Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1907-07-25
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From Our Rega!a, Corrsspoadent.

Inc trip ofthe battieshipsquad
ron from the Atlantic to the Pa
cliic seems likely to be the excuse
Tor more expenditures on behalf
OF the navy. OF course, no one be-
grudges the navy all reasonable
facilities, and it is a good thing
ior the country to be fully pre-
pared dioremergencies atall points
but this thing of having tw o
coast lines, each as long as the
average continent to provide for
premises to be an expensive bus
mess. The complaint isnow made
that when the battleship squad
ron is transferred to the Pacific
coast there will not. be enough
docking facilities for it on t h G
western edge of the county
There is an immense dock at
Brenmerton and another even
larger at Mare Island, near San
Francisco. Also there are several
private docks that the war ships
can have the use OF on the same
terms with merchant vessels. But
this is said to be inadequate and
the Navy Department is making
plans for additional docks on the
Pacific coast to add anotheritem
OF large expenditure to the next
naval appropriation bill. A curl
Gus instance of the economy with
which expenditures of this sort
have been made in the past is
1shown in connection with t h e
Mare Island Dock. This has been
under construction for six years,
and has been taken out of the
hands of the original contrac-
tors because they were too slow
with the work. 1t is approaching
completion now, and is q very
fine dock but it appears that it
has been located SO far fro IN
deep water that the larger ves-
sells cannot get at it. Therefore,
there will have to he either an
other dock built or an expensive
channel dredged to open up the
way to the existing dock. One
might think that this feature OF
the situation would have been
discovered some time within the
last six years. But apparently it
has Just come to light. Truly it
is a glorious thing to have a big
navy adequately provided 10
and a mighty expensive thing as
well.
The navy is very much to the
fore these days, and it is inter
esting to see ourselves through
eyes in respect to our national
equipment. Admiral Sakamoto,
one OF the most distinguished OF
the Japanese navy, has been
very widely quoted recently to
| the effect that the U. S. had q fine
navy and a poor lot of officers to
man it. He said, according to the
| interview, that desertion was rife
in the rank and file of the navy
and that the officers were more
fitted to hold down easy chairs
in the Washington Departments
/ than they were to command wal
ships. 1t was a very indiscreet
interview, if accurately reported,
and the Japanese government
| was careful to brand it as afalse.
hood by directing the japanese
newspaper, the i1ochi, W h C b
printed it, to withdraw it and
print a complimentary interview
on the American navy by an un
named but high japanese Off
cial.' OF course, the fact that
the complimentary interview was
anonymous detracted "a G 90 d
deal from its weight.
But there appears this week il
the German papers a long article
on the American navy iron Count
won Reventhlow, one of the fore
! most naval writer's Of that coun
try. He criticised the American
navy from the viewpoint OF !
foreigner who knows nearly al