Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1914-02-05
Congressman Assert American
Navy Was Made to Appear
Inferior to Germany's.
SHOW ! As THIRD RATE POWER
Say 1913 Year Book Gives Kai-
ser 13 DreadnOughts, u. S.
- Z, but 8 Each Is Right
Number.

/ Washington, Feb. THAT experts OF
| the navy department iuggled the
statistics in the navy year book for 1918
+" max" the American navy appear in
fcror to the German navy and thereby
| set the United States down from second
! to third place a naval power, was
charged to-day By Representative.
Nitherspoon of Mississippi and Hcnsley
affairs committee.
With Secretary Daniels before the com
mittee to explain the naval program for
the coming year. the two congressman
who are strongly opposed 70 a dig
navy" questioned h;m at length on what
they declared were omissions ana faulty
comparisons in the year book. The secre-
tary explained that he was not an ex-
pert in comparing navios. and said he
had relied on what experts in the navy
had advised him about the facts
IT. their questioning, the congressman
brought out that three American hat
tleships the oregon Massachusetts, and
Indiana, which arc OF the same tonnage
and Of heavier armament than ten listed
German 6attleships, arc left out OF tho
United States list altogether: and that
the year book, instead of giving the Uni
ted States Sc battleships built and build
ing, compared with Germany's 80, should
have credited the United States with 80
battleships of heavier total tonnage and
armament than Germany. They also de-
reloped that the navy statisticians have
this year for the first time taken out of
the dreadnought class the battleships
Il
dreadnouEht armament, and have pu.
into the German dreadnOught class four
ships Of 1l-inch gun armament. The wear
books comparison gives Germany 1a
dreadnoughts and the United States :.
while the congressman insisted that the
correct figures should give Germany and
the United states nine dreadnoughts
each.
Detailed results of their investigation
of the year books comparisons were
announced by Representative Wither-
spoon and Hensley in the following
statement:
ut was developed that the United
States appeared to have three less bat :
tleships than Germany because three
Of the American battleships were omit
ted from our list, namely. the Oregon,
Massachusetts and the Indiana. The
reason suggested by the secretary of
the navy for the omission Of these
three battleships was that they we're
old and obsolete but it appears that in
the German list is included ten bat
tleships, to wit, Kaiser Friedrich III,
Kaiser Wilhelm II, Kaiser Karl Der
Crosse, Kaiser wilhelm Der Crosse.
Kaiser Barbarossa. Wittelsbach, u II =
ringen, Wetten, Mecklenburg, Schwa =
ben, each of which has tonnage of
1924. built at the same time as the
omitted American battleships and each
having a main armament of 9.4-inch
guns while the Oregon, Massachusetts
and Indiana have a main armament of
four 13-inch guns and tonnage of
10,2SS tons each
"a high English authority was pre-
scented to the secretary of the navy.
showing the inferlority of these ten
German battleships with their s.4-inch
guns to battleships armed with 10
inch or 13-inc guns
1T was further developed that ac-
cording to this comparison in the navy
year book, the tonnage of the Ger
man battleships was from 1924 which
was the smallest, to 1891, which was
the largest of 90 German battleships.
and that of 81 American battleships
the smallest was 11,3i6 and the lar
gcst vas 1890 tons. The secretary
admitted that, SO FAR as the tonnage
of the bat;leships was concerned, the
American navy was greater than that
of the Germans. as we'll as All excess
Of seven battleships in favor of the
American navy
POWERS OF GUNS GREATER.
In regard to the armament OF the
German - battleships, It was developed
that ten of them were supplied each with
four guns, 94-inches in calibre and the
other ten each with four guns, II inches
in calibre. while all of the q American
battleships are each armed with four
pinch or 13-inch guns, showing the great
superiority OF the American battlestips
in point of the power OF guns.
Comparing the dreadnoughts Of 10
German with those Of the American
navy, 1t appeared, according 70 the year
book, that the German navy has 10 and
the American has only :. This result Is
brought about by Including In the list of
German dreadnoughts four ships which
are armed with ll-inch guns, while all
Of the dreadnoughts in the American
navy are armed with IL or l4-inch guns.
The result was further brought about
in the year hook by taking out OF the
dreadnought class tho Michigan and the
South Carolina, each Of which has n
tonnage Of 5000 tons and each OF which
is armed with eight Finch guns. If
the Michigan and the South Carolina had
been put in the list where they belong
and where they were placed I'm the 1912
navy year book and previous to that
time, and the four German ships which
have only ll-inch guns We're taken out
OF the dreadnought type and put into
the battleship class, where they belong
then the dreadnoughts in both of the
naves would be the same in number
nine.
TN regard to the tonnage OF the
irea thoughts OF the two naves, II
was developed that the tonnage in any
German dreadnought was 22,345 tons
and the largest 24,3O6, while in the
American navy the lowest tonnage is
10000 and the highest is $1,000 tons
u. S. SHIPS SUPERIOR IN GUNS
Comparing the dreadnoughts Of the
German navy with those Of the Amer
lean navy. in point of guns, it was de-
veloped that four of the Germar
dreadnoughts each has an armament