The evening times., 1899-05-27
TO SHARE THE PLACES
In THE MARINE CORPS
Navy Department to Divide
Them Among the States.
Competitive Bids for the Six New
Cruisers.
vessels to Resemble the Raiei. h
and 10 Serve at Distant stations.
Armor for Eattleships.

On account of the great pressure brought
to bear on President mckinley by infu-
ential men for Marine Corps appointments,
it has beer, deemed inadvisab,e to order a
competitive examination. One thousand
applications have been received for these
places and the appointments will be ap-
portioned to the States on the same basis
used for designating young men in civil
life for army positions.
There are eighty places in the lower
grades of the Marine Corps, exclusive OF
over twenty appointments previously made
from volunteer second lieuteran;s.
The President is expected to apportion
the vacancies amoug States according 10
their population, which will allow about
three appointments for Maryland and four
for Virginia. New York will secure the
largest number of appointments. care
will be exercised in making selections OF
young men, and no one is expected to re-
ceiye permission 20 take To- examination
unless there is a reasonable probability OF
his meeting the requirements. Sons OF
naval officers and members of naval re-
serve organizations serving in the war are
candidates in large numbers, and every
States is represented in the list.
Several bidders will be given chance to
enter the competition for the construction
of six large cruisers authorized at the last
session of Congress, and for which tie
naval board of bureau chiefs is now en-
gagged in preparing the designs. Ii Is
the desire of the Navy Department that
the shipyards at Bath, Baltimore, Eliza
bethport and Chester shall bid for the
vessels in order that the battieships nay
be left to the only two firms on the At
lantic Coast having a plant capable OF
undertaking ships Of their size and power
Plans for the new cruisers have not yet
progressed so far as to allow any accurate
estimate TO be made Of the dimensions Oh
the vessels, but it is certain that ~hlie
the naval act provided Tor snlpS Oh -'1'o
tons displacement. the experts Will be able
to design them of about 3,lvo tons WITHIN
the appropriation.
This would enable the Government to
build ships of the Raleigh and Cincinnati
type but having less machinery power,
wider stsaming radius of action greater
coal supply, and probably as speedy No
vessels of this type have been bulit LOT
the navy during the past ten years, ana IL
is deemed desirable that number OF them
should be built for service in the tropics
and on distant stations. A circular letter.
outlining the general type of ships desired,
is now being prepared. and will Vortly be
semi to all the leading .hipbuiiders, al
though il is not expected = formal request
for bids will be made until late in the sum
mer.
Indications point strongly to the govern
ment securing bids fox furnishing drihor
for the battIeships Ohio. Missouri. and
Maine, authorized one year ago, within the
limit of appropriation fixed by Congress,
but there is no expectation that the armor
firms will bid on armor for the ships au-
thorized at the last session. Congress one
year ago provided for three battleships ari
four monitors, all OF which nave Deen
named and are now under construction.
The same act limited the price TO be paii
for armor to protect them at SieO ton,
but increased the ballistic requirements,
which NAV cause the plates to be more eX-
pensfve In providing the hattieships and
srmored cruisers at the last session 1t was
stipulated that the cost OF aTmor should
not exceed $500 a ton. ard for these YES
sells there is not much probability that bids
will be received. unless the Midvale COM
pany. a concern that has heretofore manu-
featured no armor for the Government,
submits bid providing that if the Govern
ment will allow il one year TO prepare
plant for the work ii VIII agree TO supply
the armor at the price fixed by law.
The Navy Department has received
report from the cruiser Chicago. now on
trip around the world, on Inc WORKING OF
the new water tube boilers. This is the
first time ship of this size has been fitted
with boilers of this type. The ship was
run for six or seven days on these boilers
without recourse to four boilers of the old
type. 1t made ten and twelve knots an
hour during this time. and in every way
the test was regarded as satisfactory, al
though it was not complete owing to the
rough weather. The report was forwarded
from Gibraltar, and the test will be con-
fioued from that mint