The midland journal., 1910-11-11
WASHINGTON LETTER.

that by aboiishlng malt dozen navy
yards and stations and concentrating
forces in the larger yards the docking and
| yard facilities Of the navy can be made
more efficient and the Government can
save approximately $40, 100000 year.
By slashing items in other directions, by
buying coal for the Pacific feet on the
Pacific coast, and by the new system OF
buying supplies and keeping accounts
Secretary Meyer has decided that be can
hold the navy's expenses for the fiscal
year of 1911 down to approximately $Ioo.
ooo.oo This, if it can be carried out,
will be saving of about one-fifth of the
sum appropriated for the current year.
Mr.. Meyer, in compliance with Mr..
Taft's economy policy, slashed about
$To, ooo. 900 off last years estimates. By
the old policy the expenses of the navy
for 1911. would be nearly $40. 900 900.
The economy" administration hopes to
be able to save nearly $40, 900. .ooo next
year, in comparison with what the ex-
Ipenses would have been under the old
"extravagant" program
Mr.. Meyer has decided that the New
Orleans and Pensacola navy yards should
be abandoned as useless and the Key
West yard bnilt up as an emergency
station and base for West Indian opera
tions. Guantanamo is to be developed
into base second only to the British
bases at Gilbralter and Malta This will
be mainly for the purpose of backing up
the Notifications to guard the Panama
cansl. The Charleston yard. the pet of
Senator Tillman, also is to be abandoned.
according to the progrstn, as will be also
the Portsmouth IN. H yard. which has
always been protected by Senator Hale,
now retiring from the Senate. portion
of the money TO be saved by abandoning
these yards will be expended on the
development of the yards at Norfolk,
Philadelphia. New York. Boston. Mare
Island and Bremerton The Washington
yard. which is an ordnance construction
yard, will not be molested. In fact, a
large appropriation will be needed to pro-
vide for the permanent construction of
the IA inch guns, which have entered the
navy to stay. The guns shops at the
| Washington yard will be enlarged.
.**
AS guardian of the public's sheath, DR..
Harvey w. Wiley, the pure food expert,
is called by his friends one Of the greatest
conservationists of them all. 1t is fact
known to but few, however, that after
Carl Schurz, as Grants Secretary of the
Interior. he was perhaps the first man in
public life since the war, to declare pub
licly for broad system of conservation
of natural resources, the movement which
is Just beginning to make history. This
was in his retiring address as president Of
the American Chemical Society at its
annual meeting in Baltimore in Decem-
iber. 1894, just IS years before the famous
White House Conference of Governors
was called in 1908
A clerk rummaging through some old
papers in the Bureau of Chemistry has
/ Just uuearthed this information. A print
ed copy of the address, dusty aud yellow
with age, was shown the doctor. and be
smiled when he saw that the title was
sThe Waste and Conservation of Plant
Food . In his address he covered
practically all phases of conservation, ex-
cepting water power aud coal, which at
that time did not figure SO prominently
in the industrial progress of the country
as today. OF late years. Wiley has been
too busy chasing adulterators of food and
the dopers of drugs given to babies and
the sick, to even think Of any phase of
conservation excepting public he lth, and
this makes his remarks II years ago all
the more significant today.
.*x
The latest political rumor in Washing
ton is that the present Secretary of the
Treasury. Franklin MacVeagh. will retire
from the Cabinet aud that the man most
likely to succeed him is Charles D. Nor.
ton, now secretary TO the President.
There is no hint that the relations be-
tween the President and Mr. MacVeagh
are anything but cordial and friendly,
but it is said that Mr. MacVeagh has no
ealSdesire TO stay in Washington and has
been for some time anxious TO ge. hack
to his business in Chicago. where be has
large interests.
~
Federal indictments, charging con-
spiracy to defraud the Government Of