The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-01-30
Bill
Greater Than
Before.
OVER $77,OOO,OOO
ARE CALLED FOR
The Hawaiian Islands are Put
Down for the Sum of
$l07,30O.

| WASHINGTON, Jan. 19-The naval
appropriation bill was reported to the
House today with an elaborate state
ment of it's plans by Chairman Foss of
the Naval Committee. The bill carries
I$T, ,O16,695, the largest ever reported to
the House from the Committee ON Nav
al Affairs. This is $11, ,S65, 7lS above the
bill of last year and $40, 229, ,395 below the
| estimates submitted by the Navy De-
partment
Concerning new ships for the navy
the report says:
For the purpose of further increas-
| ing the naval estimate of the United
States the committee recommends that
the President be authorized to have
built by contract two unsheathed sea-
going battleShips, carrying the heaviest
armor and the most powerful ordnance
for vessels of their class, upon a trial
displacement of about $4,000 tons each.
to have the highest practicable speed
and greatest radius of action and to
cost, exclusive or armor and armament,
not exceeding s3,850,000 each, and two
unsheathed armored cruisers carrying
the heaviest armor and most powerful
ordnance for vessels of their class upon
a trial displacement of about Il, 900 tons
each and to have the highest practic-
able speed and greatest radius of ac-
tion and to cost exclusive of armor and
armament, not exceeding $4,000, 900.
Maximum cost of the vessels herein
authorized, exclusive of armor and
armament, will be SIS 700, 000."
The bill provides that not more than
one battleship or armored cruiser shall
be built in one yard or by one party
and the usual provision is made that
at least one and not more than two of
the batteships and armored cruisers
shall be built on the Pacific Coast.
OF the appropriations for the various
branches of the service, the principal
item is $25, 900 for the increase of
the navy. The pay of the navy is in
creased $2,4S9, SS7 over the appropria-
tions for the same object last year and
is ACCOUNTED for by the authority grant
ed to the department to enlist 5000 ad-
ditional seamen and fifty warrant ma
chinists to meet the necessity of prop
erly manning the new ships soon to be
added to the navy
To meet the emergency of the lack of
officers for the new ships the bill pro-
yides that the two classes now at sea,
which have completed their four-years'
course at the naval academy, shall be
commissioned thereupon. This will pro-
vide for the new officers desired by the
department and in the Judgment of the
committee will meet all the exigencies
,of the present situation.
The continued necessity for an emer-
gency fund is found to exist in the un-
settled state of affairs in the Far East
and enables the department to meet
contingencies which 1T is impossible to
anticipate with sufficient accuracy to
specifically estimate for.
The following places receive appro-
priations for naval work:
Portmsouth, $37S,S50; Boston, s526, 900:
New York, s1,O09, 600; League Island.
s695,23o; Washington, s31S,210; Norfolk,
1894. .260; Key West, $4,000 Mare Is
land, 1881 $50; Puget Sound, $273,0O0;
San Juan, $4,000; Pensacola, 1.5O0;
Algiers. $3.50, ,O00 Dry Tortugas, 100000;
Hawaii, $107,300; Tutuila, s225, ,O00.
For the four new dry docks now
building at Portsmouth, Boston, League
Island and Mare Island 81, 900, 600 is pro-
vided. The committee recommends this
year an appropriation of s., ,O00 900 to the
rebuilding of the Naval Academy In
last years bill s35O,O0O was appropriat-
ed, prior to that time 81, ,220, 600, making
total appropriation of 81, ,570,O 600 prior
to the present bill.
The report says in part as to arnor:
Your committee also provides under
the increase Of the navy an appropria-
tion of $4,000,000 for armor and arma-
ment for ships now under construction.
1t will be remembered that Congress
wisely solved the perplexing question of
providing armor plate for our ships last
year by the enactment of provision
giving the Secretary of the Navy full
power to buy armor at such price as
In his Judgment might seem reasonable
and just, or build an armor plate fac
tory, toward which s4,000,vvv was appro
priated. 1t ought to be a matter of
general congratulation that the armor
plate question has been settled through
the skill, firmness and excellent judg-
ment of the Secretary of the Navy in
carrying out the evident purposes of
Congress-