The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-12-28
SET AFLOAT.
Battleship Missouri Consigned
TO the Ocean.
Ceremony Was Witnessed by
$4,000 People.
ADDRESS BY MIR. LONG.
Secretary of the Navy Takes
Advantage of the Occasion
To Defend the Large Appropri-
alton Asked For.

Newport News, Va, Dec. 2S.-The bat
tieship Missouri was launched at the
| ship yard here today at HIP o'clock
Fully $4,000 people, it is estimated. saw
the big defender go overheard The
launching passed off without a hitch
and none prettier or more successful
was ever accomplished here. Miss
Marion Cockrell, daughter of Senator
r M. Cockrell, of Missouri, was spOn-
sOr for the ship and she performed the
duty assigned her with the traditional
bottle of champagne, using a bottle of
Missouri product for the purpose. The
number of distinguished guests gather
ed around the sponsor on the chr1sten-
ing platform was larger than ever seen
mere Among them We're Secretary of
the Navy Long, Secretary of the In
terror Hitchcock, Rear Admiral Melville,
U. 5. N, Chief of Bureau of Steam En-
gineering, Rear Admiral Oneill, U. S. N,
chief of ordnance; Judge Advocate
Lemly, U. s. N; Lieutenant Governor
j. A. Lee of Missouri, acting for Gov
ernor Dockery; Governor Tyler of Vir-
ginia, Corwin H. Spencer of ST. Louis,
representing the Louisiana purchase ex-
position company; Congressman Rixey,
representing the house committee on
naval affairs; Senator Cockrell and a
number of army and navy officers. Mrs.
Roosevelt, wife of President Roosevelt,
came up from Old Point on the United
States dispatch boat Dolphin, with her
guests and viewed the launching from
the steamers deck
When the big ship had glided off the
ways into the water. the crowd on the
guests platform gave three cheers for
Miss Cockrell, three for the army and
the navy, three FOR Secretary Long and
then three for the ship yard.
After inspecting the various depart
ment of the plant the guests repaired to
the ship yard wharf where they board
Old Point. At the Chamberlin hotel
this afternoon the customary post
launching banquet was given,the guests
mentioned above being on the pro-
gramme as the principal speakers.
SECRETARY LONGS ADDRESS.
/ have been interested in the cir
my beloved friend E. E. Hale at the
head. in which they regret the estimate
OF $1o0000,00 for the increase of The
navy The size of the navy, if there is
to be a navy at all, is a question like
the tariff-of adjustment, rather than
of principle. OF course, it is rather a
taking thing to say matter of the
Dry, as this circular says, that 500. .0OO,-
600 for the navy means a tax of Sc
every family in the United States. And
yet, on the other hand, as matter of
practical fact, if that sum is spent
there is probably not a family in the
United States whose future income
could be shown to be Sc less, and there
are a good many families whose in
come would be Sc more, and still more
families whose income would be many
times $6 less if it were not spent 1t is
also rather a taking thing to say that
500, 100000 could be better spent for edu-
cation, for charity. And yet, the
other hand, 500, ,000. 900 spent in the EN-
ployment of labor is the very best use
to which it can be put. The
great question of the day as to wealth
is it's distribution. While few would
say that the community should be
taxed for the sole purpose of diStribut-
ing the proceeds of taxation, yet it is
some comfort to know of a tax which
when it is laid on the community all
returns again to it. If $100. 900 600 shall
I be appropriated for the navy by the
present congress, a small part Will go
for the purchase of raw material and
something for salaries, but the great
bulk of it for labor in every part of the
union Somehow it just now
happens that with larger revenues than
we have ever had before in time of
peace. and therefore with more direct
and indirect taxation, there is more
prosperity and more money in the
pocket of the citizen than ever before
Students may speculate over the eco
nomic causes, but this is the demni-
ton total"
Undoubtedly Uncle Sam ought to re-
duce taxation wherever he can. On the
other hand, it is shrewd and wise in him
to run things so as to keep business
good and if a result his income is
large, he confers much more benefit by
spending it than he would by hiding it
Whenever the interests of the country
require he should reduce his receipts,
great question seems to be how he shall
get the proceeds back among the people.
Another year he may not have so much
money to spend. But if this year, hav-
ing a surplus. he spends 500. .000, 900 fol-
the navy, let US remember that while
it is spent under that name, it is really
spent, as l said before, in the employ
ment of the peoples labor and in the
purchase of the material they have to
sell. and the people get rather more out
of it than the navy does, for they get
it all back again. Nor is it true, as
suggested in the circular that a great
navy necessarily infiames the fighting
spirit and leads to war If my recOllec-
tion serves me right, while Great Brit
ain has had troubles in Egypt and
Africa, elsewhere she has had no con-
f1ict on sea for many years and yet her
navy has been twice as large as that
of any other power. The recent increase
in our navy did not induce the war with
Spain, which as things We're. seems to
have been inevitable. On the other
the beginning of 1898, we had had even
as large navy as we have now, GER
tainly as large a one as is now pro-
posed there would have been no war
with Spain, and that country would
have come to terms as she was very
near coming without battle. At that
time however, it was the general inn
preston among foreign powers and
probably in SPAIN that her navy would
blow us out of the water
All the foregoing deals with questions
of expediency which are the only ques-
tions raised in the circular. But this
is a question of principle and that
question strangely enough the circular
does not touch The signers, it seems
to me instead of raising the question
of how big the navy should be, should
have raised the question of whether
fhara shall he anv navy at all This 7