The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-10-10

ficer the auxiliary vessels which would come into the navy in time of war. Inis would at least require all of the officers released from any ships which might be out of commission. l believe that have understated rather than overstated the needs of the service by the computation which I have offered you. Whence are these officers to come? I am informed that in those four years we can expect under existing conditions about 355 gradu- tes of the Naval Academy. This still leaves us more than a thousand officers less than the proper complement.
 Duty of Officers.
 "The law allows promotion from the ranks of not exceeding six per annum. Perhaps this number might be to advant- age increased somewhat. But the duties of modern naval officer are varied and complexed. They exact a broad range of knowledge and a training which must be begun in early life and continue in- cessantly until the highest rank is reached. In the main it is true that our reliance for the supply of officers must be in the young representatives of our great Democracy who are educated at the academy at Annapolis. They gather there from all sections of the land, represent ing all classes of our people They aban- don civil life, enter the nations service as their life's career, and from boyhood their trainng is directed to the duties of an exacting profession.
 Congress alone can deal with this ques- ton. I believe 1t to be the duty of Con- gross to face it speedily and courageously. 1 doubt not that it will be done. If 1t is not done and action does not follow, 1t will not be many years before we shall cnIandid Shina dar yinp in harbors as idle as painted ships upon a painted ocean,"
 Gov. Commins on Tariff.
 ''The Iowa Platform and the Tariff. " was discussed by Governor A. B. Cum mins of Iowa. Governor Cummins spoke directly to the Iowa idea as embodied in the Republican platform of that State, declaring for No monopoly sheltering tariff' He said in part:
 "There has never and cannot now be a controversy with respect to the purpose and measures of protective duties. Their purpose is to give the American producer a fair change to take the American mar ket at fair American price, so that the American laborer can work at American wages and American capital can be re- warded with an American profit and thus originate and develop those American in- dustries and enterprises that nature has fitted us to carry on.
 Tested by these criterions both as to purpose and measure no intelligent oD- server can doubt that Ipon some of the most important products of the United States the duties are too high and 1t Is the mission of the Republican Party to reduce them so that 1t will be in keeping with the principle out of which they sprang. Protection will stand as shield for the honest labor and mine for law fui profits, but it shall not be used as a sword for industrial piracy or as mint for illegal gain.
 ''No thinking man can doubt that large corporations are absolutely necessary to carry on, with convenience and economy the growing business of the world and however great corporation becomes fl it develops in a natural way, through the recognized laws of commerce and through the energy and sagaeity of its managers against the competition oi others engaged in like business, 1t ought not to be the object of disfavor or con demnation. The corporations or combina- tions to which the Iowa platform refers are those which have been brought to- gether not to outstrip competition Tn 6 fair race, but to destroy competition by the actual obliteration of independent es- tablishments and which accomplish theii purpose either by purchase or piracy"
 The principal speaker at the Lakeside banquet was Bishop John Lancaster Spalding of Peoria, who took for his subject Illinois"