Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1912-02-22
NAVY PLAN TO FAIL
Congress Not Likely to Authorize
Two Battleships.
DEMOCRATS ECONOMY BENT
Vessels Become Anticipated Rapidly
but Majority in House Says Naval
Force viii Be Kept Up to the
Fighting Standard.
By GEORGE CLINTON.

By GEORGE CLINTON.
Washington.-It seems TO be the
present determination of the major
fly in the house Of representatives to
deny the request of the navy depart
ment for the construction Of two big
battleships during the coming year.
officials Of the department were con-
WINGED some time ago that their re
quest had little chance Of sanction by
a house which is economically in
clined, 1t seems hardly probable that
the senate win insist that the house
accede to the wishes Of the navy de
partment, although such a thing is
within the range of possibilities.
Five years ago Mr.. Roosevelt, then
president. asked congress to author
lie the building Of four big battle
ships in a single year. It was gen
orally believed at the time that the
colonel asked for four ships in order
that be might be sure that he would
get two.
The year of the Roosevelt request
the Republican majority in congress
let it be understood that the inten-
ton was to build two battleships
year each succeeding year until the
Panama Canal was opened, and by
that time it was urged the navy
would be big enough for offensive
and defensive purposes and that it
would only be necessary to build
ships as other ships became antiquat-
ed and passed out Of service.
Soon Become out-of-Date.
Ships are becoming antiquated rap
idly They seem to get into their
second childhood before they have
reached the age of youth. The last
report is that the Kearsarge and the
Alabama, first-class battIeships only
q few yeaVs old, are nearing the out
of-date condition. The navy depart
ment officials say that if no ships
are built for some years we will have
20 begin building the navy all over
again proposition to which some
men do not accede. The peace ad-
vocates hope that if no more vessels
are built the necessity for future
construction will pass and that with
Hague tribunals and arbitration trea-
ties, turrets and twelve-inch guns will
90 to the scrap heap.
Some Of the members of the ma
jOrity in the house say that they do
not agree with the peace advocates
and that there is no intention of let
ting the navy go to the scrap heap
and that the Democrats can be de-
pended upon to keep the navy up to
the fighting standard. The program,
however, does not necessitate the
building of two great ships this year
at cost of something like thirty
million.
Still Quote the Classics.
Northern senators and representa-
lives are rather chary in their use of
classical illusions when making their
speeches. The southerners are fond
of their classics, though growing less
fond of them year by year as the new
members with the education that is
broadening in the south, as it is broad
ening in the north come into Office
~ AAAl1Sht NOV GfC1t W neal OAlC VI TIC
southerners speak is as good for the
brushing of the cobwebs from mem
DRY as is the re-reading after many
years of the pages of Smith and An
thon's Classical Dictionary.
The northern men draw compari-
sons and sharpen their points from
modern instances, and yet there is a
charm about the utterances of the
men of the south. They pass from
Homer to the RienI of Miss Milford
as readily as If a month rather than
centuries lay between. Ulysses wan
ders In the senate chamber and the
voice of the siren Is heard from the
corridor. Regulus again defies the
Carthagenians, while the domes of
the African city are burning with
the splendor Of MONDAY"
Gems From John Tyler
Searching the records one finds
that in the elder days the classic
habit was stronger than it is today,
so strong, indeed, that man of sixty
years ago, writing Of one of the
speeches of John Tyler of Virginia,
delivered some years before, said
that there were more Greeks and Ro-
mans than Americans in the speeches. |
The writer set it down that this was
"a fault tor virtue) common to his
state"
During the debate on the force
bill' Of Jacksons time the records
show that John Tyler brushed up his
classics, his Shakespeare and his Col
ley Cibber and delivered himself of
this:
Rather than give my aid I would
surrender my station here, for I as
pire not to initiate the rash boy who
set fire to the Ephesian dome. No.
sir, I will lend no aid to the passage
of this bill ! had almost said that
I had rather be dog and bay the
moon than such a Roman I will not
yet despair. Rome had her Curtius;
Sparta her Leonidas, and Athens her
band of devoted patriots-and shall
it be said that the American senate
contains not one man who will step
forward to rescue his country in this
moment of peril?"
Story About General Harrison.
Out OF the record of the days of
Calhoun, Webster, Jackson and the
rest comes a story of General William