The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-01-18
MAKES STRONG
PLEA FOR NAVY
Roosevelt Writes Letter Advo-
eating Building Two Ships
Of Dreadnaught Class.
PRESENTS MANY REASONS
LIMITED STATES CANNOT AZ
FORD TO LAG BEHIND.

Washington. Jan. IA letter written
a., the president in advocacy Of the plan
for two battleships of the Dreadnaught
class became public today. 1t is dated
January II. and is addressed to Chairman
ross Of the house committee on naval
affairs. The letter says:
y feel so strongly that there should be
,,o frst-class battleships of the max
,num size and speed and with their pri-
MARI battery all Of twelve-inch guns
added to the navy this session that de-
sire 70 Law the matter before your com
mittee through this letter. These two big
sbps should include the one provided for
last wear and the one provided for this
year. To must be remembered that / am
NOT asking for any increase in the navy.
because unless we can provide at the rate
of a battleShip per year our navy will
% backward. Moreover, / am advising
ibat our money be spent economically.
N has been a waste of time and money to
nrovide such ships as the single turret
,ouitors. and while the cruisers, espe-
rjsIiv the great armored cruisers serve
some useful purposes, it would neverthe-
Ices have been infinitely better to have
snent the money which was actually spent
I'm them I'm the construction of first class
i,sttleships. Our great armored cruisers
are practically as expensive TO build and
maintain as battleships. and yet, taking
The bsttleshp all around for the pur-
moses for which navy is really needed.
its superiority To the armOred cruiser is
enormous.
Battleships Come First.
"1 thoroughly believe in developing and
building an adequate number of subma-
rines. / believe i'm building torpedo boat
destrovers: there must be a few fast
scouts. and of course various auxiliary
vessels of different kinds. But the
strength Of the navy rests primarily on
i,s battleships and in building these bat
tIeships II Is imperatively necessary. from
the standpoint alike of efficiency and
economy. that they should be the very
best of their kind.
I'm nv Judgment we are not to be ex-
cused If we build any battleship inferior
10 those now being built by other ma
lions I should be glad if limitation
could be put by agreement TO the size
OF hattlcshps hereafter to be built.
have found however. that il will I'M
doubtcdlv be- impracticable to reach any
such agrcen ent i'm the near future. In
The first place I'm the navieS generally
these biz battleships have already been
built or arc now building. We cannot
afford 10 fan behind, and We shall fall
behind II we fail to build first class bat
teships ourselves. Unless we intend to
go on building up the fleet we should
abandon every effort to keep the position
which we now hold our justification
for upholding the Monroe doctrine and for
digging tho Panama canal must rest pri-
mariy on our willingness to build and
maintain first class fighting fleet. BE
81 remembered, moreover. that such q
fleet is by far the most potent guaranty
OF peace which this nation has or can
ever have.
Some Reasons Given.
Il therefore desire to lay before you the
following reasons for my belief in the adj
'Vantagcs of battleships of large displace-
lnent as compared with all other fighting
craft on the suppOsition that both are
handled equally well.
Much Of the information showing the
superior value of battleships OF large dis
placement speed and great gun power is
of very technical nature and cannot
briefly be stated. This is especially true
Of certain confidential information con-
corning the requirements necessary for
efficient long range gun fire, IL being un-
derstood that in this sense efficiency of
gun fire refers exclusively TO hitting. that
Is, 60 the number of large prGjectiles that
can be landed against an enemys hull
in a given time and not TO the number of
an callbers that can be fired in given
time
But disregarding these arguments. it
may stin clearly be shown that a certain
sum Of money appropriated for naval
construction can more advantageously be
expended FOR large high free board YES
sells. having many large guns of the same
caliber. then for smaller vessels having
fewer large guns and numerous small
guns. For example now that a high de-
gree OF skill has been developed in naval
craftsmanship, especially with heavy
guns. future battle ranges VIII be so great
Ohree or four miles, that small guns six
inch. etc) will be practically ineffective.
especially against large vessels having all
Of their guns and gun crews I'm twelve
inch turrets behind heavy armor.
Providence on Side of Big Guns.
Therefore the effective offensive power
OF battleship may now be measured by
The number Of heavy guns she can fire on
either broddside. For the ordinary bat
tleship this effective broadside fire con-
sists Of four twelve-inch guns. Tt fol-
lows as a matter of course that a large
ship having a broadside fire of ten
twelve-inch guns could promptly destroy
2 batteship OF the usual type having four
tWelVe-inch guns. and with the adVan-
lage or the greater speed of the larger