Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1910-03-04

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of the evolution in popular government
There is continuous discussion II
Congress with reference to ship SUB
sides. The American carrying trade
sixty years ago covered all seas, ano
the Stars and Stripes could be seen ir
every port in the world. The flag at
present is confined exclusively to oul
interior and coast trade. Two years
ago when our battleships circumnavi-
gated the globe, they were supplied
with provisions and coal by foreign
vessels. Ex-Secretary of the Treasury
Leslie Shaw has recently made the
startling announcement that Japan is
determined to rule the Pacific or tinge
its waves with blood, and he has added
to this statement details as to how
twenty-seven foreign ships to carry
supplies for our around the world bat
tle-ships, and that one hostile shot
from any country that owns cannon
would under International law have
sent every one to these twenty-seven
ships home, for no country can afford
to have It's flag involved in our quar-
rels. He further stated that in 1909
the War Department hired over forty
foreign ships to do its work, and that
we are sending food to the soldiers in
the Philippine Islands in japanese
ships. He stated further that Japan
can put two hundred thousand soldiers
in Hawaii in thirty days without fir
ing shot, and that 1t would take us
two years to put one thousand there.
The ex-Secretary of the Treasury has a
happy faculty of graphic statement and
illustration, and his combination of
arithmetic and rhetoric produce vivid,
impressive and true picture. For bet
teror worse, we have become first
class power and part of the interna-
tional system. This has been brought
about through our. Hawaii and our
Philippines. The secure insularity
once afforded us by the two great oceans
is no longer ours We must be able to
defend our frontiers, Hawaii in mid
Pacific and the Philippine in Asiatic
waters. We cannot do this without
soldiers and ships, not only war-ships,
but golfers and commissary ships.
How are we to get sailors and ships
then, owing to our tariff, other nations
can build ships and employ sailors for
half the price that we must pay, or in
the case of Japan, for less than onefifth
the price we must pay. AS Mr.. Shaw
says, ''These are not state secrets. Ev-
erybody knows them except our voters.
We are building battle-ships, and this
is well, but battle-ships without collicrs
and transports are absolutely worth
less. In case of war we could not get
our Atlantic fleet to San Francisco. No
vessel in the fleet can carry enough coal
to take it there. We have no GOLFERS,
and could then hire uoneu Ex-Sec-
rotary Shaw further stated that if ev-
cry powder-mfll in the United States
was to make powder twenty-four hours
per day for thirty days, the product
would last our present navy only two
hours
President Taft is advocating naval
program calling for the building of two
immense battle-ships of the 25 thou
sand ton class each year until the
Panama Canal shall be finished. This
means ten battle-ships of the heaviest
tonnage and guns. He desired to carry
out the Roosevelt "Big Stick" policy
under the impression that the best
safeguard against war is to be fully
armed for it. The Panama Canal, it is
calculated, will be completed in 1915,
and it is urged that after its completion
the naval program can be reduced, for
then instead of sending fleets around
Cape Horn for the protection of our
Pacific border, they can be sent through
the Canal and coaled at several depots
of our own en-route. 1t is thought that
Congress will make an appropriation
for the two ships year program.