Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-17
RACE FOR SEA
CONTROL
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN

Il the entrance to the Chesapeake
to begin the regular summer maneu
Vers and target practice, which VIII
be completed off the New England
coast, The vessels have been NOR
oughly overhauled since they com
pleted the world girdling tour last
February, and are believed to be IN
the pink of condition. No man mas
ever charged, even in the days when
our navy consisted of obsolete WOODEN
ships, some of them unseaworthy, that
the. personnel, including enlisted men
as well as officers was anything other
than fit and ready for any service
which might be demanded.
The American navy was more gem
orally discussed throughout the world
last year than all the navies of all
other powers. This was due to the
cruise which the great fleet made
around the globe, sailing in many
strange seas and calling at ports of
so many different nations. Naturally
enough, there has not been so much
naval talk this year. so far as our own
navy is concerned. Events in another
quarter have transferred interest from
the American to the navies of Great
Britain and Germany. These two pow
ers appear to be engaged in snip
building race which Is unique in the
history of nations, and which, accord
ing to several authorities, must ter
INMATE III Wal VI DeilihA oP'SS'
1t is difficult to realize that less than
twenty-five years ago the United
States did not have single armored
seagoing ship, and that now we are
prepared to enforce the most recent IN
depreciation of the Monroe doctrine in
any part of the world with navy sec
ond in power only to that of Great
Britain itself. The navy of every
o4l,ay. nation bppn Of slow. steady
growth, in the execution of a fixed
purpose, and the carrying out of a long
defined policy. But this country APP
pears suddenly to have awakened to
the fact that the American navy was
worthless SO far as vessels were con-
cerned, and that a nation so well able
to build warships should be repre-
scented on the sea in a more creditable
manner.
The beginning of the new navy was
the passage of the naval appropriation
bill of 1888, authorizing the construc-
ton of three steel cruisers and one
dispatch boat at a total cost of $780,
900. Such a sum would not start
contractor to work on one of the bat
tleships or cruisers of the navy of to-
day. There was not an armor plate
factory in the United States, nor
plant at which could be turned out
guns of greater than siX-inch caliber.
There was not a torpedo nor machine
gun plant in the country. But armor
plate factories sprung up and the gov
eminent established the great gun
factory at washington in 1887. The
increase in our naval strength from
that year was rapid, and when the
Spanish war broke out in 1898 it not
only found the American navy in
perfect state of preparedness, but
strong enough to annihilate the navy
of Spain in a campaign of ITO days.
No race is so costly as that which
many nations enter in seeing which
can increase its naval ornaments most
rapidly. The cost of a warship of the
Dreadnaught class may be roughly
the first class, speaking of the Dread
naughts as in a class by themselves.
cost about S7000,000. The armor and
the guns on a vessel cost, approximate
ly, as much as the vessel unarmored
and unarmed.
But the initial cost of navy is in
significant as compared with the enor-
nous outlay involved in maintaining
it. For instance, during the fiscal year
1908 the cost of maintaining the bat
tleship Connecticut was 1,515.77.
which sum included 1871 093.07 for cost
of commission, which also represented
pay of officers, and S140, 1870, repre-
senting repairs to hull, machinery and
equipage To this cost of maintenance
OF vessels must be added the cost or
maintaining the machinery of the navy
department. The amount appropriated
for the support of the naval establish
ment from 1883 to 1908, including both
years. was $1,374, 624, 001,S9, of which
vast sum only $344 1904, 1856 was ex-
pended in the actual construction Of
vessels.
One of the lords Of the British adj
miralty said in an official utterance
recently that =" in the western hemi-
sphere the United States are forming
a navy the power and size of which
will be limited only by the amount of
money which the American people may
choose to spend on it." England is
having a hard time with her finances
now, and Germany is running behind
in the matter of governmental revenue
to such an extent that her statesmen
are exercising their ingenuity to find
new subjects of taxation or subjects
upon which additional tax may be
placed without working too great
hardship.
Americans, at least, have never been
able to see real cause for the excite
mept which has prevailed in England
during the past few months over the
prospect of a German invasion. The
pace at which the Germans are building
warships is hardly so great as that at
which England is building them. The
present warship tonnage of Great
Britain, according to the most reliable
figures obtainable, is 1,669,005, while
that of Germany is believed to be 524,-
573 tons. Were vessels the two coun-
tries are now building put on the wave
Great Britain would have a tonnage of
1871, 176, while Germany's tonnage
would be e93599. AS a matter of fact
France is adding to her navy more
rapidly than Germany is increasing
hers. and when vessels now on the ways
are completed France will rank second
in naval strength among the powers of
the world, with the United States third,
instead of second, the place she now
occupies.
1t has been stated that a blockade Of
English ports for three weeks would
bring the country to a state of starva-
ton so dependent is England upon the
constant exchange of her manufac-
tured products for a food supply. That
England appreciates this fact is demon
strated by the size of her home feet
consisting of twenty-six armored YES
sells, which can fire a broadside of over
100 600 pounds. The German fleet in
the North sea consists of twenty-four
barmored ships, which can fire but $1,000
pounds at a broadside.
Lord Nelson said that one English
man was worth three Frenchmen
aboard a man of war. But the instinct
of the sea, such as the British people
possessed over those of any other ma
ton in the old days and which was so
necessary then to the upbuilding OF