The San Francisco call., 1904-02-15
FAVORITISM IS.
CHECKED IN
THE NAVY

Secretary Moody has decided not to
assign to duty in Washington, except
in a few unusual cases, officers who
have within late years had shore de-
tails at the capital He has directed
the Bureau of Navigation to refer all
applications for such duty to him. This
new rule will meet with almost general
approval by naval officers and it strikes
a blow at the so-called Washington
navy" that will seriously affect it's in
dividual members. 1t was the custom
| for many years for a few chosen Off
GERS to regularly return to Washington
after cruise at sea. Walker, Ramsay
Pythian, Luce, Bradford and Crownin-
shield thus established and continued
! an oligarchy, the aims of which was
! personal comfort and power, and off,
I GERS who did not belong to this coterie
| had to take such shore duty as the
others did not want. Much of the I'll
| feeling in the navy between the line
and staff corps owes it's origin to the
practice of continuing one particular
set of officers on duty in Washington.
! The agitation for increase of pay, rank
| and additional power has emanated
! from the Washington navy, and its lat
est attempt to usurp the powers of the
SECRETARY of the Navy by the crea-
ton of a general staff has probably
prompted Mr.. Moody to go to the root
of the evil by disbanding the shore
navy in Washington.
There was only one bid presented at
Washington January 30 for the con-
struction of drydock at the New York
navy yard. The offer was 81, ,082, ,246, and
as the appropriation is only 81 0OO. .00O
! the bid was rejected. The Navy De-
| partment has not yet decided whether
| it will advertise for further proposal
An appropriation of 100000 was made
for this dock on June Z. 1900, and If the
Bureau of Yards and Docks should de-
eide to readvertise for bids the work
If finally contracted for. would not be
under progress until next June. after a.
delay of five years, Notwithstanding
! the fact that large docks are greatly
needed in our navy yards.
TO RELIEVE SHIPBUILDERS.
Senator Lodge has introduced a bill
for the relief of eleven shipbuilding firms
which, under contracts of 1898, built
sixteen destroyers and twelve torpedo
! boats for the United States navy at
such insufficient prices as to entail
| great losses to the builders. Senator
Hale indorses the bill and has present.
| ed statement of alleged facts relating
to these boats, which statement has
! been prepared by Mr. Bowles, recently
chief constructor of the United States
navy but now employed by the Fore
] River Company, and also acting as
! claim agent for the applicants for re-
| lief. AS stated in The Call last week,
| the destrOyers were contracted for at
| an average price of $2S1 $50, and the
! torpedo boats at $751; 921. A naval board
convened in February, 1902, to ascertain
! the actual cost of the boats obtained
| statements from ten firms giving the
requisite information, and on April 2,
| 1902, recommended that the contractors
| be paid one-half of the losses incurred.
and Secretary Long referred the matter
| to Congress, with the following expla-
nation: 1T appears that the
plans and specifications furnished by
| the department to the contractors for
| the building of these boats, and which
were based upon the most successful
| local and foreign experience, were not
| impracticable and admitted of the pro-
ductiOn by development with the ap-
plication of skill and experience. of sue
| cessful boats, but with a narrow mar
gin This important contention by Mr..
Long refutes the statement of Mr..
Bowles that the evident defects in the
departments design rendered them i'm
possible of execution" The chief
causes which led to the failure to come
UP to the required speed, the excess of
cost and length of time were the abso-
lutte lack of knowledge Of building tor
boats Six of the contracting
| firms had never built such vessels and
only the Union Iron Works, Bath Iron
Works, Columbian Iron Works, Gas
! Engine Company and the Harlan and
| Hollingsworth firms had had some ex-
perience in that line.
CONTRACTORS TO BLAME.
Nevertheless, the inexperienced con-
| tractors offered to build faster boats
than the department asked for and at
a less cost per ton than any previous
boats had been built for. Seven of the
destroXers and five torpedo boats were
| built on plans submitted by the con-
| tractors, for the failure of which they
| consequently became solely RESPONSE
BILE, and in the sixteen boats built on
| department plans, where the margin
was narrow, the specifications were
not followed, and large increases in
weight of material were made. with
| consequent increase in displacement,
| and where the boats were tried on the
designed displacement the majority
failed to come up to the speed con-
tracted for and barely reached the
modified requirement of a one hour
run at reduced speeds. The failure of
the contractors to obtain material and
the consequent delay in construction
is another argument advanced for
obtaining relief, but such an excuse
would not be accepted by any private
concern for non-fulfillment of con-
tract and should carry no weight with
Congress-. Nevertheless, the bill of re-
lief, involving a gift of $2,695,45O, in
cluding $539,600 to the Bath Iron
Works, is pretty sure to pass, as the
contractors and their suffering bonds
men and financial hackers are located
| in seven States, and are able to bring
the requisite influence TO bear on their
Representatives in Congress. The
annexed table shows the financial
statement regarding twenty-five of the
destroyers and torpedo boats. In order
to make it clear it should be explained
that the column of cost to the con-
tractors is that presented by the sew
eral builders. Thus, while the Column
bian Iron Works took a contract for
IS16S,0OO, it expended. it is said, $264,-
247. sustaining a loss of $96,247, and
Congress is asked to give the concern
, s66, 800, as a partial relief from its