Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1908-10-13
WORLD CRUISE OF
OUR BATTlE-SH|PS
; -
A Significant H;story-Making Move
ment by the United States.
Pacific Ocean Saved to America By
Robust Policy of Republican
Party.

eStlnS, important and far reaching per
| formances of any administra tion since
| the Civil War. History rides upon the
PROV of the fiagships of this fleet
E1ghty-fve millions of people have for
months been attempting to interpret
! the movement and solve the problem
! our government is attempting to prop
erly adjust by this circumnavigation of
the globe. When President Roosevelt
first announced that the fleet of battle
ships was to make the long journey
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean,
the Democrats turned prophets of evil
and predicted many disastrous things
would follow as a consequence of this
unprecedented move
Armada and World Cruise,
The armada took it's departure from
Hampton Roads, Dec. 16, 1907, and
after wholly successful voyage around
the Horn, of about twelve thousand
miles, it dropped anchor in San Fran
cisco Harbor May 6, 1908. The ships
that form the four divisions of the fleet
In this record-making cruise are: The
Connecticut, Louisiana, Maine, Mis-
souri,, Georgia, New Jersey, Rhode ISL
and, Virginia, Alabama, Illinois, Kear-
sarge, Kentucky, Ohio, Minnesota, Kan
ed the Nebraska and the Wisconsin, al
ready in Puget Sound, thus making a
fleet of eighteen first-class modern
battleships in perfect condition.
There were already in the. Pacific
and Oriental waters the fine armored
cruisers West Virginia, Colorado, Ma
ryland and Pennsylvania. Their two
sister ships, the California and South
Dakota, were also on the Pacific, and
the powerful Washington and Tennes-
see went from the Atlantic to join the
armada, thus making eight armored
cruisers to be added to the eighteen
battleships. In addition there were in
the Pacific several protected cruisers.
gunboats and other lesser craft. All
told there were ten hundred and fifty
officers and nineteen thousand five hun
dred men.
In due time the main feet of Awar-
ships resumed it's western course and
will touch at the leading ports of Ckina
and Australia, passing on east by way
of the west and coming finally to NAL
ia and Gibraltar, where it will coal
and ultimately return to it's starting
point at Hampton Roads, some time
early next February.
In this expedition the Republican
party has policy which projects itself
far into the future, but it is an entire
misunderstanding Of the whole scheme
to suppose that it is aimed narrowly
or definitely at any single power. 1t is
cies of the party gauged on world lines.
1t is more of a notification than a
threat, to- all existing governments.
Welding North and South America.
The eyes of the world have followed
our fleet with absorbing interest. One
of the great advantages gained by this
cruise is the cordial welcome and close
acquaintance which it has evoked from
the governments and peoples of the
the Brazilians, the Argentines, the Chi
lians and the Peruvians, the mighty re-
public Of the north had been merely a
name OF a dim figure, powerful and
honered perhaps, but not actually
known. For years there had been lit
tie or no visible evidence of the wealth,
or authority Of the United States, in
they were all visited BY swift and
stately liners. flying the flags Of the
maritime powers of Europe.
At every South American port the
feet, our navy, our government, our in
stitutions, our people, our aims, our
our trade-every conceivable
thing that is ours, have been discussed
as they never were before, and that
without suspicion of our political and
diplomatic intentions. One business
house in New York states that its
South American correspondence has in
creased fourfold since the feet visited
Rio Janeiro. In this case 1t seems that
trade may follow the battleships.
President Roosevelt Explains Move
nent.
In a statement in speech he made
in St Louis, President Roosevelt took
the public into his confidence to a de.
gree when he said: California, Ore
gon and Washington have a coast line
which Is our coast line Just as emphat-
ically as the coast line Of New York and
Maine, of Louisiana and Texas Our
fleet IL going to its own home waters
i'll the Pacific and after stay there 1t
will return to its own home waters
IN the Atlantic. The best place for the
naval oHicer to learn his duties IS at
sea. by performing them, and only by
actually putting through voyage Of
this nature, voyage longer than any
one before undertaken by as large
fleet of any nation, can we find out
Just exactly what is necessary for us to
know as to eur naval needs and prac-
tice our oficers and enlisted men in