Mexico Missouri message., 1902-12-04
NEEDS OF THE NAVY.
More ships and Men Needed to Keep
Pace with the Times

| NASt Win the l1"eb.
| For the first time in our history naval
maneuvers on large scale are being held
unGer the immediate command of the ad-
OF the s Bayy pss st. MI
the navy, but it is yet far from what il
should be earnestly urge that the n,
navy in the appropriation for improving
the marksmanship be granted In battle
the only shots that count are the shots that
FUNDS Tor practice With the great gn ap in
time Of peace. These funds must provide
for SowSnces for prizes to p eneeGrage 1 the
| gun crews and especially the gun pointers
and for perfeGting an Intelligent system
| practice.
There should be no halt in the work of
additional iirS,ting craft. w are very
rich country, Vast In extent Of territory and
great in populations; a country, moreover,
which has an army dminutive indeed when
| compared wit h that of any other first elias 5
power. We have deliberately made our
own own certain foreign policies which demand
efficiency of our navy II the navy is Of sur
! hcient size; but If We have an INADEQUATE
| navy, then the building of the canal would
be merely giving q hostage to any power
| Of superior strength. The Monroe doctrine
| should be treated as the cardinal fea ture of
| American foreign policy; but it would be
worse than idle to assert. It unless We in
tended to back 1t up and it can be backed
! up only by a thoroughly good navy. A good
navy is not provocat tive of war 1t is the
surest guaranty Of peace
be the most efficient of its kind as regards
ooth material anG personnel that is to be
found In the world call your special at
manning of the ships. Serious trouble
threatens us If We cannot 20 better than
We are now doing as regards securing the
services of a sufficient number OF the high
est type of sailormen, OF sea mechanics.
The veteran seamen of our warships are
I n = n pDr ha fFVtt,
navy which rides the waters of the world;
they are unsurpassed in daring. in resolu-
of their profession. They deserve every
consideration that can be shown them.
But there are not enough of them. 1t is
no more possible, to mprovise a crew than
it Is. possible to improvse = warship. TO
build the finest ship, with the deaGliest
70 ana 70 b6W bra ao1 win raw
dividually, would be to insure disaster if
foe OF average capacity were encountered
Melher shlps nor men can be improvised
we neeG thousand additional officers in
videa for ard under construction. The
classes at the naval school al Annapolis
should be greatly charged. At the same
we need them, we should facilitate the re-
tirement Of those at the head Of the list
P pron us Hsefu!ness has become. impaired
Ice Is to be kept efficient
There is not cloud on the horizon at
present. There seems not the slightest
chance of trouble with a foreign power.
We most earnestly hope that this state
or things may continue; and the way to
rs to PF9vde for
to maintain such a navy would invite
trouble, and il trouble came would insure
vanity, or Observation-Disclosures in refusing
to prepare for danger is both foolish and
wicked in such a nation as ours; and
past experience has shown that such
faulty in refusing to recognize or pre-
pare FOR any crisis in advance is usually
succeeded sue ny "A mad panic of hysterical
rear once the crisis has actually arrived.
Rural Free Delivery.
The striking increase in the revenues
or the post office department shows clear
" the prosperity of our people and the
increasing activity of the business of the
country.
The receipts of the post Office depart
last amounted to 1921 ,SiS, 047 26 an increase
of $l0,2l6S53.S over the preceding year,
me largest increase known in the history
this increase will best appear from the
fact that the entire postal receipts for
the year 1850 amounted to but $S5lS,067.
Rural free delivery service is no longer
IN the experimental stage; it has become
a fixed policy. The results following its
introduction have fully justified the con-
gress in the large appropriations made
for its establishment and extension The
average yearly increase In post office re-
ceipts in the rural districts Of the coun-
able by actual results, to show that
where rural free delivery service has
enable us to make comparisons the yearly
increase has been upward of ten per
cent
On November l. 1902. II $50 rural free
delivery routes had been established and
were in operation, covering about one
third Of the territory of the United States
There are now awaiting the action of the
department. petitions and applications for
routes. This shows conclusiyely the want
which the establishment OF the service
has met and the need Of further extend
Ing It as rapidly as possible. i is justi-
the practical benefits to our rural pop
ulation; 1t brings the men who live on
i've BUSINESS orld "a Eeen VIII IN me ac
in daily touch with the markets; II is a
potential educational force; it enhances
life far pleasanter and less isolated, and
Will do much to check the undesirable
current from S ,c country to city.
make liberal appropriations, for the con
tinuance OF the service already estab-
| llshed and for it's further extension.
Progress of Irrigation.
Few subjects of more importance have
| been taken up by the congress in recent
| years than the Inauguration of the sys-
TEN OF nationally aided irrigation for the
| arid regions Of the far west. A good be-
| that this policy OF national irrigation has
| been adopted, the need of thorough
| and scientific forest protection will grow
| more rapidly than ever throughout the
public-land states
So far as they are available for agri-
| culture, and to whatever extent they
| may be reclaimed under the national ir-
rigation law, the remaining public lands
| should be held rlgidly for the home
| builder, the settler who lives on his land,
and for no one else. In their actual use
the desert-land law, the timber and stone
| law, and the communication clause of the
| homestead law have been so perverted
| from the intention with which thew were
| enacted as to permit the acquisition of
large areas of the public domain for 9TH
er than actual settlers and the conse-
| quent prevention of settlement. More
| over the approaching exhaustion of the
| public ranges has OF late led to much
| discussion as to the best manner of using
| these public lands in the west which are
| suitable chiefly or only for grazing. The
sound and steady development OF the
| west depends upon the building IN ~
| homes therein. Much of our prosperity
| as a nation has been due To the opera
| ton of the homestead law on the other
| hand, We should recognize the fact that
| in the grazing region the man who cor
| responds to the homesteader may he un-
| able to settle permanently If only allowed
| to use the same amount of pasture land
| that his brother, the homesteader, Is al
| lowed to use Of arabic land, One huns