The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-03-25

vious to require mentioning. The com
mittee over which he presided, had been
Impressed with an earnest desire to
meet fully and completely the expecta-
tions of the House and in the contrary in
providing this great arm of the naval
defense with all reasonable requirements
to meet any exigency that might arise
Mr.. Boutelle took occasion to resent some
OF the criticisms which had been made
against the committee. The committee,
he said, had periodically and earnestly
labored to meet all the extraordinary de-
mands ana as result OF infinite pains
had reported tho bill
With this preface Mr.. Boutelle entered
upon detailed explanation OF the Dill
and increases end extraordinary prov1s-
ions 1t carried. In the course of his re-
marks he replied to what he termed an
Extraordinary SANDER" upon himself,
which appeared in New York paper
yesterday, charging him with RESPONSE
bil1ty for the lack of engineers for the
service.
He explained the urgency with which
the navy department had expressed re-
quest for additional engineers upon the
committee Chief Engineer Melville had
asked for ITO additional assistant engi-
7eers. At q subsequent hearing it was
decided that 100 skilled machinists, en-
listed as warrant officers at 81 200 year
would relieve that number of junior
| officers.
Later Assistant Secretary Roosevelt had
appeared before the committee and had
urged that the whole scheme for the re-
organization of the personnel Of the navy
should be placed in the bill, but when
it was explained that this was impossi.
BILE he had requested that all the proposed
provisions be eliminated lest the per-
sonnet bill might be weakened when 1T
| was brought before the House.
h At the conclusion of Mr.. Boutelle's
remarks, he attempted to arrange time
for closing general debate. He suggest
ed o'clock tonight, but there was q
chours of protests, whereupon he moved
that the committee rise for the purpose
of fixing the time at which the debate
should close. The motion was hotly con-
tested, but it prevailed by narrow mar
gin, 1888.
Several Republicans voted with the
Democrats Speaker Reed himself
marched through the tellers. When the
committee rose, Mr.. boutelle moved that
| general debate close at o'clock.
MIR. Richardson, Democrat of Tennessee,
moved to amend the motion by making
the hour O'clock tomorrow, but the
| Chair declined 10 recognize the motion,
accepting the statement OF Mr.. Boutelle
that he intended to move the previous
| question on the motion. The latter mo-
ton was defeated 9l-92.
Thereupon Mr.. Boutelle demanded the
yeas and nays for the purpose OF putting
on record the Republican who refused to
vote to sustain his motion. Before roll
call was concluded, compromise was
reached by which it was agreed that gem
eral debate should closs at j O'Clock to-
morrow, the session of the House to be ex-i
tended until O'Clock tonight. This
arrangement was ratified and then the
debate proceeded. ~+ssa so
Mr.. Meyer, Democrat of Louisiana, one
of the naval committee, then took the
floor.
Mr.. Meyer, after referring to the extra
ordinary circumstances under which the
navy bill came up for consideration at
this time. said that the theatre of war,
if such should come, would not be on
the land, but on the sea. Our army re-
quired no addition to place us in po-
sition of defense. 1t was large enough
for peace purposes and could easily and
quickly be expanded in event of war.
but" said he, "you cannot improvise
a navy, even with fifty or one hundred
million placed at the discretion of the
President You may have an ample sup
DIV of officers, yet even these require ex-
habits of command. Nor can you make
q sailor as quickly as you can soldier.
/ Still less can you 1mprovise man of
/ wars crew with thorough knowledge
of all they have to do and possessing the
! discipline and training needed to make
them efficient in sea service and IN Dat
tie.
GA battleship or an armored cruiser is
not built in day. 1t is obvious that to
wait for a war and to await naval pre-
parations until war actually arrives, in
the hope that a disparity in naval force
can be speedily corrected is an idea I'M
4 worthy of rational and patriotic men.
| 1t is the very acme of human folly.
So much has been said in the press and
on the stump about the new navy that
the public have grossly overestimated its
fighting capacity. True, may assert
that the ships we have are of the best and
our personnel active, keen and equal to
the highest traditions of their predeces-
sors. It is indeed powerful navy, COM
pared with the best fleet of wooden ships
that the United States or any other ma
,tion ever possessed, but 1t is far inferior
/ to the present navies OF France, Germany
l land Russia. 1t is a very small navy COM
inferior to that of Italy. a country nearly
i bankrupt. with about one-third of our
population and still more inferior in
wealth and the interests she may be
called on to defend. There are only four
battleships of the first class and two OF
Maine, now lies at the bottom of Havana
harbor, the victim probably, OF an as
sassin's foul act, whose instigators, who
ever they may he, evidently took no
thought from the words or Of tho no, English s
changed the history of the world. So,
then, we have only five battleships left.
We have five more of the tirst-clas now
being built, and these, the secretary tells
us, will not be ready for service before
the latter part of 1S90,say IS to 20 months
from now Even the torpedo boats, an
essential part of our system of coast de-
Tense, will not be ready for considerable
time to come.
"Holding these views as to our duty
and the public necessities, welcome
even the exceedingly modest and reason
able addition of three battleships and six
torpedo boats and six torpedo destroyers,
proposed by the bill With equal salts
! faction, do l hail the steps which proposes
to give GU r warships adequate docking
and repair facilities upon the Atlantic,
the Pacific and the Gulf coasts.
"The $50, 600, 600 appropriation unani-
mously voted by Congress- was not only