The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1909-05-04
ny Ernest q. walker.
(Mail Special 20 the Advertiser. }

on the Pacific This COMFORTS entirely
with the view Of President Taft II
means that the influence Of the admin.
istration will he in that direction and
for construction program to that end.
II means that the navy yards at Bre.
merton aud Mare Island must be fur.
Their enlarged and improved, even with
the expeditions construction of the big
new naval station at Pearl Harbor. For
Bremerton and Mare Island and Pearl
iiarbor must become as familiar to the
country in n navy connection as Ports.
mouth, and Charleston and Brooklyn.
The emphasis that the Secretary of
the Navy gives to this matter is par.
ticuarly significant at this time. 1t
goes without saying that the admins.
tration will not divide the big fleet
now in the North Atlantic. The best
naval authorities have plainly shown
that il is not wise TO divide Nation Is
navy strength, unless the navy is so
large that one division of IL is stronger
than any probable opponent in given
quarter. But the government is build.
ing n number of new and especially
powerful ships and the prospect is that
| enough of these can be assembled with.
in n couple of years to make very
formidable Pacific fleet. 1t will be
maintained permanently upon the Pa
cifc Ocean, visiting at San Francisco
Los Angeles, Seattle and Honolulu with
the same frequency that battleships on
the North Atlantic now put in at Bos
ton, Portland and New York, and 60
ing to Bremerton, Mare Island and
Pearl Harbor for supplies and repairs
This means much for the army work
men and mechanics at those localities
For the army of men that must be
kept at navy yards for the manufacture
of materials and the construction and
repairing of navy ships is almost as
large as the army of fighting men that
are kept aboard the ships. Compare
lively little manufacturing has been
done thus far in the Pacific Coast yards.
| That has been left for the yards on
the Atlantic. Mare Island has been
equipped for construction work and a
| fine new collier has been built there in
recent years. But with the mainte-
nance of big fleet upon the Pacific,
more and more manufacturing for the
navy must be done on that coast. That
class of work will be centered more
and more at Mare Island. 1t has never
been intended that the great station at
| Pearl Harbor should be a manufacture
ing station. There is not sufficient ma.
terial at hand for that purpose. 1t is
easy, however, to obtain the necessary
materials at Mare Island, which is near
San Francisco and on the route that
ships of war cruising in the Pacific
will naturally take.
Secretary Meyers policy of big
war feet on the Pacific, presumably as
large as the war fleet of Japan, will
be favored by Pacific Coast men, who
now hold strategic positions in Congress
with reference to navy affairs. Sena-
tor Perkins, of California, is chairman
of the Naval Committee of the Senate
Representative Knowland, of Califor.
mia, whose district comprises the Mare
Island yard and the adjacent town of
Vallejo, is member of the House
Naval Committee. All the Pacific Coast
Congressman have been quilting" for
> Pacific feet, since the battleships
were dispatched around the world. The
supplies for feet of battleships, in.
GLIDING coal for the engines aand food
for the officers and enlisted men, cost
many millions annually and that brings
business to the vicinity of the navy
yards and the cities near them. Even
the social attraction that attend the
sending of ships to yards and to cities
are not to be ignored and the Pacific
Coast is eager to share some of those
privileges with the cities along the
: Atlantic seaboard.
1t will be no surprise to Washington
if gradually many of the skilled me
chanics at the big Atlantic yards are
| 1,,nl lty a In Dnn aH u "a
, where the prospects of work during the
next ten years are likely to be very
! good. The present lack of work, IN
the Atlantic yards is probably only TEN
porary but there is, none the less, an
apparent effort toward change OF
policy that will reduce several lines
of activity there. 1t will be but q
, year or two before considerable force
of skilled workmen will be required fol
4 the new station at Pearl Harbor They
4 can not be supplied in Hawaii anc
: therefore must come from the mainland
t The Pacific Coast will furnish some o.
f this force, but the increased operation
S at Mare Island, already assured will
make opportunities for workmen il
0 Eastern yards who care to go west.
g The declared intention of organizing
a big Pacific fleet, as soon as it is feast
BILE, signifies the intention of the ad
t ministration to press in Congress fo
a the continued construction of Dread
noughts. However much curtailmen
there will be in expenditures in othel
directions, the administration will no
! favor the blue pencil for paragraphs
, providing new ships of war. The navy
! curtailments will be in administrative
q expenditures, now very large. Seere
= tary Meyer has already begun to apply
! the pruning knife to those items. Blu
his policy of big Pacific fleet will
, bring to the big construction program
the enthusiastic support of the Pacific
! Coast. That will not amount to 80 mucl
. in the House of Representatives, wher'
!, the number of Pacific Coast Representa-
tives is comparatively small, but it viii
= be important in the Senate, where thu
votes of Coast Senators will count fol
more.
= The completion Of President Taft z
! plans for his summer outing has filled
the brains of hundreds of Washington
officials with burning inquiries as t.