The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-01-03

queen in Through the
Looking Glass"
The White Queen did not happen to
b. talking OF the American navy, but
she might Just as well have been do
ing so.
Listen TO the debates in Congress and
you viii be convinced that the pages
Of history furnish an impregnable de-
fence for this country. II John Paul
Jones could change peaceful mer-
chairman into the Bonhomme Richard
and defeat the British man-o'-war
Scraps, why cannot the hike be done
again? What man has done man can
do-such is the burden OF the song Of
Che gentlemen who believe that Amer
lean genius and American freemen
need no preparation for war. Is any
one such a bastard as to deny that our
gallant naval militia admirals can on
any pleasant afternoon forsake their
counting houses for the quarterback
and smash the British superdread-
thoughts to smithereens with a fleet of
converted Long Island Sound steamers?
Perish the thought!
But II you are so sceptical as 10 be
dubious lest the school history book
and the Chautauqua lecture may not he
adequate to repel the attacks of the eff
fece monarchies of Europe and Asia,
then peruse the hearings for the last
ten years before the Congressional
Committee on Naval Affairs and YOU
may lie comforted. A more complete
docket Of experiments about to be made
and contracts shortly to be entered into
and reports To be ordered in the near
future and boards soon to be appointed
cannot be found outside the records OF
the Circumlocution ONCE about which
Dickens wrote.
The American airman Wright was
the first in the wide world to build an
aeroplane which would actually fly, and
ever since that time we have been eX-
perImenting and inspecting and report
ing and contracting and considering.
in fact we have been doing everything
except building aeroplanes. on July
last France owned 400 aeroplanes.
while Uncle Sam owned 20, all of them
out of daDc. However. we recently or
dered from abroad an up to date French
aerOplane with two Salmson motors
and an UP to date German aeroplane
with two Mercedes motors. We were
In hopes that at last we were in fair
way to establish a little brood Of air
craft; but Just then the European war
Wandered our purchases so here We
ar again just where we started.
We have as many as twenty subms-
rtnes on the whole Atlantic coast. To be
sure no one has accused the outfit OF be-
ing any too newfangled; but then pray
remember that We are still arguing about
tho best type with which to experiment.
Meanwhile the modest proportion OF
nineteen Of these aforementioned twenty
divers were not In diving trim when
Commander Stirling gave his evidence
before the Naval Committee in December.
OF the thirty-odd fast scout cruisers
which the General Board OF the Navy
tells us we need for our safety Ne have
built just three; but they are laid up
waiting for crews with lungs strong
enough to make their furnaces draw in
the teeth OF a blooming gale For about
ten years we have been considering and
contemplating types for scouts; but be-
fore long it Is confidently expected that
satisfactory conclusion will be reached.
Admiral Strauss tells us that every
American battleshlp in commission to-
day Is supplied with obsolete torpedoes.
hut that orders have been given and
plants are being enlarged and that in
So 1t goes, dawdle. dawdle dawdle all
along the line, from voter to President.
The fact is that the whole navy has got
INTO rut. II needs a good hard jolt to
ret II out Of the rut and then it needs TO
be trimmed up and enlarged until it is
q strong weapon tit for the defence Of
strong nation.
Now don't blame II all on poor old
teprptaTV = Ia mi at.tl, hi
fault, even IL he did deprive the sea-
dogs OF their grog and enter the sailor
men in the lowest grade OF the kinder
Garten.
or course Daniels with his super
peace ideas ought not to he Secretary Of
the Navy any more than liquor dealer
ought To he chairman Of a temperance
raIly but that is a small matter.
Neither Is the blame To be imputed 10
the navy bureau chiefs. There has not
heon one of them for years who at heart
would not have been glad to speak right
oEt in meeting and tell the country the
Whole truth as To our needs. But the
country has hitherto been in no listen
ing mood and 1t would have been bold
bureau chief indeed who cared to face
the molten lava from the tongues OF
the little navy" men.
Let the officer speak up and he was
CANNED up and down as a seeker for
increased rank and power Let a civil
IAN speak up and he was muckraked
from stem to stern as a minion of some
armor plate concern. Let an association
or a league speak up and its member
snip was grilled TO find out whether any
one Of them had a share of steel stock
or copper stock or any other kind of
stock in me family unto the third or
fourth generation.
Neither is the blame to he visited on
congress. II any one Of us talked about
national defencPlessness some one else
rtk"d about jaCkasses in soons' garbs.
There Is Just one party who ought to
near the blame aud that is the Great
American Public, whose exact mirror We
congressman are, Six months ago il
! cared TO empty room all I nad to
m was to discuss our national defence
lossness. To-day II am anxious to MI
hall have but to say that our army