The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-03-20
WHAT GERMANS THINK
 OF UNCLE SAM'S NAVY.
"A Slouchy, Undrilled Lot" Ex-
 presses the Teutonic Idea,

"A slouchy, undrilled lot!' That in plain English expresses the heart heart view which a German officer gives his colleagues of the wardroom when he returns from visit to an American ship For the shadow of a landsman is athwart the deck of every Ger man man-of-war. The supreme influence in 1 the Kaisers navy is that of Won Moltke, who built up the machine that won the wars with Austria and France.
 If the German Navy Is the most stifly mill tary, ours is the least The American sea mans nimbleness. his acuteness and his energy do not make up, to the Teuton's way of think ing, his deficiency in automatic knocking to- gether of heels and ramrod salutes. writes Frederick Palmer. the famous war correspon- dent, to Golfers Weekly Our jackie looks as if he were at home aboardship in the free sense of the word. The German seaman to the American eye appears to be a soldier afioat un- der orders-an minimizing unit moved by me- chanical impulse The German officer forever drilling. takes what he chooses to call ''our slouchiness and democratic swagger" as sure indication of the absence of discipline. So the average German officer still thinks that the With this inharmonious lot in the forecastle he observes diddainfully that man ship with
 fewer officers than any other navy in the world. In other words, we depend more upon the men and upon men who are really not
 Americans. Against the spaniards this all very well; against real enemy the German
 thinks our crews will be panicky.
 If the Germans are also proud of their ''man behind the gun," 1t is with the qualification that an officer shall be at his elbow. The man who thinks for himself Is regarded much
 out of place a drivingwheel or any other part or machine with a mind or It's own Why should he think for himself? Can he think well as the officer who Is trained to do his thinking for him?
 The fame of Annapolis has spread even as far as tho Rhine. Where the German sees his superiority here is not in his school but in the material from which we draw our officers With us the candlestickmaker as well as the Senator's son may one day raise admiral 8 | pennant. provided he shows himself worthy | according to our practices. This is obnoxious | to any monarchical system-above all. to the German. Only gentlemans son. to their way
 oL S thihklng' mas the proper caste to make a | good superior, The fact that our officers do | not bow from the hip or all cut the beard | the same way is further evidence to the Teu- | tonic mind that they lack the side which | a national prejudice may consider as being all | necessary to accurate shooting.
 How you have system without ram | rod salutes? It is system that the Germans | pride themselves upon. System made the fore
 most army of Europe; system day Is to | make Germany mistress of the The ex- penditure of appropriations for the Kaiser s | navy has been entirely in the hands of experts. | Ours have been subject to Congressional revis- | ion. We are continually changing our pro- grammc, says the German; go in for sub
 marines for one year and for battleships the next. The builders take their time to construct partment are the bosses of the situation. We have neither enough officers nor men to keep cur ships in commission. In case of we should have to put ships to sea ith untrained creWs-an untrained crew being quite bad as none at all, in German estimation And here is claimed the greatest advantage for the system. The Germans whipped the French, as all the world knows, because they prepared for a war with France in husinsss-lIke a way St. Louis Is now preparing to hold an Ex- position With the example of a great stand ing army before them. they have made a navy which Is equally ready, they say. They point not only to the British Navy. where this weak . | ness Is certainly more apparent. but also to ours, as wasting men and money ships that would be of small service for actual conflict. Our success in 1898 they count for little because Spain Is regarded negligible quantity. They forget, however that in 1897 they thought that Spain had chance of win | Eing
 such, the whole is the opinion of Ger man officers and Germans generally. The an
 swers to their objections are too palpable to | te reiterated to American reader. The Ger ! man who has the highest opinion of our navy | ls no doubt the clever Emperor himself. It was | th" works 0f American naval officer, Cap 1 tan Mahan. which he ordered for the library | ef everyone of his men-of war. In a couspiCu-
 ous place aboard his yacht, the IIohcnzollcrn.
 | Is picture of Admiral Farrag gut dashed to the
 l rigging of the Hartford at Mobile