
UP all the guns Of every kind that Eu-
rope had for sale. He completely
scooped the Confederate agents, but
he bought a lot Of rifles in Belgium that
proved utterly worthless, not only, but
dangerous to the hands of the soldiers
Some Of the papers are urging that
the thing to do now is to buy up all
the warships obtainable in the world,
at least all the ships now ready in the
yards of England, France and Ger
many, upon the theory that such an
expenditure would be less than the
cost of war and we would have some
thing to show for the expenditure. 1t
is said that Brazil, Argentine, Chile,
China and Japan all have ships for sale.
All these powers have no desire to Of
fend the United States, and all know
that to sell ships to Spain would be an |
unfriendly thing to this country. The |
private ship builders Of England will |
not sell to Spain without the cash !
down, in gold. There is no question but |
that the United States could clean up |
all the marketable men-of-war aflOat, |
or that are ready to launch. tramp, |
the great American ship builder, is OPP |
posed to America buying ships abroad |
at any time. He holds, and rightly, |
that it not only involves big commits |
sions but is so much of a deprivation |
to American labor and furnishers of |
an inferior class of vessels. The labor |
and the raw material for all American |
vessels should be supplied by this coun-
try.
Some Of the ships offered to us, Mr..
Cramp says, have been thrown back on
the builders hands on account of
breach of contract, delays, etc. The
total valuation of the ships involved
in this deal is about $4,000, 900. The
commission which the speculative syn
dictate would receive for disposing of
them to the United States would be
about Is per cent. on the selling price,
or say s., 225, 900 on the whole lot. AS
to the necessity for these ships or their
desirability, he said they were not de-
sirable, all Of them being cheaply and
fimsily built and none of them any
where near the American naval stand
ard, either in workmanship or material
Neither are they needed, he said, in
event of war with Spain, as our existing
navy is superior in every respect to any
force that Spain could send across the
ocean or maintain in American waters.