Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-02-24
BRANDEGEE'S FIRST.
Connecticut Hember's Maiden Speech
 Was on the Naval Bill.

E Was on the Naval Bill.
 Washington. Feb. M.--Congressm
 Brandegee late yesterday afternoon.
 made his real first speech on the floor
 Of the house, with the exception of his
 e'llogy on the late Congressman Rus
 sell. The occasion was the discussion
 of section ill the naval appropriation Dill relative to naval station in the Philippine Islands. An amendment
 was offered to strike out this section,
 ana MT Brandegee's speech was in op-
 position to this amendment Immedi-
 ately at the close of his speech a vote was taken and the amendment lost,
 thus MT Brandegee carried his point and .thG naval station is retain graduated on his effort by his col ileagues.
 ! MT Brandegee spoke in part as fol-
 lows: have not worried the house
 with expressing my views upon any point in the naval bill, but the discus sion has now come to point where it
 seems to me that I may with proprie- ty express my views. All the objec-
 tions made upon the other side to the provisions fin this naval bill seem to
 turn upon two points. First, that the
 bill is a very extravagant bill, second, that it Is a bill which departs from the traditional policies of the govern ment, and 1t is to be used to build up a navy to threaten somebody or to
 embroii this nation in trouble with I foreign powers. Both of these propo-
 sitions are as remote from the truth
 as they we'll could.
 Everybody knows that the expenses of this government are increasing in every department. They are legiti- mately increasing.4 This country Is no longer country of small things. The creased but has the ratio between these amounts and the value of the property of the country to be defend ed increased? No. 1t has decreased. and thnt Is the point that determines whether the expenditure is extrav- agant or not. 1t appears that the naval expenditures carried by this bill is only about quarters Of a mill on the dollar of the property of this country. And yet, the gentleman from North Carolina stood up here yester- day and said 1t involved the taxing of seven dollars upon every family in
 the country. Nothing could be farth- CT from the facts than that
 .T want to call the attention of the gentleman from Ohio, MT Burton, who claims that the increase or the American navy is n departure from the fundamental and tTad1tfonal poll cies of the government, to the mes saeo of President Monroe in 1924, in which he speaks of the navy as the arm from which our government will always derive the most add in the support of our rights. He knew what counts dn time of trouble with foreign powers President Monroe was not in favor of the Quaker pol icy of disarming because We had T high moral sentiment in this country, relying upon the same to exist in the Orient and in other countries of the world and you gentlemen know it. Why do you not join with Us and build up the American navy?
 tAs for the section of the bill now under discussion, regard it as the | most important feature of the whole bill. It makes no difference what the future policy of the United States shall be with relation to the holding
 of the Philippine Islands under this, that or the other form of govern
  there if We hold them, and we need it more If we let them go. In any case we need drydock there. | think gentlemen will agree with me, even the gentlemen who in one breath sound their deep affection for the American navy. and in the next vote against the appropriation for its support I think even they will agree with Us on this side that 1t Is hardly Il courageous thing to do to
 send our blue jackets over eight thou
 sand miles from home over into tue
 Philippine Islands aboard our ships
 and under our flag, and then say: lf
 you get hit, if your boat gets pune
 tured below the water line sink.
 "There is no dry dock. And what
 good is n dry dock unless 1t is fortified
 and protected? Is that patriotic pol
 icy? There is no use of taking this
 dry dock there unless We are prepared
 to defend it. What is the objection to
 fortifying a naval base? Is it desira-
 ble to heap up stores of coal, of pro
 visions, of ammunition, eight thousand
 miles away from home, and then aban-
 don them for the aid and comfort of
 the enemy? Is that good military
 strategy? The gentlemen have sub
 mitted their issues of Imperialism and
 militarism and all that sort of rot to
 the American people. Judgment has
 been rendered. Whenever the United
 States goes out of the Philippine Is-
 lands she will go out Of the front door,
 yyift, sha oS ffyinpe