Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1900-11-15
ABOUT OUR NAVY.
Admiral Crowninshiel Says 1t Is
Much Too Small.
OFFICERS And Men BADLY NEEDED.
Wants Appointments to the Naval Acad-
envy Doubled - The DesrrtiOns During
the Past Fiscal Year We're 2,i52-A
keprOOf of Congress-

Washington, Nov. i2.-The star
Ting statement is made in the report
of Admiral Crowninshield, chief of the
navigation bureau, that the present
personnel of the navy would form
barely one-fourth of the total estab-
lisment necessary to fight first-class
European power. 1t barely sutliced for
the Spanish war and no longer can be
considered, the report says, as an eff
fectiye nucleus about which a larger
establishment could be formed in case
of war. The admiral regards this need
of the navy for officers and men rs
most urgent. He says that the bureau
can point to many eases where :he
service is being harmed by lack of Off
GERS.
The naval academy is suffering for
want of instructors and the present
high standard of training cannot be
maintained. Every bureau in the de-
partment is short of officers, and the
service, the report predicts, soon will
fall behind in the struggle, first, for
leaderships, and then for equality,
with the other services. The disa-
bility of the seagoing corps of OIL
GERS has greatly increased since the
Spanish war and many of the best of
ficers are being lost as result of
breaking down from overwork
1t is recommended for the next ten
years that appointments to the naval
academy be doubled, the president
and representatives in congress APP
POINTING two instead of one wher-
ever authorized now, and in addition
senators being given the same privi-
lege Of appointment as representa-
tives. Then, to meet future needs, it
is recommended that whenever con-
gress authorizes an increase of ves-
sells to the navy, it also provide, in
the same act, for an increase Of Off
GERS and men to man the ships.
The training system as now prac-
ticed in the navy is commended and
it is declared that by no other means
could the navy secure the sailors
necessary to man the fleet.
There were 2,452 assertions from
The navy and Sc deaths during the
past fiscal year. The enlistments
number S,123 from a total number of
applicants of 40,S54. Over 6S per
cent of the men in the navy are ma
tive-born, 10 per cent. are naturalized
and nine per cent. have declared in
tentons. Ninety-two per cent. of the
landsmen now under training are ma
tive-born. Touching the naval acad-
envy, it is urged that no physical dis
qualifications of cadets shall be waived
hereafter, as there has been a marked
deterioration in the past ten years
in the physical condition of the
graduating cadets, owing to their
abandonment of the vigorous weed
ing OUT process which has now fallen
into disuse.
A mild reproof upon congress is
contained in the closing paragraph Vt
the report, which calls attention to
the discouraging condition in which
distinguished officers of the navy have
been left by not receiving any formal
recognition for their heroic services
during the war with Spain. The re-
PORT says that the navy had no part
in the unfortunate public controversy
which followed upon the presidents
recommendation that certain officers
should be promoted, end adds that
thus far there has been no recogni-
ton by congress, except of those who
shared in the victory ut Manila and
those who served elsewhere in the