Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-12-03
UNITED STATES SHOULD own
OIL WELLS 70 SUPPLY navy

four ~battleships, is destroyers and
one destroyer tender; eight subma-
rines and one tender; two oilers, two
gunboats, one transport, one supply
ship and n hospital ship.
The secretary thinks that the time
has come when the department should
be freed fr m~oexcessiYe prices chang
ed by private manufacturers OF armOr
plate, guns and gun forgings, powder.
%torpedoes and other supplies and mu-
.nitiOns, SO he recommends apprOpri-
atoms Off an armor plate factory and
an increase in the gun factory, the
powder factory and the torpedo
works. He refers to his efforts to
secure reasonable prices from the
armor companies, and asserts that
without its own plant the government
would be at the mercy OF three man
tufacturers in time of war. History
does not warrant an assumption, 10
adds, that the patriotism Of these
companies will prove superior to their
desire for profits, inasmuch as during
the time war with Spain was immin-
ent they refused to accept the price
fixed by congress and declined to
manufacture any armOr until they got
their own price Of $lO0 0 a ton
than congress had determined on.
The report comments upon contracts
made by the companies to supply for
eign nayies with armOr at prices
much below those charged their own
government, and directs particular at
tention to the fact that they at pres.
ent supply armor for the Japanese
cruiser, Haruna, at $4O6.2'5 a ton,
while charging $5O4 to $44O atom for
armor for the American b%attleship
No. 80.
The recommendation regarding oil
wells and refineries follows the trans
formation of modern navies from coal
to all burners. The report says the
price of oil is steadily creeping up.
ward, and is now twice as much as
in 1911, and will be a staggering
item in the expense account OF the
navy in the future unless the navy
controls it's own wells. Even now the
navy is using 100000 900 gallons of
oil a year and there is likelihood that
this will be increased in the future
to 1875, 900, 900 gallons, which must be
purchased from the oil companies at
their own price.
Therefore, Mr.. Daniels urges, by
the time the Panama canal is open
ed the navy should be producing it's
own oil from it's petroleum reserves
in the Elk Hills and Buena Vista
fields of California; it's refneries
should be in operation; oil lands
should be leased in the mid-continent.
fields and oil tanks erected at yari.
GUS ports.
The report speaks of the w~recking
of the Pearl Harbor dry dock as
"the naval tragedy of the year"
which in an hours time caused a loss
of $1,7O0, 900. swept away a naval
project and introduced a problem Of
Unreasonable difficulty which will be
referred to congress.
The report declares that too much.
money has been spent ashore for
buildings, and too little for docks and.
Warships, though no definite recon-
mendations are made for the location:
of new docks pending the building of.
IAN adequate and we'll proportioned'
Desertions, formerly a serious prob.
lem, have decreased in a gratifying.
degree, the secretary reports, owing
to better educational facilities, trips
abroad for the benefits of foreign trav-
ell, and a closer intimacy between the.
enlisted men and the officers. Sur
prisingly good results, it is added.
have followed the disciplinary bar
racks, which are really schools OF COR
rectiOn, and most OF the young men.
sent to them for desertion have justi-
fed being returned to their ships.
More chaplains. many more, is the
crying need Of the navy, and Secre,
tary Daniels says il is a reproach to.
the country that it now has only the
same number that it had in 1864. He
recommends not only an increase in.
the number OF c%haplains, hut an ap.
preparation to enable him to employ
every ship that has no chaplain q
young religious leader, to be known
as a Welfare Secretary" He thinks.
though. that there should be q chap,
lain for every 1000 men in the serv.
ice.
Because youths admitted to Annap-
oils by fair competitive examination,
rank higher than those who enter
without competition. the report sug-
gests that congressman hereafter
should name midshipmen on the basis
Q: such examinations. Carrying out
the same MISREPRESENTATION of
fitness demonstrated in honest com