Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1915-10-29
PHILADELPHIA LEADS
FOR LABORATORY
Favored as Site For Naval Research
Bureau.
WILL ANNAPOLIS LOSE OUT?
Rivalry Between So Many Cities Will
Put Question Of Location Up
To House Committee.
WILL ANNAPOLIS LOSE OUT?

To House Committee.
As matters now stand sentiment OF
higher officials OF the Navy are not
favorable to the location at Annapolis
Of the projected new experimental and
research laboratory 70 the United
States Navy, which has been recon-
mended by the new Naval Consulting
Board. of which Thomas A. Edison.
the inventor. is chairman.
Instead of regarding Annapolis as
the ideal site for the proposed labor
atory it has been learned. higher Off
cials in the Navy reard Philadelphia as
the best place for the station. Should
he decision be made in favor of Phil
adelphia there will be disappointment
not only i'm Annapolis. but also among
other Marylanders, especially Balti-
more city.
There is no conclusion reached as to
the place where the station will be To-
Gated. Every time Josephus Daniels,
the Secretary of the Navy. is asked
about the station and its probable loca-
ton, he responds that it is yet too soon
to talk about the location Of the sta
ton. He points out very properly
that Congress has not yet authorized
the establishment of such a laboratory
and that it will be time enough TO
talk about sites for the same when
Congress has acted"
Congress, of course, can write into
the law authorizing the creation of the
great naval laboratory, a distinct pro-
vision that IL shall be placed at a spe-
cific place. Should Congress say the
station should be at Annapolis, or at
Philadelphia, or some other point, the
Secretary of the Navy would have no
other alternative than TO obey the law
and observe the mandate.
When the matter comes before the
attention of the House Naval Commit
tee in December, when the next naval
appropriation bill is tackled. there will
be numerous candidates for the plum
furnished by the proposed big naval
laboratory. Baltimore and Annapolis
are candidates for he station Phila-
delphia is a rival for the laboratory.
The New Jersey delegation in Congress
will make strenuous efforts to have the
laboratory located at Newark or Pat
terson Boston will likewise enter the
lists, and it is not improbably that the
Virginia senator's and civic leaders of
tidewater Virginia will seek to have
the station placed in Newport News
or Norfolk
The entry of so many candidates in
the lists will put the question of selec-
ton of a site for the station sQuarely
mp to the House Naval Committee.
That committee will, naturally as in
the past, consult Secretary Daniels to
ascertain whether the Navy Depart
ment has any official view as to the To-
cation of the laboratory. but the prob
ability is that Congress will designate
the place, should it sanction the con-
struction of such laboratory.
There is also the possibility that in
the melee of rivalry for the site for the
station, the whole project may be de-
feated. and this is what Secretary Dan
iels has in the back of his head just
now when he automatically and dis
creetly refuses to commit himself as to
where the laboratory should be located
The Edison board recommended that
the laboratory should be placed at
some tidewater point on the Atlantic
Coast, where the water is deep enough
TO accommodate the largest dread
naught i'm the Navy. The idea is that
dreadnaughts may come up TO a wharf
alongside of the laboratory in con
nection with research work. In higher
naval circles it was pointed out that
I there is no such depth of water at An.
| napolis. that battleships of the kind in
use today do not go to the wharf al
Annapolis, but anchor several miles
out in the Chesapeake, opposite tn:
Naval Academy
Those naval officers who favor Phil
adelphia point out that dreadnaught,
/ can go to the wharves and docks at tn,
League Island navy yard at Philadel
| phia, that there is room at the League
Island yard for the expansion of tha
| yard that there is land at League Isl
and which the government will no
J have to pay for the site of a labor
| atory, and that there is large skillel
| labor market at Philadelphia. whill
rail and water facilities are consid
cred most excellent.
Those in Baltimore and Annapolis
who are anxious to have the new nav,
laboratory located at one of thos
points will be disappointed to Learn
that high officials in Washington ar
at present entertaining such views an'
for this reason it will be wise for thos
who are anxious to have the station 10
Gated in Maryland to stir themselve
when the matter comes before tn
House Naval Committee so that argu
ments in favor of placing the laborato
ry in Maryland may be presented il
time to be of value to the committee
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