The Hawaiian gazette., 1907-02-12
WANTS BIC
BATTLESH|PS

WASHINGTON, d. c., Jan. ia
letter written by the president in ad.
vocacy Of the plan FOR two battleships
of the Dreadnaught class became pub
lie today. 1t is dated January IL, and
is addressed to Chairman Foss of the
house committee on naval affairs. The
letter says:
81 feel so strongly that there should
be two frst-class battleships of the
maximum size and speed and with their
primary battery all of 12-inch guns
added to the navy this session, that
/ desire to lay the matter before your
committee through this letter. These
two big ships should include the one
provided for last year and the one pro-
vided for this year. 1t must be re-
membered that am not asking for
any increase in the navy, because un.
less we can provide at the rate of
battleship per year our navy will
go backward. Moreover, / am advis.
ing that our money be spent economical
ly. 1t has been a waste of time and
money to provide such ships as single
turret monitors, and while the cruisers,
especially the great armored cruisers,
serve some useful purposes, it would
nevertheless have been infinitely better
to have spent the money which was
actually spent on them in the con-
struction of frst-class battleships.
FIRST-CLASS BATTLESHIPS
NEED.
sour great armored cruisers are prac-
tically as expensive to build and main
tain as are battleships.
81 thoroughly believe in developing
and building an adequate number of
submarines, and 1 believe in building
torpedo boat destroyers. There must be
a few fast scouts and, of course, vari-
GUS auxiliary vessels of different kinds.
But the strength of the navy rests
primarily on its battleships, and in
building these battleships, it is i'm
peratively necessary, from the stand
point alike of efficiency and economy,
that they should be the very best of
their kind.
Sin my judgment we are not excused
if we build any battleship inferior to
those now being built by other nations.
1 should be glad if limitation could
be agreed upon as to the size of the bat
tleships hereafter to be built. / have
found, however, that it will undoubted-
ly be impracticable to reach any such
agreement in the near future. In the
first-class navies generally these big
battleships have already been built or
are now building.
"We can not afford to fall behind,
and we shall fall behind if we fail to
build frst-class battleships ourselves.
Unless we intend to go on building up
the feet we should abandon every eff
fort to keep the position which we
now hold. Our idea for unfolding the
Monroe doctrine and for digging the
Panama canal must rest primarily on
our willingness to build and maintain
frst-class fighting fleet. Be it re-.
membered, moreover, that such feet
is by far the most potent guaranty of
peace which this nation has or can
have.
LONG-RANGE GUNFIRE.
81 therefore desire to lay before
you the following reasons for my be-
lief in the advantages of battleships
of large displacement as compared with
all other fighting craft, on the SUPPOSE
ton that both are handled equally
well:
"Much of the information showing
the superior value of battleships of
large displacement, speed and great gun
power is of a very technical nature
and can not be briefly stated. This is
especially true of certain confidential
information concerning the require
ments necessary for efficient long range
gunfre, it being understood that in this
sense efficiency of gunfre refers ex-
clusively to hitting; that is, to the
large number of large projectiles that
can be landed against an enemy's hull
in given time, and not to the number
of all calibers that can be fred in
given time.
"But, disregarding these arguments,
it may still clearly be shown that a
certain sum of money appropriated for
naval construction can be expended
advantageously for large, high-freeboard
vessels, having many large guns of the
same caliber, than for smaller vessels
having fewer large guns and numerous
small guns. For example, now that a
high degree of skill has been developed
in naval craftsmanship, especially with
heavy guns, future battle ranges will
be so great (three or four miles) that
small guns (s-iaeh, etc.) will be prac-