The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-10-21
NEED FOR MORE MEN.
Admiral Bowies Urges Increase
in Nearly Every Department
Under His Direction.

Washington. Oct. 20-The annual report
OF Admiral Bowles, chief of the bureau of
construction and repair calls attention
TO the slow progress in the construction
OF the ships now building FER the pres
ent year. owing to strikes and delays in
the delivery Of armOr and steel fOrg-
iuES. He points out that under the pres
ent system for the purchase OF arnor
the responsibility for delays emanatng
from this source rests with the govern
ment nd renders IL liable TO suits for
damage by the ship contractors The
construction bureau. he says. has made
much progress toward the standardiza-
ton Of ship fittings, which will reduce
the original cost of ships of the navy
and decrease the expense of their main
tenance- lie touches upon the tests of
firepTOOfed wood conducted by his bu-
reau. and says that while the products
OF the two processes submitted. both pos
seSs desira Die qualities. neither wholly
CONNIE nds itself to adoption BY the navy.
Admiral Bowles strongly recommends
that the floating dry dock at Havana,
recently purchased from the Spanish
government, be sent to the site OF the
new naval station at Olongapo. Philip
pine islands. soon as the repairs on it
are completed II Is essential, he says,
for the efficiency OF the navy on the
Asiatic station. both from a stratesical
ana economic standpoint, that the gov
eminent shall be in possession of a dry
dock in the Philippines at the earliest
possible moment he says that the dock
ton for the use of vessels ND to 1000
tons displacement within the limit of
tie sum appropriated by congress for its
requirement.
ADMIRAL Bowles earnestly recommends
an increase in the number of naval con-
structors, which is now limited by law
TO forty. This number. he says. is en-
tirely Inadequate to the present needs of
the service and he urges that the limit
Of the corps be increased by congress to
sixty. He says that the efficiency of the
navy yard plants throughout the coun-
try is largely limited by the insufficient
number of dry docks and modern build
lnSs Tor the equipment of the yards. The
navy yards, however, continue to present
a fruitful field for the application of
modern engineering to their mechanical
equipment as well as modern methods of
organization to the scheme of admins
tration, which. if properly applied,
should result in greater efficiency in the
the general expense, which is now out
of proportion to the work done.
Admiral BOwles says that the construc-
ton bureau has been taxed to its utmost
capacity by the work OF designing new
vessels and supervising vessels now build
ing, and that these conditions have been
aggravated by a lack of space in the
navy department building available for
the technical and clerical staff of the
bureau He records a lack of draughts-
men possessing the requisite qualifica-
tiOns. and expresses a desire to obtain
for the bureau more graduates of tech
nical schools He attaches much impor-
carpenters in the navy as an adjunct to
the corps of naval constructors. The
number Of carpenters now afiOat. Admiral
BOwles says, is barely adequate to the
needs of the service. and the number on
short duty is entirely Inadequate.
He points out that ship employment
means an honorable position on board
ship; adequate pay and instructive en-
plOyment on shore duty, and he recon-
mends that as soon as circumstances will
permit school for the instruction of
carpenters mates be esta blshed.