The Washington herald., 1915-01-27
TILLMAN SEES
Changed Navy
Chandler Warns that War
Will Affect United
States Plans.
SEA FIGHT AS ARGUMENT
Engagement in North Sea Showed
Trend of Modern Construction,
Senator Contends.
SEA FIGHT AS ARGUMENT

Senator Tillman, chairman of the
Senate Naval Affairs Committee, is Op
posed to building any more battleships
at this time. He avowed himself in
opposition to authorizing new battle
ships in the pending bill appropriat-
ing money for the Navy Department
by an amendment which he offered
yesterday to the bill and by a brief
speech in the Senate and an inter
view later. The Senator wants the
Secretary of the Navy to withhold his
recommendatio for improving the
navy afioat until he has had an op-
portunity to study the results of the
European war as it may be waged on
the sea. His amendment is as fol-
lows:
That the Secretary OF the Navy is
hereby directed to prepare and submit
to the next Congress plans and spec
ifcations for building four warships
of the type, power and speed which in
his judgment, based on knowledge
gained from the prevailing war in Eu-
rope, are best suited for war on the
sea; also, to report. in the light of
the war. the value and uses in naval
warfare of aerOplanes, Zeppelins and
submarines"
Senator Tillman. discussing his
amendment, said:
L really 40 not want 10 appropriate
any money for battleships until we know
just what kind to build. It would be
idiotic for Congress to appropriate S16.-
10000 to s1S,O00OO0 for a battleship-and
that Is the least that one of them is
going to cOst-when We might find out
by waiting until the next session that we
could make much better use of the
money. I think that speed, as we'll as
heavy guns, and skill in gunnery, are
h.
fare. That was demonstrated in the re-
cent fight between the English and Ger
man fleets in the North Sea. We have
not a single battleship in our fleet whose
speed is greater than twenty-five knots"
Battle VIII Be Argument.
The exploits of the speedy and power
full British battle cruisers in the recent
battle in the North Sea will be used in
the forthcoming debate on the naval
bill in the House as an argument for
the authorization in the budget of at
least two vessels OF this particular type
This became known yesterday as a re-
suit of an announcement made by Rep
resentative Hobson, OF Alabama, a MEM
Der OF the House Naval Committee.
Little navy and big navy" men,
bers are organizing for the debate on
the navy bill. The debate will begin
tomorrow or Friday. 1t will be waged
with intense bitterness
Members of the Naval Committee,
headed by Representative Hobson as
chairman of a subcommittee dealing
with the subject, left last night for
Tangier Sound, at the head Of Ches-
apeake Bay. where they will witness
tests with a torpedo shell that is
fired from a rifle above water. travels
under the surface of the water, strik-
ing the object below the water line.
Chandler Wants Time.
A letter from former Senator W. E.
Chandler, of New Hampshire, who was
Secretary of the Navy under Presi-
dent Arthur. and who helped to secure
the building of the first White Squad
yesterday, warned Congress against
struction problem.
Chandler declared it would be fool
hardy and wasteful for the United
States to rush into the construction OF
battleships at this time when the Eu-
ropean war appears to be making an
entirely new scheme of naval defense
advisable. Submarines and aeroplanes
he said, had shown themselves so de-
structive that there is a question
whether one, two, or three additional
decks or additional bottoms to big
battleships should not DE provided
when new ones were contracted for
There is not going to be the slight
est danger for years." he said, "of a
need by the United States to enter
into serious war with any formidable
nation. We should make haste slow
ly in construction and in view OF the