Omaha daily bee., 1914-12-19
GARDNER SAYSNAVY
Is SHORT OF MEN
Congressman Declares that the Navy
is Building Wsrships for Cold
Storage.
NO CREWS ARE AVAILABLE
slightly Fighting vessels Could Not
He Placed In Commission should
Emergency Arise Until
Men Are Enlisted,

WASHINGTON, Dec. lS.-Representa-
tive Gardner was the principal witness
today before the house naval committee
He read long statement in support Of
his proposal for investigation OF the ma
tional defenses by a special commission.
Il am here TO ask you to appropriate
for the full number of new ships recon-
mended by the general naval board for
this years construction" he said.
II am sorry to say that Secretary DAN
iels in his recommendations to congress
has cut the naval boards building pro-
gram for this year almost exactly in two.
II you gentlemen had permitted me to
present as witnesses q few recently re-
tired officers, in a single day the coun-
try would have learned of our demented
policy of building warships for cold stor-
age. out of thirty completed warshlps,
do you know that twelve of them are
unavailable without long delay on &C
count Of our refusal to pay for manning
them?
Eight Vessels without Crews.
IF we had gone to war with the rest
Of the first-class powers early in August,
do you realize that no less than nine OF
our battleships would not have been
ready to fight? We have fifteen cruisers,
twenty-five destroyers, eighteen torpedo
boats. five submarines and perhaps a
dozen miscellaneous fighting ships in cold
storage with the battleships. Eighty
fighting vessels of orr modest navy are
not available for battle in an emergency
Il charge that our navy is 1900 men
short and a further shortage of 1000 men
is in sight
Far Below Boards Estimate,
The general board. which has actually
made our war plans, estimates the en-.
listed force of the navy as between 5000
and $1,000 men short for war If any at
tention had been paid to the general
boards emphatic appeals for our national
safety. instead of only twenty-seveu bat.
tleships built and building and authorized
We should now have forty-seven battle.
ships built. building and authorized. in.
stead of siXty-eight destrcyers we should
now have 1877 destroyers. If we Needed
the advice of the general board we should
have a fleet of fast scouts today. How
many do you think we actually have got
Just three, and these were authorized
oven ten years ago.
You know that we have fifty-sjx sub.
marines in all, built and building, good
bad and indifferent. Now comes Score
tary Daniels and in a few soothing words
recommends submarines to the paltr5
number Of eight or So
Too Few New Planes.
I'VE have just a dozen aeroplanes ir
the navy. Last year the aeroplane board
recommended an appropriation of 81 500 900
Instead of that sum, according to Cap
tain Bristol. we let the aviation service
spend only $S50.OOO or 100000 The genera
naval board in it's current report says
that we must spend $4,000 on aircraft
Secretary Daniels recommends no regular
specific appropriation at all. but he tell
us about volunteer aircraft force. Cap
tain Bristol says that that volunteci
force doesn't amount to Hannah Cook.
Rear Admiral Straus tells us that al
battleships in commission now. or which
will be in commission before the NevadS
and the Oklahoma are completed, arr
equipped with a short range torpedo which
may be considered obsolete for the battl,
fleet
Some persons have quoted Rear AID
miral Fletcher as saying the American
navy ranks ahead of that OF Germany
have searched the odmirals evldenc'
and find that he said nothing of the sort
l don't believe that any well informe'
man believes our fleet TO be superior 4
that of Germany. A year ago Rear Ad
miral c. f. Vreeland testified that W
are third in the race, and moreover. tina
we are pretty bad third, for he sal
that we should still be third in 1920. evel
IL we adopted the building program o
the general board"