The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1900-03-23
Everything For the Trusts.

The New York journal in an
editorial last Sunday scores the
trusts as follows:
The House Committee on Naval
affairs has turned itself over,
body and soul, to the armOr and
shipbuilding trusts. 1t has voted
to pay S545 ton for armor for
the new ships, instead of $500 for
which Congress has contended
heretofore; has refused to recon-
mend the establishment of "a gov
eminent armor plant and has re-
jected the proposition to give
some of the new shipbuilding
work to the navy yards.
That it is necessary to pay S545
per ton for the armor of the ships
now under construction may be
admitted. The criminal folly of
former Congresses in failing to
give the government the means of
self-prOtectiOn in the shape of an
armor plant of its own has put it
temporarily at the mercy of the
trusts which its bounty has built
up. The Harveyized armor
which we have been using hith-
erto and which used to be the best
there was, is now only second
grade. 1t can be penetrated by
proIectiles that would make no
impression on Krupp plates of
the same thickness.
Nothing will do for us but the
best armor i'll the world, and we
must have it any price. But the
same bill which contained our
surrender i'll the present hold up
ought to contain provision that
would make it impossible for us
ever to be held up again. We have
already paid for several armor
plants for the benefit of Mr.. Car
negie and the Bethlehem Iron
w orkS. The next one we pay for
ought to be our own.
The Carnegie Steel Company
is paying 100 per cent. on it's
nominal capital. 1t is not max
ing any armor just now on &C.
count of the deadlock about the
price, but after looking over all
the branches of work that pays
100 per cent. profits, Mr.. Frick
was said to have decided recently
that the most promising indepen-
dent enterprise he could go into
was the construction of new
armOr plant.
In the matter of the conStruc-
ton OF ships i'll navy yards the
position of the committee is even
more preposterous than in that of
armor. The government armor
plant would have to be created,
but at three of the navy yards
adequate shipbuilding plants al
ready exist. And while the I'M
used facilities of these yards are
calling hungrily for work, the
OvercrOwded private shipyards
are refusing orders. With the
new programme proposed by the
committee we shall have sixty
five vessels under construction in
private establishments at once.
and on many OF them the con
tractors will be simply marking
time, keeping the government
waiting and making no percepti-
ble progress.
The excuse offered by members
of the House Naval Committee
for leaving our navy at the mercy
of private contractors is that the
government ought not to go into
private business. 1t is rather
late in our history to set up that
plea. To provide the means of
national defence has always been
recognized as one of the proper
functions of a government, and
by no government more emphati.
cally than by that of the United
States. We have made our own
guns ever since the reconstruction
of the navy. We make them now
for less than half what they cost
US at first, while we are paying
the shipbuilding combination
more per ton for slow ships than
we paid for fast ones fifteen years
ago.
But the trusts have not won
yet. The Naval Committee made
its armOr recommendation last
year and was beaten in the
House. 1t can be beaten again
now. The House can order the
Naval Appropriation bill recon-
mitted with instructions to add a
provision for government armor
plant and for the construction of
at least three of the new ships at
the New York, Norfolk and Mare
Island navy yards. The Republi-
can leaders at Washington have
piled up already all the odium
they can stagger under, and they
will not be able to resist a deter
mined assault.