The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1913-09-10
WRITES STRONG
LETTER To new
ORLEANSPAPER
PRESIDENT c. e. DoBsoN OF CON-
MERcIAL ASSOCIATION RE-
PLIES TO RECENT EDITORIAL
OF THE TIMEs-DEMocRAT.

The following letter has been sent
to the New Orleans Times-Democrat
by President c. E. Dobson of the COM
mercial Association, replying to an
editorial recently published by that
paper:
Pensacola, Fla, Sept. 8. 1913.
Editor The Times-Democrat, New Or
leans, Ia
You are melting your readers TO a
policy in regard to Gulf Coast navy
yard location that can do you no good,
but only help retard the obtaining by
this coast of the hrst-class navy yard
development that is its due. New Or
leans is a great city, with many adj
vantages, but not such as fit it for
any considerable naval use. If you
will, in justice to your readers, search
out all the facts and state them, you
will be compelled to bring yourself and
them to this view. To exaggerate
small facts in your favor. and mini
mize large objections against you,
while you pursue exactly the opposite
course as to Pensacola, is hardly the
sort Of journalism to be expected ut
q paper with your traditions.
You deal in "glittering generalities"
the subject You talk about reports
recommending New Orleans as a
naval station What did those reports
say? How much development did they
recommend, and how large a sectioa
was it in which New Orleans was 'the
best placer" When were they made!
Are they in any way modern? I don't
claim to know about every report that
hes lie ma
location on this coast, but venture 10
assert the. there has not been a report
made within the last twenty years
Pensacola for first class navy yard de-
velopment, or which recommended
New Orleans for anything like the
mended for Pensacola.
Many Favorable Reports.
Pensacola was recommended by Sec
rotary Whitney in 1887 as the best
place on the gulf for a navy yard; in
1908, Secretary Moody recommended,
that it is desirable to construct
craving dock large enough for the
largest battleships of the navy upon
the Gulf of Mexico and that the navy
yard upon the Bay of Pensacola is the
place where It should be located" Rear
Admiral Higginson, in command of ths
North Atlantic Squadron at target
practice off Pensacola in 1903, reported,
IT would respectfully state, after ny
recent experience and investigation of
the subject, that I consider Pensacola
the best place south of Hampton Roads
for a naval rendezvous Rear Ad-
miral Lucien Young in his Brief His
tory" many times recommends Pen
sacola, saying at the close, "The great
empire of the South and Middle West
is only waiting to seek the markets
that will be developed by the opening
of the Panama Canal, which is soon
to become the storm center of the
coming contest between the great na-
lions of the earth for supremacy in |
the worlds commerce.
'1t is, therefore, the bounden du,y |
of their political, commercial, and in !
dustrial leaders to exert their power /
full influence to make the Pensacola |
Navy Yard what it should be, one of |
the greatest naval and strateg1cai |
bases in this country, by the time |
the Panama Canal is thrown open 20 |
the public in 1915" l might quote |
further, but these will suffice.
The report of the Naval Board |
which made the recent recommended
ton. was unanimous so far as salient |
details are concerned Rear Admiral |
Edwards having made a minority sum-
mary mainly in order to advance
more fully reasons and arguments TO
SUPPORT his conclusions. That report