Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-11-24

ready for battie-ready to go forth
upon the high seas and beat up an
enemy with superior force.
This feet as a feet is not prepared
for war, nor will 1t be for some time
TO come. While each vessel OF the
Atlantic force is a highly trained and
| efficient fighting machine. the feet as
q whole is not ready and cannot be
made ready until public opinion forces
/ congress to realize its immediate needs,
| This Is q statement Of fact and Is not
a personal opinion, the result OF IN
digestion. pessimism, or fault-hndIng-
! Any OF the serious-minded officers OF
/ the navy, particularly the younger
ones, will agree with me. On the deck
/ of one OF our dreadn oughts an officer,
one of the brightest men in the serv-
/ ice. said: Comparatively speaking,
we are. today, as poorly prepared for
war as we were in the Spanish war
/ In a word. the modified ships in the
, Hudson river constituted but the
empty shell of an efficient feet.
/ And their mobilization bears about
/ the same relation to readiness for war
as does a parade down Broadway OF
/ troops who are not equipped for the
I field
OUR FLEET LACKS EYES"
/ The destroyer is the battleship'
/ worst enemy. On a stormy or foggy
night searchlights do not protect the
battieship. so a swarm of destroyers
may easily get the big fellow at their
/ mercy. 4 fleet can only be protected
al h--
/ destroyers, which in daytime scout
and search and at night maintain
screen against the onslaught Of the
enemy's craft Each OF the great
navies has a large number OF these
eyes of the feet" But not the United
States. Germany, Japan and France
have practically four destroyers for
each battleship. We have about one
and a half. Some 80 more destroyers
are needed as fast as they can be built.
Surplus battleships are useless II we
do not equip them with destroyers.
American policy demands far
flung feet acting on the offensive. But
to fight away from our base requires
an abundant coal supply. This feet
can steam on its own coal about 5000
miles: we have six golfers with Meet
speed. and from them the feet could
get coal for about 20 days cruising
speed. but only for 10 at full speed
Should we send the American fleet
against a foreign enemy, proposing TO
maintain il for extended operations,
we positively need for a coal supply
alone more than 100 vessels. Should
The war he in the east before the open
ing of the Panama canal, we should
actually have to reQuisition 100 more
steamers above the number now under
American register, provided that all
the vessels flying our flag could be Oh
tanned for this purpose. This would
mean that over 100 foreign ships must
be bought or chartered as auXiliar1es-
Think what a stupendous undertaking
this would be!
WHAT Is 4 REAL FLEET
In case of war the feet of modern
navy strikes at once. II Germany
France or England had gone to war
over the Morocco question, their fleets
would have put to sea in a few hours.
should a powerful nation decide 10
DISPUTE the integrity Of the Monroe
feet against u.s. This would be real
feet, composed Of fighting ships (bat-
tleships) and all the auxiliary vessels;
its due proportion of armored cruisers,
speedy protected cruisers acting as
scouts destroyers, mine layers tol
which we have one), mine sweepers
(of which we have none), submarines,
etc. A feet of an equal number of
battleships sent against this force WIN
out the protection of the necessary
cruisers and destroyers would be
promptly crippled. Moreover, the for
eign feet would be accompanied by the
requisite number of auxiliaries. supply
ships. repair ships, hospital ships,
troop ships. etc, plus the golfers. The
vessels necessary for such an equip
ment have long since been provided
by every foreign country. Germany
alone could on two weeks notice COM
mandeer the use of 200 ocean liners
and modern cargo steamers, manned
by officers and men all belonging to
her naval reserve. and as such accus-
toned to military discipline.
Such vessels do not exist in our
country. and congress has done moth
ing to build up a merchant marine
from which they could be recruited.
We. the greatest oil-producing coun-
try in the world, were the last TO epr
ply oil fuel to warships. This may be
the reason why the navy is without
modern oil tankers Some Is destroy
ers burning oil. and nothing else, are
in commission. The Arethusa, the I'M
provised oil ship which was in the re-
view. could not supply these vessels
with oil for more than five days steam
ing at 20 knots; the tanks, the two
golfers which carry oil, could 'oil up"
once the four dreadnoughts, which
burn oil as well as coal. The British
navy has four oil ships. Should we
get into trouble we should have TO
rely upon the patriotism Of the Stand
ard OIL company for tank steamers.
III admit that in case OF a sudden
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