The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-19
THE cnrArrR NAVY CRAZE.

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 ate, who recently made speech in that body in which he spoke of the urgency of International action lock- ing toward the proportional reduction by the great military powers of their armies and navies. Referring partic- ularly to his own country he declared that naval expenses were ruining France. Coming down to particulars he said that the present program in- yoived an expenditure of three hundred million dollars, and she simply has not the resources to meet such oolos- sal demands" was his conclusion. President Roosevelt Is we'll known to be an advocate of a large navy "as the sole hope of peace," as he phrases it. The absurdity of such a conten- ton becomes apparent when we look at the result of such a course. If the United States was the only power able to build large navy the argument would have some force, but not other wise. England, France, Germany. Rus- sia and Japan, probably others, all have what we may properly call great navies, and each Is emulous of the others. None of them Is yet bank rupt. and not one Is willing for all the others to leave it far behind.
 | Is 1t not plain to any intelligent mind that if the United States under takes to build a navy which will be expected to dominate the seas all the others will follow suit? As The New York Post observes twill the worlds peace be really more assured by the existence of six great war fleets, than it would be if there were none? If all the big nations are armed alike, where is the advantage? What MT. Roosevelt cannot get into his head is the fact that the big-navy speeches are doing as much as anything else to cause European nations to increase their fleets. There is a good deal or loose talk about an alliance between the Anglo -Saxons, but 1t does not pre- vent England from matching every new battleship or cruiser we build with one slightly larger or more heav- fly armed"
 This Is the point. How can the worlds peace be assured by an increase of the naval strength of all the pow CTS? It ought to be plain to any one with observing and reasoning powers that our government will not be al- lowed to go ahead of all the nations of earth. Yet there are those who seem to think it the duty of the United States to build and equip the largest and strongest navy in the world and thus be enabled to hold a rod over all the rest. There are naval officers who contend that our government ought to appropriate at least one hundred mill lion dollars a year to keep up and in crease the navy. apparently impressed with the idea that ours is the only na- tion on earth that can build and equip large battleships.
 Aside from the item of expense there is another cause for dissatisfac- tion with this new crusade The idea
 
 a great swaggering. swashbuckling tyrant of the seas is repugnant to the true American ideas. To make of Un- cle Sam a Sir Henry Morgan. brow beating and terrorizing all creation, seems to be the ambition of some of cur statesmen. They see Roosevelt's big stick policy and go him one bet ter. They want a navy with which to threaten all the powers of the earth and compel them to remain good and quiet. The idea Is un-American and impossible of realization. We may bankrupt ourselves and others and none be any the better for it. We may act the bully and gain neither credit nor profit by the operation We might possibly build the greatest navy on earth, defy all the nations and then have them unite in self-defense and wipe us out. The whole theory of an overpowering navy is wrong.
 And there is another reason why 1t is wrong to spend sucn large sums in the construction of battleships. and that is the constantly changing styles of such vessels, and the supercedure of them by new ones. Only a few days ago, at Chatham navy yard in Eng land, fifteen million dollars worth of English ships were sold at auction and brought only $69O,OOO for the lot. None l of these ships was a score of years old we are informed. Not one of them had taken part in a naval battle They were simply dead" because new CT and better vessels had taken their place. They were out of fashion, and for every fifteen dollars worth of ma terial and labor in them the govern ment got 69 cents. It was a marked down sale with a vengeance.
 Ours is not a nation of bullies nor should our government assume the character of a bully for itself. There are better ways to keep the peace than by threats. If 1t were possible to make all the nations of earth afraid ot us it would be no credit to us as a nation or as a people. Until the era of universal peace dawns on the earth we must have navy, but we utterly repudiate the idea that a great navy Is the only way to preserve the peace. The theory of government by the big stick is not good American policy. | --~-@-S
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