The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1902-12-05
NEEDS OF THE NAVY.
More Ships and Men Needed to Keep
Pace with the Times

|
For the first time in our history naval
maneuVers on large scale are being held
unGer the immediate command of the adj
Attention is Being paid to the gnGnery af
the navy, but 1t is yet far from what it
should be- I earnestly urge that the IN
navy in the appropriation for improving
the craftsmanship be granted. In battle
the only shots that count are the shots that
funds for practice with the great guns in
time of peace. These funds must provide
not only for the purchase of projectiles. but
| for allowances for prizes to encourage the
gun crews, and especially the gun pointers,
| and for perfecting an intelligent system
under which alone it is possible to get good
| practice.
There should be no halt in the work of
building up the navy, providing every year
a;ah ooms hgntlng craft: we are a very
great in population; a country, moreover,
which has an army diminutive indeed when
power We have t d 81 bE r mase ouT
own certain foreign policies which demand
the possession of a tirst-class navy The
efcency Of our navy if the navy f IS of sue .ne
ficient size; but if we have an inadequate
navy, then the building of the canal would
of superior strength. The Monroe doctrine
! should be treated as the cardinal feature of
American foreign policy; but it would be
| tended to back it up, and it can be backed
up only by thoroughly good navy A good
navy is not provocative of war. 1t is the
| surest guaranty of peace.
Each individual! unit of our navy should
| be the most efficient of it's kind as regards
both material and personnel that is. to be
found in the world. call your special at
| tention to the need of providing for the
! manning of the ships. Serious trouble
| threatens us if we cannot Go 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.
of as high a type as can be found in any
navy which rides the waters of the world ;
they are unsurpassed in daring. in resolu-
ton, in readiness, in thorough knowledge
of their profession. They deserve every
consideration that can be shown them.
But there are not enough of them. 1t is
it is possible to improvise q warship TO
build the finest ship, with the deadliest
battery, and to send it afioat with raw
crew, no matter how brave they were in
dividually, would be to insure disaster if
afoe of average capacity were encountered.
, Neither ships nor men can be improvised
We need thousand additional officers in
ORDER to properly man the ships now pro-
yidee for and under construction. The
classes at the naval school at Annapolis
time that we thus add the officers where
we need them, we should facilitate the re-
tirement of those at the head of the list
whose usefulness. has become impaired.
Promotion must be fostered if the serv-
C..
There is not cloud on the horizon at
present There seems not the slightest
chance of trouble with foreign power.
We most earnestly hope that this state
of things may continue; and the way to
insure its continuance is to provide for
thoroughly efficient navy. The refusal
trouble, and if trouble came would insure
disaster Fatuous self-complacency or
vanity, or short-sightedness in refusing
to prepare for danger, is both foolish and
nation M
past experience has shown that such
faulty in refusing to recognize or pre-
pare for any crisis in advance is usually
succeeded by a mad panic of hysterical
fear once the crisis has actually arrived.
Rural Free Delivery.
The striking increase in the revenues
ly the prosperity of our people and the
increasing activity of the business of the
country.
The receipts of the post office depart
ment for the nScal year ending June 80
last amounted to $121, S4S, .26, an increase
OF $lO,2 ,S53.S over the preceding year,
the largest increase known in the history
of the postal service. The magnitude of
this increase will best appear from the
fact that the entire postal receipts for
the year 1860 amounted to but sS,51SO67.
Rural free delivery service is no longer
in the experimental stage; it has become
a fixed policy. The results following it's
introduction have fully justified the con-
gress in the large appropriations made
for it's establishment and extension. The
average yearly increase in post office re-
ce1pts in the rural districts of the coun-
able, by actual results, to show that
where rural free delivery service has
been established to such an extent as to
enable us to make comparisons the yearly
increase has been upward of ten per
cent.
On November /, 1902, 1850 rural free
were in operation, covering about one
third of the territory of the United States
available for rural free delivery service.
department petitions and applications for
the establishment of 1918 additional
routes This shows conclusively the want
! has met and the need of further extend
ing it as rapidly as possible. 1t is justi-
fed both by the financial results and by
the practical benefits to our rural pop
ulation: it brings the men who live on
the soil into close relations with the ac-
tive business world; i keeps the farmer
potential educational force; it enhances
the value of farm property, makes farm
life far pleasanter and less isolated. and
will do much to check the undesirable
| current from country to city.
1t is to be hoped that the congress will
make liberal appropriations. for the con-
lished 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-
tenn Of nationally aided irrigation for the
arid regions of the far west A good be-
ginning therein has been made Now
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 rigidly 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 they 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 un of
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 I'M
| able to settle permanently if only allowed
| to use the same amount of pasture land
Il l. l. H. IL L. - H. + 81