The Washington herald., 1915-10-05
The Naval Program.

While the details of new construction to be
embodied in the naval program for the coming
session of Congress still tentative or at any
rate unpublished, it appears to be certain that the
naval experts have strongly urged the construc-
ton of a squadron of fast battle cruisers an
essential complement to the batteship fleet which
we now possess. To the lay mind this seems
most desirable step. Great Britain and Germany
both have goody number of ships of this class.
1t is doubtful, indeed if Great Britain will here
after construct any big-gun ships of less than
twenty-five knots speed. Japan has four, Russia
has four under construction, and so has Italy.
The utility of such craft is obvious. AS long
ago as the battle OF Tsu- -Shima was demonstrated
that fleet possessing greater speed than the
enemy could by an operation known as "capping
the enemy's battle line-that is, sailing ahead OF
and across it and concentrating all its fire on the
leading ship being itself out of range of all but
that shp-defeat and destroy the enemy with COM
paratively small loss to itself. The result of this
is that small squadron of battle cruisers is really
a much more effective striking force than an equal
number of Dreadnoughts, though the total
hitting power OF the latter be greater, because of
the ability OF the battle cruisers to join break
off the engagement at will. And the possession OF
a small squadron OF these fast ships must ef-
fectually prevent enemy from dividing his slow
er battle feet into two more smaller squadrons
that would be open to attack seriatim by the
spcedier vessels. These great vessels also
immensely useful for destroying commerce raiders
OF the armored cruiser type that too power
u to be attacked by modern light cruisers.
This is the lesson of the battle of the Falkland
Islands. Nothing is said in connection with the
proposed program of shpbuilding about the con-
struction OF any light cruisers. Yet the need OF
l. big fleet of these vessels OF which now have
none is apparent. There is no nation with which
we could concevably go to anything like
equal terms that has not a large merchant ma
rine and large trade carried in their
and neutral bottoms The likelihood of that mer-
chant marine being destroyed and that commerce
being dislocated by our cruisers would be strong
deterrent to nation otherwise favoring attack
upon us. Our old light cruisers would be routed
out and destroyed by the newer and swiftcr YES
sells, that all the foreign powers now possess long
before they could do any damage. But if we had
| twenty-five fifty light cruisers of speed of
| thirty-ive knots nothing could catch them and
they could sweep the of enemy commerce.
1t would be much better to build these ships in
stead of torpedo-boat destroyers, which have never
justified their usefulness The tendency has been
| to build these latter vessels bigger and bigger
until they are now nothing but very small and un-
comfortable cruisers that have the same calber Of
guns as, and go into action in company WITH light
cruisers and scouts. 1t would probably be only
anticipating the naval constructors of other
tries if we were to decide to abandon destroyers
altogether and build very speedy light cruisers in
heir place.
The main thing. however, is to have ade-
quate navy, and whatever may be the scheme of
new construction laid before Congress by ex-
perts, who know more about the thing than any
body else after all, the proposals should and will
receive the support of the nation without respect
| to party.