Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1904-12-29
NAVAL ExTRAvAcANcE,
What Our Navy Cost For the
Last Fiscal Year.
MORE THAN A DOLLAR PER CAPITA
Expenditures to steadily 1ncreasc.
Must Soon BE Burden to the Tax
payer-Promiaes to be the Heaviest
item In the National Budget.

payer-Promises to BE the Heaviest
Item In the National Budget.
Il any doubt existed in the minds
Of the taxpayers of this country in re-
gard to the policy of the present ad-
ministration on the increase of our
naval expenditures it was set at rest
by the annual report of the secre-
tary Of the navy, the first which MI.
Morton ever made. says the Boston
Herald. He says the naval estimates
for the next fiscal year are large. the
largest ever submitted. and With this
comes the comforting announcement:
"New ships necessarily require more
officers, more marines and more enlist
ed men, and the appropriations are
quite likely to increase steadily for
some years to come. The more ships
we have the greater our fixed charges
will be, and the greater our facilities
necessarily must be in the way of
yards and docks and the ability to
make repairs and take proper care Of
the feet"
That is merely statement of the
truth. Under the present admlnistra-
ton our naval expenditures will in
crease, and, measured by the past, it
will be at no slow ratio. On the ad-
vance ratio Of recent years it will soon
be the heaviest single item of expcndi-
lures in our national budget.
Secretary Morton says: Last year
the navy cost q little over 81 per capita.
It cost little to what war would cost.
and 1t is the best insurance we have
against war. We want such navy in
size. style and sand that no other
navy will ever desire an engagement
with U.S." First, as regards the "a lit
tie over 81 per capita" statement. Last
year the navy cost close to $1O3, OO0,-
COO Our population, as figured by the
treasury department ON Dec. 1, 1908,
which may DO taken Us the middle or
average date Of last year, was 81 ,O61,-
600. Our navy cost in excess Of 81 per
capita more than the entire yearly cost
Of the navy in any year from 1876 to
1889.
One dollar per capita does not sound
very large, particularly when it is pro-
nounced by member Of the cabinet.
but when it Is remembered that the
cost of our navy last year exceeded by
several million dollars the combined
average yearly value of the imports of
coffee, tea, wrapper and filler tobacco
and wool brought into the United
States in the five years from 1893 to
1902 it is shown that It must be quite
a burden on the taxpayers Of the coun-
try.
As nation we do a very flourlshing
export business in wheat, but the aver
age yearly yalle Of the wheat export
ed in the five years from 1893 to 1902
would not pay the bills for Mr.. Nor
toms department Us he estimates those
bills for the coming year. A dollar per
capita means almost barrel of flour
per family, and yet, as we have shown,
the dollar per capita is no measure of
last years expenses for the navy, and
IL Secretary Morton has his way it will
be still poorer one for the next year.
Secretary Morton devotes two and a
| half pages Of his report to the question
Of battleships versus torpedo boats
and the lessons of the war in the east.
The bulk of this space is occupied by
quotations from two letters written by
the president-one in February. 1902.
and the other in February, 1893.
Perhaps in the latter quotation Sec
rotary Morton found his argument for
| the use Of the word sand" For our
part, we never questioned the ''sand''
Of the American navy, and we think It
was just as apparent in the old wood
en- ships lost in the hurricane at Sa-
moa as it was in the modern fighting
machines of Santiago. Expenditures
| Of money and al increase of the ships
and the men do not make sand -
That comes from the people and ia
generally found to the greatest extent
With those who talk the least about 1t.
The Tariff and Reciprocity.
It is frequently stated that COM
mercial union between Canada and the
United States is impossible, and we