The Winslow mail., 1913-09-27

&c. The batteship Ohio still in the Atlantic
fleet but slated to leave in the near future never
to return.
H. The commerce destroyer Columbia, so long
missing in the of the navy that a genera
ton has grown up that knows her not and she
of the flying squadron of 1898.
49, The commerce destroyer Minneapolis a
speed record breaking cruiser of the late nineties,
a sister of the Columbia and, like her. of the
flying squadron of 1898.
49, The monitor Amphitrite.
20 The monitor Miantonomah
81 The monitor Monadnock
o. The monitor Cheyenne, formerly the Wyo-
ming.
23 The monitor Ozark, formerly the Arkan-
Sas.
"a The monitor Tonopah, formerly the Ne
vada.
25 The monitor Tallahassee, formerly the
Florida.
26 The minotor Puritan
27 The monitor Terror.
g. The monitor Monterey
90 The protected cruiser ST. Louis.
80 The protected cruiser Charleston.
81 The protected cruiser Milwaukee,
32 The protected cruiser Newark
33 The protected cruiser Chicago
a. The protected cruiser Cincinnati.
35 The protected cruiser Raleigh, Coghan''
ship at Manila
36 Twenty-eght torpedo boats.
Twenty years ago this feet of sixty-three ships
would have been match for any naval organiza-
tion then a1oat, with the exception of the fleet Of
Great Britain. Today all the vessels in it could
not last half hour in a battle with the five
dreadnaughts that constitute the great first divi-
sion of the United States Atlantic fleet.
And this mighty fleet of naval has-beens" cost
the United States government than $129,-
100000 and the oldest among thems not including
the old monitors, is not yet twenty-five years old
The battleships in it to build and equip cost the
government $64 4435,225, and the cruisers, mon
itors and torpedo craft raise the total to the
$129 ,0000 900.
What will become of these ships? Some are
now in reserve and there they will stay until
their end is decided upon. Will that end be the
target range or the auction block and the junk
pile, or will they be permitted to rust away In
navy yards nominally units in reserve fleets
but in reality as useless reminders of a navy
that in its day great but which, owing to
marvellous progress in naval construction, has
reached quickly but surely that state of obsolete
ness from which there can be no come back"
The Oregon and the Olympia will probably be
retained for generations to come glorious re-
minders to Americans of future years of the
navy that Immortality in the brief conflict
that wiped Spain off the map of the western
world and which added to American territory an
island empire in the far east and won for this
country for the first time full, free recognition
by all the nations of the world of the right to be
numbered among those powers whose mission
and influence is world wide
In the lineup of the has been" fleet it will be
noted that there is included the entire fourth
division of the great fleet that circumnavigated
the globe in 1907 and 1908. This division was
made up of the Alabama, the flagship of Sperry
when he began the voyage as a division COM
mander: the Kentucky, the Kearsarge and the
Illinois In that fleet three of the vessels of the
third division are also listed among the
obsolete fighters the ships in question being the
Ohio the Missouri and the Maine, all sister ships
and in their day held up to the world as en-
bodyng all that was best in the construction and
equipment of modern men-of-war of the battle
ship class.
The Atlantic fleet when it sailed out of Hamp
ton Roads in December 1907, made up Of
sixteen frst-class battleships, and look at the
makeup of the organization shows that in pc
riod of less than six years seven, or lacking one
of exactly half of those famous ships, have been
reegated into the reserve, the first stepping
stone that leads to junk pile and oblivion.
LESS FOLIAGE.
This is great age.