Morgan County republican. (Versailles, Mo.) 1906-1914, 1908-03-12
BUILT FOR RESULTS
AMERICAN FIGHTING SHIPS HAVE
NO SUPERIOR.
Special Report Of Rear Admiral Con
verse Thoroughly Answers Crit.
cism Rejecting on Condition
Of the United States Navy.

The special report of Rear Admiral
Converse on the material and person.
mel of the American navy has been
made public. II Is a detailed consid.
GRAFTON of all the facts which formed
the basis of the article put out to
prove the navy almost, II not quite,
useless and worthless.
AS far as the telegraphed summaries
show the report OF Admiral Converse
covers little new ground. Most of the
technical accusations of the "sensa
ton had already been rcfuted. not.
ably in articles published In the
Scientific American, by men qualified
to speak with technical authority. AL.
miral Converse appears to cover the
same ground with more detail and in a
broader way.
The sum and substance of the whole
matter Is that our naval constructors,
like those of every other nation, have
had to make compromises in order &c
get AS near as possible to that ideal
which must always be pursued even
though IL can mover be a~ttaincd-the
perfect bAttlcslip.
All of our battleships are detective
in some respect. SO are those OF every
other nation-cyCry one OF thch
There mover has bccn and there prob
ably eve will be u battlcship sent
to sea at which some naval expert
could not look and say with all truth
fulness and sincerity: This is not
as it should be-, in all respects"
The size of ships is limited by tn,
amount Of money congress Is willlnG
TO spend on ticm and by other prac
teal considerations. Upon the siz'
depends the weight the ship can carry
How shall that weight BE- distributed
That is the fundamental question
which Scam"n and naval constructors
answer in various ways, according &c
their conception of the relative i'm
p%Ortancc of different features, and ON
which there must be compromise.
II the ship is made so high out q
water as certainly to b" able to iiSh'
all guns in all wcathcrs, the weight
thu added must be subtractod some
where else. If Il ship Is given S'cl
heavy armor as to be able to rcSiS'
any p%rojrctil" in use, other parts mus
be made lighter. If given the highrS
possible speed and the largest possible
coal capacity, something must be sac
rificcd in or guns or both. An,
so II goes all around.
The American rule, founded on ex
pcricnCc, has been TO remember tina
The" first purpose Of a fighting ship |
to damage the enemy. Therefore |
has been the American rule to snbO'
dinatc everything else, as far as prac
ticab!c. to gun power, and to MAKE
gun power cffcctiv" by trained Skill II
gunnrry. remembering that only tn
shots that hit are shots that count.
Taken altogether. from the days O
the Constitution down, American ship
have commonly been more powerful
they hay" usually had greater hitting
powcr-than ships Of the same siz
and dat" of any other nation. AM
never but once has an American shii
been compelled to strike her COlOrs T.
an enemy Of even approximately he
own size!
"Rc8ults," in the pungcnt phrase o
the street, are what count The re
suits attained in the final test of wa
prove that American fighting ships
save AT those periods when the nav
was openly neglected have been a
good as any and better than most tina
other nations have. And so they ar
to-day.
AS Admiral Converse says: "Ou
ships are not inferior to those in fOl
eign services by foreign critic
they are considered somewhat $,
pcrior on the average, and especial
in the vital point Of ability To damag
thn ,upmv --(hirnvn Intnr ncpau