Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1914-12-18
CONGRESSMAN ADVOCATING IN.
vEsTiGATIoN OF NATIONAL
DEFENSE, Is WITNESS.
EIGHTY VESSELS NOT
AVAILABLE FOR BATTLE
Laments Program Of Building Vessels
For "coId storase"-Protests Against
Way Secretary Daniels Has Cut
Down Appropriations Asked by Con-
eraI Naval Board.

Washington, Dec IS. - Representa- :
tive Gardner was the principal witness
today before the house naval commit
tee. He read a long statement In sup
port of his proposal for an investiga =
ton of the national defenses by spe-
cial commission.
~ am here to ask you TO appropriate
for the construction Of new ships rec
commended by the naval board In this
years program" he said. Il am sorry
Secretary Daniels in his recommends :
tions to congress has cut the naval
boards program almost in two. If you
gentlemen had permitted me to pre-
sent as witnesses a few recently re-
tired officers, In a single day the coun-
try wc.id have learned OF the lament
able condition of building warships for
cold storage. OF thirty completed bat
tleships do you know that twelve of
them are not available without a long
delay, because of our refusal to pay the
bills?
Eighty Vessels Not Available.
'If we had gone to war early in Au-
gust. do you realize that no less than
nine of our battleships would not have
been ready to fight? Eighty fighting
vessels OF our modest navy are not
available for battle In al emergency. |
charge tina. our navy Is 1900 men
short, and a shortage of 10000 mer is
in sight. The general board, which has
actually made out war plans, estimates
the enlisted force of the navy as be-
tween 10000 and 10000 men short for
war. II any attention had been paid to
the general boards emphatic appeals
for our nationa, safety. instead OF only
twentg-seven battleships built and
building and authorized. we should
now have forty-seven battleships, built,
buildin@sand authorized; instead OF
sixty -eight destroyers, we should have
1877. II we had needed the advice Of
the general board we should have u
fleet of fast scouts today. How many
do you think we actually have? Just
three, and those were authorized over
ten years ago.
Daniels Asks Eight Submarines
you know that we nave fifty siy
subma rines in all. built and building
Now comes Secretary Daniels. ana in
s. few soothing words, recommends
submarines to the paltry number OF
eigh, or SO. We have Just dozen
aeroplanes in the navy Lass yearsthe
|aeroplaEn board recommended an ar-
preparation of $1.300.00O. Instead OF
that sura. according 20 Captain Rris-
tol, we let the service spend only $S6C
900 or 100000. The general naval
board in its current report, says that
VIZ must spend s5.O0o.OoO on ai- craft
Secretary Daniels recommends no reg
ular specific appropriation at all, bu,
he tells us about a volunteer air Graf,
force. Captain Bristol says that tina;
volunteer force doesn't amount tc
Hannah Cook.
Mininterpret FIetcher's Testimony.
Rear Admiral Straus tells us tina,
all battleships in commission now oi
which will be in commission before the
Nevada and Oklahoma are completed
are equipped with a short range tor.
pedo. which may be considered obso-
lete for the battle fleet
Some persons have quoted Rea,
Admiral Fletcher as saying the Amer.
lean navy ranks ahead of tnat Of Ger
many searched the admlrars evi
dence and find that he said nothing OF
the sort. I don't believe any well in
formed man believes our feet to be su
perior to that of Germany.
admiral c. F. Vreeland testified
that we are third in the race. and
moreover we are a pretty bad third. 70,
he said he would still be third in 1926
if we adopted the plans of the genera
board"