The National tribune., 1909-04-22
4 Big PACIFIC NAVY.
Ne Are to Keep Fleet There as Large
as Japau's- Enlargement Of the Pacific
Navy Yards.

Secretary of the Navy Meyer has just
announced himself in favor of a fleet
of battleships on the Pacific. This COM
ports entirely with the view of Presi-
ient Taft. 1t means that the influence
of the Administration will be in that
direction and for a construction pro-
gram to that end. 1t means that the
Navy Yards at Bremerton and Mare
Island must be further enlarged and
improved, even with the expeditions
construction of the big new naval sta
tion at Pearl Harbor. For Bremerton
and Mare Island and Pearl Harbor must
become as familiar to the country IN
Navy connection as Portsmouth and
Charleston and Brooklyn.
The emphasis that the Secretary OF
the Navy gives to this matter is particu-
larly significant at this time. 1t goes
without saying that the Administration
will not divide the big fleet now in the
North Atlantic. The best naval author
tiles have plainly shown that it is not
wise to divide a Nations navy strength,
unless the navy is so large that one di-
vision of it is stronger than any prob
able opponent in given quarter. But
the Government is building number
of new and especially powerful ships,
and the prospect is that enough of these
can be assembled within couple of
years to make very formidable Pacific
fleet 1t will be maintained permanent
ly upon the Pacific Ocean, visiting at
San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and
Honolulu with the same frequency that
battleships on the North Atlantic now
put in at Boston, Portland and New
York, and going to Bremerton, Mare
Island and Pearl Harbor for supplies
and repairs.
This means much for the army OF
workmen and mechanics at those To-
calities. For~the army of men that
must be kept at Navy Yards for the
manufacture of materials and the con-
struction and repairing of Navy ships
is almost as large as the army of fight
Ing men that are kept aboard the ships.
Comparatively little manufacturing has
Keen 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 maintenance
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 in
tended that the great station at Pearl
Harbor, should be a manufacturing sta
tion. There is not sufficient material
at hand for that purpose. 1t is easy,
however, to obtain the necessary ma
terial at Mare Island, which is near San
Francisco and on the route that ships
OF war cruising in the Pacific will nat
urally take
Secretary Meyers policy of big war
fleet on the Pacific, presumably as large
as the war feet OF Japan, Will be ia
vored by Pacific Coast men, who now
hold strategic positions in Congress with
reference to Navy affairs. Senator Per
kins, of California, is Chairman of the
Naval Committee of the Senate. Repre-
sentative Knowland, of California
whose district comprises the Mare
Island yard and the adjacent town of
Vallejo, is member of the House Ma
val Committee. All the Pacific Coast
Congressman have been pulling" for
Pacific fleet since the battleships were
dispatched around the world. The sup
plies for fleet of battleships, including
coal for the engines and food :or the
officers and enlisted men,, cost many
millions annually. and that brings busi-
ness to the vicinity of the Navy Yards
and the cities near them. Even the
social attractions that attend the send
Ing of ships to yards and to cities are
not to be ignored, and the Pacific Coast
is eager 20 share some of those privi-
leges with the cities along the Atlantic
seaboard.
1t will be no surprise to Washington
IL gradually many of the skilled me-
chanics at the big Atlantic yards are
gradually drawn tc the Pacific Coast,
where the prospects of work during the
next 10 years are likely to be very good.
The present lack of work in the Allan
tic yards Is probably only temporary,
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 year or two be-
fore a considerable force of skilled
workmen will be required for the new
station at Pearl Harbor. They cannot
be supplied in Hawaii, and therefore
must come from the mainland. The
Pacific Coast will 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
big Pacific feet as soon as it is feas-
fble. signifies the intention of the Ad-
ministration to press in Congress for
the continued construction of Dread
naughts. However much curtailment
there may 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 a big Pacific feet will
bring to the big construction program
the enthusiastic support of the Pacific
Coast. That will not amount to so much
In the House of Representatives, where