The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-05-02
SECRETARY Of NAVY
fAVORs BhTTLEsH|P
{Contlnued FROM PAGE One,

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
II gradually many of the skilled me-
chanies at the big Atlantic yards are
gradually drawn to the Pacific Coast
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 tenn
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 a
year or two before considerable force
of skilled workmen will be required for
the new station at Pearl Harbor. They
can not be supplied in Hawaii and
therefore must come from the mainland.
| The Pacific Coast viii furnish some of
! this force, but the increased operations
| at Mare Island, already assured will
make opportunities for workmen in
Eastern yards who care to go west.
The declared intention of organizing
a big Pacific feet. as soon as it is feast
/
ministration to press in Congress for
the continued construction of Dread
noughts. However much curtailment
| there will be in expenditures in other
directions, the administration will not
favor the blue pencil for paragraphs
providing new ships of war. The Navy
curtailments will be in administrative
expenditures, now very large. Secre-
tary Meyer has already begun to apply
the pruning knife to those items. But
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 50 much
in the House of Representatives where
the number of Pacific Coast Representa-
tives is comparatively small, but it will
be important in the Senate, where the
| votes of Coast Senators will count for
more :.
| The completion of President Taft $
plans for his summer outing has filled
the brains of hundreds of Washington
officials with burning inquiries as to
what the summer has in store for them.
They have had fat times during the
summer months for some years. Presi-
dent Roosevelt did not expect much of
); his official subordinates during the
heated term. The moment he hurried
away to Sycamore Hill, his cabinet
officers went scurrying hither and
thither with thoughts of little else than
attending to affairs that were absolutely
imperative and giving themselves up,
after that, to pleasure seeking or to
their own business.
; Accordingly between July l and
:. | n hau hppu
spread over scores of official desks in
Washington and the dust has accumu-
lated to a notable thickness in their
rooms. The big federal city became
very like big village, all the while
, that government business of moment
!, wSs transacted at the summer capital
Assistant secretaries of the departments
s were quite as jealous as cabinet officers
in giving Washington wide berth, not
2 only for the term of the month s vaca
: ton which the law allows them, but fol-
f two or three months variety of ex
t cuses for inspection trips and numerous
| other errands came prominently to the
| fore and there was rivalry in being
4 first to leave and the last to return
Not infrequently,e the most stirring IN
curry, of an official day in each of the
nlUc departments uuI1aS tAO ouAAaAhSi 49,
!, been: ssWho is acting today" TIL
n office of the nominal head of the de
}. partment fitted from room to room lik
= will Of the wisp and one could no
tell beforehand what subordinate nigh
p be signing the departmental mail a
"Acting Secretary" !.
There will probably be less of that thi
: year, although after all Washington
I Al. ID Hoe al c
for a few weeks after Congress has ad
/ journed. The Treasury Department
; people for example, viii have to be O
the job right through the hot summe
s when the pavements simmer with tn
r sun s rays and emphasize the attra'
# tions of the cool resorts by the sea an
IS on the mountain tops. The new tarI
# law will 90 into operation when Con
gress adiourns. It's administration WI
involve a deal of daily application 6
: the part of Treasury Chiefs. HUI
V dreds of little questions about the inte1
probation of the law will arise and ofte
e can only receive a final answer frol
x officials in Washington. The aecesslo
l. of new officials generally in the depar
n ments viii make against the long an
leisure vacation practice.
III the NAVY DoPdi1Ai0h1; NV
It ant Secretary almost invariably goes Q
a tour of certain of the navy yard
The chiefs of bureaus-all Navy OH
=, cers-take an inspection trip or tW
on matters pertaining to their ow
i specialties. Establishments, recent
II created or enlarged, all the way froi
+ Kittery, Maine, to Guantanamo an
IS even to Honolulu, have been exceet
ingly attractive to Navy Bureau chief
n during the summer months. Similar
d the Assistant Secretary of War find
ii errands that require his personal a
n tention, but the army posts are gen
}. orally located inland and trips thithe
A. involve long and dusty railway Jou
$. neys that are forbidding as compare
with voyages on the water 20 point
:. where the navy yards and stations al
located. Therefore the Assistant Sc
lie retarv of War and the officers of tn
n General Staff are able to do less offieli
a. iunketing in the hot months than the
re official brethren of the Navy.
e. AS President Taft leaves the admin
IN istration of the departments ver
n, largely with the members Of his cab
net. much in the matter of the eharactt
- of summer effort will depend upon tho'