Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1905-02-08

from within and to attack forts.
} cannot see that the question whether
thearmament of such ships be ten or
twelve inch guns is important. Dam.
age effected by the twelve-inch gun,
with it's awkward accessories, during
the wars between Spain and the Unit
ed States and Russia and Japan, hard.
ly justifies it's use.
| therefore, ships of both types
should carry ten-inch guns, with a
greater number upon the battleship
OF the second type-which would call
A sea-going coast defender Ships
or the first type also might be describ.
cd as coast defenders because
tney could defend our shores by at
lacking an enemy's coast and compell-
ing the presence of that enemy's YES
sells at home"
Referring to the sentiment abroad
in favor of the immense battleship,
Mr.. Cramp says:
The contagiOn has spread to this
country. 1t is argued here that we
must build an Ajax or Hercules, for
sooth, to fight Jupiter or Mars of
another nation-as if the fighting was
to be done as it was in the days of
chivalry! Two ships of the same
class may never meet. Wisely direct
| ed powers today have large navies,
composed of ships of all types, and
all OF these vessels can do some fight
ing and the individual ships are likely
to be scattered over the planet when
war occurs, so that the large ship may
never meet her echo, unless the nav.
les OF the two warning powers could
meet in midocean to settle the qucs-
ton of supremacy"
Mr.. Cramp was one of the first to
give notice of development of Japan as
naval power, and foretell her ambi-
tons. This was in 1897, but his state
ments at the time did not attract great
attention. He attributes the tremen-
dous success of the japanese fleets
in the present war, not to the SUPER
iority Of their ships or equipment, but
to the infinitely superior training of
the crews-the men behind the shov-
ell, as we'll as the men behind the
gun. AS showing how thorough that
training was. he quotes from the re-
cent work of Louis Livingston Sea-
man as follows:
There was one building at Kure,
the operations in which revealed to
! me more than any other thing saw
the thorOughness Of Japan's far-sight-
edness in preparing for war. 1t was
a low shed where stOkers were train.
ed to distribute coal evenly and reg
ularly over the great furnaces under
the boilers of warships. Probably no
other nation ever thought of making
such preparations for training, what
might be called it's cheapest labor, in
expeditions methods of work. Here
were long lines of men doing nothing
for hours together except shOveling.
They were not shoveling coal; but
large stones and pebbles supposed to
represent coal, into a series of ovens.
The pebbles were dumped, from time
to time. upon an iron floor. The men
then shOveled them back again into
the supposed furnaces of warships.
Hour after hour this work went on, the
stokers seeming to execute their tasks
with as much enthusiasm as if actu.
ally on board warship and engaged
in hostile operations"
The same degree of preparedness
has been exhibited on land as on the
sea. and this, with the fact that the
Japs have something to fight for
that the cause in which they are en-
listed is personal one-is the real
explanation of the long series of VIC
tories that have crowned their arms.