River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1902-12-04
NEEDS OF THE NAVY.

should be defined. and that in place of our
present obsolete laws a practical and eff
nclent system should be adopted.
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 a large scale are being held
mirai Of the navy. Constantiy incr rea hu
attention is being paid to the gunnery Of
the navy, but it is yet far from what it
crease asked for by the secretary of the
navy in the appropriation for improving
the craftsmanship be granted In battle
the only shots that count are the shots that
hit. 1t is necessary to provide ample
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 especi lily the gun pointers,
and for perfecting al 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
additional fighting craft. We are a very
rich country, vast in extent of territory and
which has IN army diminutive indeed when
compared with that of any other frs t-class
power. We have deliberately made our
own certain foreign policies which demand
the possession of a f1rst-class navy. The
isthmian canal will greatly increase the
efficiency of our navy if the navy is of suf-
navy, then the building of the canal would
be merel ~ giving a hostage to any power
of superior strength. The Monroe doctrine
should be treated as the cardinal feature of
American foreign policy; but it would be
worse than idle to assert it unless we in
tended to back it up, and it can be backed
up only by thoroughly hood 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 its 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 DO 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
navy which rides the waters of the world :;
they are unsurpassed in daring, in resolu
ton in READINESS in thorough knowledge
consideration that can be shown them.
But there are not enough of them. It is
no more possible. to improvise crew than
it is possible to improvise p warship. To
build the finest ship, with the deadliest
battery, and to send it af1oat with raw
crew, no matter how brave they were in
diyidually, would be to insure disaster if
a foe 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-
vic for ard nd under construction The
should be greatly enlarged. At the same
time that we thus add the officers where
we need them, we should facilitate the re-
tfrement of those at the head Of the list
whose usefulness. has become impaired.
Promotion must be fostered if the serv-
Ice is to be kept efficient.
There is not a 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
of things may continue; and the way to
insure it's continuance is to provide for
a thoroughly efficient navy. The, refusal
to maintain such a navy would invite
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
wicked in such a nation ours; and
past. experience has shown that such
faulty in refusing to recognize or pre-
pare for any crisis in advance is usually
succeeded by mad panic of hysterical
fear once the crisis has actually arrived.
Rural Free Delivery.
The striking increase in the revenues
of the post office department shows clear
ly the prosperity of our people and the
increasing activity of the business of the
The receipts of the post office depart
ment for the nscal year ending June so
last amounted to $121, S4S, 047.26, an increase
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 $S,51SO67.
Rural free delivery service is no longer
in the experimental stage; it has become
fixed policy. The results following it's
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-
try is about two per cent. We are now
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
On November l. 1902, 1850 rural free
delivery routes had been established and
were in operation, covering about one
third of the territory Of the United States
available for rural free delivery service.
There are now awaiting the action of the
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 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
tive business world it keeps the farmer
potential educational force; 1T 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
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 apidly than ever throughout the
public-land states.
So far as they are available for agri-
culture. and to whatever extent they
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
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 approa ching 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 only for grazing. The
sound and steady development of the
west depends upon the building up of
homes therein. Much of our prosperity
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 be I'M
able to settle permanently if only allowed
| TO use the same amount of pasture land