The San Francisco call., 1898-03-17
THE REAL NEED OF THE NAVY Department Officials Do Not Agree With Ad- niral Kirkland. Not Monitors That Are Wanted So Much as Battle
 ships. All the Experts Say That Torpedo Boats Are Handy to Have
 Around.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

NEW YORK, March 16.-The Her. aids Washington correspondent teie- graphs: What the navy needs to-day is not monitors, as asserted by Rear 1 Admiral Kirkland in an interview pub- Iished by the Herald, several days ago, but a-going battle-ships, torpedo boat destroyers and torpedo-boats. Of this class of ships there would be twelve battle-ships, thirty destroyers and seventy torpedo-boats.
 This, there is authority for stating, is the position of the Navy Department. Since the publication in the Herald of Rear Admiral Kirkland's views, and the action of the House Naval Commit tee in incorporating a provision in the naval appropriation bill authorizing the building of ships, the naval au- thorities have been giving very careful consideration to the question of the in crease of the navy Because of this consideration am enabled to set forth the position of the department in this statement:
 The navy does not need monitors, nor does 1t require coast defense bat tle-ships. The department agrees with Rear Admiral Kirkland that there should be large number of torpedo boats. as we'll as torpedo-bo destroy CTS, and we are sadly in need of these types of ships. But to say, as Rear Admiral Kirkland did, that the navy should have more monitors is to tell us in these days of steam that we should return to sail power. Take the monitors stationed on the Atlantic coast, for instance. There is the Am phitrite at Port Royal, the Puritan at ! IIo, "a Philadelphia and the Terror at New York. Suppose a fleet were to attack the Amphitrite! There is no doubt the vessel would be destroyed before the Puritan could reach Port Royal and provide her with to Hampton Roads. sink the Puritan before help could be afforded by any other monitors, and could repeat this performance at Philadelphia and at New York
 "On the other hand, suppose your monitors were gathered together at Hampton Roads A hostile fleet would avoid this point and sail for New York Even if the monitors were or dered to sail at once for New York for the protection of that port, their speed being slow, the enemy would get to New York ahead of them and do ire parable damage before it could be QrlN6n away. LII dQQlliOn to SlOW speed the monitors have but small fa- cilities for carrying coal. The Monte rey cannot get half way to Honolulu from San Francisco unless accom- panied by lighters with coal aboard, and if a storm should arise then she would be unable to coal and would sim ply be a floating raft with no ability to go in any direction. On the other hand the battle-ship Oregon can sail from San Francisco to Cape Horn with out coaling.
 '"The department also feels that Con- gress should have made liberal appro- priations before the present crisis came to secure wise and judicious expendi- ture of the money. All the work now being done is rush work, which is more expensive than it would be if it were being performed in time of peace. Sup pose we laid down several torpedo boat destroyers several years ago? This Government would not now be searching all over the world for de- stroyers, and if it required any addi- tional boats of this class all that would be necessary would be to build on old plans Improvised boats are good enough in their way, but, after all. they are built for peace, not for war and are consequently not as good as war ships"