New Britain herald., 1915-05-03
MEYER TAXES SHOT
 AT SEC. DANIELS
Relative te Present Status of U. $.
 Naval Equipment.

l tary of the Navy Daniels to President
 Garfield of Williams college, concern ing the present status of the naval l equipment of the United States. Mfr. Meyer opens with the statement that 1 Secretary Daniels discussion of this subject leaves much to be desired in the way of information" The state
 n,ent follows:
 The secretary neglects to state. when he refers to the last two years of the Taft administration that the house of representatives, which orig
 mates appropriations. was in control
 of the democrats on account of the by elections; that they went into caucus and voted No battleships.' It was on the issue that no party could afford to caucus on patriotism. placed before the people by some of tho leading papers at my request. that we broke
 the caucus and obtained. very grudg-
 irgly, from the democrats one battle
 slip for each of the remaining two
 years.
 Scores Two BattIeship Plan.
 The war and the campaign of edu-
 cEtion on national defense, has infiu-
 eEced congress in making more liberal
 appropriations, but the third battle
 ship Mir. Daniels obtained was made
 possible by the sale of the Idaho and
 Mississippi to Greece, using the fund
 derived from this transaction for an additional dreadnaught But the
 Idaho and Mississippi were hoth mod ern ships, built In 1904, and while
 President Wilson's sale was a good
 business transaction, it will not. ap-
 parently. increase our tonnage It should also be noted that the Indiana.
 Massachusetts and Oregon can no longer be included in our tonnage list: that the Iowa, Kearsarge. Kentucky and Alabama will reach their age limit in 1916, while the Illinois, Wis ccnsin, Maine, Ohio and Missouri are due for replacement by 1920, as bat tleships become obsolete in twenty years. 1t is obvious therefore. that a policy pursued according to this years program of two battieships with certain auxiliaries. no scout cruisers and no battle-cruisers will lead mo- where If it is the real purpose of the nation to have an adequate navy, for we are not even following a program of new construction intended to re- place those vessels which have been or will soon be condemned because unfit for service on account of age.
 While, as the secretary has stated. the navy is today recruited to it's maximum strength (which Is due to the decreased demand for labor In ! "a rious lines of trade through tae l United States), yet the commander in |
 tAA tion to the Naval academy. gives the | opinion that the fleet locks in its com plete equipment about five thousand men and a number of officers. To | put all the ships in commission that could be- useful in. time of war, would require eighteen thousand additional men and many officers, according to Admiral Badger in his evidence before the naval committee this winter: and yet, in his letter the secretary assures the public that the navy in 1915 Is larger. better equipped and in better condition than in any previous year, while experts know that this is impos- sible. since many of the battleships have been retained SO long in Mexico that fleet manoeuvrinK. vital for ef- nciency, has been terribly hampered and intcrferred with.
 Speed, Range and Armament.
 The naval conflicts of tho Euro pean war have emphasized the im- portAncc of speed, range and arma nent. The Butcher, faster than any ,f our ships. was destroyed because she was slower than any of the other ships in the conflict Yet we are building no fast cruisers or battle tv, | husiasm over our fourteen-inch guns, which he says will shoot farther. shoot ,traishter and hit harder than any ,aval gun now in use, overlooks the act that Japan has In commission md building eight naval ships with ourteen-inch guns probably as good IS our fourteen-inch guns, and that England has the Queen Elizabeth in commission with ffteen-inch guns, a ,attleship of over twenty-seven thou, and tons, with speed of twenty I've knots, and nine other capital ships with flfteen-inch guns.
 "The war has demonstrated the leed and value of aircraft. The eneral board recommended the ap- { 'ropriaton of five millions of dol l ers, but only one-fifth of the amount s ras obtained. ..
 ''In view of the increasing number S f submarines and the accident in ! Hawaii, there is urgent necessity for t esting and wrecking docks that may e used for salving submarines of any Ize, docking submarines and testing , determine the resistance to external . ater pressure. Two docks of this il escription will be required for the P tia,ntic and two for the Pacific. a
 Supply Ship Important. js
 Upon the efficacy of the supply a 1ips depends the efficacy of the y eet. The importance of supply ships v